L
LequteMan
Guest
Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese in an interview with The Sun revealed what was on his mind concerning a lot of issues in the country. He however disagreed with public opinion that the proposed national conference will by any way solve Nigeria's woes, saying he had always been a critic of any national conference.
"My reason was based on the fact that I participated in the last political reform conference and tragically, the politicians sank the findings of that committee. Subsequently, I was also convinced that the problems of Nigerians cannot to be resolved by the constitution, dialogue and so on, because we are dealing with issues of electricity, power, good roads, quality education and so on. Aside that, my own personal conviction is that Nigeria does not even need new laws for now."
According to him what Nigeria needs is a review of existing laws, which covers virtually everything Nigerians yearn for, but all those reports or laws have not been implemented.
"On the recent confab, my own worry is that if the politicians are going to hand-pick the delegation, then, what we are going to have is a gathering of politicians. That has been the greatest undoing of all the similar initiatives we have had in the area of constitution making in the past. In fact, that was how my experience has been."
"If you have read some of the reports, you would understand my point now. Let me give an instance way back in 1976 when Nigeria was planning to return to democratic rule. At the end of the day, a lot of prominent politicians and some of the noisiest members of the National Assembly always end up being the key people in politics. It is largely because they have seen the platform as an opportunity for grandstanding and that was why religion and regionalism suddenly became important issues in such discussion.
"Another worry is that, I do not see the national dialogue to be concluded in time before elections or within a short time frame for the contents to become a policy that could guide us. But, I will adopt the wait and see attitude on this issue," he said.
"My reason was based on the fact that I participated in the last political reform conference and tragically, the politicians sank the findings of that committee. Subsequently, I was also convinced that the problems of Nigerians cannot to be resolved by the constitution, dialogue and so on, because we are dealing with issues of electricity, power, good roads, quality education and so on. Aside that, my own personal conviction is that Nigeria does not even need new laws for now."
According to him what Nigeria needs is a review of existing laws, which covers virtually everything Nigerians yearn for, but all those reports or laws have not been implemented.
"On the recent confab, my own worry is that if the politicians are going to hand-pick the delegation, then, what we are going to have is a gathering of politicians. That has been the greatest undoing of all the similar initiatives we have had in the area of constitution making in the past. In fact, that was how my experience has been."
"If you have read some of the reports, you would understand my point now. Let me give an instance way back in 1976 when Nigeria was planning to return to democratic rule. At the end of the day, a lot of prominent politicians and some of the noisiest members of the National Assembly always end up being the key people in politics. It is largely because they have seen the platform as an opportunity for grandstanding and that was why religion and regionalism suddenly became important issues in such discussion.
"Another worry is that, I do not see the national dialogue to be concluded in time before elections or within a short time frame for the contents to become a policy that could guide us. But, I will adopt the wait and see attitude on this issue," he said.