Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has expressed disgust over a situation where Nigeria now faces what he called “horrible tragedy”of choosing between two undesirable Presidential candidates from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.
Bishop Onaiyekan, who spoke today, Sunday on the topic: “The Church in Politics: Towards the election year 2019” at an event organized by Catholic Action Nigeria in Abuja, said that Nigeria is deeply in a great dilemma as it move towards the 2019 election.
“ It would appear that we are faced with the horrible tragedy of a choice between two well-known undesirable candidates. This is not only because both of them are Muslims but because we have seen both and we have no reason to be enthusiastic that they will do wonders.
“Where is the alternative? It is a pity that they cannot come together to form a viable alternative. In my opinion, this is mainly because of selfishness.
“Everybody wants to be President and wield power. No one wants to step down and join hands with others of like minds. We need to pray that there will be a way forward. We have to seriously tackle the evil of selfishness.”
The Archbishop said however that the seeming absence of a viable alternative should not be an excuse for Nigerians to lose interest in the coming elections, adding: “if we do lose interest, others are busy working.
“All that it takes for evil to thrive is for the righteous people to keep quiet and do what they call ‘minding their own business’ which means doing nothing! The business of politics in the months ahead is the business of each and every one of us.”
