Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, on Wednesday, said the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah, spoke truth to power in his Christmas message last Friday.
The Afenifere spokesman said supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari are, however, blackmailing the cleric for speaking up.
Odumakin spoke on a PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable.
He said, “He (Kukah) has been a forthright man, and he speaks truth to power. His calling as a Christian cleric is to say the truth to power and in that message which he delivered on Christmas, he spoke the truth, and that truth may be uncomfortable to those who are running the country aground, but it was the truth he spoke.”
Odumakin also added that Kukah never called for a coup in his message last Friday as alleged by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
“Those who are saying that want to blackmail him (Kukah). It is just emotional blackmail, they want to blackmail him, and he has since spoken again to make it very clear that he did not call for a coup,” the Afenifere spokesman noted.
Kukah had accused Buhari of nepotism when he said, “Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it.
“There would have been a military coup a long time ago, or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions.”
Reacting, Odumakin said Kukah was right that Buhari has been nepotistic in his appointments as more northerners have been appointed in government since 2015.
