Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has attacked the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Fr. Hasan Kukah, over his suggestion that there would have been a coup had a Southerner occupied the Nigerian seat of power in the last five years
MURIC described the Bishop as a first class blackmailer in a press statement issued to DAILY POST on Monday signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, director of the organization.
The group berated Kukah, wondering why the cleric never attacked former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who it accused of mass land donation to churches during his time in office
The group said it was shocked by the vitriolic attack on Islam as a religion by Kukah, accusing the Catholic Bishop of referring to Islam as a violent religion.
MURIC said that by his comment, Bishop Kukah had called for a coup and forceful removal of President Muhammadu Buhari from office.
According to MURIC, Kukah’s comment was “reckless, inflammatory and unguarded. It is the most egregious, luciferous, serpentine and diabolical statement of the year 2020. Hasan Mathew Kukah is ululating from the wrong side of the pulpit.”
MURIC said that Bishop Kukah had always being in the habit of trying to demarket any Muslim President, adding that it was disappointed this statement came from no other but the secretary of Nigeria’s Peace Committee.
“Kukah referred to Islam as violent but his fellow faithful, Gana, has been training terrorists and killing Muslims in Benue for years. Kukah lives in the heart of Islam and he has never been attacked. But how dare you mock the North? Are you not part of that geographical entity?
“We can understand Kukah’s frustration. Import duty waivers on every imported good, including private jets, are no longer available. Neither are billion naira contracts at the snap of a finger. A new Sheriff is in town. This is why Kukah has turned to a blackmailer nulli secundus.
“Kukah knows those who engage in favouritism but he has chosen to be a pot calling the kettle black. Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) inadvertently revealed the special favours rendered by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to Christians when he was president.
“The revelation was made at Orita Mefa Baptist Church, Ibadan, on Saturday, November 21, 2020 during the funeral service of Obasanjo’s two-term Pastor, Rev. S. T. Ola Akande.
“The CAN president poured encomiums on Obasanjo for favouring Christians during his regime. Among the special favours mentioned were the mass land allocation to the Baptist mission at Kubwa, Abuja; another land allocation to the Baptist in Festac town, Lagos; yet another land allocation to the church in Satellite town and another at highbrow Ikoyi, also for the church.
“No Muslim leader or Islamic organization has accused Obasanjo of favouritism to date. Perhaps Kukah thinks God was asleep during the regime of Obasanjo. But the garrulous bishop now has the temerity to remind Nigerians that God does not sleep.
“Kukah’s reference to a coup is a Satanic innuendo. We are aware that civilians have always been involved in coups in the past. Kukah’s interest is therefore not something new.
“But why is Kukah just inciting it? He should be man enough to spearehead it. Go ahead, Kukah, plan a coup. Who knows? You can be vice president. Dare to struggle. Dare to win,” he said.
Bishop Kukah had in his Christmas message to Nigerians bemoaned the nepotism which, according to him, has characterised the government of President and warned that although Christians will not fight back, but “God does not sleep”.
The cleric claimed there could have been a coup or war in the country if a non-Nothern Muslim was the president in the last five years and did some of the things Buhari is doing.
Bishop Kukah is not alone in the allegation of nepotism against the present administration. A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, had also at the weekend insisted that Buhari government had failed to address the increasing insecurity and unemployment in the country.
Backing Kukah, on the alleged insensitivity of the current government, Osita said Buhari had failed to address myriads of problems bedeviling Nigeria.
However, in responding to Bishop Kukah’s allegations, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Information and Culture had urged religious leaders to refrain from stoking the embers of hatred and disunity in the country.
Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture n a statement at the weekend, warned that resorting to scorched-earth rhetoric at this time could trigger unintended consequences.
