Father Matthew Kukah - the folly of ethnic compartmentalisation

Father Matthew Kukah is quite a man. Many that grew up in Nigeria got to know him from his articles in the Guardian. Very few contributors to debates on the Nigerian polity could articulate the complexity of the country as eloquently as Father Kukah. When we invited him to speak at TEDxEuston we expected a lot and wow, did he deliver! He produced a fascinating tour de force of his engagement with the country. Few people can address the complex issues of religion and ethnicity with integrity, authority and wit. Father Kukah left us laughing uncontrollably about the tears in our eyes, and the pain in our hearts. The gentleman below could not hold himself!

His talk beautifully encapsulated the unfulfilled potential of a country that awaits greatness and what Nigerians can do about it. Watch his talk here....



Matthew Kukah is a Catholic Reverend Father and former Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat in Nigeria. He served on Nigeria's Presidential Truth Commission into Past Human Rights Violations. Until recently a Senior Fellow at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Dr Kukah is a rigorous scholar and respected commentator, Dr Kukah received his PhD from the University of London.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed work, Religion and Politics in Northern Nigeria since Independence (Spectrum, 1994), and most recently of Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria (Spectrum, 2002). Father Kukah is a regular commentator on complex social and political issues in Nigeria.
Professor Bart O. Nnaji is currently the Special Adviser to the President on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power – an organ charged with the reform of the Nigerian Power Sector. He is the founder Geometric Power Limited - the first indigenously owned private sector power Company in Nigeria. Geometric is currently building a US$400 million Integrated Power Project (IPP) in Aba to generate more than 188 MW. He served as Federal Minister of Science and Technology of Nigeria in 1993.