Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has enjoined knights to collectively defend the Church, irrespective of their location in the country. He cautioned them against complacency and compromise, stressing that oneness of God is what they have in common as Christians and thus should unite to defend the Church across the board.
According to him, defence of the Church, the body of Christ, should be their prerogative. He made this assertion virtually at the 25th Anniversary Lecture of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM), Nigeria, Eko Sub-Council held recently in Lagos. Bishop Kukah fired at the knights, “When we say we are Knights, what exactly do we mean? When we hold a sword symbolically, what exactly do we mean? When we say we are defending the Church, what exactly do we mean? What do we mean by defending the Church? Defending the Church against who? And whom are you defending? What is the Church? “Paul makes the point eloquently about the Church being the body of Christ.
That means if you were serious as Christians, if you were serious as Catholics, what happens to the Church in Falomo, what happens to the Church in Calabar, what happens to the Church in Sokoto, what happens to the Church in Onitsha, what happens to the Church everywhere in this country, in the world affects us.” Illustrating Nigeria as a country where being a Christian is synonymous with martyrdom, the prelate expressed his Diocese’s ordeals, noting non-interest of many Nigerians. “
And unfortunately for us, what is happening to the Church in northern Nigeria is of no interest at all, to many people. Our priests have been kidnapped, and Sokoto Diocese has paid almost 40 million naira in the last how many years, and this is a Diocese where this is not money we can afford because for many of our Dioceses’ annual budget could be probably 50 million. “And if you are lucky; if you can raise that at bazaar and other collections.” The fiery cleric added that beyond the physical violence, there are all kinds of discriminatory acts and marginalisation of Christians in the north. “The realities are there. But I think what is even more important is that a lot of people, even today still have the caliphal mentality of those who are not part of us must be against us.
And this is the fate of Christians and Christianity in many parts of northern Nigeria today where Christians are being denied lands to build Churches. You build a Church and you are told you cannot do this until the community agrees. Am having a problem of that nature right now as we are talking in a place like Kebbi,” he said. The prelate traced the persecution of Christians to the colonial history which witnessed how the Sokoto Caliphate known today as northern Nigeria, turned most of the Middle-Belt into a crazy field for slaves. Bishop Kukah recounted that studies have indicated that beyond the Southern America, there’s nowhere in the world that experienced the amount of slavery that was practiced in the whole Sokoto Caliphate.
He charged the Knights to stand up for the defence of Christians in Northern Nigeria, stressing that an injury to one is an injury to all. In his words, “But a living Church that believes in martyrdom, and a community such as yours, Knights of the Church should be sufficiently awake and alert to the fact that injury to one is injury to all. “Now, when Osama Bin-Ladin settled in Sudan, the Pakistani government sent out signals around Africa, to all their embassies to say that if any young Moslem came to the embassy looking for a visa to go to Pakistan, they should not ask any questions. And that was where they were organising because young Moslems across Africa decided to go and fight when they heard that Islam was under attack in Afghanistan and so on and so forth.”
The Bishop took a swipe at Christians, “So, when we see the rise of radical Islam, we must ask ourselves where has our own passion gone as Christians? Of course, our passion has gone to golf clubs, our passion has gone to holidays in Europe, our passion has gone to social habits that we invest a lot of resources on, but paying very little attention to what is happening to the body of Christ.” He further urged the knights to defend the Church economically and serve humanity. “We have a lot of our Catholics who are bankers and their organisations are involved in corporate social responsibility but you can come to the north and do corporate social responsibility, but not around the church. “We are seeing more solidarity and interest from outside Nigeria than from our own people. “
The money you are using to travel abroad for your summer, please spare a thought and see how you can restore something, because I am trying to convince people to help us. There are widows who are left with three, four, five children. We are trying to get these children back to school. So, even if you give us 1 million naira every year, 500,000 every year to be able to ensure that a child goes to school. It’s about pocket money you are sending to your children who are living elsewhere.”
