Nigerians can’t be patient in poverty when leaders live flamboyantly: Onaiyekan

The former Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, has called for a policy review to minimise the current economic hardship in the country, pointing out that “you can’t tell someone to be patient with poverty while we see the people who are supposed to address our poverty live flamboyantly.” He made the call in an interview with journalists on the sideline of a Marian Concert organised to mark the 2024 feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Abuja. Mr Onaiyekan, who decried the economic hardship in the country, urged Nigerians to use the occasion to pray for leaders at all levels always to make the right decisions to curb the tension in the land. “If the nation is ruled well, there is more likely to be peace. By ruling well, we mean when there is a sense of justice and equity, that our common resources are equitably distributed, not equally because we cannot all have the same salary.

“There is a limit to what that people can handle. You can’t tell someone to be patient with poverty while we see the people who are supposed to address our poverty live flamboyantly, building huge mansions and having fleets of cars without caring how they are fuelled, whereas the rest of us are queuing to get a few litres of fuel,” he said. Mr Onaiyekan added, “There’s a need to review some of the policies that are giving rise to the kind of pain and poverty that we are not familiar with. We are not used to this. The middle class is now being completely wiped out. Everybody is now becoming poor. We are praying, especially now that we are celebrating a Marian Concert, that Mother Mary, who is the Queen of Peace and Queen of Nigeria, will help us handle the nation so everyone will live in peace with one another and enjoy the good that God has given to this country.” NAN