“An original sin”: Cardinal in Nigeria Faults Politicians for Rigging Elections

Abuja, 14 November, 2023 / 9:00 PM

Politicians commit an original sin when they rig an election , John Cardinal Onaiyekan has said, and faulted Nigerians who seek political positions to enrich themselves.

In a November 11 interview with ACI Africa, Cardinal Onaiyekan said Nigerian politicians don’t seek political office for service but for their personal gains.

“The original sin of elections in Nigeria is that every politician wants to win by all means, whether violence, rigging, or cheating. The important thing is that they want to win and grab power,” the Nigerian Cardinal said.

He added, “We heard about a famous politician telling his supporters to grab it, snatch it, and go away with it. This is the attitude and for as long as that attitude is there it will be impossible to remove violence and rigging.”

The reason for this attitude, Cardinal Onaiyekan said, is because “people go into politics not for service but to grab power, make money and to enrich themselves, their cronies and friends.”

Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja Archdiocese faulted politicians for using politics as a way of escaping from poverty and stealing the country’s resources ‘legally’.

The Nigerian Cardinal said that the West African country may lag behind in development “as long as people see the meaning of politics as a way to escape from the trap of poverty.”

“We should stop deceiving ourselves. A society cannot grow that way,” Cardinal Onaiyekan said, adding that “politics is for people who want to serve the nation with their talents, with their experience so that the country will go well for the sake of the common good and especially for those who are the poorest of the poor.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan said, “When the political class are the richest in the country, something has definitely gone wrong.”

He went on to condemn what he described as a “sit -tight attitude” of African politicians on their quest for luxury and riches and not for national service. 

“People like us condemned the decision of the Nigerian national assembly to buy for themselves the most expensive cars in the market. Are they representing us or not? But you cannot blame them because that is the idea with which they are entering politics and when they are there, obviously, they don’t want to come down,” the Cardinal said.

He added, “If not for the fact that the law said if you are a governor for eight years you have finished, many governors will never come down and many presidents will always remain there.”

“Politics in Nigeria will do Nigeria well if we change the idea from political power in order to get rich to politics of service to the nation,” Cardinal Onaiyekan told ACI Africa.