By Chief Mike Ozekhome

INTRODUCING YEAR 2020

That the year 2020 was a monstrosity and abnormality of a nightmare with a hideous visage, is no news. It was the year of the COVID-19 epidemic and #EndSars. It was the year the world was literally on a spin, in a macabre spectacle of suspended animation. The year that the world was actually locked down, forcing humanity into a state of limbo. Yes, a year God manifested His awesomeness, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, trashing man’s claim to giant strides in science, technology, medicine and communication. 2020 was the year Priests, Pastors and Imams were forced to abandon the Churches and Mosques. The year opened up cans of worms and exposed governors, ministers and senators who hid the people’s palliatives. The year of total abdication of the classrooms by ASUU.

2020 was the year corruption graduated to a national mantra, virtually adopted by the government as a fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy. Nigeria ranked 148 Out of 180 countries in the world as indexed by transparency international. She carried the odious diadem as the third most country in West Africa. 2020 showcased Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world, overtaking dear old India. It was the year Trump was trumped by Biden who bound him with ballot. An ugly year of retrenchments and closure of businesses. It was the year of hunger, starvation, squalor.

HOW BISHOP KUKAH SPOKE TRUTH TO AUTHORITYBut, I never believed the Buhari’s government could cap it all and end the year by traducing, bullying and attempting to lynch and squeeze the spiritual balls of cassocked Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah.

What was Kukah’s offence? That he wrote his 2020 Christmas message titled “The Middle Grounds of Optimism have continued to Shift and Many Genuinely Ask, Whathave We Done to the gods? Does Nigeria have a Future?” In this message, the Cleric x-rayed the ills of the Nigerian state, from Chibok, through Dapchi, to Kankara. He saw the year as one of the “Annus Horribilis” (the Year of Horror); rather than one of “Annus Mirabilis” (the Year of Joy). What was Kukah’s offence here? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

Combing through the odious breath and depth of a decaying nation, the flaming pulpit terror of bad governments believes our common wealth has been stolen; with enough hate and bitterness to generously go around. Kukah insists our dreams have been aborted; our “cancer of corruption metastasized”; and all of us, guilty of patricide, fraticide, even attempted suicide [I disagree; there were actually tens of suicide cases]. He says we are hungry, angry, thirsty, and starving. He believes we appear sedated and inured to pain; tragedy standing as a gate keeper; with each Christmas bringing its dark ball of horror, sorrow and death, in the last 10 years. Where did Kukah go wrong here? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

Kukah believes our country is drifting rudderlessly, with Nigerians traveling without maps; without destination; and with neither Captain nor crew. The Bishop looks back to the pre-Buhari era with nostalgia, because, at least, there was food to eat, and people could go to toilet. He laments that at present, “a journey to the toilet is considered by the poor an extra luxury”; and that “our country’s inability to feed itself is one of the most dangerous signs of state failure and a trigger to violence”. What did Kukah say here that was not correct? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

Bishop Kukah notes, very brilliantly, that the experience of Northern Nigeria is evidence that nepotism (Buhari’s greatest “achievement”) is a counterfeit currency. Bemoaning Pastor Femi Adesina’s tag on Nigerians who are complaining about his boss(Buhari)’s bad government as “wailers”, Kukah agrees, derisively and mockingly, that Adesina was right, because, “on the sad situation in Nigeria, the United Nations has wailed. The Pope has wailed. Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Pastors have wailed. Emirs have wailed. Politicians have wailed. The Sultan has wailed. Surely, it is time for the Lord to hear the wailer as they have sung their redemption song”. Where did Kukah go wrong here? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

For these take-away truthful nugget words on marble, Aso Villa became restless. They asked for the head of this man of God; this poor, wifeless, childless and houseless labourer in the Lord’s vineyard, whose pen is mightier than the sword; whose pulpit words seemlessly break chains of terror, despotism, absolutism and fascism, into smithereens.

But, wait for it. It was perhaps the following paragraph of Kukah’s Christmas message that got the Aso Villa hawks and their media hirelings hopping, shouting, screaming and baying for Kukah’s spiritual blood, accusing him falsely of calling for a coup d’état. He wrote in paragraph 6 of his intellectual treatise, titled “A nation in search of vindication”:

“This government owes the nation an explanation as to where it is headed as we seem to journey into darkness. The spilling of this blood must be related to a more sinister plot that is beyond our comprehension. Are we going to remain hogtied by these evil men or are they gradually becoming part of a larger plot to seal the fate of our country?

“President Buhari deliberately sacrificed the dreams of those who voted for him to what seemed like a programme to stratify and institutionalise northern hegemony by reducing others in public life to second class status. He has pursued this self-defeating and alienating policy at the expense of greater national cohesion. Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it. There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions. He may be right and we Christians cannot feel sorry that we have no pool of violence to draw from or threaten our country. However, God does not sleep. We can see from the inexplicable dilemma of his North.”

WAS BISHOP KUKAH RIGHT OR WRONG?

Where did Bishop Kukah go wrong here? I cannot see it. Or,can you? The government is simply going after the messenger, rather than the message. Kukah has not said anything new. He is simply bold and courageous to reiterate the obvious truth. Was it not Uthman Dan Fodiyo that once said, “Conscience is an open wound,only truth can heal it”? It is simply Bishop Kukah’s exalted status and the across-the-board respect and acceptance commanded by Kukah that frightens the schizophrenic, delusionary and paranoid anti-people government. Did the nation not quake under the threat of the baboons being “soaked in their own blood”? was President Jonathan not warned at a time to stop killing Boko Haram insurgents, because it amounted to killing Northern Moslems? Check your google!

There is nothing said about this Buhari government by Kukah that is not founded on truth, data, figures and a firma terra. Is it the cluelessness, compasslessness, compassionlessness, and insensitivity of the government to the plight of the Nigerian people? Is itthe ascending corruption that now struts about like a proud peacock and where recovered loots are being incrementally relooted? Is it the ravaging poverty that has reduced many Nigerians to vassals and slaves feeding from dustbins? Is it the glaring insecurity that has since geometrically graduated and multiplied from only Boko Haram to armed bandits, blood-letting herdsmen, vicious kidnappings, gruesome murders and “otokotoism”, rendering our homes, highways, footpaths, markets, churches, mosques and farms, very unsafe and endangered?

Is it the near psychopathic inebriation with northern hegemony, cronyism, prebendalism, sectionalism, tribalism and favouritism we see daily in this government’s appointments into the commanding heights of our national life? Is it the clear orchestration of divisiveness, ethno-religious crisis, gender decimation, and intolerance of opposition, plurality of voices and dissenting opinions? Is it the submerging of Nigeria into a second recession, and gradual killing of the naira, humbling it to about 480 naira to just one dollar? Is it the large-scale hunger, penury, melancholy, tears, fear, sorrow, pains, pangs, blood, hopelessness and haplessness that have since engulfed Nigeria? Is it the decimation of the middle class; the enthronement of northern supremacy and government’s lack of accountability and transparency in governance? Where has Bishop Kukah gone off track? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

BISHOP KUKAH DIDN’T JUST START TODAY

Bishop Kukah has so far served as one of the very few surviving consciences of the nation. He has been a compass with which the nation’s direction or lack of it is read. He serves as a thermometer to measure the ever-rising temperature of beleaguered Nigeria. Kukah represents the sphygmomanometer with which Nigeria’s high or low blood pressure is constantly measured to avoid national heart attack and artery bursting. The following are few of his earlier interventions:

In my article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper of 2nd August, 2020, titled “NOW, WHO WILL COMFORT BISHOP KUKAH?”, on the passage of Bishop Kukah’s mother, I had written, interalia, as follows:

“Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, that fiery cleric, social critic, rights Activist and intellectual prodigy on the pulpit, lost his mother in July. I had condoled with him by SMS and whatsapp message when his number was not going through. But, I kept on asking myself one question: “who will comfort Bishop Kukah?” This question is relevant, considering the fact that this charismatic, fecund and former Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat and current Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese (born 31stAugust, 1952), has over the years, comforted thousands (perhaps, millions) of people, who lost their loved ones. Bishop Kukah has preached at many grave sides, delivered hundreds of funeral homilies, delivered oceans of comfort to bereaved families, and recited the holy rosary times without number. All to comfort people. Kukah was Secretary to the Oputah Panel that investigated human rights violation during the Military (1999 – 2001). He also served as Secretary to the 2005 National Political Reform Conference. Now, who will comfort Kukah? Only God…

“Bishop Kukah is not the ordinary-run-of-the-mill-priest. He uses the pulpit to preach against societal ills, bad governance. He posits panacea for deepened democracy and true fiscal federalism. At Bishop Bagobiri’s obsequies, on March 17, 2018, Kukah fired from his always revved cylinders:

“Politicians are often fond of praising Church leaders especially when they are in opposition, in exile or are victims of state repression. Church leaders are praised for being voices of the voiceless, standing for justice, courageous etc.

“When things change and the opposition politician of yesterday gets to power, they expect you in their pocket. You raise the same issues and they accuse you of supporting the opposition, hating our government, standing in our way, being a danger to the nation etc.

“On February 11, 2020, at his funeral homily of Michael Nnadi, a student of the Catholic Good Shepherd Seminary, Kaduna, who was abducted and gruesomely murdered, Kukah lamented that our “nation is like a ship stranded on the high seas, rudderless and with broken navigational aids.”

“Today, our years of hypocrisy, duplicity, fabricated integrity, false piety, empty morality, fraud and Pharisaism have caught up with us… Nigeria is on the crossroads and its future hangs precariously in a balance.

“We have practised madness for too long. Our attempt to build a nation has become like the agony of Sisyphus who angered the gods and had to endure the frustration of rolling a stone up the mountain.

“No one could have imagined that in winning the presidency. Buhari would bring nepotism and clannishness into the military and the ancillary security agencies.

“No one could have imagined that his government would be marked by supremacist and divisive policies that would push our country to the brink.

“This President has displayed the greatest degree of insensitivity in managing our country’s rich diversity. He has subordinated the larger interests of the country to the hegemonic interests of his co-religionists and clansmen and women.

“The impression created now is that, to hold a key and strategic position in Nigeria today, it is more important to be a northern Muslim than a Nigerian.”

“Despite running the most nepotistic and narcissistic government in known history, there are no answers to the millions of young children on the streets in northern Nigeria. The North still has the worst indices of poverty, insecurity, stunting, squalor and destitution,” he pontificated…

“The flaming clergyman bemoaned the nadir to which the military has sunk, loosing its “allure and gravitas… because the military has “gradually become trapped and ravaged by ethnic, regional, religious and class considerations.”Where did Kukah go wrong here? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

I had continued my piece thus: “On 23rdAugust, 2013, I was kidnapped (in the hot afternoon), along Benin-Auchi Express way, near Ehor, by dangerously armed kidnappers. Four Policemen who came for my rescue were gunned down in cold blood. I was in the dungeon of the terror group for 21 whole days. Days of mental agony, psychological depression, physical trauma, spiritual bruise, fear of death, fear of fear. All Nigerians rose up for my release in the print, electronic and social media. My kidnappers (always hooded, except at night), told me so. God had prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies (Psalm 23:5). Of the many reactions, there was one particular one that seared the hearts of my captors and continually flogged them with spiritual koboko and divine bulala.

“It was the 27thAugust, 2013, press release of my good friend, Kukah, titled “Release Ozekhome in the name of God”. I did not know what Kukah wrote that so tormented my tormentors, until God ordered my release; and I read it. Inter alia, the cassocked “conscience of the nation” pleaded with my abductors, in the following words:

“Sure, these are sad times for our country, but the kidnapping of Mr. Ozekhome carries a distinctive ironic ring to it. Here is a fine gentleman in every sense of the word, a hard working professional who has worked assiduously with his bare hands right up to the top of his profession. His patriotism and deep commitment to justice saw him at the forefront of the fight against tyranny and dictatorship in the darkest days of our country. He sacrificed his life, family and career and was a victim of some of the ugliest phases of the brutality of those in power. He did all these to give our country in particular and a new generation of young Nigerians a better future. His humble beginnings and his hard work should be seen by the young generation as ideals to be emulated.

“His country through the legal profession recognized his contribution by elevating him to the enviable position of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. The recognition only renewed his commitment to justice and the cause of the poor. It was early this year that he pleaded with me to join a Foundation he was setting up for the cause of the poor. I was quite happy to oblige him because I have believed in his cause for the down trodden. He has made all these sacrifices for the future of these same tragic youth who are now his captors.

“Coming at the dawn of the democracy and freedom he struggled for, this is at worst, a second crucifixion for a great patriot. True, no citizen deserves to be denied of his freedom in a Democracy except those who have broken the law. Nothing therefore could be more ironic than for this great son of our country to be forcefully snatched from the highway in a Democracy. In the name of God and all that is noble, I call on his captors to release him unconditionally and immediately. I call on our young people to renounce this violent, ungodly and evil act.

“I believe the future of our youth does not depend on the blood money that comes from kidnapping, popular and commonplace as this ignoble cause has become. Our youth must embrace the future with hope, believing that tomorrow is theirs to build. I believe that this blood money can only erect a house of cards for now. They should renounce this criminality and turn to pursuing legacies they can proudly hand over to their children tomorrow. I beg for God’s mercies and peace for the souls of those gallant police officers who surrendered their lives and continue to pray for our security agencies. May Mike regain his freedom soon.” And I was released, to the glory of God.”Where did Kukah go wrong here? I cannot see it. Or, can you?

So, Kukah has been speaking. Mr President sir, tell your attack dogs to leave this Pan-Nigerian patriot alone. He is merely forewarning us all about the dangers ahead, except the Buhari government mends its ways.

Chief Mike Ozekhome