Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has said there were no solutions to Nigeria’s problems. Bishop Matthew Kukah He said all the nation had were what he described as coping mechanisms to deal with the problems more appropriately.
Asked if the solution to Nigeria’s problems is the restructuring of the nation, Kukah said: “Anybody pretending that restructuring is the solution to our problems… it isn’t, because there are no solutions. They are coping mechanisms that you can design. “People focus on power, but the irony now, if we don’t know, is that somebody has written a fine book, we are seeing the end of power in the way and manner that we understand it.
“Here in Nigeria, people think of power and they think about it in the relation to the ability to give a big cheque, the ability to sign a contract, ability to people in NNPC, ability to give oil wells.
“This is absolute nonsense because it doesn’t carry with it the moral authority. The most important thing, of course, is that… ok, look at the day Mark Zuckerberg went to Congress, it affected the stock market.”
Northerners are beneficiaries of restructuring Kukah said the north has a lot to benefit from restructuring, stating that the region currently has the highest levels of poverty in the country.
He said: “You know here in Nigeria, when you throw a concept after some time it becomes a weapon. Interestingly, people think that the north, or maybe their body language suggests that they are not interested in restructuring.
“But in reality, the beneficiaries of restructuring are the northerners. How? Because as the Chief of Army Staff and everybody has accepted, Boko Haram is a product of poverty.
“The poverty level of the South-West are hovering between 13 to 17 percent. What is Zamfara today? It is a cesspit of violence; the poverty levels whether in Zamfara, or Sokoto, or Katsina or Kebbi, the average state in northern Nigeria is hovering between 70 and 80 per cent.
