Don’t manipulate politics with religion, warns Bishop Kukah

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto State, Matthew Kukah has cautioned that using religion to manipulate politics will have grave consequences on the development of the country.

Kukah noted, on Tuesday, that Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler used religion to manipulate politics which came with devastating consequences.

The Christian cleric revealed this during his book presentation ‘Broken Truth’ in Abuja, the nation’s capital to mark his 70th birthday.

He said that the Nigerian political class lack the mentality to understand the adverse effects of the fire they are stoking.

Kukah said, “If you look at history there’s a consequence for using religion to manipulate politics. We just need to look at Germany, the consequences are there to see in Hitler.

“The problem is that the Nigerian political elites lack the mental capacity to understand the consequences of the fire they are stoking because there is nothing to suggest, the average person who is living in the North, who is Fulani, who is a Muslim, who is Hausa, can say that they are proud of the Nigerian political system, beyond a very tiny percentage.

“And I have said that Buhari’s recruitment process has the tendency to cause a threat because we lost the moral right to quarrel with Boko Haram who say except you accept our way, you will die.

“If you decide that you want to give privilege to a religion or an ethnic group, what will happen is that others automatically become outsiders.”

(Vanguard)