Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has stepped in to defend President Bola Tinubu against allegations that he disrespected the Catholic Church, insisting the relationship between the president and Catholic bishops remains cordial and that Tinubu has never turned away a request for dialogue from Church leadership.
Speaking Wednesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Kalu addressed the controversy that erupted following a recent meeting between Tinubu and members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, a meeting that became contentious after ADC vice-presidential candidate Rotimi Amaechi alleged the president had insulted the bishops afterward. Kalu firmly rejected that characterization, framing the bishops’ engagement as entirely consistent with a role the Church has long played in Nigerian public life. “This is not the first time that the Catholic Church is going to President Tinubu. In every country, from DRC to Angola, to South Africa and anywhere, the Catholic Church and other churches are always the conscience of the country,” he said.
The former Abia State governor situated the recent CBCN comments within a much longer tradition, pointing out that the conference has issued annual statements on the state of the nation dating back to the military era, and noting that the specific remarks at the center of the controversy actually came from Archbishop Danagoro of Kaduna State, the CBCN’s current president, rather than Cardinal John Onaiyekan, who has been more closely associated with the public fallout. “I do not see anything wrong in what the Catholic bishops said. Those discussions were made by Archbishop Danagoro of Kaduna State, the current president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and not even Onaiyekan,” Kalu said, adding that “since the military rule, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference hold its conference every year where they talk and issue a statement about the state of the nation.”
Kalu was unequivocal in rejecting the premise that Tinubu views the Church as an adversary. “For me, Tinubu is not an enemy to the Catholic bishops; he’s one of their best friends and I don’t feel insulted. Tinubu in no means insulted the Catholic bishops. I didn’t see it,” he said.
To back up his defense, Kalu pointed to what he described as a consistent pattern of accessibility between the presidency and Catholic leadership, noting that Tinubu has granted every request the bishops have made for an audience. “President Tinubu has a very good relationship with the Catholic Church. Anytime they have asked for an audience, he has given it to them because any president dodging Catholic bishops is dodging himself, because what politicians cannot tell the president, the Catholic bishops will say it,” he said.
