“Our nation is bleeding. The citizens are suffering and crying.” Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso of Kaduna said it to President Bola Tinubu’s face. It was not meant for the public. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, which he leads, visited the Presidential Villa in Abuja on July 28, and the text of his address later reached LEADERSHIP Sunday, which published it. It set off a row.
The timing mattered. The ruling All Progressives Congress had endorsed, only weeks earlier, a continuation of the Tinubu-Shettima Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2027 presidential election.
The warning on 2027
The bishops said declining turnout showed growing public distrust of the electoral process. They asked for easier access to Permanent Voter Cards, enough funding for the Independent National Electoral Commission and results that reflect what voters chose. Then the sharpest line: “Anything short of transparent, free, fair and credible elections in 2027 would be an invitation to an avoidable disaster against which all well-meaning Nigerians have been praying.”
They also spoke of a shrinking democratic space and a fear that Nigeria could drift toward one-party rule. Ndagoso reminded Tinubu of his own part in the fight against military rule. “Your greatest legacy would be the strengthening of our democratic institutions,” the bishops wrote. They urged him to see that opposition parties get a level playing field and to push APC governors and legislators to respect fairness.
The ticket, security and schools
The bishops did not demand that the APC change its ticket. They asked for government policies that would reassure Christians of their rights as citizens, and said they expected the president “to take steps to soothe frayed nerves.”
On security, they acknowledged the rescue of kidnapped schoolchildren in Oyo State but called such successes isolated. Terrorists, bandits and kidnappers still threaten communities, schools, places of worship, farms and highways, they said. “You have said a couple of times that you hear their cries and feel their pain. But words are not enough.”
They renewed a demand that mission schools go back to their original owners. They cited a Supreme Court judgment on Muslim students’ freedom of worship and asked for the same protection for Christians, particularly in the north, where they alleged some communities still struggle to get land for churches. They also asked Tinubu to formally invite Pope Leo XIV; according to Ndagoso, the pope showed interest in a visit when the bishops went to the Vatican in March 2026.
Tinubu’s reply
The president said his administration was overhauling the security architecture, with better intelligence, better welfare for security personnel and a larger Armed Forces. Terrorism, banditry and kidnapping would be defeated, he said. On politics, he defended the democratic process and insisted everyone had equal opportunity. “Those who would take it from me will try. They will try. All is fair in politics, and there is equal opportunity. I won’t offer them a red carpet,” Tinubu said.
The row grew when Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Emeritus Archbishop of Abuja, defended the bishops in an interview, saying the issues deserved serious attention and sharing their concern about the integrity of the 2027 elections. Supporters said he had only amplified the bishops’ message. Critics accused him of politicising the Church’s position.
