Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has said his recent response to Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, was not intended to disrespect the Catholic cleric or the church.
Ajayi made the clarification during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday, days after he criticised Onaiyekan for publicly discussing the details of a closed-door meeting between Tinubu and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).
Onaiyekan had spoken about the meeting during an interview with Arise TV, recounting the exchanges between the president and the bishops over the state of the Nigerian economy and other concerns raised by the delegation.
The bishops, led by CBCN President Matthew Ndagoso, had met with Tinubu to discuss issues including insecurity, tertiary education, the state of democracy, credible elections and poverty.
During his earlier response, Ajayi had described Onaiyekan’s decision to publicly give his account of the private meeting as “an abuse of clerical privilege.”
