“Democratize development to develop democracy”: Catholic Bishop in Nigeria to Political Leaders

“We don’t need to preach about democracy. The question people should ask is, why should we allow our people to be nostalgic about the military or about the colonial rule?” he posed.

Bishop Kuka noted that “there are times Nigerians have said openly, ‘We wish the white people would come back. We wish the military would come back. We wish this person would come back.’”

The 72-year-old Catholic Church leader also emphasized the need of assigning responsibilities and monitoring with accountability. 

He said, “The inability of a system to deliver on the principles of democracy is not out of bad will; it is largely because we have not dealt with the question of who and who are delivering on the services.”

The Nigerian Catholic Bishop also linked democracy and freedoms, saying that a country’s democratization can be measured by how well it upholds the principles of democracy such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

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“You cannot claim to be in a democracy if the media does not have the opportunity to do its job,” Bishop Kukah said during the 60th birthday of Mr. Ihedioha, who served as Governor of Imo State from 2019-2020, when Nigeria’s Supreme declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) party candidate the authentic winner of the 2019 gubernatorial poll. 

The Local Ordinary of Sokoto emphasized, “The essence of democracy is the defence of human rights anchored on the principles of equity and fairness.”