Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has shared his thoughts on United States President, Donald Trump’s warning of a military strike in Nigeria.
Speaking on Friday while giving the keynote address, entitled ‘Nigeria: Time to Re-Load’, at the 60th birthday and launch of three books by Reuben Abati, the cleric stated that Trump’s comment should not elicit anger from the Nigerian authorities and citizens.
He asserted that the American president’s threats should inspire Nigerians to find solutions to the country’s seemingly intractable challenges.
The clergyman stated that Trump is a symptom of the disease plaguing the country.
He noted, “We are confusing Trump for a sickness. He’s a symptom, not a disease. Trump is a symptom of the disease that is in our country.”
According to the cleric, rather than take offence at Trump’s words, Nigerians should reflect on the many self-inflicted ills in the country, including ethnic divisions, religious intolerance, corruption, over 60,000 abandoned projects, and the failure to conduct free, fair, and credible elections.
The clergyman noted that if it would take Trump’s threat to get the banditry, insurgency and other forms of terrorism comprehensively tackled, so be it.
Using a popular Nigerian proverb to drive home his point, Kukah said: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a woman that kills a snake or if it’s a man that kills a snake. What matters is that the snake should not escape.”
Archbishop Kukah regretted that Nigeria had never produced a leader who sees the country as his constituency.
“Well, you ask yourself now, who are the prominent Nigerians, Nigerian statesmen that their names resonate across the length and breadth of Nigeria without punctuation.”