The Catholic Action Nigeria has noted with sadness, dismay and shock the negative reactions from some quarters in the country to the homily and Christmas message of Rev. Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah.
Kukah’s critics had also called for his arrest with the specious allegation that he was fomenting discord and violence in the country.
CAN in a statement by the Governor, Board of Trustees, Sir Peter I. Agbontaen, said it found appalling the call on Bishop Kukah to resign from the National Peace Committee.
“Those advocating for this forget that Bishop Kukah is the Convener/Initiator of the National Peace Committee. What could be more odious about these outcries in the face of the obvious truths that Bishop Kukah has the courage of a Prophet to speak about without fear or favour as a true Nigerian and Spiritual leader?
“No one in his right mind would deny that Nigeria is presently a nightmare and a moral question and has been so for a long time now.
“Can it be denied, as Bishop Kukah says against the backdrop of our endless woes, that ours has become a nation wrapped in desolation? In highlighting the gravity of the misery and woe in our nation Bishop Kukah has warned us, like many others have done, that our country’s inability to feed itself is one of the most dangerous signs of State failure and a trigger to violence,” the statement said.
It added that the prospects of a failed state stared the nation in the face: endless bloodletting, a collapsing economy, social anomie, domestic and community violence, kidnappings, armed robberies, etc.
“Ours has become a house of horror with fear stalking our homes, highways, cities, hamlets and entire communities. The nation has become like a boiling cauldron where everyone is fighting desperately to escape from. The Pope has wailed, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Pastors have wailed, Emirs have wailed, Politicians have wailed, The Sultan has wailed. Is it that the obvious isn’t obvious to some of us in the country,” the statement added.
It further stated that as Ambassadors of Catholic Action Nigeria, it refused to be cowered by the outcry from some quarters that the good message of the Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah was an incitement to violence and disruption of peace.
“We find this a false accusation. On the contrary, and as the Convener of the National Peace Committee, his message was eminently a message of peace and a call to a change of mindset and hope in the life of our nation in these very trying times.
“Indeed, as the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria have shown in the past years by their words, actions and communiques, Bishop Kukah reminds us all that
‘the joys and hopes, the griefs and anguish of the people of our times are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anguish of the Church’.” (Gaudium et Spes of the 2nd Vatican Council, Paragraph 1).
“This is also seen and is key in the Holy Book of the Muslims, the Quran where it is said that Allah is Merciful and will reward those that keep His rule. Indeed, it is the basic tenet in all religions that ‘righteousness exalts a nation and sin destroys a people.’
“The Catholic Bishops are our Fathers and any attempt to intimidate and silence them unduly will be fatal to our common good as a people and nation with a common destiny.
“The Church in her self-definition remains a Sentinel of hope and a Prophetic voice as well as the Conscience of our nation,” CAN said.
CAN also added that the unholy call to have Bishop Kukah arrested, or indeed any of the Catholic Bishops, for speaking truth to power was a call with grave consequences, adding that any attempt to arrest or do harm to any of these bishops due to a homily, Christmas message, or a lawful exercise of their rights as Catholic and Christian leaders would be an undue and dangerous provocation that was unacceptable to Christians and well-meaning Nigerians and a threat to peace and progress in Nigeria.
They group said it would not stop to “proclaim the message and be persistent whether it is welcome or unwelcome. Refute falsehood, correct error, give encouragement, but do all with patience and with care to instruct.” (2 Tim: 4:2).
It said the Ambassadors of Catholic Action Nigeria would not recuse the responsibility to rise to the occasion for the betterment of this nation.
“Therefore, it will be unwise to test the waters and to unduly test further the patience of millions of patriotic Nigerians who have endured and tolerated so much contradictions and apparent abuse of power in the present administration.
“Nigeria belongs to ALL of us and no one group or person has more rights than the other to the different facets of our national life, especially to act and speak up in their best interest and the interest of the common good,” CAN said.
The group also stated that the cry of nepotism and islamization of the country by the Catholic Bishops could not be denied or swept aside with a wave of the hand.
It said that Bishop Kukah couldn’t be more right in his remarks 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 got away with it.”
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