The Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria has thrown its weight behind Archbishop Emeritus, Catholic Diocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan on his stance that President Bola Tinubu is desperate to win re-election at all costs.
In a statement dated August 2, signed by its president, Ambrose Obioha, the CLCN declared, “We stand in solidarity with His Eminence Cardinal John Onaiyekan and the CBCN. The Catholic Church in Nigeria, by virtue of the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching, has a God-given duty to speak truth to power, to defend the vulnerable and to hold leadership accountable with truth and charity.”
The group pointed out that such a position was not an “abuse of privilege” but the fulfilment of pastoral responsibility, arguing that Mr Onaiyekan did not reveal any secret as his interview was in the public interest.
“While we respect the sanctity of private engagements, matters that touch on the life, welfare, and future of over 200 million Nigerians cannot remain forever in closed rooms. When national issues of economy, security, and justice are discussed, the people have a right to know the direction of leadership. Cardinal Onaiyekan did not reveal secrets. He shared the moral concerns of the Church and the response of government, which is in the public interest,” the Catholic group explained.
The CLCN stated that Mr Onaiyekan was known to be “a man of peace, dialogue, and integrity” and that “his intervention was not to embarrass government, but to call the nation to conscience”.
The Catholics noted that “a disagreement over facts, as the presidency rightly noted, should not be read as arrogance” and “neither should a pastoral reflection be read as a breach of trust”.
On Friday, after he joined a delegation of Catholic Bishops to meet with Mr Tinubu at Aso Rock, Mr Onaiyekan, in an interview with ARISE TV, said, “The position of Mr President came very clearly in that statement that he made: ‘In politics, all is fair.’ Is that true? If that is what politics is—that in politics everything can be done provided you win elections. That is certainly not correct. There is propriety in everything. That is why we are worried about it.”
The cleric expressed concern that the Tinubu government “is bent on winning by all means, and unfortunately, they have a lot of means at their disposal to win”, alleging that “they are deploying all those means in a way that eventually, even if we had a free and fair election, the votes of the people may not count”.
Reacting to the interview, the presidency accused the cleric of partisanship and siding with opposition candidate, Peter Obi, who is a Catholic.