It’s only one day to Christmas and the usual fanfare that greets the season is visibly declined.
For a very long time, Nigerians have struggled to celebrate Christmas with a more imposing tempo as the previous years.
This year, one of my few friends who has developed a culture of hosting friends during Christmas did not call me. When I reached out to him to ask, he quipped, “Sam, na fraudster they celebrate Christmas party for these Buhari times. E hard pass last year.”
As a Journalist, I have not participated in Christmas fanfare in several years, hence, I am a bit un-bothered about the pressure parents are currently enduring to buy Christmas clothes for their kids.
Howbeit, I look forward to the sermons of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese in Sokoto and the kicks, rants, phlegm to be spit out and fist rages that would envelop press when Bishop Matthew Kukah eventually decides to tow the path of his scathing Christmas message from 2020.
Bishop Kukah, overtime, has proven a thorn in Buhari’s administration, delivering blow after blow via his sermons and public speeches.
In 2020, he stirred massive controversy via his Christmas day address titled “A Nation In Search Of Vindication” which slammed the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The statement partly read; ‘This government owes the nation an explanation as to where it is headed as we seem to journey into darkness’.
“President Buhari deliberately sacrificed the dreams of those who voted for him to what seemed like a programme to stratify and institutionalise northern hegemony by reducing others in public life to second class status”.
While this statement stirred several unpleasant reactions from the government circle. It is not the first time Kukah has critiqued the Buhari administration.
When President Muhammdu Buhari came to power in May, 2015 – All he got from Bishop Matthew Kukah was a congratulatory message, accompanied by a warning that the new President should not spend time probing past president, Goodluck Jonathan.
It didn’t take until a few months after – precisely August, 2015 when Bishop Kukah issued his first remarks on Buhari’s presidency – describing him as too slow and acting contrary to his campaign promises.
Specifically, Kukah noted that despite the fact that the president has been in power since May 29, 2015, he was yet to concretely make an impact in the lives of Nigerians.
In 2016, irritated by Buhari’s approach to “fighting corruption”, Kukah again fired a missile at the President, saying “Government should begin the fight against corruption from the institution, so that Nigerians will not continue to have the same result.”
The Northern cleric made the same statement in September, 2016 during an event in Ondo state – lashing out at the PMB administration for continuously agonizing over misdeeds of past administrations, instead of facing the challenges of Government.
Few months later, Bishop Kukah refused to spare Buhari who was sandwiched between running Nigeria and saving his failing health about his seeming refusal to address Nigerians over several issues.
Bishop Kukah in his Easter message in April, 2018 titled ‘Easter Message To Mr. President And All Nigerians’ – said Nigeria was at risk of plunging into a deep crisis as long as the President continued to remain distant from your people.
A part of the message reads ‘There is a sad feeling that you do not share in the pain and suffering of your people. You must very quickly find a way of connecting with your people before the devil takes over the space,”
The Buhari administration had no reply and in 2020, when Buhari refused to respond to cries from the Lekki Shootings, Kukah hit again.
Bereft of wise counsel, lack of empathy and indecisiveness were the labels used to describe the President’s flaws. More lamentation about the President came in scathing words from Kukah, describing Buhari’s Nigeria as “a boiling pot that everyone wants to escape from.”
In 2022, Kukah has continued to act as Buhari’s conscience, howbeit, with a lower profile than previous years. As we look forward to the contents of Bishop Kukah’s Christmas message this year – Nigerians, again, expect tougher criticisms of the administration, they want their displeasure with the Buhari government to echo in Kukah’s message.
They want the anguish that follows the highest debt levels Nigeria is currently in, the record breaking inflationary figures, massive unemployment and insecurity as well as Aisha Buhari’s misbehaviour to echo through Kukah’s message and you can be sure that the media would hop on and amplify it.
Would Bishop Kukah deliver as expected? We await Christmas day.
