The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has admonished all Nigerians to collectively resolve to work together in solving the nation’s myriad of problems.
He said that every Nigerian knows the problems facing the country at the moment and it will take the people’s resolve to address the problems.
The cleric, however, stated that every country in the world also has its own problems and it takes the citizens and purposeful leadership to address such problems.
Kukah,who disclosed this yesterday while delivering a keynote address at the 3rd annual national public lecture of the FirstNews newspaper with the theme: ‘The Nigerian Question: Survival of the Federation in The Throes of Increasing Economic Challenges’ in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, said even those who are responsible for Nigeria’s problems are not also safe.
He urged Nigerians to find their own navigational truth for proper development as it is done in other nations.
He 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, but 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 civilised 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 ground before people can appreciate democracy.
“Unless Nigeria settles the issue of ‘bread and butter mentality’ , democracy can actually look like lottery,” he said.
In his remarks, the organiser and Publisher of the First News, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the essence of the lecture was to brainstorm on Nigeria’s challenging economy and proffer possible solutions, adding that the nation’s economic problems are very glaring.
According to him, Nigeria’s situation has defied many solutions that is why the lecture was arranged to find solutions to the economic challenges.
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Gideon Ekeuwei, urged Bayelsa people to develop themselves in order to cope with the economic situation.
He urged the youths of the state to take advantage of the developmental programmes initiated by his administration to better their lives.
