I love Cardinal John Onaiyekan. Why? My first and only encounter with him. This was sometime in 1998. Abuja was still a fraction of what it is now. I was in front of the NYSC headquarters gate at Area 9 (I think it was at the time). (Head of State Sani) Abacha had died a few months earlier. He came down from his car, wearing non-episcopal attire, sauntered towards us and backslapped everyone around like a jolly good fellow, asked a few questions of the gateman, got in his car and off he went. He was already Archbishop of Abuja at the time.
That short encounter endeared him to me. I simply loved the simplicity. As he grew and became more prominent within the Catholic establishment, I always applauded.
It’s why I’m sad at the events around him over the past few days. I am especially pained by the unkind motives woven around his public commentary. The man of faith is as patriotic as they come!
The background is well known now. The Cardinal was part of the delegation of Catholic Bishops who went to see President Bola Tinubu. They had robust exchanges. The Bishops said their minds. The President did same. Such exchanges are to be encouraged and even applauded.
But a few days later, Onaiyekan, who was not the leader of the delegation, went on national tv to discuss the engagement. What flowed from him was a very public take-down of the President. He accused him of being tone deaf, surrounded by sycophants, and driven by anti-democratic fuel. He had nothing good to say about the President.
Not surprisingly, the President’s aides have countered, using a mixture of facts and ad hominem. I have read some views about why they should not have. I don’t agree with such views. They are within their rights, and to not engage will be dereliction of duty.
The Cardinal is entitled to voice his opinion. In fact, it will be a cardinal (pun intended) sin for him to refrain from talking when the need arises. I applaud him.
But his opinion is not unimpeachable. To start, his tone was not helpful. It was disdainful of the President and his words. As an elderstatesman, he surely should know better than most.
His interpretation of the President’s words was also unhelpful. When the President said that ‘all is fair in politics’, interpreting that to mean that he will seek to win by unlawful means is unkind. Let’s be factual here – the president’s opponents have used everything in, and out of, the books against him. His age, his health, his education, his business dealings, his political relationships, Nigeria’s long running problems etc. Nothing has not been thrown at him. Even till date, there are people paid to go abroad to rubbish him. If we accept that all of these are fair and the President has never said they aren’t, why should we then expect the President to act the saint and not kick back?
If the various parties cannot get their acts together, why should that be on President Tinubu? If the walls of these parties are not cracked open by mostly self-serving politicians, which part of it will the President’s proverbial lizard take to waddle in? Asking the President to help the opposition to put their houses in order is unfair and, frankly, dubious. That’s not his job.
Also, the law has saddled the President with appointing the leaders of INEC (the Independent National Electoral Commission). Why is it an issue for the Cardinal that President Tinubu exercised the same mandate that (Olusegun) Obasanjo, (Umaru) Yar Adua, (Goodluck) Jonathan and (Muhammadu) Buhari exercised in their time? If the Cardinal desires a fair umpire, and he should, just like we all should, placing that expectation on the President is unfair. The right channel is to go to the appointed Umpire and make that demand. For if President Tinubu starts commanding the INEC umpire in public and private, we will all rise up to question why he should be doing so. The President said INEC is not partisan and he was pilloried for this. But what will the Cardinal and everyone else say if the President says that he has no confidence in the Umpire? Will that be helpful?
The Cardinal is on firmer grounds with the economy. There is stability. But trickle down growth is not clearly evident. The base of our socio-economic pyramid is not shrinking. Certainly not to the level expected. If it is going to take more time based on the economic reforms being implemented by the government, that argument has not been made and sold to Nigerians. In this context, it is hard to quarrel with the Cardinal. Except when he cast aspersions on the President’s advisers, saying they are not telling him the truth. I feel that part was unnecessary and unkind. Little wonder many of them have come out to stridently take him on.
The major worry for me is how this episode may potentially impact such encounters in the future. It will not be surprising if the President and his advisers deny access for similar meetings, or that when he does grant access, the discussions are neither frank nor made known to the public in detail. That will be a disservice to the country. I hope that, however unhappy the President may be about these exchanges, he will continue to recognise and appreciate the value of hearing from bodies like the Catholic Bishops Conference. He may not agree with their views, but he should always avail himself of their thoughts.
God bless Nigeria!
