• Asks Tinubu to alter security structure
From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has hailed the appointment of service chiefs by President Bola Tinubu, saying the change was long overdue.
This is as the former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has also tasked Tinubu to change the security structure in the country to effectively tackle insecurity.
Onaiyekan spoke with Daily Sun on the sidelines of a Requiem Mass for the late Founder of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi at the Church of Assumption, Asokoro, Abuja, yesterday.
He said: “Do we expect him (Tinubu) to have retained them? You see, we are in a country where we are so used to bad things happening that when a good thing happens, we begin to jump and say oh, wonderful! Wonderful! He has done what is expected. We have been expecting a change. And what I will add, it is not enough to just change names, it is also important that the structure is changed. And we hope their way of behaving and operating will change for the better.”
Asked if he was confident that the change would improve the security situation in the country, Onaiyekan said it will if the nation can have the right government in place.
“I am afraid and I am not ashamed to say it, we are still waiting to have a regime that is settled and calm and can galvanise all the major good talents of Nigerians irrespective of political parties into the major task we have facing us now,” Onaiyekan said.
The cleric described Dokpesi as a gentleman, simple man, straightforward and committed Christian.
He said the Church has been begging God to help Nigeria change the narrative that politics is dirty for dirty people.
Also speaking, Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, said Nigerians should search for people of Dokpesi’s calibre to preside over the affairs of the country, saying that the nation needed more of Dokpesis.
“These are the people that Nigerians should search for; we should headhunt and find them out, fish them out and put them in position of responsibility. But unfortunately, the authorities had been alienating them and even persecute them in some cases. When they are doing good work, humanitarian services, people see it in terms of competition and before you know it, they are side-lined or alienated. So, please, we need more of Raymond Dokpesi in Nigeria,” Kaigama said.
He eulogized Dokpesi, saying “he had that magnetic pull and you can see from north, south, east, west, all over, they are here for him.”
Kaigama said Dokpesi was a good human being and not narrow-minded or parochial.
“Many Nigerians, are unfortunately infested with this virus of narrowness, narrow-mindedness. He wasn’t. You can see his friends cut across the ethnic and religious divides. So, we miss a great man,” Kaigama said.
Delivering the homily, Revd Fr Peter Atsewe of Saint Matthew’s Catholic Church, Ushafa, Abuja, said Dokpesi was a great man, a great mind, a patriot, trailblazer, philanthropist, a politician and a good and committed, ardent Catholic-Christian.