Last week on this page, I hailed Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Emeritus Archbishop of Abuja, for speaking up when President Tinubu responded callously to Catholic bishops’ concerns about widespread poverty and insecurity.
Daniel Bwala, an accident-prone presidential spokesman, accused Onaiyekan of speaking only for Catholics. “NOT SO!” was the robust rejoinder from Christian leaders from other denominations. I thought I should share an interview I’ve transcribed.
It took place on August 5th between 2 AFIA TV anchors and the Most Reverend Sosthenes Eze, Anglican Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province and Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Enugu North. Wise words indeed. Excerpts:
Reverend: [Bwala] was absolutely wrong. [Onaiyekan] was not speaking for the Catholic church. In fact, he was speaking for the entire nation, irrespective of religious background because insecurity has no religious discrimination, economy, educational failure, name it…affects every Nigerian wherever we are. So, it’s very unfortunate that in a moment like this in this country, we are having people who are…talking very shallowly about matters of life concerning Nigerians.
Interviewer: What bothers you most regarding the trajectory this whole event just took?
