Monsignor Ukah gives damning verdict on 2019 polls, says your votes may still not count
Conflict resolution and situations analyst and clergyman, The Very Reverend Monsignor Livinus Ukah of the Catholic Archdiocese in Lagos, has looked into the forthcoming presidential election in the country and declared that political warlords have devised a scheme that will makesthe much sort after Permanent Voters Card (PVC) irrelevant.
In a chat with The Daily Times the Cleric said, “Don’t let them deceive you. They are wasting our time with all the elaborate preparations to fool the electorate and the world that they are conducting free and fair election,
“With all the efforts of stakeholders, the votes of Nigerian still don’t count. Did you not see the news recently that politicians are buying up the PVC for cash? Doesn’t that tell you that our individual votes doesn’t count?
“Except God intervenes, politicians have already decided among themselves who is going to be the next president. They are wasting our time by spending huge sums of money pretending to be conducting legitimate elections while they have negotiated among themselves and have decided behind the scene who the winner is going to be.”
The Canadian trained journalist and psychologist was speaking at his parish house, St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Aboru, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos over the weekend of the volatile campaign strategies adopted by the major players.
Ukah said: “The drums of political war we are hearing now before the February presidential election is not the answer. If the Nigeria I see now continues in the hands of politicians, I fear there would be no positive future, because ruling politicians don’t want to confront the reality of the times; therefore they feed Nigerians with lies: Nigerians are living on lies.
“Another virus in the Nigerian polity is ethnicity: it is our biggest obstacle against progress; the mentality is, ‘My brother is there, my in-law is the governor and I don’t care whether he is doing well or not’. Nigerian leaders are not prepared to look for a credible president. I also observe that state and federal governments are not even prepared to work together with many Nigerians who are equipped to make the country better.”
He sighs, “The whole drama is like the modus operandi you see at the motor parks; there they use touts to run their opponents down in order to rise; and leaders who emerge through such politicking don’t have answers to Nigeria’s many woes. Time has not come when Nigerians will have a legitimate election; what they are doing now is patch it up here and there, wasting the peoples’ time,” he asserted.
Monsgr Ukah mourns the inability of the Church to give divine direction to government.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is supposed to be the voice of the people, but the body has become corrupt. I saw some group of people going to Mr. President recently and the so-called men of God were addressing Buhari as though they were talking to God. The church has lost relevance.
“Money has always been the problem; money has taken away the voice of the Lord from the body of Christ, so much that the church in Nigeria cannot see the hand of God; they have become so materialistic that they cannot influence the right person to lead the country out of this economic and political dogma.”
So, come February date, is the radical priest going to the poll?
“I have my PVC of course, but I have not decided whether I will vote or not.”
Why is that? “Excuse me! What’s the point of wasting your time? Voting doesn’t matter in this country; politicians and the umpire body know how to alter figures.”
Asked what Nigerians should expect at the February 2019 presidential election, the clergy man said prophetically:
“All I am seeing is chaos: I see chaos in the election because the leaders are forcing themselves on us; and when they use their own power to win the election there will be chaos; there will be many causalities; the poor and innocent members of the electorate are going to die.”
“Man proposes, but God disposes. If God motivates the people in the coming election, a sincere person will emerge,” he said.
In a chat with The Daily Times the Cleric said, “Don’t let them deceive you. They are wasting our time with all the elaborate preparations to fool the electorate and the world that they are conducting free and fair election,
“With all the efforts of stakeholders, the votes of Nigerian still don’t count. Did you not see the news recently that politicians are buying up the PVC for cash? Doesn’t that tell you that our individual votes doesn’t count?
“Except God intervenes, politicians have already decided among themselves who is going to be the next president. They are wasting our time by spending huge sums of money pretending to be conducting legitimate elections while they have negotiated among themselves and have decided behind the scene who the winner is going to be.”
The Canadian trained journalist and psychologist was speaking at his parish house, St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Aboru, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos over the weekend of the volatile campaign strategies adopted by the major players.
Ukah said: “The drums of political war we are hearing now before the February presidential election is not the answer. If the Nigeria I see now continues in the hands of politicians, I fear there would be no positive future, because ruling politicians don’t want to confront the reality of the times; therefore they feed Nigerians with lies: Nigerians are living on lies.
“Another virus in the Nigerian polity is ethnicity: it is our biggest obstacle against progress; the mentality is, ‘My brother is there, my in-law is the governor and I don’t care whether he is doing well or not’. Nigerian leaders are not prepared to look for a credible president. I also observe that state and federal governments are not even prepared to work together with many Nigerians who are equipped to make the country better.”
He sighs, “The whole drama is like the modus operandi you see at the motor parks; there they use touts to run their opponents down in order to rise; and leaders who emerge through such politicking don’t have answers to Nigeria’s many woes. Time has not come when Nigerians will have a legitimate election; what they are doing now is patch it up here and there, wasting the peoples’ time,” he asserted.
Monsgr Ukah mourns the inability of the Church to give divine direction to government.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is supposed to be the voice of the people, but the body has become corrupt. I saw some group of people going to Mr. President recently and the so-called men of God were addressing Buhari as though they were talking to God. The church has lost relevance.
“Money has always been the problem; money has taken away the voice of the Lord from the body of Christ, so much that the church in Nigeria cannot see the hand of God; they have become so materialistic that they cannot influence the right person to lead the country out of this economic and political dogma.”
So, come February date, is the radical priest going to the poll?
“I have my PVC of course, but I have not decided whether I will vote or not.”
Why is that? “Excuse me! What’s the point of wasting your time? Voting doesn’t matter in this country; politicians and the umpire body know how to alter figures.”
Asked what Nigerians should expect at the February 2019 presidential election, the clergy man said prophetically:
“All I am seeing is chaos: I see chaos in the election because the leaders are forcing themselves on us; and when they use their own power to win the election there will be chaos; there will be many causalities; the poor and innocent members of the electorate are going to die.”
“Man proposes, but God disposes. If God motivates the people in the coming election, a sincere person will emerge,” he said.
