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Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has carpeted two presidential aides, Mr. Daniel Bwala and Temitope Ajayi, for criticising the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onyaiyekan, for granting a television interview to analyse the recent visit to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) to the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Whilst Mr. Bwala, one of the many Special Advisers on Communications to the President, said Cardinal Onaiyekan spoke for only catholics on his impressions from the Bishops’ recent visit to the president, his counterpart, Mr. Temitope Ajayi the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, accused the respected Christian leader John Cardinal Onaiyekan of abusing what he called the clerical privilege of attending the meeting with the Nigerian leader.
Temitope Ajayi had argued that the Catholic Bishops discharged what they considered their moral obligation by presenting their concerns to President Tinubu, for his part, accorded them respect by granting them an audience and responding to every issue they raised. That exchange reflected the civility expected in a constitutional democracy.
He continued his criticism of the cleric by asserting that reciprocity should have dictated that the confidentiality and dignity of that engagement be preserved.
Mr. Ajayi insisted that as such, it was inappropriate for one of the participants to appear on national television almost immediately to offer his own version of what was essentially a private conversation with the president. He said that the clerical office carries privileges, but that it also imposes obligations.
He said among the qualities the Scriptures require of bishops are temperance, maturity, self-restraint and the wisdom to remain above needless public controversy.
“Those virtues become even more important when dealing with matters of state. Public influence should be exercised with discretion, not by converting privileged access into a platform for post-meeting commentary,” the presidential aide said.
However, HURIWA through the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, accused the duo of being disrespectful to an elder statesman and a respected clergy who is widely reputed to be one of the choicest patriots and nationalists in the person of John Cardinal Onaiyekan, just as HURIWA said the interview granted by the senior clergy is for the best public interest and that the emeritus Archbishop of Abuja definitely spoke for the over 130 million households afflicted by multidimensional poverty and for the over 60% absolutely poor Nigerians as ascribed by the World Bank who cut across ethnicities and religious affiliations, therefore the unfortunate and irrational rants by the two presidential aides are inconsequential and unreasonable.
Besides, HURIWA said the statements by the aides of President Tinubu made them look amateuristic, inexperienced and lacking knowledge of the political history of Nigeria “because these two young men know about the political history of Nigeria.
“They would have known that John Cardinal Onaiyekan has been visiting presidents for decades long before these two rookies entered the primary schools and indeed the respected Christian leader Cardinal Onaiyekan has remained consisted in speaking raw truth to power and has never been known for double speak unlike for instance, Mr. Bwala, who was once against President Tinubu but when President Tinubu dangled a juicy post as one of his several special communication advisers, Bwala collapsed on his ‘conscience’ and swallowed his vomits to serve the same Tinubu he had called all sorts of unprintable names.”
HURIWA faulted the comment by Temitope Ajayi that the interview granted to the Arise Television station amounted to a breach of privilege even as the rights group stated that the meeting of the president and the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria were extensively televised and covered by the media just as the positions of both the bishops and the president were the focus of news reports thereafter for which prominent Nigerians including former Vice president Atiku Abubakar and the frontline opposition presidential flag-bearer for the 2027 presidential poll, Mr. Peter Obi, also put out their positions as opposed to that of the president.
“How did the Archbishop Emeritus abuse any privilege? Was the meeting secret conversations or were the participants plotting any partisan objective that does not concern the public interest? Is President Tinubu not the President of all Nigerians and are the clerics who attended the meeting in their position as Catholic Bishops of Nigeria not the spiritual leaders of millions of Nigerians?
“So what was the secret that John Cardinal Onaiyekan divulged or were the participants administered with oaths of secrecy and confidentiality? As far as we are concerned, John Cardinal Onaiyekan deserves to be praised for speaking truth to power and for contributing significantly to alert both the politicians and the electoral governing body INEC of their legal, moral and absolute obligations to conduct free, fair, peaceful and transparent general election in January 2027.
“Or is the president hiding anything from Nigerians on why he is afraid of a free and fair election?
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