ABUJA – Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop MaTthew Kukah has blamed most of the problems facing the country since independence in 1960 on bad leadership.

*Bishop Kukah

Kukah stated this while speaking at a forun at the Catholic Secretariat in Abuja.

According to him; “A lot of our difficulties are tied to the calibre and quality of people who have governed this country.

“Actually, I don’t call most of the people we have on ground leaders; they are actually people who are just holding office, and you can be a leader without being in office and you can be in office without being a leader,” he noted.

The cleric explained that most Nigerians lack patriotic zeal, noting “this is the reason why we are having problems with our democracy.

“Else where, it is not as if those people love democracy because they are better than the rest of us, they love the democracy because of the services it offers them,” he noted.

The Secretary General of the CSN, Rev. Fr. Ralph Madu said the country needs to reflect on its democratic journey so far, taking cognizance of the present electoral period.

He admonished youth to refuse be used by unscrupulous politicians to perpetrate violence before, during and after elections, but turn out en masse to perform their civil responsibility by voting for candidates of their choice.