The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah has denied calling for a coup in his Christmas message.
He made the clarification in an interview with selected journalists St Bakhita Secretariat in Sokoto on Monday night, The Punch reported.
Kukah’s controversial Christmas message, in which he accused the Buhari presidency of nepotism, has elicited reactions and counter-reactions from different quarters.
While the Federal Government has condemned the message, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) stood behind Kukah.
Speaking through Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Federal Government said that religious leaders in the country must refrain from stoking the embers of hatred and disunity, warning that resorting to “scorched-earth rhetoric at this time could trigger unintended consequences”.
”While religious leaders have a responsibility to speak truth to power, such truth must not come wrapped in anger, hatred, disunity and religious disharmony,” Mohammed, said in a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday.
He said it was particularly graceless and impious for any religious leader to use the period of Christmas, which is a season of peace, to stoke the embers of hatred, sectarian strife and national disunity.
”Calling for a violent overthrow of a democratically-elected government, no matter how disguised such a call is, and casting a particular religion as violent is not what any religious leader should engage in, and certainly not in a season of peace.”
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However, Kukah denied calling for a coup, saying that his message was issued out of his love for the country.
“I am pained and very sad that my emergency critics never see that many innocent lives are being lost on a daily basis. The loss of lives in the last ten years, even before the advent of this administration, calls for concern.
“The reactions are a reflection of every citizen that make up Nigeria. It is sad that when you drop something in Nigeria, everybody goes back to their enclave and abandon the larger picture. I am someone who never takes offense to what people say about me.
“What I said was my opinion based on evidence and what has happened in Nigeria, and if you looked into the records, there is evidence that justifies that statement, and if anyone thinks I am wrong, they should come out with a superior position.
“It is unfair for a journalist or news medium to report that I called for a coup while expressing my personal view about Nigeria,” Kukah said.
He noted that he would never vacate his priesthood to join partisan politics as being canvassed in some quarters.