Matthew Kukah’s Catholic Heart of Gold

Matthew Kukah’s Catholic Heart of Gold

By Ladi Thompson

…IT is said that nobody really cares what you know until they know that you care! On this note I would like to publicly commend the effort being made by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah for his initiative to better the life of 10 million almajiri children in Northern Nigeria.

Bishop Matthew Kukah

Our prayer is that God will grant him the favor and material resources needed to lay a firm foundation for this project and the soundness of health plus length of days to see its harvest. To erase all doubts as the importance of this initiative I would beg to enumerate five crucial reasons why every sensible Nigerian and patriots in particular would support Bishop Matthew Kukah’s almajiri initiative.

First of all, from the national pers-pective we must remember that Chief Obafemi Awolowo on August 11, 1966 did mention that the welfare and happiness of the peoples of Nigeria are indivisible and our misfortunes and adversities too. To safeguard the future of our nation it is important for us to identify the almajiri constituency as the single, most abused identity group whose wellbeing and happiness is likely to dictate the future of our nation more than any other.

Secondly, the tragic neglect of 10 million plus almajiri of Nigeria represents the largest undeveloped human capital block that could be engaged to power the industrializa-tion and modernization of the new Nigeria.

On a third count, the life of each almajiri child is actually a true reflection of our national values and regard for human worth as viewed from the global perspective.

The fourth reason is political since the deliberate engineering that has sustained the oppression of this rippling mass of youth muscle regularly incites them to violent actions to influence elections.

The fifth reason is that the vulner-ability of the almajiri constituency represents a great security risk that can easily be exploited by the global forces of religious extremism to destabilize northern Nigeria and fuel a national insurgency.

Bishop Kukah should be recom-mended for the highest national award for his efforts to reawaken the conscience of a hardened and divided national polity and my personal counsel to him is that the initiative should also factor the well-being of the numerous mullah’s that are the designated custodians of these children.

If we are able to allay the sensible fears of a financial meltdown of the present system and assure their roles in the religious instructions of their wards all things will definitely work.

On a final note, I cannot but remem-ber the macabre murder of a-23 year old youth corper in 2008 and the misguided religious youths who dialed his parents to witness the death cries of their cherished son.

Apart from my financial pledge towards the Bishop Kukah project I urge all Nigerians across every reli-gious, tribal and ethnic divide to join hands with him to care for these children before the system hardens them.

History will surely number Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah among the greats of Africa who rose above politics and religion to preserve the dignity of human worth on our continent.

*Ladi Peter Thompson for NOVAD Non-Violence for African Develop-ment.