Election of pope not based on ‘emi lokan’ ideology – Kukah

Kukah

Matthew Kukah, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, says the election of a Catholic pope is not based on the ideology of ‘emi lokan’.

Kukah spoke on the subject during a Channels Television interview aired on May 21.

‘Emi lokan’ is a Yoruba phrase which means ‘it is my turn’. The phrase was popularised by President Bola Tinubu in June 2022.

Tinubu, then an APC presidential aspirant, had said it was his turn to become president after his political support for former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The phrase has since been mainstreamed into the country’s political lexicon.

ELECTION OF NEW POPE

On May 18, Pope Leo XIV was inaugurated as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis.

Before the new pope’s election, social media was awash with conversations around the possibility of an African becoming the pope.

Asked for his take on the discourse, Kukah said a pope’s election is not based on human permutations, adding that Africa should first win the World Cup.

“I think we still have a long way to go. I did write an article in the course of all of this, and I remember remarking on something that happened when Pope John Paul II died and the speculators thought that Cardinal Arinze came very close,” he said.

“But as you know, electing a pope is not like that, it’s not an ‘emi lokan’ scenario in which you say, ‘these people have had their turn, now it’s our turn’.