I feel for many Nigerians who can't afford to travel abroad - Kukah

The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has expressed concerns for Nigerians who don't have the wherewithal to experience life outside their immediate environments.

According to the revered cleric, this category of Nigerians can only imagine what's obtainable in other countries, and that may limit their appreciation of the developmental history of foreign climes.

Kukah said this while delivering a keynote address at the 3rd Annual National Public Lecture OF the First News, held in Bayelsa on Friday, November 3, 2023.

Sharing his knowledge on the theme, 'The Nigerian Question: Survival of the Federation in the Throes of Increasing Economic Challenges,' he said that while every country has its challenges, Nigeria seems to be at a loss on how to evolve.

The fiery cleric noted, “The good thing about Nigeria is that everybody knows what the problems are and the people who are responsible for the problems are not also safe, they too do not know peace.

“Nigerians talk about other countries, I feel sorry for many Nigerians who because of many troubles are hardly travel out of their immediate environments, not to talk about travelling to other parts of Africa or other parts of the world."

He stressed that every country in the world also has its peculiar challenges, adding that it takes citizens and purposeful leaders to come up with solutions for such challenges.

“Though, every country has its own problems, but the challenge before us in Nigeria is that, what do we want, obviously, can we democratise and develop our nation? It is a very difficult question to answer because what we call the civilized world today is the last 200 years of exploitation of Africa that help to build these nations.

“So we are imagining it ourselves, why are we not like other people, we are not like others because every nation has to find it own navigational truth for development.

"It is not as if we cannot use democracy to develop Nigeria, but there are certain fundamental things that must be on the ground before people can appreciate democracy.

“Unless Nigeria settles the issue of ‘bread and butter mentality’ the democracy can actually look like a lottery,” Kukah added.