By Our Political Correspondent—
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2027 election, has launched a blistering attack on the administration of President Bola Tinubu, accusing it of waging war on truth and resorting to “vicious” smear tactics against the Catholic Church for daring to speak for suffering Nigerians.
In a statement posted on his X handle under the damning title, “When a Government Declares War on the Truth,” Obi seized on Donald Trump’s recent description of Nigeria as “a now disgraced country,” arguing that the President’s own intolerance of honest criticism is deepening the nation’s crisis.
“The painful reality is that Nigeria’s challenges continue to deepen,” Obi wrote. “Each passing day reveals deeper signs of decline, especially when a government becomes increasingly intolerant of truth and hostile to those who speak about the suffering of the people.”
The former Anambra State governor went on to deliver a stinging rebuke of the government’s response to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), which has been sharply critical of mounting insecurity, poverty, inflation and unemployment under the Tinubu administration.
Obi was scathing about attempts by presidential aides to dismiss the bishops’ intervention as a “religious affair.”
“The Catholic Church has never functioned as an opposition party in Nigeria,” he said. “Across military regimes and successive democratic administrations, the CBCN has maintained a principled voice on national issues and the nation’s conscience, commending governments when they deserved commendation and speaking the truth whenever the national conscience demanded it.”
He noted that Nigeria’s major religious organisations — including Jama’atu Nasril Islam, the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs — had all raised the same alarms over economic hardship, inflation and insecurity.
“Living among the people, religious leaders often encounter the suffering of citizens firsthand,” Obi argued. “They speak because they witness families struggling with rising food prices, unemployment, and the fear created by kidnappings and insecurity.”
The NDC candidate then turned his fire on the government’s treatment of Cardinal John Onaiyekan, describing the attacks on the veteran churchman as “deeply troubling” and utterly disrespectful of his age, stature and accomplishments.
In a withering comparison, Obi recalled that even in 1998, when Pope John Paul II confronted General Sani Abacha over the imprisonment of Chief Moshood Abiola, “nobody vilified him.”
Most damning of all was Obi’s exposure of what he called the President’s glaring hypocrisy. He reminded Nigerians how Tinubu had travelled to Rome days before the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV — ahead of even Catholic dignitaries such as US Vice-President JD Vance — queuing with other world leaders to greet the Holy Father and displaying “deep respect for the moral authority of the Church.”
“Back in Nigeria, however, that posture has now changed completely,” Obi observed.
He accused political leaders of exploiting religion and ethnicity to divide the people, noting that the bishops’ message concerned hardships affecting Nigerians of every faith.
“Are insecurity, poverty, inflation, unemployment, and hardship problems exclusive to a particular faith? Do these challenges recognise religious or tribal boundaries?” he demanded.
Obi insists that the bishops were merely articulating the lived reality of millions of Nigerians — worsening insecurity, deepening poverty, crippling inflation and fading hope — and that the government’s proper response should be to listen, not to lash out.
“As leaders, we should be gracious enough to listen to people and organisations that speak the truth to us and genuinely criticise us when things are not going in the right direction,” he said.
“Rather than address these concerns or explain the measures in place to ameliorate them, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s aides and supporters responded with vicious attacks, particularly against Cardinal John Onaiyekan, with little regard for his age, stature, and accomplishments.”
The intervention will intensify pressure on an administration already facing widespread anger over the cost-of-living crisis and acute insecurity — and which now stands accused of declaring war not just on its critics, but on the truth itself.
