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Bishop Kukah And The ‘Hailers’ At Aso Rock By Achike Chude

So Laurel and Hardy, (Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu), presidential spokesmen have not gone into hiding as the government they serve grows in ever-increasing notoriety and infamy. One would think that the fact of their impending disengagement from the government after the 2023 elections would be enough to impose a reality check on them and elicit a change of approach and engagement. But in the twilight of their administration, they seem to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Instead, they have grown more quarrelsome and pugnacious to comments they consider unfriendly.
 
Someone has said that given the level to which this government has fallen, they might very well flee the country or whatever is left of her by the time their government concludes its demolition job on our beloved Nigeria.
 
It is the nature of leaders and governments, especially in quasi democratic countries like Nigeria that as they increasingly fail to deliver on promises made to the people, they seek recourse to phantom enemies to explain away their ineptitude, parochialism, corruption, visionlessness, and provincialism.
 




We thought that we had seen the worst of terrible governments in this country. Surely, we said to ourselves, ‘the worst is over.’ But of course, the worst was surely not over. We needed to see and experience President Muhammadu Buhari. We needed to see what sometimes happens when a man marries a second wife. We have now seen it and experienced it, and it is not a pleasant experience.
 
It is no longer a rumour or conjecture that there is a conspiracy between Karma and Nemesis to exact retribution on the APC government of Muhammadu Buhari for making claims of virtues that they never had.
 
Think of it! In a whirlwind space of about three weeks, a deluge and avalanche of condemnations and criticisms have come the way of the ruling government from different power centres and opinion moulders across the country.
 
After the Chief Imam of the Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid, was booted out of office for criticising the government’s apparent failures in keeping Nigeria safe, the Sultan of Sokoto and leader of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III had questioned the continued existence of a government that could not protect its citizens. At the same time, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria was also accusing the president and his government of playing the Ostrich. Remember their famous statement to the president in 2018 when they accused him of “presiding over the killing fields and mass graveyard that our country has become.”
 
The Northern Elders Forum on their part about a week ago called for the President to resign for his many failures, especially over insecurity.
 
And just about two days ago, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Adewale Martins was wondering how in a sovereign country supposedly governed by law, armed gangs have set up a taxation system where citizens pay taxes to them.
 
Now Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah has for the umpteenth time, kept another date with history. Crying and wailing for the pains and tragedies his country and people are going through has become his burden. Just like some of us who can still feel the pains of the deaths, kidnappings, and destructions wrought on our fellow citizens in their thousands by the fiends from hell, he just cannot pretend that the carnage and anarchy he sees happening all around him are a mirage.
 
But that is exactly what Laurel and Hardy want him to do – pretend that all is well – pretend that their principal, Buhari is getting it right when all around us, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is collapsing spectacularly under a president who is a general that bandits, terrorists, kidnappers are making ‘yeye’ of.
 
Now Laurel and Hardy have come after Hassan Kukah, tactfully avoiding critiquing the Sultan who has also rightfully spoken the truth about our state of affairs. In a paradox that only they and their ilk are capable of, they accuse the speaker of the truth of being a purveyor of falsehood just because he dared to say what all Nigerians have been saying – that this president has divided Nigeria and Nigerians in a way never before seen in our annals as a country.
 
Can we deny that while under Goodluck Jonathan Nigerians were dying in the dozens, under the general, Nigerians are dying in their hundreds?
 
We know what people like Kukah, Abdusalami, and others did to ensure peace in Nigeria between 2014 and 2015 when they got Jonathan and Buhari to sign a peace accord before the election, and how they worked tirelessly post-election to maintain that peace. We are not even talking about his service to the nation as Secretary to the Abdusalami set-up Human Rights Truth Commission headed by late philosopher-judge Chuwudifu Oputa, among other pan-Nigerian activities by him.
 
For Laurel and Hardy to now accuse the same Kukah of sowing division in the country because he spoke an unpleasant truth about their government and our government, is not really befuddling if we understand the dynamics of the human mind. Like the Bishop said, “Some people’s bank accounts have now swollen.”
 
After all, they were the ones that divided Nigerians by calling us ‘hailers and wailers’.
 
Power dey finish oo.
 
In a few months’ time, they will come and join us Nigerians on the streets – Unless dey run comot from Naija.
 
What a legacy they will leave for themselves.
 
As for Nigeria, it is a minute to midnight. The last spark of light is almost gone. But just as it takes a spark to ignite the forest, perhaps that last spark might be all we need to renew our nation.
 
Don’t give up yet!
 
Keep working to save our country.
 

Sourced From Sahara Reporters

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