The Order of The Knights of St. Mulumba Nigeria (KSM) has charged the Federal Government and critics to take the message of the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Reverend Matthew Hassan Kukah, as a serious piece of advice and work for the collective security of the country.
The KSM, a lay Catholic organisation in a statement on Tuesday said suggested a revisit to the 1960 constitution of Nigeria, saying “let the nation listen to Bishop Kukah’s clarion call. Let Nigeria retrace her steps to the wisdom of our forefathers as enshrined in the 1960 constitution but with the new constituencies that define a secular Nigeria.”
In the statement signed by the Supreme Knight, Sir Diamond Ovueraye KSM, the organisation also called for a refocusing of the security system of the country and suggested that we should all “put our collective security above regime security and yield to the necessity of a united Nigeria.”
The KSM said it joined a “legion of well-minded and patriotic Nigerians across ethnoreligious lines, to not only align with the liberation theological homily of His Lordship, Most Reverend Dr Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese; but we commend his courage and sincerity of speaking the truth to power.”
According to Sir Ovueraye, those who seek to distort Bishop Kukah’s clarion call and called for his arrest by the state security agents were “in fact the agents of insecurity, oppressors of the downtrodden and perpetrators of hunger, deprivation, and divisiveness for pecuniary gains rather than the pursuers of our collective security and drive for the restoration of a new Nigeria.”
It decried what it said was the over-concentration of political power at the centre, noting that this had “perpetuated the non-productive concept of ‘National Cake’ through monthly fiscal distribution to the states and local governments in the style of ‘Father Christmas’.”
The Catholic Knights contended that the monthly distribution of allocations had dampened the creative minds of our political leadership because “none is challenged by the need for survivability of the constituencies under their control,” adding “this inverted approach to production and distribution of our commonwealth is in fact responsible for the cancerous corruption that has hindered the growth and development of our country.”
The Supreme Knight, on behalf of the body, called for clarity of Bishop Kukah’s Christmas message to the nation, and cautioned “the mischief intended for the national distraction from the correct thrust of the message.”
Among other points in the statement by Bishop Kukah entitled: “Another Christmas with Dark Clouds of Death” the KSM analysed, it noted that “the statement encapsulates the desolate state of the nation as a failed state with collapsing economy, endless bloodletting, and insecurity in our homes, highways, cities, hamlets, and entire communities.
“The global terrorism index confirms Nigeria as the world’s third most terrorized country. The Bishop follows up quickly with the rejection of despair, by pleading the need to pause, reflect, pray, be honest, and courageous in facing these trying moments in the history of our nation.”
