The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah has advocated for the soon to be announced ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to follow in the foot steps of President Muhammadu Buhari by declaring their assets to help ensure accountability.
Bishop Mathew Kukah
The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, says there is a need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers to publicly declare their assets just as Buhari did last month according.
Kukah, who is also a member of the National Peace Committee, said this at an annual programme titled, “The Platform,” which was organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos, on Thursday.
He said, “Buhari has an opportunity now. I don’t think many of you have been to Buhari’s house in Kaduna but I have been there and I know what it looks like. You heard about his declaration of assets. He must, therefore, make minimum demands of moral conduct and probity from his ministers. As Nigerians, we must ask ourselves what drives corruption.
“Corrupt people are not necessarily bad people. A lot of them are not bad people because they do a lot of good things. But we live in a country where too many good people are doing too many bad things.”
The cleric said Buhari must set standards for his ministers on the kind of lifestyles they and their families must live. He said for instance, it would be good if the President demands that all the children of his ministers must school in Nigeria.
Kukah added, “For me, if you are a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, your children must have their education in Nigeria. That will be good.”
While delivering his lecture titled, “Hysteria, euphoria and amnesia: Nigeria’s long walk to freedom,” Kukah said Nigeria had failed to develop because the country had continued to make the same mistakes.
Defending his stance that ruling Nigeria should not be only about jailing corrupt people, Kukah said all coups including the first one of 1966 were perpetrated under the pretext of fighting corruption