Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto was a Guest Speaker at The Platform Special Edition held on June 12 and organized by Poju Oyemade under the auspices of The Covenant Nation in Lagos. Held under the theme, Democracy and the Free Market Economy, Kukah spoke on Nigeria’s 25 years of unbroken democracy and the way forward for the country. However, he said Nigeria’s democracy is in recession. Excerpts:
On using technology to fish out those stealing Nigeria’s money and stashing it in banks
I am in full support if such technology exists. If there are drones that can go around and find out those who have what… There must be a way of resolving this problem.
On the sorry state of Southern Kaduna
Talking about the demand side of economics, I come from the southern part of Kaduna State and we have been demanding for Southern Kaduna State since Kaduna State was created because, across the whole of Southern Kaduna, there is not a single sign of federal presence.
On Labour, FG & minimum wage
The Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Rt. Rev Godfrey Onah, told me a story, it is a common story that animals gathered. I don’t know whether it was an elephant that died and they gathered to share the elephant and the tortoise came from somewhere and said “I must get the thigh of this elephant” and other animals looked at him and the lion said “who made that demand?” Other animals said it was tortoise and lion replied: “You are asking for the thigh? If you get the intestine, that is what we are going to give you”.
The tortoise said “actually that’s what I wanted but if I didn’t ask for the thigh I would not even get the intestine”. My friends in Labour are asking for the thigh by asking for 1 million naira minimum wage and the President has already committed himself to solving the problem as he said in his speech on Democracy Day.
Peoplesmind
