Kukah urges INEC to guarantee credible elections amid Electoral Act debate
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take all necessary steps to ensure free, fair and credible
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take all necessary steps to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
Kukah made the appeal on Thursday at the Leadership Annual Conference and Award 2025 held in Abuja.
The conference, themed “Political Stability and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Increasingly Unstable Global System: A Roadmap for Nigeria,” focused on governance and the continent’s place in a shifting global order.
The cleric, who chaired the occasion, stressed the urgency of resolving the ongoing disputes surrounding the Electoral Act, warning that Africa would not wait indefinitely for Nigeria to put its democratic processes in order.
He emphasised that INEC must, by all lawful means, deliver elections that reflect the will of the people.
Kukah also drew attention to rising global tensions, noting that geopolitical disruptions have once again positioned Africa as a theatre of competition among major world powers.
He said, “The African Union is going to be meeting for a long time, so that is a problem. We do not know what they will discuss.
“However, we know that while the superpowers are reviewing their Berlin Conference in the major cities of the world to fund and consolidate their domination of the world with no seat at the table. Africa is again the main venue on the table. While Africa is horribly consumed by a tonne of suicidal internal wars, the world is now defined by those who will fund or become junior partners in what Trump has referred to as the Troubled German American Great Partnership.
“We are not at the table. The boys in Washington are discussing the critical minerals as a subject. And I am meeting one of the major thinkers in America, the State Executive.
“America's greatest task now is how to deal with the issues of critical minerals. They say, while stating the great partnership, the administration is admitting, and I quote, critical minerals are the elements of building and also everything that we as a country need in the manufacturing sector and to industrialise our country. It is hinged on the plans that we have.
“And there are four plans. One, investing in mining as a pilot mineral, protecting our mining companies, and rebuilding our mining ecosystem. I made this point just to call attention.
“And I believe that the speaker will do a far, far, far bigger job. But to say that the conversation of making Africa great again, making Nigeria great again, will be a project that all of us must collectively take seriously. Because while Africa is ironically haemorrhaging, drowning in its own blood, and doing everything possible to consolidate its weakness, other nations are moving forward in their domination.
“The powerful nations are insisting that our land will become the theatre of their conquest as they search for minerals. And my second wave of this competition. A roadmap to make Africa great again cannot proceed without Nigeria, or it will end up in the cold south.
“However, the rest of Africa can no longer wait until Nigeria has surrendered to one piece of ground. The rest of Africa will not wait for any more than us. Whose only roadmap
“This goes to Africa. The rest of Africa will not wait for us to decide whether we translate, transform, relay, dispatch, disseminate, or transfer the results of our elections by podcast, by telecast, by videocast, or by live stream.
“By God, by whatever means, give us clean and credible elections.”
He said the conference acts as a medium of proposing solutions.
He added, “This conference is about Nigeria, where we are, what we've learned, and where we're going. It's about honest conversations around the political status and sustainable development of Nigeria, Africa, and the world, where the global system is becoming increasingly unstable.
“As we present the awards today, we recognise Nigerians and institutions whose work connects resilience, innovation, and service to humanity first and foremost.
"We are celebrating excellence, but not perfection. Commitment, faith, and resistant service to this nation and community. As Nigerians, we build our progress as a family, but we also see the strength of collaboration, where government, the private sector, ordinary individuals, community members, and civil society come together in a shared sense of purpose.
“Conferences like this remind us that dialogue matters, partnerships matter, and issues of leadership matter even more.”
