Nigeria’s problem systemic, can’t be resolved quickly – Kukah

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mattew Kukah, on Thursday expressed pessimism over Nigeria’s future as the country prepares for the 2023 general elections.

Kukah, who spoke on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, argued that Nigeria’s problem was systemic and cannot be solved quickly.

He said: “We are running a system that is never designed for the kind of environment that we are in. we can’t turn back the hands of the cock. This system is prone to corruption; this system is prone to destruction. The sheer fact that Nigeria has opted to have a number of people on whom so much money is being spent, and we are getting almost nothing.

“The very design of this presidential system suggests that you have to be able to access humongous resources to be able to participate in the process. I have met people who told me shamelessly that they went here and collected a $100,000, they went there and collected $50,000. So are you then expecting that these kinds of characters; with this kind of system that is totally bereft of any sense of morality and moral probity, that somehow, miraculously, we will open the door, and a band of shining armour will appear to govern our country.

READ ALSO: Gunmen releases priests abducted in Kukah’s church

“We still have a terribly long way to go. The tragedy that afflicts our country now is not a tragedy that we are going to resolve so quickly. Our politicians must realize that they are lucky to be in a country like Nigeria, where the mechanisms of restraints that stop us from taking up the violence option…

“Nigerians deserve credit for living with the rascality that passes for governance in this country. The amount of theft of state resources has become the reason why people are struggling to get to power.

“The tragedy is that Africans are being fed up with democracy, and it is a tragedy because it is about the only way that we can manage our communities. The only thing I can say is that Nigerians should become more discerning.”

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