The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Dr. Matthew Kukah, explained that all honorable Nigerians are not happy with the way the political system is structured in the country.
Kukah who made this known in Akure, the Ondo State capital, while delivering a lecture at the annual Ulefunta/Oyemekun Festival, titled, “Building blocks for a good society.”
Nigerian president said the structure of the Nigerian presidential office made its holders extremely powerful, so much that he could deploy power the way he wanted.
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The cleric explained that a common Nigerian president always emerge out of circumtances and not out of competence or leadership capacity.
According to him, “No president in the world has the kind of power the Nigerian president has and as such, no president in the world can be as irresponsible as the Nigerian president.
“His power is so much that he can give an oil bloc to his girlfriend and many others. Thus, you can’t be a man of honour and live in a country like Nigeria and not be angry.”
The cleric said from the first Nigerian Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, to President Muhammadu Buhari, virtually all Nigerian presidents were dragged into the office, unlike the presidency of some countries like the United States, where the president does not emerge by sheer circumstances.
He asked, “What is the problem? It is the dilemma of leadership. In America, there are basic expectations of what a president should be. For instance, he must have gone through Harvard as an institution, he must have language and track records, not even wealth. You can’t surprise the system.
“Here in Nigeria, a local government area chairman wants to be the governor; the governor wants to be the president and the president doesn’t want to go! Many states have two ex-governors representing them at the National Assembly. Governors have control and monopoly of resources of their states and they use the same resources to oppress the people.”
Kukah, however, singled two former Nigerian leaders out of the leadership rot, namely Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Aminu Kano, whom he described as the “architects of a good society.”
Meanwhile, The Herald reported that Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Rev. Dr. Matthew Kukah, the meeting with Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was to witness the reconciliation of a prolonged dispute between the two leaders.
Kukah disclosed this in Sokoto on Monday in reaction to concerns from some members of the public that his meeting with both leaders was for political reasons. The catholic bishop said that it was strictly to support and witness their reconciliation, which he has been trying to broker for some years.
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