Nigeria Yet To Fully Embrace Democracy, Says Kukah

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, says Nigeria is yet to fully embrace democratic norms and values.

He disclosed this on Tuesday during a townhall meeting on ‘Fixing Nigerian elections’ which was organised by YIAGA.

According to him, the military intervention in the nation’s politics has made the system to be so quarrelsome.

Kukah berated the judiciary for undermining the wishes of the people while hearing cases relating to elections.

“We are mistaken in assuming that we have had a transition from dictatorship to democracy. We still haven’t.

“This is why we are showing all kinds of systemic malfunctioning. When we talk about political parties, we have assumptions. The truth of the matter is that in our own case, in Nigeria, we have the greed and the political interest.

“Clearly what we have in Nigeria, as we have seen with the occasional malfunctioning of the system midway through the journey, manifested in the quarrelsomeness nature of the process and the way the judiciary has now come to undermine the wishes of the people,” he said.

Speaking further, the cleric called on political parties to imbibe discipline while fielding candidate for public offices.

He regretted that most politicians lack the needed discipline expected of political parties, adding that it has reflected in lack of continuity and consistency in governance.