Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has warned Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, against launching tirades against President Muhammadu Buhari.
While not expressly naming Kukah, Mohammed said clerics “should refrain from stigmatising the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever”.
The minister stated this in a Saturday statement titled. “FG Urges Religious Leaders To Eschew Message of Disharmony”.
The Herald earlier reported that Kukah accused Buhari of nepotism, noting that no non-Northern Muslim President could get away with what the Buhari presidency was perpetrating.
“Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it.
“There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions.
“He may be right and we Christians cannot feel sorry that we have no pool of violence to draw from or threaten our country. However, God does not sleep. We can see from the inexplicable dilemma of his North,” Kukah said in his Christmas message to Nigerians.
However, Mohammed 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 the statement issued in Lagos on Saturday.
He said it is 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,” Mohammed said, adding that instigating regime change outside the ballot box is not only unconstitutional but also an open call to anarchy.
He said while some religious leaders, being human, may not be able to disguise their national leadership preference, they should refrain from stigmatising the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever.
The Minister said whatever challenges Nigeria may be going through at this moment can only be tackled when all leaders and indeed all Nigerians come together, not when some people arrogantly engage in name-calling and finger-pointing.