Editorial:
The recent meeting of some religious leaders, including Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, and Secretary of the National Peace Committee, NPC, at the Abeokuta home of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, has continued to raise concern and controversy. Obasanjo hosted his erstwhile vice, Alhaji Atiku Abukabar, who recently emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Others are the meeting were two well-known critics of President Muhammadu Buhari, Sheik Ahmed Gumi, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church, aka, Winners Chapel and many prominent opposition politicians in the country. The religious leaders were purportedly at the meeting for the reconciliation of Obasanjo and Atiku who had been estranged since their days in office.
Although Bishop Kukah has defended his presence and participation at the peace meeting on October 11, 2018, as nonpartisan and was not intended to endorse any candidate, the explanation is somewhat unconvincing in view of its religious implications and political ramifications to national peace and unity.
He said the meeting was conducted behind closed doors and the pictures were also taken in private after prayers to seal the proceedings. It was neither meant for public consumption nor to provide any political benefit. The Catholic bishop said that it was strictly to support and witness their reconciliation, which he has been trying to broker for some years.
It is hard to imagine that a man of Bishop Kukah’s standing and exposure will walk into a meeting without being fully briefed on the agenda of such gathering. The meeting at Obasanjo’s home and what it was intended to achieve was the worst kept political secret in the country in recent times. For the respected Bishop to argue that he was blindsided by politicians is, to put it mildly, stretching the truth.
As Nigerians, the religious leaders are at liberty to visit and even endorse any politician of their choice but Bishop Kukah is more than just a religious leader by virtue of the important national and strategic positions he occupies in the country. As a Bishop and secretary of the Bishops Conference of Nigeria, he is an important voice in the Catholic community and the country, his presence at the Abeokuta endorsement is troubling especially given the emotive and volatile nature of religion in the country and the need to as much as possible keep it out of our body politics.
But more importantly, as the secretary of the National Peace Committee, led by former head of state, Gen. AbdulsalamI Abubakar, he towers even above his religious office and looms large in the national political landscape. Many Nigerians would still remember the crucial role the committee played in the last presidential election in 2015 when it rose up to douse the heightened tension that threatened national peace and security and ensure its peaceful resolution with the concession of defeat by then-president Jonathan.
It was such a national relief that put doomsday prophets about the disintegration of the country to shame and elevated their stature globally. Nigerians were immensely grateful to the committee for their role and are looking forward to another possible intervention in the coming 2019 general elections which again is threatening national peace given its already rancorous and divisive process.
However, Bishop Kukah’s inadvertent political exposure, unfortunately, casts a long shadow on his continued suitability as a national peace mediator and member of the National Peace committee. Every unbiased and objective Nigerian must acknowledge the fact that his recent misadventure has compromised his position as an impartial arbiter and undermines public confidence in his political independence and neutrality.
To be seemingly identified with a particular political tendency or party in an expected close twosome political contest for the presidency suggests, unfortunately, some form of support or approval.
Although he has a right to express opinions concerning national issues, we believe that his many roles in national affairs call for certain restraint and circumspection on his part in view of the divisive nature of our politics.
The Peace Committee has demonstrated their unalloyed commitment and statesmanship in the discharge of their responsibility especially as a nongovernmental group, and therefore should not allow the acts of commission or omission of just a member, even a prominent one, to jeopardize its good work. The committee has set such high standard for itself and should always strive to command the confidence and trust of Nigerians which they have painstakingly earned.
To this end, we believe that time has come for the venerable Bishop of Sokoto Diocese to save the integrity of the National Peace Committee by stepping down. It will be in the overall interest of both the NPC and the nation to maintain its neutrality going into the 2019 general elections.