“Doctored, fake news”: Diocese Dismisses Claims Bishop Endorsed Nigeria’s President-Elect

“You can go all the way down in Nigeria, you’re not going to find one single person who has been president or head of state in Nigeria that came prepared for the job,” Bishop Kukah said.

In the interview, the Catholic Bishop who was appointed to the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in January 2021 used the analogy of a bad marriage to explain the relationship between Nigeria and its political leaders.

“I always say to people as a Priest that the solution to a bad marriage is not a new marriage. It’s often an attempt to look at what has gone wrong. And if you jump to a new marriage very quickly, after some time, you become nostalgic about the first marriage,” he said.

The vocal Nigerian Catholic Bishop who is also known for good governance advocacy added, “Metaphorically, you can say the same thing about Nigeria. A lot of these changes that we have seen in Nigeria are largely unprogrammed.”

The report that an online platform, NIGERIAN NOTCH, published March 19, however, describes Bishop Kukah as “controversial”, adding that it is only Tinubu that the Bishop found well prepared for the presidency.

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“The controversial Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari, former presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, among others that led Nigeria, became presidents unprepared,” reads the NIGERIAN NOTCH report.

The report further reads, “According to the bishop, no President or Head of State in the history of Nigeria ever came prepared for the job of the number one citizen of the country except the President-elect Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has been nursing and preparing for the task decades ago.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has further distanced itself from individuals masquerading as Bishop Kukah to steal from social media users.

“It has come to our notice that over the years, the name of our Bishop, Most Rev. Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah has been freely circulated around the social media by fraudsters seeking financial and other favors from prominent citizens across the country,” Fr. Omotosho says.

He adds, “Over the last six or so years, many innocent people have parted with their hard-earned money running into millions of naira in the name of donations to causes attributed to either our Bishop or the Diocese of Sokoto. We issued disclaimers but this has persisted.”

The member of the Clergy of Sokoto Diocese has advised individuals and organizations requested for help in the name of the Bishop to contact the Diocese by dialing 08027307423, 08035776334, or by seeking clarification through dioceseofsokoto@gmail.com.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.