When Catholic Bishops Bear the Light
By Frank Tietie
Trust. When Pentecostal preachers happen to have a chance to visit the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on a courtesy call, they would turn it into a testimony account of one of the biggest breakthroughs in their ministries. They would go saying something like this: “When you are loyal, you become royal”.
The visiting Pentecostal preachers would secretly expect the President to sow a ‘handsome seed’ if he wishes to win the coming 2027 presidential election, and should he (the President) be infected by the anointing on them to announce an undisclosed amount as support, they would ‘hammer’ and ‘scatter’ prayers on his head. Their teeming members would then take the visit as an endorsement and affirmation of the health and wealth gospel they believe and preach. If you doubt the above scenario, go and ask former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Meanwhile, some bishops of the Catholic Church recently had the chance to visit President Bola Tinubu, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on a courtesy call, and they chose to speak truthfully to him about what their parishioners and the rest of the population are going through. The bishops pointed out to the President that Nigerians are suffering and that his aides are not telling him the truth but are deceiving him about the social and economic reality on the ground.
Instead of patronising the President with platitudes and covert solicitations, the bishops of the Catholic Church chose to speak truthfully to the President in a spirit of cooperation as religious leaders. However, they only managed to annoy the President with their candour. The infuriated President fired back at them with the truth of his own government’s reality of prosperity and security for the people based on his reforms.
The Catholic Bishops ought to know they were visiting the most powerful man in Nigeria and should have measured their words, but they cared less. In fact, one of them, Archbishop John Cardinal Onaiyekan, in the aftermath of the visit to the President, went on the Arise Prime Time television show to speak more truths about the visit. He further annoyed the President with that television interview. He drew the ire of one of the President’s spokespeople, who rebuked the Archbishop for abusing the privilege of being allowed to visit the President. He cautioned Nigerians that the Archbishop was becoming politically inclined toward supporting an opposition leader, Peter Obi. He said further that the Archbishop was only speaking for Catholics and not on behalf of the Christians in Nigeria. Perhaps other Christian leaders in Nigeria should come out clearly to state whether or not the Archbishop was speaking on their behalf.
President Tinubu should be grateful to the Catholic Bishops for being his true friends and brethren in helping him to govern Nigeria well. He should listen to their advice and grant all their requests, particularly the request to invite the Pope to visit Nigeria.
Pentecostal preachers should learn from the Catholic Bishops that as custodians of some of the sacred truths of the Christian faith, including revelations on the blessings of health and wealth, they must not view high powered visits such as to the President as a sign of importance but like the prophets of old must realise that such an opportunity is sometimes a call to the duty of speaking truth to power on behalf of their members.
Frank Tietie
A Nigerian lawyer and a subscriber to Pentecostal Christian teachings, writes from Abuja.
