State of the nation: You can’t speak for all Christians, Presidency replies Onaiyekan

Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has criticised Archbishop Emeritus John Onaiyekan of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja for statements he made during an appearance on Arise Television.

In a Prime Time segment on Arise News last Friday, Cardinal Onaiyekan claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had rejected the assessment of the economy and security situation in Nigeria, provided by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, during a recent meeting at the State House.

He said: “When the nation is bleeding, you cannot expect a polite meeting with the Head of State. We told him the economy is not helping our poor people; he told us the economy is doing fine. Frankly speaking, he told us quite clearly that he did not agree with us.

“We didn’t expect him to agree with us. We have done our duty, we have delivered our message, and we have a feeling that somehow, along the line, somebody will show him a few of the things we said.”

The cleric further noted that a memorandum presented to the President reflected the collective position of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference after wide consultations across the country.

“We are not politicians running for office. We are religious leaders who feel we have a duty not just to preach our doctrines but also to address the lives of our people.”

Reacting through a post on his X handle, @BwalaDaniel, the Special Adviser to the President declared that Cardinal Onaiyekan “is more political than spiritual.”

While he maintained that the cleric was not speaking for Christians, he further alleged that the Catholics as an institution have always supported former presidential candidate of the Labour Party and now presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress in the forthcoming general elections, Peter Obi.

His post read: “Cardinal Onaiyekan wasn’t speaking for Christian’s; he was speaking for Catholics, the very institutions rooting for Peter Obi @PeterObi in fact, likely the institution where Peter Obi also said in 2022 “take back your country “. Therefore, the Cardinal is more political than spiritual. And not all catholic members are supporting Peter Obi.

“The president @officialABAT was well within his right to disagree with their assertion as regards Nigeria’s economy based purely on facts, statistics and numbers put into context.

“Ironically, the same priest would rebuke their members if the members said “we are suffering or we are poor” they would tell them to rather say “we are doing great and or we are rich even when they are suffering or poor”

“There is a body comprising all Christian’s including the Catholics and catholic bishops conference and that body’s position is neutral and should be so, otherwise, it is political.”

In a separate statement by Tope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Publicity, entitled “Cardinal Onaiyekan’s Abuse of Clerical Privilege,” the Presidency accused the cleric of acting in bad faith by taking to the media space a private discussion with President Tinubu.

“The Catholic Bishops discharged what they considered their moral obligation by presenting their concerns to the president. President Tinubu, for his part, accorded them respect by granting them an audience and responding to every issue they raised. That exchange reflected the civility expected in a constitutional democracy.

“Reciprocity should have dictated that the confidentiality and dignity of that engagement be preserved. As such, it was inappropriate for one of the participants to emerge almost immediately on national television to provide his own version of what was essentially a private conversation with the president.

“Clerical office carries privileges, but it also imposes obligations. Among the qualities the Scriptures require of bishops are temperance, maturity, self-restraint, and the wisdom to remain above needless public controversy. “Those virtues become even more important when dealing with matters of state. Public influence should be exercised with discretion, not by converting privileged access into a platform for post-meeting commentary.”

Ajayi maintained that, unlike the narrative presented by Cardinal Onaiyekan in his interview, President Tinubu was not dismissive of the clerics’ positions on the economy and security situations but only pointed out the fact that their characterisation was inaccurate.

“The President argued that the bishops’ characterisation of the country’s current condition was incomplete and, in several respects, inaccurate. He pointed to measurable progress on the economic, social, and security fronts. He did not pretend that Nigeria’s problems had disappeared. He acknowledged that significant economic and security challenges remain. His point was that the country has emerged from “a dark tunnel”, that his administration has laid the foundations for recovery and that the next phase is to ensure the greatest number of Nigerians feels the gains.

“What the clerics often overlook in these interventions is that governing a country is fundamentally different from shepherding a church. In a democracy, every interest group, including the Catholic Church, has every right to demand more from government. That is part of democratic engagement.

“But the president of a nation of more than 200 million people is required to make difficult choices every single day. Those choices involve competing interests, limited resources, and imperfect options. They will inevitably disappoint some constituencies. There is no president, whether Tinubu or whoever succeeds him, who can wave a magic wand and make Nigeria’s accumulated problems disappear overnight.

“It is easy to compile a list of national problems. It is far more difficult to acknowledge the disasters that have been averted. Whatever anyone thinks of President Tinubu’s policies, it is impossible to ignore the fiscal crisis he inherited and the measures taken to pull the country away from the edge of a financial cliff. Even the bishops themselves should recognise that one tangible consequence has been the restoration of greater fiscal stability across many states.”