The storm that has followed the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria’s visit to President Bola Tinubu would certainly not have occurred had the Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, not taken to the airwaves in the form of a television interview he granted Arise News Prime Time anchor Charles Aniagolu to not only speak about but also give details of their discussion with the president during the visit. It was as if the Archbishop was not satisfied with the outcome of the visit and therefore sought an opportunity to stir the hornet’s nest by putting the details of the meeting out for Nigerians.
Except for that desire to sensationalise the subject of the meeting and probably get the kind of reaction it has now attracted, there was no pressing reason for that Cardinal Onaiyekan interview, speaking to the extent he ended up analysing the president’s body language and facial expression. That was talking too much. It’s like a man telling his acquaintances the type of meat he was served during dinner at his in-laws.
It was an unusual behaviour that goes against the grain of similar visits by other clerics, Muslim or Christian, in the past. But the good Cardinal was clear in saying that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria is different from other presidential visitors that he claims are used to retailing lies like the akara the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has recommended to struggling Nigerians as a good way to get out of the economic stress of these times. For Onaiyekan, others have been telling the president what he wanted to hear rather than what he ought to be told. So, he and his group went to ‘speak truth to power,’ as those praising him have stated the matter. Which, I guess, implies that Cardinal Onaiyekan could in this instance also speak without restraint, as it has turned out. Otherwise, the interview was not particularly necessary and looked like a strategy to stir controversy by someone determined to do so about issues that have for long been in the public domain and could well have passed without anyone noticing.
