The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has refuted the widely held opinion that the United States had prophesied that Nigeria would cease to exist this year.
“America never said Nigeria will break up in 2015. What the US and other serious countries do is that they plan for the future. Each year, the US maps the world and forecast where there might likely be problems which will affect them,” Kukah said.
He stated this yesterday at a forum organised by the Catholic Caritas Foundation in Abuja with the theme, “Democracy in Nigeria, so near yet so far” stressing that purported report which was released in 2005 by the US Intelligence Council on identified threats, hopes and opportunities for America.
“Prophesy is an aggregate of the present which you project into the future. In the article, the US said that foreign terrorist may seek sanctuary or hide weapons in Africa and that the majority of problems
in Africa will because of indigenous groups waging war against each other or against the local government.
The most important terrorist trend in Africa affecting the US is the further development of radical Islam that actively provides support and sanctuary to international terrorists. Most African countries will continue to proclaim a public adherence to democracy.
While Nigerian leaders are locked in bad marriage that all dislike but dare not leave, there are possibilities that could disrupt the precarious equilibrium in Abuja,” the Bishop said. Kukah said that this basis on which Nigerians claim that the US prophesied the country’s breakup and lamented that if Nigeria was a serious country, it would have being doing things right to forestall this projection.
He said “the question is whether transition from dictatorship is synonymous to transition into democracy. The success of a transition is tied to whether certain issues are resolved. We never had a transition in Nigeria. We just woke up one morning to hear that Abacha has died and Obasanjo was already prepared to replace him.”
On the way forward, Kukah said that those who occupy leadershippositions should be those who have prepared for it stressing that from independence no Nigerian leader has really prepared for the task.
“We cannot make really make progress until we identify the nature of our structural defects and find the sense of moral revolution,” hesaid.
Earlier, the executive secretary of Caritas, Rev Evaristus Bassey said that the conversation of democracy in Nigeria cannot end until you mind Nigerians that there is prophesy that Nigeria will end in 2015.
He said “we know there are voices of hope and Bishop Kukah represent such hope. We hope and pray for the realization of true democracy in Nigeria and to be alive to witness such reality.”
