Sokoto, 20 April, 2025 / 11:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has decried the many atrocities in the West African nation, which he says is “gradually” turning into a vast “national morgue” owing to the multiple victims of attacks.
In his Easter 2025 Message issued on April 19, Bishop Kukah appeals to the country’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to rescue Nigerians from insecurity, suffering, and hopelessness, which he described as a “cross of evil”.
He reflects on the symbolism of the Cross, likening the current state of Nigeria to a crucifixion of her people by decades of violence, poverty, and political failure.
“I am using the metaphor of the cross to draw attention to the sufferings and afflictions that have befallen our country in the last years. These sufferings have been marked by a culture of brutality and savagery never witnessed in the history of our dear country,” the Nigerian Catholic Bshop laments.
He adds, “Taken together, they have placed our country outside the purveyor of human civilization. Across the entire country, every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions. A dark pall of death hangs languidly from north to south. It is impossible to find a home, a family, or a community that has not been caught in the cusp of this savagery.”
