Democracy Will Look Like Lottery Until Nigeria Conquers 'Bread And Butter Mentality’ –Bishop Kukah

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, has said that Nigeria’s democracy will continue to look like a lottery until the country conquers the issue of ‘bread and butter mentality’.

Speaking as the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual National Public Lecture of the First News in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital on Friday, as reported by Vanguard, Kukah said that even those who are responsible for Nigeria’s problems are not also safe.

According to him, he has met with every President and Head of State in Nigeria except General Sani Abacha and they all had the burning desire to develop the country but failed because they lacked the will to implement their vision

Kukah noted that every country in the world also has its peculiar challenges and it takes the citizens and purposeful leadership to address such problems.

He, therefore, urged Nigeria to find its own path towards development.

Kukah said, “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 travelling 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 the ground before people can appreciate democracy.”

“Unless Nigeria settles the issue of ‘bread and butter mentality’, democracy can actually look like a lottery,” the cleric added.