The Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, has said the election of a Catholic pontiff 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. 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’. “No, it doesn’t work like that.
And then the pundits who think that this is like betting on a horse or whatever. You always notice that by and large, when people begin to make their speculations, they are using human parameters of their calculation, and very often, most of those who make these calculations simply accumulate their data and suggest this is where it’s going to go.
“But always, people are shocked in part because the election of a pope is not like any other election anywhere in the world.” Kukah said the Catholic Church believes that the cardinal elected as pope is the choice of the Holy Spirit. He added that, unlike African politics, there are no advantages accorded to the pope’s home country.
