Buhari, Obasanjo, Jonathan Were Not Prepared For Power – Kukah

Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has stated that Nigeria’s Presidents since independence could not solve Nigeria’s challenges because they were unprepared for power.

He stated this while speaking on Sunday during a virtual session moderated by Toyin Falola, a professor of History at the University of Texas in the United States (U.S.A).

“President Buhari had already said, after he tried in 2011: ‘I’m done. I’m no longer interested’; Yar’Adua had already said: ‘I’m done. I want to go back to the classroom.’ Obasanjo was brought from prison (to become President),” Kukah said.

He stated that the ability of past leaders to plan and “think about how they might resolve the problems of the country” was limited because they were unprepared.

Kukah added: “What passes for governance is digging a whole to fill a hole because you borrow money to win elections and you see that there is a correlation between the spiral of awarding of contracts and the contracts not being finished.”

Naija News reports that during the same interview with Toyin Falola, Kukah had stated that Nigerians are “terribly angry” over the insecurity in the land, economic hardship, amongst others.

He said, “The challenge is for us to create a conducive environment and this is why I worry about this government because the government has not created a narrative that points in a direction that we should be going. We don’t expect the President to do everything, we are not expecting angels, but it is that a nation has to survive on a vision about where we are going and how we are going to get there. But when you raise this question, people begin to think that you are an enemy of the state or that you are inciting citizens.”

“You don’t need to invite anybody in Nigeria because the government has created an environment for that development by making loose a bunch of people going around killing everyone. Who do you need to incite? You can only incite the government to take its responsibility to secure our country, it is not too much to ask.”