Onaiyekan has defied presidency, stated that he is not afraid of anybody’ over Tinubu meeting remarks.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, has declared that he is neither afraid of the Federal Government nor embarrassed by the criticism that followed his public account of a meeting between Catholic bishops and President Bola Tinubu.
Onaiyekan said his television appearance after the meeting was intended to communicate the concerns raised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, not to please the government or any individual.
ALSO: Tinubu Appoints Abel Enitan as New Head of Civil Service of the Federation
The 82-year-old cleric stated this in a video shared by SYMFONI TV on Wednesday while responding to questions about the Presidency’s reaction to his account of the bishops’ meeting with Tinubu.
“I didn’t go to Arise to please government, or to just please people, but to tell the truth. That’s all I stand for,” Onaiyekan said.
He added: “I cannot be embarrassed. I’m 82 years old; nobody can embarrass me. And I’m not afraid of anybody. Nobody, at this stage now, are they going to arrest me, carry me to where?”
The cleric said Nigerians should not take their freedom to criticise the government for granted, noting that religious leaders in some African countries could not speak as openly.
“And we are still lucky in this Nigeria that we can still talk. We shouldn’t take that for granted. There are many countries in Africa where no bishop dares to talk like we do here,” he said.
Onaiyekan clarified that his comments reflected the collective position of the Catholic bishops who attended the meeting and were not merely his personal views.
“Mind you, I didn’t talk on my own. I spoke on behalf of my fellow bishops. We drafted a statement which contained all that I said in the interview. So, all the bishops of Nigeria spoke that way. It was their voice I was echoing,” he stated.
He said the bishops remained free to express similar concerns in their respective dioceses, adding that other religious leaders had also spoken about Nigeria’s challenges.
“I cannot speak on behalf of other religious leaders. Everybody has their own job to do, but many of the other religious leaders have supported us,” he said.
“When it comes to what is happening to Nigeria—the poverty, the suffering—we are all in the same boat now, abi?”
His remarks followed a July 28 meeting between Tinubu and a delegation of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria at the State House in Abuja.
The delegation was led by the CBCN President and Archbishop of Kaduna, Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso. It also included Onaiyekan, Cardinal Peter Okpaleke, Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto and other senior Catholic clerics.
During the meeting, the bishops raised concerns about economic hardship, insecurity, democracy, the 2027 elections, religious freedom and the return of mission schools.
Three days later, Onaiyekan appeared on Arise News and said the bishops had spoken frankly to the President about the suffering confronting Nigerians.
The Presidency subsequently criticised the cleric’s public account of the meeting. Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, described the disclosure of details from what he considered a private engagement as inappropriate.
Onaiyekan, however, maintained that he had no reason to feel embarrassed by the criticism, insisting that the bishops’ intervention was motivated by concern for Nigerians.
