Restricting civic space and battering democracy, By Jibrin Ibrahim

The response of government has been to launch a campaign of calumny against Onaiyekan. In a statement on Saturday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temotope Ajayi, described Onaiyekan’s action as an abuse of privilege. Ajayi said there was something fundamentally inappropriate about Cardinal John Onaiyekan granting a television interview to offer his own account and interpretation of what transpired during the private meeting between the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and President Bola Tinubu. It is strange that in a democracy, visitors to the President are denied the right to complain about his strong disagreement with their analysis. They had gone to see him to articulate a different vision for the country. He had rejected their position. They owed it to Nigerians to explain to them that President Tinubu is determined to stay in power to pursue the same anti-people policies he had been pursuing.