Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has accused President Bola Tinubu of being determined to secure a second term by every possible means.
Speaking on Arise TV on Friday, days after a delegation of Catholic bishops met the president at Aso Rock, Mr Onaiyekan pointed to Mr Tinubu’s remarks on politics.
“The position of Mr. President came very clearly in that statement that he made: ‘In politics, all is fair.’ Is that true? If that is what politics is—that in politics everything can be done provided you win elections. That is certainly not correct. There is propriety in everything. That is why we are worried about it,” he said.
He continued: “We are worried about the fact that we see clearly that our government is bent on winning by all means, and unfortunately, they have a lot of means at their disposal to win. They are deploying all those means in a way that eventually, even if we had a free and fair election, the votes of the people may not count.”
Mr Onaiyekan also questioned the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, saying doubts would remain as long as the president appoints its chairman.
He said Mr Tinubu’s assurance that INEC is independent was not enough because the current system makes true independence difficult.
Referring to the appointment of Joash Amupitan as INEC chairman earlier this year, he said the expectation that the president would appoint impartial people had not matched what Nigerians were seeing. He argued that public doubts would remain until an independent body, rather than the president, is responsible for choosing members of the electoral commission.
