Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, has asked Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, to prioritise the security of Nigerians when he assumes office on May 29.
In a statement on Sunday, the cleric said the mission to revive the minds of citizens is urgent as it will reposition the country on the path to greatness.
“I am hopeful that you will appreciate that the most urgent task facing our nation is not infrastructure or the usual cheap talk about dividends of democracy. These are important but first, keep us alive because only the living can enjoy infrastructure,” Kukah said.
He also asked Tinubu to eliminate chains of ethnic and religious bigotry and to recover the country from the “men of darkness”.
“For now, the most urgent mission is to start a psychological journey of making Nigerians feel whole again, of creating a large tent of opportunity and hope for us all, of expanding the frontiers of our collective freedom, of cutting off the chains of ethnicity and religious bigotry, of helping us recover from the feeling of collective rape by those who imported the men of darkness that destroyed our country, of recovering our country and placing us on the path to our greatness, of exorcising the ghost of nepotism and religious bigotry,” the cleric said.
Kukah called on the youths to embrace peace following the protests that trailed the outcome of the elections in the country.
He noted that the youths had a right to be angry but asked them to transform it to a motivation to legally seek justice.