Kukah, Ali decry misuse of religion, ethnicity for selfish agenda
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop
Matthew Hassan Kukah has blamed the
insurgency in the North Eastern part of the
country on hypocrisy by northern Muslim elite
and politicians.
Speaking yesterday in Osogbo, Osun State at the
opening of the National Conference of the
Islamic Welfare Foundation, he lamented that in
Nigeria, politicians use their religions to divide
the people to achieve selfish agenda.
He said, “We must locate the current crisis of
Boko Haram within the context of the inability of
the northern Muslim elite to live by their own
dubious creed. They preached Sharia Law, but
only for the poor.
“They (northern Muslim elites) preach a religion
that encourages education, yet their own people
are held in the bondage of ignorance. They came
to power on the basis of a democratic society,
but they turned around and declared Sharia to
generate a false consciousness among the poor.”
“They did not wish to live by the same
standards, so they decided to live their own
Islam in the capitals of the world away from the
prying eyes of their own people. Boko Haram
began as a revolt against this hypocrisy,” he
added.
Delivering a paper entitled, “Thoughts on the
Future of Religion in Nigeria’s Politics”, the
notable cleric said Nigerian politicians had failed
to use religion to manage its plural identities by
seeing themselves as Christians and Muslims.
According to him, “Rather than focusing on our
common citizenship, religious identities have
become tools for war and death. They have
become tools for access to political and
economic power.”
Also speaking on the theme: “Islam:
Administration of Justice and Nigeria’s
Development”, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
Alhaji Yusuf Ali asked President Muhammadu
Buhari to find the reasons for the agitation of
the Movement for the Actualisation of the
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
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