28th December, 2020
PRESS RELEASE:
KUKAH : IT IS TRAMADOLISED RELIGIOUSITY -
MURIC
The Bishop of Sokoto
Diocese, Rev. Fr. Hasan Kukah, yesterday suggested that there would have been a
coup had a Southerner occupied the Nigerian seat of power. He also referred to
Islam as a violent religion. However, the Nigerian Islamic human rights organization,
the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has described the bishop as a first class
blackmailer.
This was made known to newsmen in a press statement issued on Monday,
27th December, 2020 by Professor Ishaq Akintola, director of the
organization.
MURIC’s statement reads:
“We are shocked to
our marrows by the vitriolic attack launched yesterday by Rev. Hasan Kukah
against Islam as a religion. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese referred to
Islam as a violent religion. He also surreptitiously called for a coup against
a democratically elected government of President Muhammadu Buhari whom he falsely
accused of nepotism.
“According to him, ‘…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…’ In other words there could have been
a coup if a non-Northerner had practised nepotism like Buhari.
“This is a most irresponsible
pronouncement and we will not allow it to go unchallenged. Kukah’s statement is
reckless, inflammatory and unguarded. It is the most egregious, luciferous,
serpentine and diabolical statement of the year 2020. Hasan Mathew Kukah is
ululating from the wrong side of the pulpit. Kukah is in the habit of demonizing
and demarketing any president who happens to be a Muslim. In particular, we are
most disappointed that such a heavily prejudiced and explosive statement is
coming from the secretary of Nigeria’s Peace Committee. His behavior is
consistently inconsistent with his status.
“Kukah referred
to Islam as violent but his fellow faithful, Gana, has been training terrorists
and killing Muslims in Benue for years. Kukah is fully aware of the creed of
those who waylay travellers in the Plateau region, killing all Muslims among
them and dumping them in the numerous ponds and wells of the Plateau landscape,
never to be seen again. We would never have kno wn
but for the General Alkali affair. How can those who train and arm cold-blooded
killers turn around to call Islam a violent religion?
“Kukah lives in
the heart of Islam and he has never been attacked. Kukah also knows how
generous and charitable the people of Sokoto have been to him. Had it not been
you had been good. This kind of allegation should have come from someone else,
from somewhere else. Kukah has bitten the finger that fed him.
“But
how dare you mock the North? Are you not part of that geographical entity? Is
this the same man who claimed he wanted to rescue 10 million almajiris? Thank
God we stopped your circus show. You deride the North but pretend you want
to ‘rescue’ Northern children. You have demonstrated beyond any reasonable
doubt that you have a disabled sense of belonging.
“We can
understand Kukah's frustration. Import duty waivers on every imported good,
including private jets, are no longer available. Neither are billion naira
contracts at the snap of a finger. A new Sheriff is in town. This is why Kukah
has turned to a blackmailer nulli secundus.
“Kukah calls for
a coup because blackmail is not working with Buhari. But is Kukah aware that it
will be a Christian-inspired forceful change of government? What was the result
of the first of such in the country? Even Nzeogwu will turn in his grave at the
very thought of a church-motivated coup.
“It is
unimaginable that such venom is being emited during Christmas when all are
expected to give love. Nigerians can see what is happening. We send messages of
love to Bishop Kukah at Christmas. He responds with pent-up anger, contempt and
hate-filled emotion. Is this proper?
“Kukah’s allegation of nepotism against PMB holds no water. Buhari’s
appointments by geo-political zone as published by a leading online newspaper
has debunked Kukah’s verbal halitosis. The analysis showed that Buhari’s North
West got 37 appointments, North East received 29, North Central secured 21,
South West had 63, South East received 25 while South South got 24. South West
benefited most. But is Buhari a Yoruba man? He gave the South West almost
double what he gave his own North West. Is that nepotism? We challenge Kukah
and his merchants of falsehood to provide their own data.
“This means that the North as a whole which Kukah accused of hegemony
and for which reason Buhari is being accused of nepotism, got 87 appointments
while the South received 112. All the false propaganda and allegation of
nepotism against Buhari fell like a pack of cards with this analysis. Kukah’s diatribe
is therefore sheer tramadolised religiousity. His allegations are as unfounded
as they are baseless.
“It further goes
to prove that allegations of northern hegemony, caliphate domination, Islamisation
and fulanisation are not more than a myth, a mirage, a phantom. They are mere
slogans adopted by political shenanigans, ethnic charlatans and religious
demagogues to deceive gullible Nigerians.
“Kukah knows those
who engage in favouritism but he has chosen to be a pot calling the kettle
black. Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) inadvertently revealed the special favours rendered by Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo to Christians when he was president. The revelation was made at
Orita Mefa Baptist Church, Ibadan, on Saturday, November 21, 2020 during the
funeral service of Obasanjo’s two-term Pastor, Rev. S. T. Ola Akande.
“The CAN president poured encomiums on Obasanjo for favouring Christians
during his regime. Among the special favours mentioned were the mass land allocation to the Baptist
mission at Kubwa, Abuja; another land allocation to the Baptist in Festac town,
Lagos; yet another land allocation to the church in Satellite town and another at
highbrow Ikoyi, also for the church. No Muslim leader or Islamic organization has
accused Obasanjo of favouritism to date. Perhaps Kukah thinks God was asleep
during the regime of Obasanjo. But the garrulous bishop now has the temerity to
remind Nigerians that God does not sleep.
“Certain people
are unhappy with a situation whereby they can no longer walk freely into Aso
Rock for the low-hanging apples. They therefore want a forceful change of
government. But rather than wait on the straight for the next election as democrats,
they prefer to take the bend. #EndSARS has failed. They must blackmail the
president into submission.
Kukah’s reference to a coup is a Satanic innuendo. We are aware that
civilians have always been involved in coups in the past. Kukah’s interest is
therefore not something new. But why is Kukah just inciting it? He should be
man enough to spearehead it. Go ahead, Kukah, plan a coup. Who knows? You can
be vice president. Dare to struggle. Dare to win.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
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