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Angry Lai Mohammed lashes out at Kukah, religious leaders over Buhari’s indictment
BY NICHOLAS ABE
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Saturday, warned “religious leaders” in Nigeria to stop stigmatising President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mohammed who tried hard to disguise his anger against the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Rev Mathew Hassan Kukah, who had indicted Buhari in his Christmas homily, accusing the President of sacrificing the dreams of Nigerians on the altar of nepotism by allegedly pursuing northern hegemony, warned religious leaders to refrain from “stoking the embers of hatred and disunity”.
In a statement he issued on Saturday, titled, ‘FG Urges Religious Leaders to Eschew Message of Disharmony’, the minister said religious leaders have a responsibility to speak truth to power but “such truth must not come wrapped in anger, hatred, disunity and religious disharmony” as such could “trigger unintended consequences”.
Mohammed said it was “graceless and impious for any religious leader to use the period of Christmas, which is a season of peace, to stoke the embers of hatred, sectarian strife and national disunity”.
READ: Buhari, most insensitive in managing Nigeria’s diversity – Kukah
Apparently referring to Kukah’s statement that there could have been a coup or war in the country had any other leader exhibited Buhari’s “nepotistic behaviour”, the minister warned: “Calling for a violent overthrow of a democratically-elected government, no matter how disguised such a call is, and casting a particular religion as violent is not what any religious leader should engage in, and certainly not in a season of peace.
“While some religious leaders, being human, may not be able to disguise their national leadership preference, they should refrain from stigmatising the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever.
“Whatever challenges Nigeria may be going through at this moment can only be tackled when all leaders and indeed all Nigerians come together, not when some people arrogantly engage in name-calling and finger-pointing.”