- Charges FG to abolish law prohibiting religious organisations from obtaining broadcast licenses
There are no perfect constitutions; we know that the soldiers themselves never wrote any constitution. Our problem is not with the quality of the constitution but with the mental disposition and the willingness of the political elites to lead according to the principles of the constitution itself.
These are the submissions of Most Rev. (Dr.) Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. The high-ranking cleric said this while delivering the lecture at The Catholic Herald Centenary Lecture held at ‘The Hall’, Lagos, with the theme, “The Nigerian State: Transcending Challenges, Attaining True Nationhood.”
Using the Bible as a reference, Bishop Kukah noted that the sacred scripture can only lead to Heaven those who read and believe what it is saying stressing that its mere presence is not enough offering people a way to Heaven. He said, “The point I am making therefore is a constitution is a very important document. But when people say that the constitution we have is a useless document because they claim, ‘Oh, we, the people did not write the constitution; it was handed to us by the military’. I have a problem with that argument, but I don’t think we need to go into details but we know that the soldiers themselves never wrote any constitution. “
I don’t think there were lawyers as members of the military council at any point in time. It’s not the point. The point is that many of us are lying complicit in some of these arguments, in fact because the 1976 draft constitution where we have the 50 wise men, made up of lawyers, professors of law and so on and so forth. “These initiatives have always had quite a number of lawyers who have been involved in the conversation. I myself was secretary of the political reform conference in 2005, and I know that when we tend to be talking about a section of the constitution, we had a sub-committee chaired by Aare Afe Babalola. And there were either 13 or 17 Senior Advocates in that committee.”
The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese outrightly pointed out that the problem with nationhood does not have anything to do with the quality of the constitution. He maintained, “Our problem is not with the quality of the constitution. Our problem is with the mental disposition and the willingness of the political elites to lead according to the principles of the constitution itself. And I think that’s where our focus should be, because no constitution ever dropped from Heaven. “I’m not a lawyer, but I think I have earned my own rights also because I ‘ve worked with three judges. I worked with Justice Chukwudifu Okputa on ‘Okputa Panel’; I worked with Justice Mohammed Uwais on Electoral Reform Committee; and I worked with Justice Niki Tobi in the committee to review the constitution. “
So, I have a little bit of an understanding. The major weakness in all of these assemblies is that the assemblies are always full of politicians angling for positions. Often, 90 percent of the members of these initiatives are either deliberately chosen for their political interests, or they spend a lot of the time there just plotting, planning, and scheming for political advantages, and so on and so forth. “I remember in 1979 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari of blessed memory and a lot of other people walked out on the constitution assembly. What was very impressive was that I went back and checked the records, they set up a 23 or 24-man committee, chaired by the late Chief Simeon Adebo when they walked out of the assembly. “Now, somehow, these 23 or so wise men; I went and checked the profile of each and every one of them, and it turned out that apart from Simeon Adebo, all of them ended up as politicians; and they almost all ended up in the NPN. The point I am making is that the assemblies review in the Nigerian constitution maybe full of ground standing and politics.”
Bishop Kukah further noted that mere constitutional provisions are not enough. According to him, the challenge is the vehicular initiatives that citizens will employ to achieve these rights. He further identified five points to attaining true nationhood. These include consistent contest in the frontiers of freedom, quality of the bureaucracy, political stability, quality of judicial system and quality of civil societies.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, also charged the Federal Government of Nigeria to repeal the law prohibiting religious organizations from obtaining broadcast licenses. He regretted that while individuals are being granted licences to own electronic media, the Catholic Church is being denied of such privileges because it is a religious organisation. In his words, “As we are speaking in the presence of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, I challenge him, and I challenge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Today, anybody can set up a radio or television station, but not the Catholic Church because it is a religious organisation. According to the laws of the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, the Catholic Church cannot set up a radio or television station because they are afraid we may use it wrongly. If you are serious, abolish that law. And the time to abolish it is now.”
