Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese has doubted the possibility of having a pope from Africa, saying the election process is not a rotational system based on region, and the outcome is unpredictable, unlike in Nigerian politics.

Mr Kukah said in an interview with Channels TV that Africa has a long way to go to produce a pope because the pope’s election is unlike President Bola Tinubu’s “Emilokan” politics.

Asked to share his views on calls from some quarters for the election of the Catholic head of African descent, Mr Kukah said, “As you know, electing a pope is not like that; it’s not an ‘Emilokan’ scenario in which you say, ‘These people have had their turn, now it’s our turn.’ No, it doesn’t work like that.”

Emi l’okan, a Yoruba phrase meaning “It is my turn,” became a popular slogan in Nigerian political parlance in 2022 when Mr Tinubu declared it was his turn to lead the most populous African country.

The cleric said that, unlike other elections worldwide, where candidates are allowed to seek votes or put out a manifesto, the cardinals who elect a new pope are unfamiliar with one another.

“Every Catholic and every Christian believes that it is the Holy Spirit that does this because 133 people go in with name tags because everybody doesn’t know everybody.

“Holy Spirit has his way of aggregating what he wants. So, we are going to do what human beings do, but God already has an idea about what exactly it is that He wants of his church, and from the time of Peter till date, the Holy Spirit has not failed the church,” he said.

Mr Kukah said that rather than pushing to produce the Catholic pontiff, Africa should start by winning the World Cup.

“Well, let’s win the World Cup first. 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,” Mr Kukah said.

Speaking about the unpredictability of the pope’s election, Mr Kukah said, “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…But always, people are shocked in part because the election of a pope is not like any other election anywhere in the world.”

On May 8, Pope Leo XIV, who was not ranked among potential successors of Pope Francis, emerged as the 267th and the first American Catholic pontiff.

Gamblers who staked millions of dollars predicting who would emerge as the new pope, following high odds on some potential candidates by betting sites, lost their money.

Pope Leo XIV eventually emerged as the new leader of the Catholic Church, demonstrating the long-standing unpredictability of conclave elections and leaving gamblers who staked thousands of dollars on high-odds candidates in shock.

Pope Leo XIV’s surprising emergence is reminiscent of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who defied projections in 2013 when he was elected instead of Cardinal Angelo Scola, then widely regarded as the favourite.