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Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is full of nepotism and corruption, claiming that the situation has not augured well for the country .

This is as he accused the president of failing to fulfil his 2015 campaign promises.

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Kukah spoke on a television programme monitored in Lagos, yesterday. His position came a day after his Christmas message titled: “Let us turn a new leaf” where he accused Buhari of leaving Nigerians more vulnerable and the country more corrupt than when he assumed power in 2015.

The cleric said “It is sad that despite your lofty promises, you are leaving us far more vulnerable than when you came, that the corruption we thought would be fought has become a leviathan and sadly, a consequence of a government marked by nepotism”.

He lamented the high level of corruption in the country, saying no government can allow one person steal N12 billion without figuring out how the money was being moved. He argued tha if people were competent under the current administration, Nigeria would not be where it is.

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According to Kukah “We have a system of government that is designed in a way and manner and characterised by nepotism. Whether it is based on gender, race or whatever, when you put power in the hands of people on grounds of blood relationship, religious activities or whatever grounds, what you do is that you are laying down mantras of comfort. So, people will steal and they know that the next person who is supposed to oversight and check the system is the same tribe, what will happen? Nepotism in this government has many faces. If President Buhari goes tomorrow, and another tribe takes over, the language will change. So nepotism can only be consolidated as a system of government. That is the lack of honesty and transparency we are seeing in the system.

“I don’t choose to insult or abuse anybody, but the facts are staring most in the face. I don’t think anybody in his right frame of mind can pretend in any shape or form that we are where we ought to be or we can even arrive at the destination.

“So, I’m not saying anything that is new. I always want people to extrapolate what I’m saying. I’m not grandstanding, there is nothing actually that I’m saying that does not verify. So if APC is unhappy about what I’m saying, that is actually fantastic because they need to get their house together. Raji Fashola was delivering a convocation lecture in our university and he made a very interesting point. He said when a team loses a fight, they often say we didn’t lose, we only run out of time. I think there is a feeling now that people are thinking that they ran out of time. We must return to the scene of the fight and ask ourselves: how did we get into this situation?”

On lack of progress by the country , the cleric charged Nigerians to start speaking up and holding political leaders accountable to their promises.

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“It is not about what the president promised. If the president made all these promises, it is our own responsibility to hold their feet to fire. I didn’t ask the APC to make the promises it made, I didn’t ask the president to make the promises he made on May 29, 2015. I didn’t ask them to make the promise that they were going to keep us safe, I didn’t ask them to make the promises that they were going to bring back our girls and promises that they would give us power and so on. What is missing in Nigeria’s politics is that we lack the politics of engagement. An engagement is about confronting them with the text of their own promises. It is the responsibility of Nigerians to question the people they voted for when they are not seeing results. Nigerians must demonstrate anger and doing it without breaking anybody’s property. We must hold our leaders accountable,” he said.

(Sun)