A prominent Catholic cardinal refused to recognize Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president immediately after the 2023 election, instead waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on legal challenges before acknowledging the electoral outcome. Bishop Stephen Adegbite, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, disclosed this detail during a television appearance that has reignited debates about the role of religious leaders in Nigerian politics.
Speaking on TVC Thursday, Adegbite, a odist bishop, recounted how Cardinal John Onaiyekan withheld recognition of the newly declared president until the nation’s highest court had settled multiple election petitions. The revelation came as Adegbite addressed the growing phenomenon of political prophecies by clergy members ahead of the 2027 presidential election. He emphasized that Nigerians should evaluate candidates based on concrete achievements rather than predictions from religious figures, many of whom he said were proven wrong in their 2023 forecasts.
According to Adegbite, the disagreement over recognizing Tinubu represented a fundamental difference in how religious leaders viewed democratic processes. While Cardinal Onaiyekan maintained that legitimacy required judicial confirmation, Adegbite and others argued that the electoral commission’s declaration elished Tinubu as president unless and until courts ruled otherwise. The NCPC executive secretary recalled telling the cardinal at the time that Nigeria indeed had a president, and that position would stand unless the Supreme Court overturned the result.
Beyond recounting past disputes, Adegbite used the platform to critique what he described as attention seeking behavior among some religious leaders who issue political prophecies. He alleged that certain clerics make bold declarations primarily to generate publicity and increase their social media followings rather than from genuine spiritual insight. The practice, he suggested, undermines both religious authority and informed political discourse by encouraging voters to rely on supernatural predictions instead of assessing candidate qualifications and track records.
Adegbite urged political actors and their supporters to campaign positively by highlighting their own candidates’ accomplishments rather than denigrating opponents. He pointed to infrastructure initiatives under the current administration, including the Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sagamu to Benin Expressway, as tangible projects that should shape voter perception. Performance, not prophecy, should determine electoral outcomes, he argued, suggesting that the Tinubu government’s work would ultimately speak for itself when Nigerians return to the polls.
The intervention comes at a critical moment as Nigeria approaches another electoral cycle, with religious leaders wielding significant influence over millions of faithful voters. How clergy members engage with politics, whether through conditional recognition of elected officials or prophetic declarations about future outcomes, will likely remain contentious as the country navigates the intersection of faith and democracy. Whether religious institutions will heed calls for restraint or continue asserting themselves in the political arena may well shape not just the 2027 election but the broader relationship between church and state in Africa’s most populous nation.
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