Past Nigerian Leaders Weren’t Prepared For Power, Says Kukah

Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has said Nigeria’s Presidents since independence came to power without preparing to solve the nation’s challenges.

Kukah spoke during a virtual session moderated by Toyin Falola, a professor of History at the University of Texas in the United States (U.S.A), titled: Cast Without A Plot.

He said: “President Buhari had already said, after he tried in 2011: ‘I’m done. I’m no longer interested’; Yar’Adua had already said: ‘I’m done. I want to go back to the classroom.’ Obasanjo was brought from prison (to become President).”

The cleric stressed that the unpreparedness of past leaders limited their ability to plan and “think about how they might resolve the problems of the country”.

He added: “What passes for governance is digging a whole to fill a hole because you borrow money to win elections and you see that there is a correlation between the spiral of awarding of contracts and the contracts not being finished.”