When pulpit confronts power, By Wole Olaoye

Add us on Google

The overwhelming majority of social media commentators are in support of Cardinal Onaiyekan, which shows that he was, in fact, doing his country a good turn by speaking truth to power. There is a rich history of the interactions — sometimes tepid, other times spirited — between the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and various Nigerian leaders over the years. Patriots who want the best for their country must always support their leaders with candid advice.

John Cardinal Onaiyekan has been known as a temperate, sagacious, and even-handed man for all his 82 years on earth. Anyone now trying to cast him in the mould of a rabble-rouser does so in vain.

Join the Premium Times WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.

Open in WhatsApp

President Tinubu, in his own case, has always been a straight-shooting, wily exponent of ‘political wiseness.’ The convivial smokescreen accompanying his famed braggadocio is but a booby trap to ensnare anyone presumptuous enough to underestimate him.

Sharing Ideas

When the pulpit confronts the palace, perspicacious observers know that it is a solemn moment for truth-telling and cross-fertilisation of ideas, rather than an opportunity to create a tempest in a teapot.

What was the recent hoopla all about? A delegation from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) met privately with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa. The clerics presented a document detailing widespread economic hardship, security challenges, and social distress, which they urged the president to address.

Shortly after, Cardinal Onaiyekan discussed details of the meeting on Arise TV, stating that President Tinubu insisted that the economy was improving and appeared displeased with the bishops’ stance. Onaiyekan suggested that the aides around the president might not be giving him an accurate picture of what ordinary Nigerians are going through in their daily struggles. Brutally frank, but not disrespectful.

The clips of President Tinubu’s response to the bishops showed that he manned his corner gamely. He drew the attention of his visitors to the macroeconomic gains achieved by his administration and downplayed the microeconomic challenges. Being Tinubu the politician, he couldn’t help reminding the clerics that politics and morality are worlds apart.

Stay Ahead with Premium Times

Follow us on Google News and never miss breaking stories, investigations, and in-depth reporting.

Add as a preferred source on Google

I thought that engagement was one of the more salutary interactions between the pulpit and power in the current democratic dispensation. It was as robust as you could have it in any other democratic country in the world.

We ought to be proud of the fact that our Catholic bishops could go into the palace and tell the king that he wasn’t exactly regally robed. And the king, in equal measure, told his side of the story and explained why a pulpit wasn’t a required furniture item in the palace where the buck stops.

Compare Tinubu’s response to Donald Trump’s diatribe against Pope Leo XIV when the Catholic pontiff spoke against endless wars. I don’t know why we insist on beating ourselves up over matters that, all things considered, show that we have something to teach the rest of the world.

Attack Dogs

Unfortunately, instead of playing up the positive side of the visit, some presidential aides went berserk with puerile attacks against the bishops. One aide, Temitope Ajayi, said Onaiyekan’s interview at Arise News was an “abuse of clerical privilege.” (Pray, what does that mean?)

The comments attributed to Dr Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser on Policy, were, however, even more odious. He claimed that Cardinal Onaiyekan spoke strictly from a Catholic perspective, rather than on behalf of the entire Nigerian Christian community and that the cleric was “more political than spiritual.” He accused sections of the Catholic leadership of partisan alignment with opposition figures, especially Peter Obi of the NDC.

Bwala was proof, if any was needed, that Onaiyekan was right in saying that the president’s aides might not be giving him an accurate picture of what ordinary Nigerians are going through in their daily struggles.

Bwala’s characterisation of the Cardinal drew pushback from political figures, civil rights bodies, and interfaith leaders. Reverend Joseph John Hayab cautioned against attempting to divide the Christian community along denominational lines.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) criticised the presidential aides, maintaining that high-ranking clerics like Cardinal Onaiyekan have a civic and moral responsibility to highlight grassroots realities to public officials.

The Anglican Archbishop of Enugu North, Most Reverend Sosthenes Eze, said Onaiyekan was speaking on behalf of all Christians, indeed all Nigerians. “The Catholic Church has spoken the mind of all Nigerians,” he said. He described Bwala as the type of aide who misleads his principal in order to appear loyal.

Unfortunately, the attack dog model deployed by presidential aides is counterproductive on the eve of a presidential election. There are about 38 million Catholics in Nigeria. You don’t alienate that kind of constituency so thoughtlessly. The damage control done by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, was, however, wise and timely.

The overwhelming majority of social media commentators are in support of Cardinal Onaiyekan, which shows that he was, in fact, doing his country a good turn by speaking truth to power. There is a rich history of the interactions — sometimes tepid, other times spirited — between the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and various Nigerian leaders over the years. Patriots who want the best for their country must always support their leaders with candid advice.

Sophocles’ Antigone

Ancient history taught us that lesson in Sophocles’ Antigone (441 BCE), a classic Greek tragedy that chronicles a fierce battle of wills between a young woman, Antigone, and her uncle, King Creon, over the burial of her brother.

Both of Antigone’s brothers are killed in a brutal civil war. The first brother, Eteocles, fought for the city and is granted a hero’s burial. The other, Polynices, fought against the city, and King Creon decreed that Polynices’ body must be left in the open fields to rot and be scavenged by birds. Anyone who attempts to bury or mourn him will be executed by public stoning. Creon views his decree as an essential demonstration of state power, political order, and legal absolute authority.

But his cousin, Antigone, refuses to obey, believing that the laws of the state cannot overrule the unwritten, eternal laws of justice, divine order, and human dignity. So, under cover of darkness, she sneaks outside the city walls and gives her late brother a proper burial.

When the guards capture her and bring her before Creon, Antigone defiantly delivers one of the most famous stands against political tyranny in Western literature.

“I did not think your edicts had such force that they, given by a mere mortal, could override the unwritten and unfailing laws of heaven. These are not of today or yesterday but live forever…”

An enraged King Creon sentences her to be sealed alive in a subterranean stone tomb. Antigone was stubborn to the end, choosing death over moral compromise. However, her fearless speech sets off a tragic domino effect. The blind prophet, Tiresias, warns Creon that the gods are furious at his refusal to honour natural law.

Eventually, an agitated Creon relents and orders that the tomb be opened. Sadly, Antigone has hanged herself. Her fiancé, Creon’s son Haemon, kills himself in grief, followed immediately by his mother, Queen Eurydice.

In one fell swoop, Creon lost the three people he loved most — his cousin, his son, and his wife.

And from that mythical time, every king has prayed the gods to grant him the humility to listen to the Antigone fate sends to him, no matter the guise.

Did you ask why? Because power without feedback is dangerous!

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on [email protected], Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021