Bishop Matthew Hassan-Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has asserted that President Muhammadu Buhari, former presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, among others that led Nigeria, became presidents unprepared.
According to the outspoken bishop, no President or Head of State ever came prepared for the job of the number one citizen of the country in the history of Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television which in a broadcast aired Sunday night was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, Kukah said, ‘You can go all the way down in Nigeria, you’re not going to find one single person who has been President or Head of State in Nigeria that came prepared for the job.’
Using the analogy of a ‘bad marriage’ to explain the relationship between Nigeria and its political leaders, the cleric said, ‘I always say to people, as a priest, that the solution to a bad marriage is not a new marriage. It’s often an attempt to look at what has gone wrong. And if you jump into a new marriage very quickly, after some time, you become nostalgic about the first marriage.’
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He said one could say the same thing about Nigeria, adding, ‘A lot of these changes that we have seen in Nigeria are largely unprogrammed.’
The cleric, who also referenced the military era, added, ‘Military coups by themselves that stretched over 20 years were just glorified banditry and armed robbery because you pull the gun and became a Head of State.’
He noted that Nigeria had yet to produce an executive head who is really prepared for office.
‘If I take you back, we have President Buhari now. Buhari already in 2011 had said, ‘I don’t want to be President again, I’m tired.’ He was literally pulled out screaming to be President in 2015.
‘He took over from (Goodluck) Jonathan. Jonathan himself, you know the circumstances that brought him to power. (Umar) Yar’Adua before him; Yar’Adua was already saying, ‘I’m done, I want to go back to teach in the university,’ Kukah said.
Kukah pointed out that the unpreparedness was also evident in Yar’Adua’s predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.