Guardian

Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev, Dr. Hassan Mathew Kukah, spoke to SAMSON EZEA on state of the nation, his expectations this year, the untimely death of former governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, and other topical issues.

What is your view of last year and what are your expectations from governments in this year?

It was, like all years, a great year, with its ups and downs, new life, death, victories and defeats, including the tragic air crashes.

For me, as a Catholic and priest, it was a special year in many respects. The Holy Father declared the Year of Faith.

I also had the honour of being at the Special Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation at the Vatican.

The icing on the cake of course was the elevation of Archbishop John Onaiyekan to the status of a Cardinal. His track record resonates well beyond the African continent and you needed to have seen the reactions among the Bishops of the world, who know the man and his worth.

But as a Nigerian, it was a year of many sad mishaps, avoidable loss of lives, and too much evidence of the fact that things are just not working and where they try to, they are painfully and criminally ritualistic and lethargic.

I am not sure of what I expect at the national level this year, but it would be nice if we witness a change in the chasm between promises by government and its agencies and their realisation.

Every promise seems to draw a mere yawn, increase in megawatts, train services, roads, jobs and so on.

Considering the numerous challenges facing the country, do you see this year being different from last year, in terms of security and high rate of corruption?

Our country will always face challenges and challenges are not a sign of weakness; they are the reasons why some of our fellow citizens stepped forward, begged, cajoled, bribed, intimidated and harassed us to vote them, because they would solve these challenges.

It seems pretty clear that an average Nigerian politician is not about to rein in his or her greed. If only they could see… all the thieves of yesterday. All those who, while in public service, steal through proxies, where are they and their stolen loots? You see some of the big boys and girls of yesterday and you wonder. But we never learn.

If public servants put public service first, I am sure they will not go away hungry in the end. This is why it is hard to expect any earth-shaking changes, based on what we have seen, which is more important than what we have heard.

Insecurity is the first-born of corruption and we are reaping what we sowed. There is no need to deceive ourselves. Since there is clearly no serious plan to deal with the problems of corruption, I am not sure there is any championship belt for shadow-boxing.

We talk of fighting corruption, but the corrupt are too powerful and have poisoned and severely weakened all the institutions.

The only antidote to corruption and its by-product, insecurity and violence is to roll out a massive programme of social services.

Sadly, a corrupt nation is incapable of doing the same, beyond the grandstanding, cheap and empty talk of the politicians and their ministers, no one believes that this crop of politicians can win the war.

It is not that the war cannot be won, but the lifestyle of public officials, the incredible sums of monies daily spent on useless, trivial and ephemeral pursuits, such as burials, weddings, birthdays, naming ceremonies and other criminal activities by public officers with our own money do not suggest that this class is capable of conceiving, not to talk of entering, the ring to fight corruption.

Most Nigerians believe that last year was characterised by too many crises at a time. Do you also think so?

Nothing new! All our problems put together do not come close to Sandy (storm), which invaded the United States (US). We are still struggling with the aftermath of our floods, but see what has happened in the US.

I was in New Orleans not long ago and you will not believe what the city looks like- brand new, with no sign of the hurricane that struck them.

Today, victims of almost all the crises in Nigeria constitute a tribe of their own; refugees who have been abandoned by the states. And of course, as everyone who studies these things knows, the refugee camp anywhere in any society is the post-graduate school for extremists.

If you are holding innocent citizens with criminals, they will receive tutorials in bitterness and hate.

Are you advising Nigerians to still have confidence in the leadership of the country, despite their obvious failure?

Office holding may be accidental, but leadership is earned; it is not advertised, it is not something you earn by hiring publicists.

You can line up so many people and they can go round and shout their lungs out, but they are blowing a muted trumpet.

Leadership is earned, with a leader satisfying the needs of those under his or her care. So far, except for very few states, little has happened to inspire confidence in Nigeria. The Nigerian office holder is at best a distant uncle, not a father.

Ordinary citizens hear about their office holders, but they cannot as yet see anything to make them say, ‘see what my daddy has done.’ They only know what their village has done or what their own favourite son or daughter, who has accessed the treasury, has done for them.

Last year, Boko Haram indicated interest to dialogue, but the federal government, after initially welcoming it, declined at a point. What do you make of that?

I am not fully informed about the details of this so-called dialogue. But in an environment of this nature and facing this kind of crisis, you do not dialogue this way.

If you are going into the forest to hunt, you do not do so beating the drum. Dialogue in a conflict situation requires tact and a lot of behind the scene work that is silently done.

Indeed, some times the belligerent sides continue to make noise for the sake of their constituencies, while this is going on. If you read some materials regarding how apartheid ended or the Palestinian situation under the late Yasser Arafat, you will get some insights.

But for us here in Nigeria, there has been too much grandstanding and I do not think the government has displayed the needed sophistication in dealing with this matter.

Dialogue or plans of dialogue are not a publicity stunt and not the kind of thing that we should be hearing about from speculative spokesmen, who say one thing tomorrow and deny it tomorrow.

This situation was not impossible at all, but the problem is the lack of understanding of the landscape, the text and the team selection. Like everything else in Nigeria, too many people wanted to cash in. Too many people seem to be promising, with blindfolds, to chase a black cat in a dark room.

How do you react to the persistent fuel scarcity, despite government’s assurances of steady supply?

Ask the big boys and girls this oily question. They say in Hausa, Kowa ya ci kudin kuturu, sai ya yi wa kuturu aski (whoever chops a leper’s money must give the leper a haircut). You do not take his money and then realise he is a leper!

When the crooked recycle into politics, what the mafia would call trying to become legitimate, someone must pay the price.

Considering the poor implementation of last year’s budget, do you think it could be different this year?

I came out with a proposal when I was in the Junior Seminary, based on my ignorance of budgets, after listening to my teacher. I asked him a question: ‘This budget, since for over 40 years nothing has reached my village and almost a million other villages, should the government not simply share this money to families or villages and ask them to pay tax?’

After more than 40 years of posing this question as an innocent child, I have not found anything to make me change my mind.

So, budget or no budget, I am not sure of what will change or happen. The grammar is a bit too high for me, and I think I speak for millions for whom this budget talk is at best the text of a cultic Hymn Book.

But seriously, is there any year that a budget has been fully implemented? If non- implementation has become a culture in an environment, where failure is an industry, why expect something different?

The untimely death of late Patrick Yakowa, the first minority governor of Kaduna State, has returned power to status quo in the state. What do you make of it?

Yakowa was not a minority governor. If truth should be told, every governor in Kaduna has been a minority, it depends on what you mean by minority.

If you are referring to the end to the historic injustice that was perpetrated among the people of the state by the dark forces that played puppetry with power, using Islam as a hymnal, then I see the point.

Please search for my sermon on his burial. The past is the past and I said that the door he opened cannot be close again.

Now, those who destroyed Kaduna by monopolising power, using religion to keep others out, deserve to be pitied. Yakowa exposed the vacuity of their policy.

Like a miniature Mandela, he demonstrated that good men should stand up and not use the fig leaf of religion or ethnicity to cover the nakedness and bankruptcy of their ideas.

Those who held power, using the religion of Islam, have left a legacy of poverty, illiteracy, squalor and death. Muslims constitute the greatest number of the poor, even in the state itself, so they even lacked the imagination to make their people rich or educated.

After all, apartheid was evil and we fought it, but it conferred privilege on whites and left a legacy of massive infrastructure. Had these people used Islam and left Muslims better educated, healthier, richer and so on, I would understand.

Rebuilding our broken state requires more imagination and also that we move away from the narrowness of ethnicity or religion. We should be looking for good men and women, and we have them.

The new governor deserves our support and prayers. In all honesty, I want to believe that he is sincere and I know he must be very much awed by what he has found, and of course, not being prepared. But if he has the heart, he will succeed.

I have seen states that earn far less than Kaduna with massive infrastructure. Some states in the north, for example, are building state airports. Kaduna has the resources and I hope that Governor Ramalan Yero can roll our a massive programme to integrate the state and move away from the useless culture of patronage and waste that is part of our political culture.

Time is not on his side, but he must ride on the crest of public goodwill. If he stays in one place, he will sink in the quicksand of the forces of the past.

Is the return to the status quo in the political equation not a huge setback to the political aspirations of the minority groups in the country?

It was a huge setback for everyone. As you saw from the outpouring of emotions, Yakowa was loved by all. The Hausas and Muslims called him Na kowa, meaning the one who belongs to everyone in Hausa language.

God does not do setbacks, and in any case, why cry over spilt milk? God is offering us a new opportunity, so let us not look at the empty tomb. The future lies ahead of us, only if we can seize it with confidence.

The youth have a wonderful opportunity, but they must also be careful and learn to contain their sentiments and exuberance. Those of them who are politicians must follow due political process and listen to their leaders.

Let us rally around and see what we can do. This is what Yakowa would have loved to see us do. He died struggling for a united Kaduna, a Kaduna that can escape the grip of retrogression and reclaim its glory.

We owe it to him to midwife that, and it does not matter who is on the saddle, it is our state, one and all.

Are you optimistic that a minority southern Kaduna person would emerge governor in the state very soon again?

I do not know why you love this notion of minority. God is not a God of broken promises and I am not waiting for when the next governor will come from Southern Kaduna.

It will surprise you to know that in the history of the state, no one ever did for Kaduna what Senator Muhammad Makarfi did for the people by opening up a few roads here and there. This was a great innovation, because it had never been done.

Till date, there is no single federal institution in the southern part of the state; all the federal infrastructure for the state exist between Zaria and Kaduna, whether you speak of military, industrial or educational presence.

The only industry is a ginger factory started by Mallam Balarabe Musa when he became governor of the state in 1979 and till date, it has not been completed.

So, the sentiments are about justice, fairness and equity that can ensure integration and not minority, religion or whatever.

I feel so sad by the opportunities we missed and we know how and when the seeds of this whirlwind were sown. This is what we are trying to reverse and I hope that when the President visits Kaduna State, he will not hover between Zaria and Kaduna, cut a tape and jump on his plane.

I hope he can visit the southern part of the state and see how he can create a federal presence and engender development.

What is your reaction to the jubilation by some youths in northern Kaduna that power has returned to the zone following Yakowa’s death?

The reactions of people have really surprised me, even the negative ones. Many serious-minded Muslims have commended what I said, that these miscreants deserve pity, because they will also laugh if they saw their parents naked in the market.

They do not represent the people of Kaduna, Muslims or whatever you may wish to say.

Do you still believe there is need for government to dialogue with Boko Haram, considering that the security agents appear to be containing their activities?

Government deserves to dialogue with Nigerians, not by talking. All the stuff of propaganda that we hear is irritating.

In a democracy, Nigerians do not need information overload about what government plans to do. We do not need grandstanding on television and the impression that somehow, government needs to fight its own people. Let your actions show what your mind claims.

More often, we can hear these government trumpeters, but we are not listening.

There was so much hoopla about the train services and I was really excited. But I have watched the television endlessly to see if the train really left Lagos and arrived Kano, but no news. I even asked a friend over the Christmas, he also asked someone who asked someone, who gave a fuzzy account.

I had said that every mileage of railway we gain, every megawatt of electricity we gain, we are pushing Boko Haram to the desert.

These criminals are taking advantage of our lack of infrastructures and the lethargic attitude of Nigerians who have resigned themselves to a government that they believe continues to make promises that it does not deliver on.

From Hamas, al Qaeda to Boko Haram, we all know that poverty and squalor provide the raw materials upon which the culture of hate is built. Poverty offers these people a chance to become heroes and heroines because they become the alternative to a government whose presence ordinary people cannot see or feel.

I heard the President say after the Christmas service that almost all the Boko Haram suspects had been arrested. Really? Where are they and what next?

I did not think that such crucial information, which should have been a wonderful New Year gift to Nigerians, should have been treated so casually. I thought this required a formal presidential address, as a strategy for encouraging our security agencies and energising the confidence of the people of Nigeria.

Now, we do not know what to believe.

There have been insinuations that the President will contest the 2015 election. Do you think he has done well to deserve another term?

An insinuation is not a legitimate basis for discussion, because it is at best a first cousin of rumour and no self-respecting individual can engage in a serious discussion based on rumour.

I have always encouraged people to take one day at a time and who knows who will be here in 2015 anyway?

But as it is, I hope the trains begin to run and that we can see more megawatt of electricity in our land.