Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, has described Bishop Mathew Kukah as a purveyor of bad news.
Adesina, who was reacting to Bishop Kukah’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance on security, fighting corruption, and cutting cost of governance, said that the cleric was too partisan.
Adesina said: “His bad news is not appetizing at all. Somebody has said that he should put off his reverend father capsule and become a full-time politician.
“He is rather too partisan. If you look at those things he mentioned, they don’t do good to Father Kukah’s intellectual posture. He’s somebody that we have always admired for his intellectual bent but his opinion has been coloured by politics.
“He talked about selling presidential fleets, was that ever promised? We know that in 2015, there were a rash of promises made that even the candidate did not know about. So, how can he start claiming that he promised that?
“The question is are we where we are with the issue of banditry in 2015? If Father Kukah is true to himself and his calling as a cleric, he would know that this country is not where we were in terms of banditry as of 2015.
“On defeating corruption, which country ever defeats corruption? Even in China where they execute corrupt people, the fact that they execute people shows that corruption is not defeated. You can curb it, minimize it but he used the word ‘defeating corruption.’ I think Father Kukah is rather disappointing in his choice of words.
“Then, bringing back our Chibok girls, how many of those girls were taken away in 2014 and how many have been recovered? He should praise the government for recovering a large number of the girls. The President did his very best bringing more than 100 girls back.
On allegations of nepotism against Buhari’s government, Adesina said: “The thing about critics is that they hear themselves only, they don’t hear alternate voices. In 2018 or 2019, we came out with a check list of all appointments made under President Buhari nationwide. Do you know the state that had the highest? Ogun State; the second highest state is Imo state; and Katsina where the President comes from is in number five or six. But people like Father Kukah and other critics don’t listen to others, they only listen to themselves and nothing else matters to them.”
Asked why most of the security chiefs were from a particular region, he said: “Security is what you don’t subject to politics. In security, you bring your best foot forward.
And look at the echelon of our security since 2015, would you say they are from one particular part of the country? Who was the Chief of Naval Staff? Was he not a man from Cross River State? Who was the Inspector General of Police at that time? Was he not a man from Edo State? Solomon Arase? So, security is something you do based on the best and the brightest because all you want is for the country to be secured.”
