The Presidency on Sunday described the Easter homily by Bishop Matthew Kukah as ungodly because of the cleric’s stand on the nation’s security challenges and hijab saga in Kwara State.
A statement by presidential spokesman Garba Shehu argued that Kukah, the Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, said things that were inexplicable.
According to Mr Shehu, it was wrong for Kukah to have stated that ”Boko Haram terrorism is worse than it was in 2015.”
Shehu expressed the belief that Kukah did not speak like a man of God.
He, nevertheless, asked well-meaning citizens to continue to support the ongoing efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to secure the country and move it forward.
“If you profess to being a man of God, as Father Mathew Hassan Kukah does, ideology should not stand in the way of facts and fairness.
“Father Kukah has said some things that are inexplicable in his Easter message.
“But, in saying that the Boko Haram terrorism is worse than it was in 2015, he did not speak like a man of God.
“Kukah should go to Borno or Adamawa to ask the citizens there the difference between 2014 and 2021,” Shehu said.
On the hijab controversy in Kwara, which Kukah also touched on, Shehu pointed out that it was a state matter which the courts had adjudicated on.
“They are matters that have appeared in several states as far back as the (Olusegun) Obasanjo administration. In all of that, when and where did the name of President Buhari feature?
“He (Kukah) is playing partisan politics by dragging the President into it.
“An administration that has created a whole ministry, for the first time in the country’s history, appropriating enormous resources to it, to deal with issues of internally displaced persons cannot, in all rightfulness be accused of not caring for them.
“Some of the comments are no more than a sample of the unrestrained rhetoric Fr. Kukah trades in, which he often does in the guise of a homily,” Shehu added.
