The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has carpeted the Federal Government for promoting grave divisions along ethno-religious configurations through cocktails of persistent witch-hunting of Christians in top government positions and for failing abysmally to comply with the Federal Character Principles enshrined in section 14(3) of the Nigerian Constitution in its top level appointments.

HURIWA has also challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to tell Nigerians how many of the over 500 arrested armed Fulani herdsmen and bandits have been successfully prosecuted by his Government since the last five years for the genocide and killings targeted at Christians in the North Central states and as far as Enugu, Kogi, Delta and Rivers states.

The rights group said the Nigerian police force under the current dispensation has failed to give proper account of the status of those armed mass murderers they arrested and paraded over the past few years of the current administration.

This systematic impunity encouraged at the highest levels of central government, HURIWA said, is what motivates armed fundamentalists to kill Christians at will believing that they are above the law since those who hold top security jobs are of their very same ethno-religious communities.

HURIWA has also asked the Federal Government and particularly the Minister of Information and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to show respect to religious icons such as Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah by reflecting deeply and speaking with wisdom whenever such patriotic stakeholders and consummate nationalists and statesmen offer their profound messages of wisdom to temporary holders of political offices.

According to HURIWA, “The likes of Bishop Kukah mean well for Nigerians and the corporate goodness of the Federal Republic of Nigeria whenever he speaks or writes, unlike the motley crowds of bigots and politically insensitive and irresponsible clowns masquerading about as officials and supporters of the government in power at the Federal level.

“The personality of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah is rare in any civilizations because here is a philosopher, theologian and authoritative source of knowledge who has over the last four decades worked assiduously and vigorously only in the defence of human rights, rule of law, constitutional democracy; inter-religious and Inter-tribal dialogues.

“This is a preacher of righteousness who loves Nigeria so much that he is prepared to sacrifice his personal and material satisfaction to take up the task of evangelization in the real sense of it. His words of caution to the current holders of political offices are well placed and represent the accurate positions of millions of genuine lovers of a united, strong and viable Nigerian nation.

“Only rabble rousers and opportunistic political clowns will view these observations of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah with the binoculars of tainted and disjointed political cum religiously biased prisms.

“The statement of truth by Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah that the selective appointments of only Hausa/Fulani Moslem Northerners into very strategic national offices under the President Buhari-led administration as the cause of divisions in the society should be viewed as the voice of the people which is the voice of God.

“The skewed appointments of only Moslems of Hausa/Fulani stock has the real capacity of igniting deep religious conflicts and indeed there are instances as we speak whereby Islamic fundamentalists and armed hoodlums who are invading Churches and schools owned by Christians to kidnap and kill clerics and students because at the back of their minds is this mindset that since the Central government give all the most important security positions and other juicy national positions to their fellow Moslems in a nation of over 250 ethnic nationalities and diverse range of religious adherents, they are therefore motivated to unleash violence of unprecedented dimensions on Christians and persons of different ethno religious orientations other than theirs.

“Those who had killed Christians in the immediate past are moving freely and speaking freely to the media as if they are above the laws of Nigeria. These concerns must be addressed by the current President instead of attacking Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah for speaking truth to power.

“The Federal Government has no moral right and the officials are not standing on the moral highgrounds to be qualified, fit and in proper positions to have advised Bishop Matthew Kukah to use his high ecclesiastical office to work for religious harmony in Nigeria, rather than indulge in actions that are capable of dividing the country along religious lines. This is because he who goes to equity must do so with clean hands.

“The hands of the officials of the current administration are tainted and soaked heavily in moral and Ethical depravity and they are blinded by the allures and deceptions of political power. The holders of federal government jobs at the topmost echelons are so drunk with power to an extent that they have indulged themselves in being drunk with and heavily soaked in the mistaken belief that political power can last forever.

“The statement from the Information Ministry speaking indecorously about Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah shows the lack of the virtues of respect for truth on the side of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who erroneously and in his warped thinking had stated that the statement credited to Bishop Kukah, in which he compared the Federal Government with Boko Haram, is not only disingenuous, but also a great disservice to the men and women in uniform who are daily battling the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists to keep all Nigerians safe.

“Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah spoke about the illegal and unconstitutional modes of appointments made since the last five years by the current President Muhammadu Buhari and also alluded to the killings of Christians by a range of armed fundamentalists emboldened by the pro-Islamic mode of appointments by President Buhari.

“Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah did not speak ill of the men and officers of the armed forces who he knows are making sacrifices amidst severe lack of the requisite combat ready equipment to fight armed Islamic Terrorists of the Boko Haram genre. Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah has on many occasions asked Nigerians to pray for our soldiers and for the lasting victory to be achieved in no distant time.

“It is rather deceptive and disingenuous that Alhaji Lai Mohammed has in that statement displaced an attitude of being challenged intellectually that he can't decipher the true import of what Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah stated in the widely publicised statements comparing the current government to an Islamic fundamentalist without bombs.

“Do we need to tell Alhaji Lai Mohammed that it is unconstitutional to allow only Hausa/Fulani Moslem Northerners to hold all the sensitive national security positions including Customs, Immigration, Police and commanding positions in the ground and air forces?

“Lai Mohammed should tell his infantile story to his zombies.”

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