THE TRUTH IS HURTFUL: WHY CARDINAL JOHN ONAIYEKAN’S VOICE — AND THE CHURCH’S VISIT TO TINUBU — MATTERS FOR NIGERIA

 

THE TRUTH IS HURTFUL: WHY CARDINAL JOHN ONAIYEKAN’S VOICE AND THE CHURCH’S VISIT TO TINUBU.  MATTERS FOR NIGERIA  

By Oriyomi Olufemi B. 

The truth magazine 

Nigeria is at a moment where silence costs more than speech. Hunger is deep. Insecurity is widespread. Trust in government is thin. And into that moment, Cardinal John Onaiyekan has spoken again: “The truth is hurtful.”  

The statement has drawn both applause and attack. Some ask: Why is the Church speaking now?  Others point to the recent CBCN visit to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and ask: Is the Church compromising?  

To answer fairly, we must go back to the foundation, the precedent, and the present. Because when judged by its own history, the Cardinal — and by extension the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria — is not deviating. He is being consistent.

 The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria was formally established on 15 March 1958, two full years before Nigeria raised her green-white-green flag.  

From that origin, CBCN was never designed to be a chaplaincy to power. Its threefold mandate was pastoral coordination, episcopal unity, and a public voice on matters affecting both Church and nation.  

Apolitical and non-partisan has never meant “mute.” It means the Church does not carry APC, PDP, or LP flags. But it does carry a cross — and with it, the responsibility to speak on justice, morality, human dignity, and the common good.  

That is why CBCN meets twice every year and issues communiqués. Not as press releases for the Vatican, but as pastoral letters to a nation. The tradition was set before independence. It cannot be abandoned because governance has become uncomfortable.

When Cardinal Onaiyekan says “the truth is hurtful,” he is not inventing a new role. He is occupying an old one.

If we want to test the credibility of the Church’s voice today, we must remember 1993 to 1998.  

Under General Sani Abacha, Nigeria was under the jackboot of military rule. June 12 was annulled. Journalists were jailed. Activists disappeared. Fear ruled.  

In that season, CBCN did not retreat into the sacristy.  

- It condemned human rights abuses in plenary communiqués.  

- It defended democracy and the sanctity of the vote.  

- Bishops were trailed, harassed, and in some cases detained. Yet the statements kept coming.  

- Catholic schools, hospitals, and parishes became spaces of refuge when the state had failed.  

That period created a moral benchmark: The Church in Nigeria speaks truth to power, even when it is dangerous.  

To now ask the Church to be quiet because the times are sensitive is to ask it to betray the very witness that gave it credibility under Abacha. Consistency is not partisanship. It is integrity.

From 1958 to 2026, the content of CBCN communiqués has not changed — only the names in government have.  

Three themes have remained constant:  

1. Condemnation of corruption and election malpractice — because a stolen mandate is a stolen future.  

2.  Lament over insecurity, poverty, and ethnic/religious division — because no nation grows on a foundation of blood and hunger.  

3.  Call for justice, accountability, and the rule of law — because without these, democracy is just ceremony.  

Cardinal Onaiyekan, as former President of CBCN and Archbishop of Abuja, embodied this voice for decades. His phrase the truth is hurtful is not an insult. It is a diagnosis. A doctor who tells you that your wound is infected is not your enemy. He is the one trying to save your life.

Nigerians today are living that diagnosis: inflation biting, schools unsafe, roads not safe at night, and a growing gap between government rhetoric and citizens’ reality. To pretend all is well would be pastoral malpractice.

THE VISIT TO PRESIDENT TINUBU: DIALOGUE IS NOT ENDORSEMENT

This is where the confusion lies.  

Yes, members of CBCN visited President Tinubu recently. Photos circulated. Commentators speculated.  

But in Catholic social teaching, engagement with government is not compromise. It is doctrine. The Church has met with every President since 1999 — Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Buhari, and now Tinubu.  

Why? Because the Church must do two things at once:  

1.  Admonish in public through communiqués and sermons.  

2.  Advise in private through dialogue, so that policy can be humanized.  

During Abacha, bishops also met with him. And they still condemned his regime publicly. The meeting did not silence them. It gave them firsthand knowledge to speak more accurately.  

Therefore the visit to President Tinubu must be read the same way: an act of engagement, not an act of endorsement.  

The test will be what follows. If the next CBCN communiqué continues to name insecurity, hardship, and governance deficits, then the visit was faithful to tradition. If the Church goes silent, then Cardinal Onaiyekan’s warning becomes even more urgent.

Cardinal John Onaiyekan is right.  

He is right because history demands it. CBCN was born to speak to the nation, not just to Catholics.  

He is right because precedent demands it. The Church was loudest when Nigeria was darkest under Abacha.  

He is right because reality demands it. Nigerians are hurting, and “the truth is hurtful” is the first step to healing.  

“Apolitical” does not mean amoral. “Non-partisan” does not mean indifferent. The Church’s job is not to run for office. It is to remind those in office that power is service, and that service will be judged.  

As Pope St. John Paul II taught: The Church does not propose technical solutions to political problems. But she proposes the moral criteria that must guide them. 

That is exactly what Cardinal Onaiyekan has done.  

May our leaders have the courage to listen. May the Church have the courage to keep speaking. And may Nigeria have the courage to face the truth — because only truth can set us free.

The Truth Magazine stands with every voice that speaks for justice without fear.