There is no Christian persecution in Nigeria, Bishop Kukah insists

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By Madu Obi

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese and Convener of the National Peace Committee, NPC, Most Rev Mathew Kukah, has insisted that there is no persecution of Christians in Nigeria, arguing that genocide is not based on the number of people killed, but the intention.

Bishop Kukah recently faced attacks and criticisms primarily credited to him in which he was quoted as urging the international community not to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern because such a move would increase tensions, sow suspicion, and allow criminals to exploit the situation, potentially harming ongoing interfaith dialogue and government collaboration efforts.

Presenting a paper at the 46th Supreme Convention of the Knights of St Mulumba, KSM, in Kaduna, Bishop Kukah stated that on this issue of alleged killing of Christians in Nigeria, he is on the same page with Pope Leo, the Vatican Secretary of State,, president of the Catholic Bishops and all the Catholic Bishops in Nigeria.

He said: "They are saying that 1200 churches are burnt in Nigeria every year and I ask myself, in which Nigeria? But the interesting thing is that nobody came to the Catholic Church to get the accurate data. We don't know where the data came from.

All the people talking about persecution, has any of you called to ask, Bishop Kukah what is the situation? Surprisingly, the data they are circulating cleverly avoided the Catholic Church because they know that Catholics doesn't indulge in hearsay.

Genocide is not based on the number of people who have been killed. You can kill 10 million people and it won't amount to genocide. The critical ingredient that determines genocide is intent.

So you don't determine genocide by numbers; you determine it by the intention, either to eliminate a set of people or other means. We need to be more clinical about the issues we talk about.

In other words, we are saying, stop killing Nigerians. If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you say you are persecuted, my question is, how? We have a minimum of 80% of the educated people in Nigeria as Christians and up to 85% of Christians control the Nigerian economy. So if you have this and you say they are persecuting you, I say no."

He said that the main challenge before Christians is that they succumb to bullies, adding, "Any day we decide to stand together believing that injury to one is injury to all, these things will stop.

He added: "Many people are talking about martyrdom. We as Catholics, should we now say that because we are killed in the church, we have automatically become martyrs?

In this case whether you are killed while stealing somebody's yam, it doesn't matter. Or once you're killed by the bandits you're a martyr. And I am worried because I probably think differently.

Everybody is talking about genocide and I am asking myself, what did I say that is causing all these? What I presented in the Vatican was 1270 pages of a writeup on genocide either in Nigeria or elsewhere.

People say that there is genocide in Nigeria and my argument is that it is not proper to say that there is martyrdom in Nigeria."

He called on the Knights to always strive to defend the church, saying, you are no longer talking about using swords, but talking about living witnesses.