A former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has lamented that, “we are not even sure whether Nigeria will be one country, or whether we would have an independent country“, by 2023, the year of the general elections, adding that, “there is no reason why the spate of insecurity should continue like this till 2023”, .
Archbishop Onaiyekan said this in an interview with Saturday Punch, in Abuja.
His exact words: “There is no reason why the spate of insecurity should continue like this till 2023. There is no reason why we should not be able to finally settle this problem before the year 2022 is over.
“If it is not over, it means we have failed as a nation, and the question will no longer be whether we can have election or not, but whether it makes sense even having an election, because we do not have a country; the matter is serious.
“As for the election, we are not even sure whether Nigeria will be one country, or whether we would have an independent country. So, those are issues we must face now. As for holding elections, it is not a big deal really. Election is a normal practice, and in a democratic environment, if the environment is really democratic and peaceful, the election will come by its own.
“All of it; greed, wickedness, and stupidity. Not only in Nigeria; go abroad, our next door neighbour, Cameroon, Paul Biya has been there for more than 30 years. Cameroon is not moving, and he is not moving, why is he sitting there? So, they are worse than us.”