Nigerian Cardinal Urges Election Tribunals to Hasten Mandate for Country’s Unity

Abuja, 05 August, 2023 / 9:00 PM

John Cardinal Onaiyekan of Nigeria is calling upon election tribunals working on the February and March poll petitions to speed up their assignments for the West African nation to regain unity.

Nigeria’s 2023 presidential and gubernatorial elections were reportedly marred by various irregularities including violence, vote buying, and intimidation of voters thus leading to disunity in the country.

The victory of some of the winners in the elections, including that of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was challenged in the court and tribunals were formed to handle the petitions.

In a Friday, August 4 report, Cardinal Onaiyekan underlined the need to work hard to regain peace and unity which he said would help to address other challenges in the country.

“We need indeed to work hard for unity in our nation. The election tribunals should complete their assignments as soon as possible so that the nation can start to regain its unity and common action, without which our grievous challenges cannot be properly addressed,” the Nigerian cardinal said.

He added, “It is our duty as Christian Church to work and pray all the time for peace and unity of our nation, irrespective of political divisions, ethnic identities or social dislocations.”

The Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja Archdiocese lamented that Nigerians had opted to remain silent despite knowing the challenges that the country is facing, including insecurity and economic hardships that are affecting the country.

“We all know what our problems are, we even know what to do but we don’t want to do it, we are very often, we don’t want to admit our problems, and that is the biggest problem,” the Nigerian Cardinal said.

He added, “If we don’t admit our problems, if we go around pretending that everything is fine when things are not found, then we will not even start trying to resolve them.”

“Let’s admit that things are not so fine, let’s admit that we have problems, let’s admit that we have internal issues that we need to resolve so that we can find a way of putting our heads together and resolve it,” he said.

Cardinal Onaiyekan said that even if it’s not possible to have the same ideology and perception about the solution to the country’s problems, “we must at least have a common mind in our readiness and willingness to make the nation great.”