THE MORE YOU SEE, THE LESS YOU UNDERSTAND WITH THIS MAN : Bishop Kukah blames FG for N’Delta uprising

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah has blamed Federal Government for the insurrection in the Niger Delta region over the years on its oil exploration without carrying along the host communities. Kukah was the guest speaker at a three-day workshop entitled: “Development of a Road map for Mineral and Raw Materials Exploitation in North West” held in Sokoto. He said: “We must perfect our way of exploration that would benefit the host communities. The reason why we experienced restiveness in the Niger Delta region was that the Federal Government excluded the people from the whole process, which resulted into uprising, militancy and chaos.

“Against the backdrop of what happened in the Niger Delta, we should have a lot of lessons to learn on how to go forward with the issues of mineral exploration,” Kukah further said.The Catholic cleric, who was represented by its Diocese Secretary, Rev. Father Ladi Onu also said the discovery of mineral resources in the North would not solve the northern region’s problems automatically, unless the people take advantage of the needed education to be able to participate in the affairs that affect their own lives. “People are still being lured into believing that all the need is to raise walls to protect their culture and faith. If the society does not consciously open up , it will continue to have repeats of miniature Boko Harams, men prepared to seduce their people to the wilderness using religion,” he said.