Things are not working in Nigeria —Bishop Kukah

THE Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Reverend Mathew Kukah, has lamented the state of the nation and concluded that “things are not working in Nigeria.”

Reverend Kukah blamed the country’s woes on different factors which he said included a continued stay of the military after the civil war and discontinuation of policies by successive governments and the colonial masters.

He, however, advised Nigerians to change the direction of the country if it must ever be safe or developed.

The cleric stated these on Friday in Lagos at the third annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOF) with the theme ‘Economy, Security and National Development: The Way Forward’.

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Reverend Kukah, in his keynote address at the event, said: “When you have a sound economy, you are guaranteed security. Then if you have sound security, you can be guaranteed sound development.

“From the president to the chairman of the remotest community in Nigeria, there is a general belief and feeling that things are not working but there is a lot of efforts being made but things are not working.

“Truth be told, things are not working. We are the poverty capital of the world. What else do we need to know?

“We are one of the most insecure places to be born into. We can go on with the reading of the book of lamentation,” the renowned cleric said.

Kukah said most of the past governments in Nigeria came up with policies that could have changed the fortune of the country but such policies were discontinued by successive governments to the detriment of the citizens.

“I believe that the systematic disruption of these policies accounts for the persistent poverty and underdevelopment. Each and every one of these initiative has the ability and capacity to transform our society,” he said.