By Akinwale Kasali

Mixed reactions have trailed Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah’s Christmas message which criticised  the policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The Presidency said that Bishop Kukah is  bent on fanning the embers  of hatred and disunity among Nigerians against the Buhari Government .

In same vein, the Muslim Right Concern, MURIC, an Islamic Group lambasted and criticised Bishop Kukah over the attack on Buhari’s Administration for saying that there would have been a coup had any non-Muslim occupied the Nigerian seat of power.

MURIC’s statement issued on December 28 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 spearhead it. Go ahead, Kukah, plan a coup. Who knows? You can be vice president. Dare to struggle. Dare to win”.