Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukkah, has urged the Federal Government to create an environment that would guarantee Nigerians the right to work, so as to draw the country away from violence and instability.

Kukah said in a lecture titled “The Dignity of Labour”, which he delivered on Saturday at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, that the progress of Nigeria could be measured by “how many hands were progressively engaged in one form of work or the other.”

He advocated that the current practice of using work as an instrument of terrorism should be discouraged.

Kukah said: “Now, to the extent that the Nigerian State and those who hold power believe that work is there to give to whom they want, when and how, accounts for the reason why this country remains violent. And this country will remain violent, it will remain unstable; it will remain within the context of what the political scientists refer to as the inevitability of instability, unless the state develops the capacity very deliberately to appreciate the fact that the right to work is the right to be human.

“And for me, these are not things we put figures on. So, when I hear government say we are going to create 300,000 or one million jobs; that is absolutely not the issue. Nigerians are just looking for an opportunity to do what God has ordained them to do and many able-bodied Nigerians have the capacity, have the ability to do the things that they need to do.”

According to Bishop Kukah, “The duty and responsibility of government is, on the short term, to provide jobs, but on the long term is to create an environment in which everyone of us can achieve what God has ordained him to achieve.”

He disagreed with Nigerians who say that the problem of unemployment lies with the population of the country. He also said that it has nothing to do with ethnicity, tribalism or religion, but called on Nigerians to be patriotic in joining hands with President Buhari to transform the country.

The clergyman observed that good leaders excel by turning challenges into opportunities and enjoined President Buhari to use Nigeria’s challenges to transform the country.

Vice Chancellor of MOUAU, Prof. Boniface Edeoga, assured that the university would put the lecture to good use with a view to improving the institution. On his part, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the university, Prof. Anya Oko Anya, promised that the school authorities would strive to bring local and international scholars to the school to deliver lectures every year.

•Photo shows Bishop Kukah.

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