Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently address Nigeria’s persistent security challenges and deliver more tangible dividends of democracy to the people. Speaking at the 2025 Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Communications Week Public Lecture in Abuja, where the late media icon Raymond Dokpesi was posthumously honored, Cardinal Onaiyekan stressed the need for the president to understand and empathize with the daily struggles of ordinary Nigerians.
“My advice for Mr. President is to find ways and means of finding out what Nigeria is actually going through,” Onaiyekan said, urging Tinubu to be more in touch with the realities faced by citizens, such as surviving on low wages and coping with insecurity. He remarked that while he was not suggesting the president live in a poor neighborhood like Mpape, it would be beneficial for him to understand how families manage on ₦30,000 salaries.
Assessing President Tinubu’s two-year tenure, Cardinal Onaiyekan emphasized that the government must ensure the well-being of Nigerians is maintained, if not improved. He called on Tinubu to focus on making life livable, tackling insecurity, improving the economy, and fighting corruption—areas where he said the previous administration had failed to deliver.
The lecture, themed “Media with Gentleness: A Path to Being Narrators of Hope in a Distracted Nation,” also addressed the role of the media in fostering hope and responsible journalism. Rev. Fr. Michael Banjo, Secretary General of the CSN, honored Dokpesi for his contributions to broadcasting and lamented the decline in media ethics in Nigeria.
This year’s Communications Week underscored the Church’s dual call for accountable leadership and a media landscape that inspires hope amid the country’s ongoing crises.