The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Mathew Hassan Kukah,on Monday urged Nigerians to make up their minds to develop good attitudes to promote good governance and peaceful coexistence.
Kukah made the call on Monday at “The Platform Nigeria” powered by the Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos.
The Platform is an evangelistic tool.
The theme of the October Platform is: “Putting Together the Jigsaw Pieces that Form Nigeria.”
Kukah spoke on the sub-theme “The Weakness of Power’’.
He said that although the country was facing challenges, positive change of attitude, peace, unity and good governance would improve Nigeria.
He noted that many Nigerians were not satisfied with the situation of things in the country but cautioned that anger, hatred and violence would not tackle the challenges.
“Nigerians have reasons to be angry but they should remember that a lot of people have sacrificed their lives for the country,’’ he said.
Kukah also called for prayers for the country to attract divine intervention.
He appealed to Nigerians to love one another irrespective of their ethnic, religious and political leanings.
The cleric urged more patriotism by the citizens.
“Our love for Nigeria should not die; we will redeem this country. This is our country; let us pray for our nation,” he said.
Kukah highlighted some important points about the Nigerian situation and they include: Anyone who wants to govern Nigeria must be prepared to cope with our anger; the only freedom people confer on you is the freedom to agree with them; some Nigerians think being in office means being in Power. Power is about influence; power and leadership is about getting people to do what they don’t want to do, but doing it happily; you can be in office and not be in power. You can be in power and not be in office and every unhappy family is unhappy differently, but they all have one thing in common. They are unhappy.
Other points he stressed are: If you are genuinely ready to serve, why must it be at all cost? These problems come from our greed; anything can go wrong where we are now. We are at a tipping point; for the first time every Nigerian is very angry, although the reason may be very different; if we fought the civil war 40 years ago and the reasons why we fought still persists, then there is a problem.
