Atiku Clash with Presidency Over Bishop Onaiyekan’s Comments

The Presidency has criticised Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, over his public comments on a closed-door meeting between President Bola Tinubu and members of the Catholic Bishops‘ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), calling his account a breach of the confidentiality expected from such engagements.

In a Saturday statement, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Temitope Ajayi said Onaiyekan’s decision to discuss the private meeting during an interview on another online media, Arise News, amounted to an abuse of clerical privilege.

“There is something fundamentally inappropriate about Cardinal John Onaiyekan granting a television interview to offer his own account and interpretation of what transpired during the private meeting between the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and President Bola Tinubu. It is, in my view, an abuse of clerical privilege,” Ajayi said.

The reaction followed Onaiyekan’s claim during the interview that people around Tinubu were giving him a “rosy picture” of the country, prompting the bishops to feel obliged to present the president with the realities facing Nigerians.

Presidency Defends Tinubu’s Response to the Bishops

Ajayi said the bishops were freely allowed to raise concerns on security, the economy, education and democracy, and that Tinubu listened patiently before responding to each issue.

“The bishops were notably acerbic in their submission, but the President listened to them patiently and responded,” he said.

He said Tinubu challenged what he considered an incomplete assessment of Nigeria’s situation, pointing to measurable progress on economic, social and security fronts despite ongoing hardship.

“The President argued that the bishops’ characterisation of the country’s current condition was incomplete and, in several respects, inaccurate. He pointed to measurable progress on the economic, social, and security fronts,” Ajayi said.

He cited more regular payment of salaries and pensions across states as evidence of improvement, while acknowledging that many Nigerians still face difficulty.

On security, Ajayi rejected suggestions that Tinubu is detached from realities on the ground, saying the president receives intelligence and operational briefings unavailable to the public.

“What truth does anyone really need to tell President Tinubu that he does not already know? As President, he has multiple channels for feeling the pulse of the country,” he said, adding that Tinubu reads newspapers daily and maintains contacts across various sectors.

While acknowledging the bishops’ right to express their views, Ajayi maintained that the confidentiality of the engagement should have been respected, saying it was inappropriate for a participant to appear on television shortly after to offer his own account of a private conversation.

Atiku Demands Apology, Calls Clergy ‘Not Props’

African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar sharply criticised the Presidency’s response, saying the attack on Onaiyekan reflects the administration’s growing intolerance of dissent.

In a Sunday statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the Catholic Church has long served as a moral voice for Nigeria’s poor and vulnerable.

“The Catholic Bishops demonstrated rare courage by looking the President in the face and telling him the bitter truth about the state of the nation. That is precisely what patriotic religious leaders are called to do—not to decorate power with praise, but to confront it with truth,” Atiku said.

He described the Presidency’s commentary against Onaiyekan as “unbecoming of a government” and accused Tinubu’s media team of trying to selectively reframe the bishops’ engagement to suit a favourable narrative.

“Cardinal Onaiyekan’s decision to speak to the press after the Presidency sought to dominate and distort the public conversation was nothing more than an effort to place the facts on record,” he said.

Atiku argued that Catholic bishops cannot be treated as political instruments.

“They are not political props, rented cheerleaders or praise singers. They are shepherds with a moral obligation to speak truth to power, regardless of whose interests are bruised. They cannot be used,” he said.

He called on the Presidency to apologise to the Catholic Church and focus on addressing Nigeria’s hardship rather than attacking critics.

“The Presidency owes the Catholic Church, Cardinal John Onaiyekan and the entire Catholic faithful an immediate and unreserved apology,” Atiku said, adding that until such an apology is offered, the administration will remain accused of intolerance toward independent voices.