Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has said Nigerians are too religious, but without anything good to show for it. He said this life of hypocrisy has turned religion into a stumbling block, as it continues to tear the country apart.
Speaking yesterday in Yola at the commissioning of Sangere-Marghi Housing Estate, a settlement constructed by the Catholic Diocese of Yola, to accommodate Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, displaced by Boko Haram activities, Kukah challenged Northern Governors to address the religious uprising in the region.
He said a situation where Northern Governors meet in Kaduna or in Abuja drinking tea and taking photographs without properly addressing the problems tearing the North apart, is unacceptable.
“They should not only be talking about dialogue with Bishops, Imams and Emirs sitting together and taking photographs and drinking tea as there are needs for concrete manifestation of ideas between one another," he said in a statement.
“Nigerians are too religious in paper and not in practice and this has made religion to be a liability to us," he added.
He said if Nigerians truly fear and serve the true God, "we will not be fighting, shedding as much bIood as we are seeing today."
He also called on Nigerians of both faiths, Christians and Muslims, to appreciate what the Catholic Diocese of Yola has done today in bringing people of the two faiths dislodged by the Boko Haram under one umbrella.
Kukah who is a renown critic of bad leadership, previously accused leaders in the country of turning the nation into a wasteland where people commit sins, then use i'll-acquired wealth to fly out of the country to seek forgiveness in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem.
He made the remarks in a sermon titled “A Nation in Search of Its Soul” at the wake for Archbishop Peter Yariyock Jatau at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Kaduna.
He said, "Nigeria has become a 'huge waste land, huge debris of the deceit, lies, treachery, double dealing and duplicity.'"
According to him, Nigerians sin at home by stealing the nation’s resources but seek repentance and forgiveness in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem, Israel in the guise of lesser or higher pilgrimages.
Kukah said, “Today, our dear nation is like the proverbial farmer searching for his black goat. He has to do it with a sense of urgency because darkness is setting in as the sun quickly recedes.
“Our nation has become one huge waste land, huge debris of the deceit, lies, treachery, double dealing and duplicity. Nigerian politicians have turned our politics into a huge trojan horse, a hoax, a hall of guile and dissimulation.
“The levels of frustration are rising by the day and we can see all this in the rise in domestic violence and inter-communal conflicts. A combination of all these has turned us unto a nation at war with itself.
“Nigerians complain that the country is full of churches and mosques and they cannot find the values of these religions in everyday life. We sin at home by stealing the nation’s resources but we seek repentance and forgiveness in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem in the guise of lesser or higher pilgrimages."