By Kamsi Anayo
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Kukah has submitted those responsible for problems in the country are also suffering the repercussions.
He spoke on Friday as the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual National Public Lecture of the First News with the theme; “The Nigerian Question: Survival of the Federation in The Throes of Increasing Economic Challenges” in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state.
The event was put together by a former Commissioner for information, in Bayelsa, Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson, who publishes the outfit.
The fiery cleric stressed that the culprits of the nation’s woes have no peace themselves.
He said that for Nigeria to overcome its challenges, the people must look inward and deploy home-grown solutions.
The outspoken clergyman submitted that though the country’s problems look gigantic, they are all surmountable.
Kukah called on Nigerians not to see their country as the only one with challenges insisting other nations also have their own unique challenges.
In his words, “The good thing about Nigeria is that everybody knows what the problems are and the people who are responsible for the problems are not also safe, they too do not know peace.
“Nigerians talk about other countries, I feel sorry for many Nigerians who, because of many troubles, hardly travel out of their immediate environments, not to talk about traveling to other parts of Africa or other parts of the world.
“Though, every country has its own problems, the challenge before us in Nigeria is that, what do we want, obviously, can we democratise and develop our nation? It is a very difficult question to answer, because what we call the civilized world today is the last 200 years of exploitation of Africa that helped to build these nations.
“So we are imagining it ourselves, why are we not like other people, we are not like others because every nation has to find its own navigational truth for development. It is not as if we cannot use democracy to develop Nigeria, but there are certain fundamental things that must be on ground before people can appreciate democracy.
“Unless Nigeria settles the issue of ‘bread and butter mentality’, democracy can actually look like a lottery.”