The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mattew Kukah, has criticized the distribution of palliatives to Nigerians amidst the severe hardships facing the country.
In response to the removal of fuel subsidies and other economic policies, governments at all levels have implemented palliative measures, including distributing food items to the vulnerable, aiming to alleviate the hardship nationwide.
However, the cleric has faulted the distribution of these palliatives, noting that they often fail to reach those in need due to widespread mismanagement and theft of funds allocated for such purposes.
Kukah voiced his concerns during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, emphasizing the necessity for a more comprehensive and transparent government-led program to address the country’s challenges, rather than solely relying on ad-hoc palliative measures.
His words: “We need to see a much more robust programme designed by the government to help us go away from just lining up and collecting palliatives when we are not at war.
“I think it is the height of indignity to see Nigerians lining up every day under the sun and waiting to collect bags of rice, which probably never come, not because money has not been given but because everybody who gives out money in Nigeria from the Federal Government knows that a good part of this money is always stolen.
Speaking earlier, Kukah stated that the country needs healing, urging the government to fix insecurity issues.
He said, “This is a severely broken and fractured nation; the evidence is before all of us. What we have been doing in the name of politics is picking up the pieces. The entire country is littered with broken dreams, hopes, and promises made and never fulfilled.
“There are more than half a million abandoned projects in the country. It’s a testament to the brokenness of our country. The country in the last 10 years or more has become almost a graveyard; we’re burying people in the hundreds, and we are not at war. We don’t need to explain further how broken our country has been.
“Nigerians are not looking for handouts. Ordinary farmers just want to go back to their farms. People just want to be able to get back to their lives. Ending insecurity is the beginning of this healing, and a decisive programme and plan to end it is the beginning of the healing.”
The cleric added that rather than blame the government or an individual, we should return to the scene of the crime to see the range of opportunities missed.