Nigeria “is founded on a lie, constitution is not working”, Catholic Bishop Says

“We always presume that the same people who were singing Hosanna will say ‘crucify him’ immediately after. But the other possibility is that those who wanted Jesus crucified were the Religious and political leaders who were meeting at the house of Pilate,” he said.

He continued, “Whereas the people outside, the common people, were saying ‘this man has done everything right and he is a good man’, the religious and political leaders were out to kill him. This is what I think. This is what we should reflect on. Whether in society or in the Church, leadership is important because a leader will eventually determine what will happen to the rest of the people.”

Bishop Onah said that what the religious and political leaders did at the time of Jesus is what is happening in Nigeria today. In Nigeria, he said, all decisions are made by the minority few who do not always have the interest of the majority at heart.

The Catholic Bishop said that in the West African country that is experiencing increasing levels of banditry amid widespread corruption, people are not always at liberty to choose their preferred leaders.

“We are often told to come out to elect the people we want to be our leaders. But we don’t choose those people. All of us know the persons needed to govern Nigeria, to govern our states and local governments; and we can identify some of them,” he said.

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In the place of well-organized political parties with clear agendas for the people, he added, what the people have in Nigeria are “caucuses with no manifestos and no principles.”

“There are no political parties in Nigeria because political parties have manifestos and programs,” the 65-year-old Nigerian Bishop said. 

He explained, “What we have in Nigeria are platforms for stealing public funds and avoiding prosecution. Platforms for remaining perpetually in power. That is why a person can win an election with the party’s symbol alone, even without his name. He gets the position, changes the party and retains the position. There are no parties in this country.”

Bishop Onah recalled the Passion of Christ and encouraged the people of God going through various kinds of suffering to keep their hope alive, saying, “Evil will never have the last word.”

“My dear friends, as we begin this Holy Week, let us remember that no matter how crushed, humiliated and impoverished we may be as Christians, Catholics, as Nigerians, God will still glorify us in Christ. Evil will never have the last word,” the Catholic Church leader said. 

He added, “Let these mysteries of the moment bring us back to our senses as we profess our faith in God who never abandons His people; even when everything seems lost, He is still with His people.”

Acknowledging that suffering has become part of our human nature, the Nigerian Catholic Bishop said, “There is no place that you would go through in life that is worse than what Christ went through. His experience becomes representative of our experience as human beings. And his glorification is a sign for us that darkness, evil, intrigue, will not have the last word.”

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.