Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto

Matthew Hassan Kukah is the current Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria.  He was ordained on December 19, 1976.  He was formerly the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Kaduna until he was ordained as Bishop on September 8, 2011. Kukah has served in many presidential initiatives such as the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission, the Electoral Reform Committee and the National Political Reform Conference.  He was the presidential facilitator who negotiated an end to the hostilities between Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Ogoni people.  He also served on a Committee set up by the Northern Governors to examine the crisis of Boko Haram. He is Chairman of the Interreligious Dialogue Committees for both the Bishops’ Conferences of Nigeria and West Africa and is a Member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Vatican City. Kukah holds a Bachelor of Divinity from St. Augustine’s Seminary.  He earned a Master’s Degree in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford (1980) and a Doctorate Degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies (1990).  He was a Senior Rhodes scholar at St. Antony’s College (2001-2003), Oxford, and a Mason Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. He is also founder of the Kukah Centre, a Public Policy Think tank with focus on faith and public policy in Abuja and Kaduna, Nigeria. Biography as at 19.10.17