“I intentionally stayed away.” That was how Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor opened his explanation on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, June 22, 2026. The former president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had gone quiet on national politics for years. Now he wanted to say why he was speaking again.
Here’s what it means in plain terms. Oritsejafor says he saw trouble coming before Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015, told people so, and got no hearing. “In 2014, I tried to warn this nation of the direction it was going,” he said. “When the Buhari government was getting ready to come in, I knew that it was going to be a mess.” He added that things have “grown worse” since.
Why he went silent
His explanation for the long quiet was blunt. He kept out of it, he said, because nobody seemed to be listening. “You can’t force people to listen to you, you can’t force people to take your advice,” he told the programme. So he stepped aside and watched events move from one level of crisis to the next.
What changed his mind was hardship. He said he pastors people, and “they are human beings, they are Nigerians, and we must begin to hold people accountable for what is happening.” Sahara Reporters noted that Oritsejafor, who was held to be close to former President Goodluck Jonathan, rejected the idea that his criticism of Buhari, or his silence after 2015, had anything to do with Jonathan losing the election.
Tinubu in the frame
The comments were not only about the past. The Source reported that he called the present administration of President Bola Tinubu the worst in recent times, citing how it has handled the economy and politics. Oritsejafor said the average Nigerian “has no hope, except if you say you look up to God to give you hope.”
On 2027, he stopped short of telling Tinubu what to do. “I would leave President Tinubu to make that choice himself,” he said. Then came the warning: “don’t begin to dream of coming back to continue this same mess.”
Extremism and Osinbajo
He also returned to an old theme, religious extremism and what it does to national unity. Explaining why he uses the word “jihadist”, he said extremism is not limited to people who carry guns. “You can be a jihadist with your pen,” he said. He described it as working to make sure no other religion has a place in governance or in a nation’s progress. Of the extremists he has criticised, he said he holds a grudge against them because they are “ready to take their faith to any level.”
His sharpest question went to the former vice president. “When Osinbajo was vice president, what was he doing for the eight years he was there?” Oritsejafor asked. The Source pointed out that Buhari took over from Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, and that many Nigerians rate his economic record among the worst in recent memory. Neither outlet reported any reply from Osinbajo or the Tinubu government.
Sources
- 'I Warned Nigerians In 2014 About Buhari; Things Now Worse Under Tinubu' – Former CAN President Oritsejafor Says
- Oritsejafor: I Warned Nigerians About Buhari (The Source)
- "I Warned Nigerians Before Buhari, Current Hardship Didn't Start Today" – Ex CAN Pres. Oritsejafor (Gistmania repost)
