Former Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, has again advised President Goodluck Jonathan to forget about a second term in office because he does not deserve it.
Speaking with SaharaReporters late yesterday from Nigeria, the retired cardinal, a founding member and former leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), recalled a conversation he had with Mr. Jonathan while he was still deputy. According to him, when the president asked him for prayers, he had insisted that Mr. Jonathan should first specify his prayer intentions. He said the president seemed at first shocked, but reluctantly revealed that he intended to run for office again.
Disclosing that the encounter happened in the presence of four other people, Cardinal Okojie said he told Jonathan that he could win but would not govern peacefully.
The cardinal, who was known for his fiery outspokenness against both abusive and corrupt military dictatorships as well as corrupt elected officials, stated that Mr. Jonathan was surrounded by sycophants who keep misleading him. Describing the recent formal adoption of Mr. Jonathan as the sole candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as dangerous, the prelate urged the president to look at Nigeria’s history and see what has happened to sole party candidates in the past.
Turning his attention to CAN, Cardinal Okojie said the religious organization had become bastardized. He accused the group’s former leader, Reverend Sunday Mbang, of turning CAN it into an appendage of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. Even so, he added that whatever Mbang did pales into insignificance compared with what Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, CAN’s current leader, has done with the organization.
Asked if he was troubled by recent attacks on him by some hirelings of President Jonathan and Oritsejafor, Cardinal Okojie dismissed them. He added that, having been to the frontline during the Nigerian civil war as a chaplain, verbal attacks did not bother him in the least.