Bishop of the Sokoto Catholic Church Diocese and Convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, has described Nigeria as a country where rules of men prevail over the rule of law.
He stated this during an interview with Channels TV on Friday while reacting to the Thursday signing of the peace accord by the presidential candidates for the 2023 general elections.
All the candidates and the national chairmen of their parties signed the accord organized by the National Peace Committee in Abuja.
Kukah said the peace accord is necessary for trying to hold the feet of political candidates to the fire, as to ensure peace and security before and after the elections.
He said the accord is to ensure that the politicians act in accordance with the rule of law, and face penalties when they breach the law.
He said, “This is a country where people don’t take the laws seriously, whether the constitution or whatever. Our responsibility is to ensure that the actors, in the long run, can suffer penalties.
“These penalties should include, by a clear commitment, that the things you signed for cooperate with the civil society, to obey the law, to make sure that you don’t incite violence.
“And I am hopeful that going forward, if we have a tribunal or if we have a commission dealing with electoral offenses, and it is possible that people will begin to suffer penalties; where you could have your presidential ticket taken away from you; where you could have your gubernatorial ticket taken away from you because you did not play according to the rules of the game.
“That’s where we should be heading to because our people have no commitment for the respect of the rule of law. What we’ve in Nigeria isn’t rule of law, it’s a rule of men.”