Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has said President Muhammadu Buhari should have sought security help directly from Joe Biden, President of the United State, rather than Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State; however, the virtual meeting with the US State Secretary is a sign that Nigeria is going somewhere.

Bishop Kukah, who spoke on Saturday at the 2021 edition of The Platform, an annual conference organised by the Senior Pastor of the Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos, Poju Oyemade, noted that the President’s attempt is an illustration of “half bread is better than nothing”

The Cleric called on Nigerians to come together to support the government in the fight against the challenges facing the country, adding that “we cannot do this if our country is divided between those who love the party and those who don’t love the party.”

“Of course, all of us are angry but in my view, the challenge therefore is what kind of palliative do we need to calm our nerves and I am not talking here of the palliatives in the way and manner that we understand them but something needs to happen to send out a signal to Nigerians that things are under control.

“With the fact that we have the US Secretary of State speaking to us virtually, we would have preferred that our President spoke to the President of America rather than the Secretary of State but anyway, half bread is better than nothing.

“I want to assure that this is a sign that we are going somewhere but we need to quickly get our people together, the need to rally our people together both to support government and otherwise is very urgent and we cannot do this if our country is divided between those who love the party and those who don’t love the party. We are in a democracy and we want to believe that this democracy has to be nurtured and the best we can do is not to subvert the process but to continue to uphold the ideals before those who are in power.”

“On the issue of Nigerians dying, government has come very short and this is what is increasing the pain, the agony, the sorrow of people that we are dying alone, burying our people alone and all we get are just simple statements that really say nothing to us. The lack of empathy and the deployment of empathy have two consequences.

“Government must have a sense of empathy and I have said this severally and I do not mean anything negative and everywhere you turn, this is what Nigerians are saying that people are dying and you do not get a sense that those who govern us understand our pain because we have not seen them on condolence visits.

“Empathy is not sympathy, empathy is at the heart of who we are as human being; it is the feeling of the sorrow, of the pain of the other person, indeed, entering the skin of the other person, it does not bring healing meeting but there is a certain kind of psychological comfort that it gives,” Kukah stated.