The convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Matthew Kukah, on Friday, expressed sadness over what he described as members of the judiciary and Catholic priests getting sucked into politics.
Kukah spoke at the 8th House of Justice Summit held in Kaduna State with the theme ‘Electoral Accountability and Democratic Stability’.
“I am saddened by the fact that the judiciary has now found itself being sucked into politics,” he said without elaborating further on the nature of political involvement.
“I would have also been sad — and I’m also sad — to the extent that even us who are priests in the church, we are getting sucked into politics because you will never come out the same.
“You go to wrestle with a pig inside poto poto (mud). You may defeat the pig, but you cannot go around showing yourself to see what you look like.”
Noting that he was not referring to politicians as pigs, the cleric explained that politics has its own rhyme and rhythm, especially in contrast to someone who has a certain moral responsibility.
“Elections will always give us what I call unintended consequences. But also, it is important to understand that a contest is always a contest. And you use the experience of this to prepare for the next contest,” he said.
The Bishop of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese urged Nigerians not to be despondent, saying the best is still to come. Rather than worry about the next generation, he argued that Nigerians should be focused on the present.
“You are using mobile phones today. It wasn’t the generation that went before us that gave us mobile phones. Every generation will contest its own problems. Let’s be concerned with the problems of the moment,” Kukah said.
“Yes, we dream about the future. But like somebody said, today is the tomorrow you dreamt about yesterday. But let’s not be nervous. We should be nervous that we are underperforming because there are things we could have done differently and we can do differently.
“But there is a new consciousness that is emerging and it is that consciousness that we must build on. So, justices will do what justices will do.”