Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Mathew Hassan Kukah, has said Nigerians have finally woken up, and seem more determined than ever, to salvage the country from years of bad governance.
The Bishop said the country has failed to make any meaningful progress because it has been under the leadership of criminals whom Nigerians expect to make the right decisions. A situation he said is sad and unfortunate.
Kukah who made this submission while speaking on Channels Tv’s Sunrise Daily, said as long as the job of developing policies that will drive democracy in the country is left for corrupt politicians, whom he said are major beneficiaries of such policies, things would only get worse.
“The problem with Nigeria’s situation is that the sinners are the ones trying to make the law. These are the consequences of where we find ourselves now," he said.
“I speak to the fact that as long as the universities are the way they are, as long as we do not have privileged intellect and the diagnostic tools required to refine processes, as long as we are hoping that politicians are the ones to set their own rules, as long as we expect that almost all of these are politics, there would not be an improvement in the country.
“In my view, had it been we have a country that is working, a country that takes research seriously, it is the business of political scientists to equip the people in power with the required tools for analysis, to the options that are available to ensure things go the way they should go.
“But unfortunately, if you have a situation where the universities are not funded, the country itself behaves as if it wants to close the universities, what else do you expect?
“Unless and until this government and other government in Nigeria takes academic exercise very seriously, we can not expect the person who is sick to be the one to provide the medicine for his cure,” he stressed.
He said the enthusiasm of Nigerians to get their PVCs is a great indication that they are yearning for change.
He said: “As you can see from the enthusiasm of our people trying to get their PVCs, it seems that by the day, our people and our democracy are all maturing.
“The challenge really is for political actors to work the talk, for the political actors to become responsible and more responsive to the issues of ordinary Nigerians.
“Ordinary citizens are well ahead of the political actors in terms of what they want, how they see things and they understand the issues.”