The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has said that with the daily deaths being recorded across the country, it has become clear that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari no longer values the sacredness of human life.
In his Christmas message at the weekend, Kukah lamented that the government seems to have moved on by ignoring the fate of Nigerians in the custody of people he termed evil men, stressing that the moral scar of shame on Nigeria cannot be wished away.
“Nothing expresses the powerlessness of the families like the silence of state at the federal level. Today, after over seven years, our over one hundred Chibok girls are still marooned in the ocean of uncertainty,” he said.
“Over three years after, Leah Sharibu is still unaccounted for. Students of Federal Government College, Yauri, and children from Islamiyya School, Katsina, are still in captivity.
“This does not include hundreds of other children whose captures were less dramatic.
“We also have lost count of hundreds of individuals and families who have been kidnapped and live below the radar of publicity. We have before us a government totally oblivious to the cherished values of the sacredness of life,” he stated.
According to Kukah the silence of Abuja was only feeding the “ugly beast of complicity in the deeds of the evil people who have suspended the future of entire generations of Nigeria’s children.”
The religious leader also stated that President Buhari owes parents and citizens answers as to where the children are and when they are coming home or when the abductions, kidnappings, and endless massacres of citizens will end.
He urged the president, governors, and security agencies to develop a more honest, open, and robust strategy for “ending the humiliation of our people and restoring social order”, adding that “we have borne enough humiliation as communities and as a country.”
On the security crisis in the north, the clergyman stated that at about this time last year when he raised the alarm about the perilous state of affairs in northern Nigeria, all kinds of accusations were leveled against him, especially by his northern brethren.
He contended that when Catholic bishops protested openly against the killings in March 2020, they were accused of acting against the government with religious motives being imputed to their noble intentions.
“Now, we are fully in the grip of evil. Today, a feeling of vindication only saddens me as I have watched the north break into a cacophony of quarrelsome blame games over our tragic situation,” he continued.
“A catalog of unprecedented cruelty has been unleashed on innocent citizens across the northern states. In their sleep, on their farmlands, in their markets, or even on the highway, innocent citizens have been mowed down and turned into burnt offerings to gods of evil.
“Communities have been turned into gulags of misery, death, pain, and perfidy. We must move quickly before Arewa, our beloved Arewa, descends into Arewanistan,” he warned.