I just read the long treatise and lengthy epistle by our dearly respected Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah. According to the erudite clergy and renowned peacemaker, he was in Obasanjo’s Otta home 3 weeks ago, to discharge his self and God-imposed responsibility of reconciling enemies and making peace where there is strife, and not to endorse Atiku Abubakar as Presidential candidate. He went to great detail to narrate everything that happened as contained here: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/10/16/kukah-my-focus-was-to-reconcile-obasanjo-atiku-not-endorsement/
Bishop Kukah has been light to the world since 1800. I have always held him in extreme esteem. The timing of this one though, showed that he, like every one of us, is also human. The mere length of this episcopal explanation, for a simple act of peace-building between warring friends shows that something was not right about it in the first instance.
Agreed that the Bishop was on a peace mission, I wish to ask – peace for who and reconciliation for whom? Can there be peace without justice? Can there be reconciliation and forgiveness without confession and admission? In this instance, what caused the quarrel between OBJ and Atiku? Was it a personal misunderstanding or matters of principle including betrayal of public trust and coveting of public property to personal use? Or was it just an ego thing between two leaders who meant good for our country?
The only way we can address these questions is to reproduce the now-viral narration in OBJ’s book – My Watch, where he copiously, conspicuously and fully documented his perception and root of the distrust between them both. OBJ wrote the following about his friend and former Vice – Atiku “ What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest”. These are heavy stuff.
I have never read that Atiku has denied these allegations in any way, shape or form. I have not seen a counter narrative by the man or his agents, to strengthen things out in the proper perspective or any legal action taken to sue his former boss for libel. We have instead been fed with dozes of uncommon silence. Instead of taking a firm stand to defend his reputation and image from such heavy dent, we have been seeing our dear former Vice-President, running from pillar to post to impress his accuser and “beg for his forgiveness”! And here lies the burden for our dear Bishop Kukah, to tell exactly the essence of his “peace-making” effort to the society and country.
Could it be that Atiku was guilty of all these allegations? If yes, is OBJ’s forgiveness sufficient to atone for these sins against God and country? Is Bishop Kukah aware of the damage that acts of disloyalty, corruption, malfeasance, untruthfulness, poor judgement, lack of transparency and vested interests have done to our fatherland? If he does, who should he have tried to reconcile? Who are the victims of the misrule of Atiku as contained in OBJ’s book? OBJ himself? Or Nigerians? We need answers.
Under biblical canon and the common cannon law, penance, forgiveness, restitution, reparation and reconciliation go together. One cannot exist without the others. For instance, the Lithurgy and Sacraments website has the following to say about forgiveness: “Confession is for the forgiveness of sins. Once confessed, God forgives the sin and grace is restored. However, that is not to be thought of as a “get out of jail free card.” There is still the issue of temporal punishment (reparation or consequences) for the sin. An example might be if a person were to say visit a prostitute. Afterwards, he may feel compelled to confess his sin. He can be assured of the fact that God will indeed forgive the sin, but can he be assured of the fact that there won’t be consequences related to the sin (STD, marital problems, etc.)? Will God (who has forgiven the person) further protect that person from any consequences that come about because of his sin? No. The old but good example of the little boy who broke a neighbor’s window while playing ball also illustrates this concept. Initially, the little boy runs home, afraid of what may happen. Then later he feels the guilt of what he did and returns to the neighbor to ask forgiveness. The neighbor tells the little boy that he forgives him, but is that the end? No, forgiveness maybe given but in this case it doesn’t fix the broken window. The boy should be expected to repair the damage (reparation).” In another example, the website draws the following illustration and I quote verbatim: “There are two brothers. The older brother discovers the younger brother’s piggy bank and finds that it contains $5. He takes the money and spends it on candy later that day. However, by that evening the older brother was feeling guilty over having taken the money and confesses to his younger brother and asks him to forgive him. His younger brother does, in fact, say that he forgives his brother. Again, should that be the end of the story; or should the older brother, though forgiven, repay his brother for the money he had stolen? Rest assured any temporal punishment (payment) that isn’t paid here on earth will still be paid in purgatory.” (Source: The Liturgy Website)
This writer does not intend to join issues with the nobly respected Bishop Kukah. In fact, the mention of the Bishop’s name evokes sweet, wonderful and fond memories, especially, the role he played as Secretary of the National Peace and Reconciliation Committee (also known as Oputa Panel) where he opened our eyes a great deal to the failures and foibles of the Nigerian project, the conspiracies that intertwine to drag her down, and the wicked perfidious single-minded determination of our ruling elites under different military and civilian apparatchik to destroy the soul of Nigeria. Bishop Kukah was the secretary. He did a good job. He served his country well. Also worthy of note is the Bishop’s sustained campaign at home and abroad for the restitution and cleansing of the despoiled Ogoni land, wroth on by the almighty Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. In both instances, the Bishop could have as well feigned ignorance or put on an I-don’t-care attitude, or simply partook (like other fellow –but self-appointed – jet-plane-owning, universities-owning, blessing-is-a-commodity-hawking, gatekeepers-of-hell Bishops) to connive with the ruling bourgeoisie class to “see-no-evil, hear-no-evil” and do nothing. With the benefit of hindsight, Bishop Kukah has always meant well for this great nation.
In the matter of endorsement of Atiku at Otta in the presence of Bishop Oyedepo (who has used the sanctity of his Winners’ alter to repeatedly sow naked scary hate against an ethnic and religious group as can be seen in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5urgzmYnEM , and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05uZonWIQuE , the Bishop committed a blunder. His Excellency Atiku Abubakar is a Fulani man like President Buhari. Atiku is a Muslim like Buhari is. Atiku is a northerner like Buhari is. Atiku is 70+ years old like Buhari is. The only difference between both men today is that Buhari is strongly and staunchly incorruptible while Atiku’s history with sleaze is well documented. And this last factor is at the core of the struggle and vicious campaign to pull PMB down by all means, using all sorts of falsehoods, lies, innuendoes and cooked up stories. Buhari has insisted that those who have fed fat from Nigeria – Bishops who own Universities and private jets and Imams who live off the sweat of their flock – must pay their fair share of tax. Buhari has insisted that we all must contribute to build our nation in our different ways, within our capabilities. That should not be such a big issue, ordinarily. But it is with Bishops that own multi-billion US Dollar property and mansions all around the world and have never paid a dime of tax on any.
In 2015, Bishop Kukah openly endorsed former President Jonathan, just as Bishop Oyedepo did. Both men did not support Buhari. It turned out that the masses of Nigeria wanted change from the old crooked ways of the previous 16 years. So, they voted for Buhari against the wishes of Kukah and Oyedepo. That vote has turned out to be the Achilles hills of unexplained wealth accumulators.
We cannot pretend that all is well; continue doing the same things and expecting different results. Bishop Kukah should know that we understand the undercurrents of all the gang-up and odious determination of wealthy filthy Nigerians to stop a Buhari second term by hook or crook. It is hinged on the fear of the final clampdown that PMB would bring to looters and plunderers of our commonwealth once-and-for-all. They are so afraid that Buhari would not be mild as he is today especially as he would not need anybody’s support for any term in the future again. We understand that the rich and soiled, are desperate to rein in President Buhari, to cut their ongoing losses. We are aware that licenses to oil wells are gradually expiring, and the super-rich who have cornered these wells for so long, are afraid that the tap is drying up, and they can do anything under the sun, to give life to those dry taps again. We know, and the common man knows.
Bishop Kukah misfired in Otta. He found himself in the company of leaches. His explanation about the sanctity of that mission does not belie the truth that he has lately been sympathetic to the old order that brought our nation to her knees. We pray the spirit of discernment on our dear Bishop Kukah so that he would not need to write lengthy explanations again, on a simple visit for peace and reconciliation, even if it goes awry. This country is our own. We must build it together.
*** Celestine Mel is a Chartered Banker, Projects Specialist, IT Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst from Essien Udim LGA, Akwa Ibom State. He writes from the FCT-Abuja.
