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<\/p>\nSenior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has criticised Cardinal John Onaiyekan for publicly commenting on the recent closed-door meeting between President Bola Tinubu and members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
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In an article published on Saturday, Ajayi described the Cardinal’s television interview following the meeting as inappropriate, arguing that private discussions between the President and the bishops should have remained confidential.<\/p>\n
The presidential aide said the bishops had met with Tinubu to present their concerns over the country’s economic situation, insecurity and other national challenges.<\/p>\n
According to him, the President listened to the issues raised and responded by outlining his administration’s policies and achievements, including economic reforms, improvements in security and the implementation of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.<\/p>\n
Ajayi defended the President’s response to the bishops’ concerns, saying Tinubu acknowledged the country’s challenges while maintaining that his administration had made measurable progress in stabilising the economy and improving security.<\/p>\n
He also addressed the bishops’ call for the return of mission schools, stating that the matter falls within the constitutional powers of state governments rather than the Federal Government. He noted that Tinubu had returned mission schools while serving as governor of Lagos State.<\/p>\n
Responding to Cardinal Onaiyekan’s suggestion that the President needed to hear the realities facing Nigerians, Ajayi said Tinubu receives regular security, economic and intelligence briefings and remains informed through multiple official and informal channels.<\/p>\n
Ajayi maintained that while religious leaders have the right to engage government and express their views on national issues, participants in private meetings should refrain from publicly disclosing or interpreting discussions held behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
The exchange follows the recent meeting between President Tinubu and the Catholic Bishops, during which the clerics raised concerns over Nigeria’s economic conditions, rising poverty and security challenges, while urging the government to intensify efforts to address the country’s pressing issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has criticised Cardinal John Onaiyekan for publicly commenting on the recent closed-door meeting between President Bola Tinubu and members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. In an article published on Saturday, Ajayi described the Cardinal’s television interview following the meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigerianreporters.com\/NG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}