Matthew Kukah, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, has asked President Bola Tinubu to rescue Nigerians from the “cross of evil”.
In his 2025 Easter message titled ‘Mr President: Please bring us down from this cross’, Kukah said the country is bleeding from savagery and brutality “never witnessed in the history of our dear country”.
“Every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions,” he said.
“A dark pall of death hangs languidly from north to south. It is impossible to find a home, a family, or a community that has not been caught in the cusp of this savagery.
“Mr President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point. The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. With a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.”
The bishop said while Tinubu did not erect the cross, he must act to stop the bleeding.
“Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long,” he said.
“A culture of cynicism and self-doubt over our capacity to secure peace for ourselves pervades our land. Indeed, a majority of our citizens feel that there is no hope in sight.”
Kukah said Christians must still hold on to hope and look up to the cross as a source of strength and renewal.
“These times of great suffering should be times of hope, hope beyond human imagination — a hope which, as St. Paul assures us, does not disappoint,” he said.
He noted that Pope Francis had declared 2025 as the Year of Hope, urging Christians to see themselves as “pilgrims of hope” amid the harshness of the world.
“The road to our collective discouragement in Nigeria has been laid by marauders, murderers, savages and ravenous predators who threaten to overrun our nation,” he said.
“Mr President, immediately rid our dear country of these forces of darkness and bring us down from this cross of cynicism.”
