Matthew Kukah, bishop of Sokoto Catholic diocese, says Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of state, has given respectability to Nigeria’s electoral process through the peace committee.
The committee is headed by Abubakar and has since inception held many peace pacts among candidates of political parties before elections.
Speaking at a conference in honour of Abubakar held in Abuja, Kukah said the mandate of the peace committee was for the 2015 elections, but the committee still continued with its mandate because of the credibility of the former head of state.
“On behalf of the peace committee, we want to thank General Abdulsalami because he has given respectability to election and electoral processes,” he said.
“Because we work very closely with INEC and now we are literally finding ourselves being called from left, right and centre.
“The idea was that after the 2015 elections everybody will go home. When we finished we decided to say ‘are we to shake hands and go home?’ We said ‘look, let’s sit down together’.
“Truly, General Abdulsalami was gracious enough when we suggested that why don’t we hear from Nigerians what they think about the work of the peace committee.
“We called the media, we called civil society, we called the BOT of the two parties, we went to see the president, we went to see the speaker, we went to see the senate president, and President Goodluck Jonathan.
KUKAH TIPS ABDULSALAMI FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
He also tipped the former head of state for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it is long overdue for Abdulsalami to clinch the prestigious prize.
“I believe but I don’t know how but I think the next campaign that all of us must now wait for is to work hard because the Nobel Prize for peace is long overdue,” he added.
