The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, said yesterday Nigerians witnessed the worst phase of corruption under the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He also lamented the fact that the country currently shared its sovereignty with bandits and terrorists, in view of the pervasive insecurity in Nigeria.
Kukah spoke as human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, cautioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against sending wrong signals in his anti-corruption fight, stressing that some of those who have visited the Presidential Villa in recent times are currently being tried for looting.
This is even as former President Olusegun Obasanjo noted that the nation’s democracy is not delivering dividends to the people, just as elder statesman, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, suggested that sitting judges should not be allowed to preside over election tribunals.
Kukah, in his keynote speech at the 60th Call-to-Bar anniversary celebration of legal icon, Aare Afe Babalola, in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, noted that though corruption did not start under the last administration, it amplified it in moral, financial and other terms.
The clergyman lamented that Nigeria is sharing its sovereignty which is guaranteed in the constitution with bandits and other terrorists.
He said nobody is excited now about being a Nigerian, even if they were a president or senators, adding that the country is literally being held hostage by people who threatened the very existence of the nation and its democracy.
Kukah said a lot of Nigerians had lost faith in the judiciary but noted that he considered the judiciary a victim the same way every other institution in Nigeria was suffering a crisis.
According to him, Nigeria should not yet assume that it is a democracy but, instead assume that it is matching towards democracy, which means rebuilding “after the kind of mess the last administration has left the country.”
Bishop Kukah said it is time to rebuild the country, adding that no matter what happened at the Supreme Court concerning the election, he is convinced that Nigerians had put the “ugly past” behind them.
