Onaiyekan: Change must come this year

The cardinal said though the 2015 general elections would hold in about three weeks’ time, it was not too late to make a change in the country adding that “we will continue to speak louder and raise alarm so that things can change”. He said while some people see change as an end in itself, […]

The cardinal said though the 2015 general elections would hold in about three weeks’ time, it was not too late to make a change in the country adding that “we will continue to speak louder and raise alarm so that things can change”. He said while some people see change as an end in itself, he and most other people see it merely as the beginning of something better. Nigeria is nowhere near where it should be and there must be change, he said.
Cardinal Onaiyekan said, “It is not enough for Nigeria to win but Nigerians must win. We’re not where we should be. We love change but we are afraid of change. For some people, change means an end but for most of us, change means the beginning of something better. Change does not necessarily mean a new set of politicians. Change is when the whole politicians are ready to change. If they continue to tell us that we’re all ungrateful people who can’t see what change they’ve done, they’d not change and they won’t deserve to win. But if they’re ready to change, let’s know clearly we’ve done it so far this way and we’re going to change this and that. Let’s on our own judge what kind of change are we going to see. Change there must be! The question is what kind of change?”
The cardinal also said Nigeria was currently in need of national security not “regime security”. He said, “When we talk about illegal arms that are floating around, we should also not forget that there are legal arms that are in the hands of the security agents. And any weapon must be used property. The security institutions have a duty to all of us.” He said the winner-takes-all practice in any democratic system leads to win-at-all-costs attitude and ends up with do-or-die politics.
Onaiyekan who stressed that Nigeria must ensure that the winner does not take all, chided the partisan attitude of some religious leaders in the country.  He said while religious bodies cannot control what every priest does, “within the Catholic Church we’ve a certain amount of discipline among ourselves. I cannot control what every other Christian preacher says in this town. All those who have good ideas shouldn’t keep quiet. While people say horrible things, let people also hear good things and that’s my own position. You should make sure the truth is told.”
He also said, “The expression ‘religious leaders’ has become so problematic in Nigeria that I’m wondering whether I’m a religious leader. They (religious leaders) are so many. They’ve no problem in any way to combine politics and religion. We’ve rules in my own church; a clergyman cannot go into partisan politics. Our law forbids it. But it is not so with every other church. So, we’ve to accept the reality and take care of the essential. The essential thing is to be fair, just, kind and believe in one God.”