The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has warned that the overall effect of the proposed removal of fuel subsidy on ordinary Nigerians will be worse than the activities of the rampaging Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Bishop Kukah gave warning while presenting his sermon at the 2011 Christmas carol jointly organised by the Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria (FRCN), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and Voice of Nigeria (VON), held at the National Christian Centre in Abuja, Sunday night.
He insisted that the posture of the Federal Government in refusing to engage the populace with regard to the subsidy issue was unacceptable, because the citizens must have a say in how they are governed in every democracy.
Kukah said dividends of democracy cannot only be measured by the number of infrastructure a particular administration is able to give to its citizens but by the level of fundamental rights of the citizens.
According to him, “Democracy is not about infrastructure. If democracy is measured by infrastructure then? South Africa should have continued under apartheid because most of the infrastructure in South Africa were put in place during the apartheid regime in that country.
“So also in Germany, If democracy were about infrastructure, the Germans should apologise to Hitler because Hilter developed Germany.”
The cleric noted further, “because good governance goes beyond infrastructure, any system of government that denies its citizens a say, is causing trouble for the nation.
“The citizens must be allowed to have a say in the social economic development of their nation.
“The issue of fuel subsidy is minute compared to the level of insecurity that the nation is going through now.? Lots of innocent lives have been lost, there is need for this present administration to concentrate more on how to tackle the issue of Boko Haram and leave fuel subsidy for now,” Kukah added.
Querying the rationale for the removal, Kukah concluded, “How is it that we live in a society that has made a pact with evil. We expect that our leaders should engage and allow us to have a say in how we are governed. We say to the government of Nigeria that we refuse to believe that there is not enough for everyone in the vault.”