Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Hassan Kukah has lamented the growing romance of the judiciary with politicians, saying the development does not augur well for democracy.
Delivering the key not address at a forum Friday in Kaduna, Bishop Kukah who also cautioned clerics against being sucked in politics said there was no way one could roll in the mud without getting stained.
He said; “I am saddened by the fact that the judiciary has now found itself being sucked into politics. I am also sad to the extent that even we who are priests in the church are getting sucked in politics because you will never come out the same. You go to wrestle with a pig in the mud, you may defeat the pig but you cannot come out and show yourself and be proud of what you look like. I am not saying that politicians are pigs but I am saying that politics has its own rhyme and if you have a kind of certain moral responsibility – many people have been saying to me in the last 30 years to come and contest election but allow me finish with Parish work first. If I was under that illusion, there are many people who say they would pay for me but I know that I will not make a good president because good presidents are not what you are looking for. We have potholes, we want people who can fix them. We want people who can give us electricity”.
He however said Nigerians should not make the judiciary a scapegoat, examining how several minority judgments have been prophetic in charting the way forward for Nigeria.
On his part, former Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC, Prof. Chima Amadi noted that flawed elections lead to instability.
Lamenting that Nigeria was going the way of some less than alluring countries, Amadi said there is a deliberate elite conspiracy against free and fair elections in Nigeria.
“Flawed elections lead to instability. A country that plays with the type of elections we have had in Nigeria is moving towards the path of Niger Republic, Chad and Burkina Faso. Political scientists agree that the main value of elections might actually be conflict management and avoidance.
“The key thing about elections is that people have a right to chose their leaders and to pick them freely in a peaceful atmosphere and that the votes count.
“Nigerian political elite seem to all agree not to have free and fair election. There is deliberate elite conspiracy against free and fair election. The last election even with the existing law would have been successful but INEC deliberately destroyed the election. They deliberately stopped electronic transmission and they did not give any reason.