His Eminence, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese in Nigeria was the guest of Toyin Falola Interviews on Sunday. As usual, prominent interviewers were on hand to post questions to the very restless Bishop.
Interviewers today include Prof Toyin Falola himself who teaches History at the University of Texas, Austin; Ayisha Osori, the Executive Director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) founded by the American billionaire, George Soros of the Soros Foundation; Two African students in the US, Ndidi Akahara and Paapa; the erudite journalist, author, and rights activist, Chido Onumah; and the publisher/editor-in-chief of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi and very many others.
So many questions were put to the Bishop on education especially Nigerian Universities and Nigerian children attending Universities overseas, Nigerian history, issues of religion and ethnicity in Nigeria, politics and political participants in Nigeria, the state of the nation in Nigeria at present and what future holds for Nigeria.
Dapo Olorunyomi had laid down about five questions for the Bishop. The one we want to bother our readers with is whether or not the 1999 constitution is the cause of the Nigerian problem.
Bishop Kukah’s answer is No. He traced constitution making from 1958 to present and said that the characters in the Nigerian political field are the problem. He said no constitution foresees every potential problem.
“Bible has been in existence for a long time and in spite of that, people are doing terrible things that bible preaches against”
He maintained that making another constitution may not end corruption, crimes and all the other vices in the society and that if even the constitution falls from heaven, it will not change anything in Nigeria so far the present crop of Nigerian politicians are still in charge.
Kukah said that they are just sharing the money. The governors down to the local government chairmen are just collecting the money and spending it as they like without accountability to the people of Nigeria.