The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has answered Rev. Matthew Kukah following his Christmas message where he discredited nepotism in President Muhammadu Buhari-administration.
In the message, Rev. Kukah added that if the President was not a Muslim, there would have been an overthrow.
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Nonetheless, in an assertion endorsed by the Special Assistant to the President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi, on Saturday, December 26, Mohammed encouraged religious leaders in the nation to “refrain from stoking the embers of hatred and disunity,” warning that resorting to “scorched-earth rhetoric at this time could trigger unintended consequences.”
”While religious leaders have a responsibility to speak truth to power, such truth must not come wrapped in anger, hatred, disunity and religious disharmony,” the statement begins.
Mohammed added that it is especially awkward and reprobate for any religious leader to utilize the time of Christmas, which is a period of harmony, to stir up the coals of disdain, partisan conflict and public disunity.
”Calling for a violent overthrow of a democratically-elected government, no matter how disguised such a call is, and casting a particular religion as violent is not what any religious leader should engage in, and certainly not in a season of peace,.”
“While some religious leaders, being human, may not be able to disguise their national leadership preference, they should refrain from stigmatizing the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever.
“Whatever challenges Nigeria may be going through at this moment can only be tackled when all leaders and indeed all
Nigerians come together, not when some people arrogantly engage in
name-calling and finger-pointing.”
