Bishop Matthew Kukah, President Bola Tinubu
By Tony Folarin
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has said that President Bola Tinubu did not sign a peace accord as presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in 2023 presidential election.
Kukah, one of the conveners of the National Peace Committee headed by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar, disclosed this on Sunday in Benin City during the Edo Election Security Townhall.
According to the outspoken Catholic Bishop, the committee can’t force any presidential candidate to sign the peace pact, which has become an electoral ritual in the last decade but can only apply moral persuasion.
Kukah asserted that the failure of political parties and their candidates to sign the peace accord sends a wrong signal to Nigerians, which the opposition can easily exploit to gain advantage. He stated that , “The National Peace Committee, what we do is not in the Electoral Act, it’s not law; it’s moral. You can’t compel people to fall in love or love their neighbour.
“If you go back to the 2019 election, the presidential candidate for the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was not there to sign the Peace Accord. And, of course, the opposition went to town, which is what it ought to be, and the next day, he (Atiku) turned up to sign.
“What is also very interesting is that the current president, when he was a presidential candidate, did not sign; it wasn’t our fault that the political opposition didn’t take advantage of it.
“It’s a pity, but we are not going to take anybody to court for not signing the Peace Accord.
The only thing it does to you as a candidate is that it sends a wrong signal which can be very easily exploited by the opposition.”
