By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
The leadership of the Catholic Church in Nigeria has expressed support for the position expresed by the Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Hassan Kukah, on the state of the nation.
In a statement issued on Monday by the National Directorate of Social Communications of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja, the church urged lovers of truth and justice to rise in defence of Bishop Kukah against the attack on his person and the attempt to discredit the simple obvious truth in his message.
Bishop Kukah had in his Christmas message to Nigerians lamented the endless woes, which he said had befallen the country.
He further said that the prospects of a failed state stares Nigeria in the face, with “endless bloodletting, a collapsing economy, social anomie, domestic and community violence, kidnappings, armed robberies” .
But what may have iritated those who attacked his message most was where he said that every honest Nigerian knew that “there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it. There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war.”
However, in the statement titled, “A call in support of truth”, the Church said the situation in Nigeria no longer allows anyone to sit on the fence or show indifference.
“We are quite aware of the 2020 Christmas Message by our revered Bishop Hassan Kukah and the enormous space it has enjoyed on social media and in public sphere. As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message. This is the stock in trade of evil people. However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing.
“I am therefore calling our attention to this new development so that we can all rise in unison and stand for truth”.
The Catholic Church said that everyone must choose and stand up for what he or she believed in.
Quoting a popular verse by St. Augustine, the Church said that “evil is absence of good”, adding that people should add a voice in support of goodness, in order to forestall the reign of evil.
“The truth about our nation is also that there are only two parties now existing: the good and the evil, the oppressed and the oppressor, the suffering people and the benefiting government officers and their families. Please stop allowing anyone fool you with these cards: religion and tribe,” the church said.
