Victor EzejaFiery Catholic cleric and social activist, Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah has called for honest commitment to entrenchment of environmental and social justice by policitical leaders to ensure peace, development and progress in Nigeria.
Rev. Kukah who is the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, made this call through his 2021 Christmas message, saying that the spirit of the season should be seen as a spirit of renewal, urging leaders and the citizens to imbibe that in order to change the status quo in the country for the good of all.
Speaking about the essence of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world which is celebrated during the Christmas season, he warned religious to be mindful of embarking on activities that could make them derail from the prescriptions of the gospel preached by Christ which include, faith, hope, love, humility, honesty, etc.
Kukah decried the poor attention given to environmental degradation suffered especially by people of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria and called for effective measures to restore the envrionment for sustainable habitation of both human, animals and plants.
His words, “While the rest of the world struggles to preserve the future for its civilisations and citizens with a sense of urgency, Nigerians have continued to ignore the existential threats posed by the environmental disaster that we face. Nigeria established an Ecological Fund way back in 1981 while the Obasanjo administration set up the Ministry for Environment in 1999. We have heard of plans, projects, huge budgets to resolve the threats to our environment. Air and water pollution, waste management, deforestation, desertification, erosion, and flooding, continue to threaten Agriculture, Aquaculture and the welfare of citizens despite all these grand plans. Over time, we have seen long, good promises caught in the web of bureaucratic fraud.
“There is an urgent need to reverse the effect of our sins against the Niger Delta and to quickly embark on local and national initiatives to ensure the future by full environmental restoration. We cannot afford to continue with the reckless pollution of our environment that is destroying aquatic, terrestrial, and human lives. The clock is ticking,” he stated.
The Catholic priest called on President Muhammadu Buhari and governors to step up efforts towards addressing cases of insecurity, kidnapping, killings and religious persecution which on daily basis keep threatening social order.
“I call on the President, in collaboration with the Governors who are doing their best to preserve and protect their people to develop a more honest, open and robust strategy for ending the humiliation of our people and our restoring social order to our people. We have borne enough humiliation as communities and a country,” Kukah said.
On the raging controversy between the National Assembly and the Presidency on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Kukah said the lawmakers should work on adjustments concerning the clause on direct or indirect primaries and re-submit to the president for assent
He urged citizens and religious leaders to help in building bridges of unity instead of walls of disintegration in the country, and should not allow elements of politics that promotes balkanisation, pollute the ideals of religion which stand for charity, love and honesty.
“We religious leaders must encourage our people to return to the values of Kindness, Love, Honesty, Trust and Civility into our private, family, and public life. This is the obligation of all those who have heard the message of Christmas and its appeal to us to become men and women of goodwill.”
“The greatest lesson from our collective tragedy in Nigeria is for us to move away from thinking that we can triumph as members of one faith, a clan, or a tribe. A good society has to build bridges instead of walls, use differences to build a beautiful coat of unity like that of Joseph (Gen. 37:3). This is why Jesus taught us to pray to ‘Our Father,’ and not ‘My Father’ (Lk. 11:2).
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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