The Federal Government on Friday lambasted Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah, over a statement attributed to him that the Federal Government was like Boko Haram.
Kukah was said to have declared that while Boko Haram was employing the use of bomb to force Islam on Nigerians, the Federal Government was using other methods.
The use of bomb, he was said to have declared, was the only difference between the Boko Haram and the Federal Government.
But in a swift reaction, the Federal Government said Kukah was not only disingenuous in his statement but also doing a great disservice to the military battling Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists to keep all Nigerians safe.
The Federal Government said instead, Kukah should use his high office to work for religious harmony in Nigeria, and not indulge in actions capable of dividing the country along religious lines.
In a statement he issued on Friday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, reiterated the federal government’s position that Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists did not subscribe to any religion, irrespective of their pretense to such, but are driven by their primitive propensity to kill mindlessly and destroy without restraint, irrespective of their victims’ creed, gender or tribe.
”To now attribute the actions of these mad bunch to an orchestrated and systematic plan to elevate one religion over the other or decimate adherents of a particular religion is not only unfortunate but divisive, incendiary and insensitive,” he said.
Alhaji Mohammed appealed to religious leaders to be more circumspect in their comments, especially on religious issues, because of the deeply emotive nature of religion and the tendency for it to be exploited for political gains by naysayers.
