Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, has said President Bola Tinubu rejected the concerns raised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) during their recent courtesy visit to the State House in Abuja.
Speaking on Friday in an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Onaiyekan said the bishops used the meeting to present what they saw as the true state of the nation.
They argued that this reality differed sharply from the positive reports the President typically receives from those around him.
The CBCN had visited Tinubu on July 28, 2026. During the encounter, the President maintained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was neutral and that the economy was performing well.
Onaiyekan said Tinubu’s response was not favourable and that the President made his disagreement clear.
“The president rejected our concerns of the country. Nigeria is bleeding. I was not surprised that he was not looking very happy. Not even his colleagues who were there,” the cardinal said.
He continued: “We knew that this is different from the kind of statements that our president keeps receiving from all kinds of people, and that is one of the things that worries us. That there are so many people hanging around Mr President, giving him a rosy picture of what the country is, which it is not, and we felt that we have no duty to do that.“
"Indeed, we have the obligation to help him to appreciate the reality of the situation in which we find ourselves, and that is the reality that we painted, which I know is not the kind of thing that he wanted to hear, and in reply he was very clear.”
In related comments, Onaiyekan elaborated that the bishops told the President the economy was not helping the poor, while Tinubu insisted it was doing fine.
The cardinal added that the bishops had not expected agreement and believed they had fulfilled their duty by delivering the message.
The bishops’ concerns reportedly covered the economic hardship facing ordinary Nigerians, ongoing insecurity, and the political climate, including questions about electoral credibility and the risk of one-party dominance.
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