SAN FRANCISCO, February 12, (THEWILL) – A seminarian at the Good Shepherd Catholic Major Seminary in Kaduna State, Michael Nnadi, who was kidnapped and eventually murdered, was on Tuesday buried amid tears.
Nnadi and three other seminarians were abducted from their hostel by kidnappers on January 10, 2020, and taken to an unknown destination.
While the three other victims were later released from captivity, Nnadi was not Lucky as he was killed and his corpse found along the Kaduna- Abuja highway on February 2nd.
Friends, family, and colleagues could not hold back their tears as the body of the young seminarian was laid to rest at the premises of the school’s cemetery.
A funeral mass which had in attendance Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Kukah, Bishop of Kaduna Diocese, Most Reverend Mathew Ndagoso was also held in the honour of the seminarian.
Bishop Kukah in his sermon asked Christians to keep their faith alive despite the trying moment as he described the government of President Muhammadu Buhari as the most nepotistic and narcissistic government in Nigeria’s history.
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Kukah recounted the pre-election promises made by President Buhari at the Chatham House, London, and expressed regret at what he described as the apparent disappointment of Nigerians over the current state of affairs, especially with regards to the nation’s security.
“No one could have imagined that in winning the Presidency, General Buhari would bring nepotism and clannishness into the military and the ancillary Security Agencies, that his government would be marked by supremacist and divisive policies that would push our country to the brink.
“Despite running the most nepotistic and narcissistic government in known history, there are no answers to the millions of young children on the streets in northern Nigeria, the north still has the worst indices of poverty, insecurity, stunting, squalor and destitution,” Kukah said.
The Bishop also said the president has “subordinated the larger interests of the country to the hegemonic interests of his co-religionists and clansmen and women” adding that the “nepotistic conducts” of President Buhari has resulted in a “convulsion of the noble religion of Islam.”
“Today, in Nigeria, the noble religion of Islam has convulsed. Muslim scholars, traditional rulers and intellectuals have continued to cry out helplessly, asking for their religion and region to be freed from this chokehold.
“The Fulani, his innocent kinsmen, have become the subject of opprobrium, ridicule, defamation, calumny and obloquy. His north has become one large grave yard, a valley of dry bones, the nastiest and the most brutish part of our dear country,” Kukah said.
“We are being told that this situation has nothing to do with Religion. Really? It is what happens when politicians use religion to extend the frontiers of their ambition and power. Are we to believe that simply because Boko Haram kills Muslims too, they wear no religious garb?
“Are we to deny the evidence before us, of kidnappers separating Muslims from infidels or compelling Christians to convert or die? If your son steals from me, do you solve the problem by saying he also steals from you? Again, the Sultan got it right: let the northern political elite who have surrendered the space claim it back immediately.”
Kukah however called on Nigerian Christians to return the hatred of the terrorist with love by praying for their conversion, as Jesus Christ instructed.
“Through Violence, you can murder the Terrorist, but you cannot end Terrorism. Through Violence, you can murder the Violent, but you cannot end Violence. These are the ways of the flesh. This is the challenge for us as Christians.
“Put back your sword (Mt. 26: 52). Turn the other cheek (Mt. 5:38). Pray for your enemy (Mt. 5: 44). Give the thief your cloak (Lk. 6:29). None of these makes sense to the human mind without faith,” he said.
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