By Kizito Ozoemena
ABUJA — A Catholic priest of the Abuja Archdiocese, Rev. Fr. John Chinenye Oluoma, popularly known as Fada Oluoma, has criticised presidential media aides for responding to comments by Cardinal John Onaiyekan on Nigeria’s economic hardship with personal attacks instead of facts.
The controversy followed an interview granted by the Cardinal on Arise TV in which he challenged what he described as the President’s “rosy” picture of the economy, insisting that many Nigerians are suffering.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Oluoma said aides to President Bola Tinubu, including Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, and Daniel Bwala, escalated the matter unnecessarily.
Oluoma accused the President’s spokespersons of acting like “attack dogs” rather than engaging the issues with data.
“The first problem is with the president’s media aide who escalated this by accusing the Cardinal of bias and unethical behaviour. That’s totally unnecessary and provocative. Then characters like Daniel Bwala took the campaign of calumny against the Cardinal to an insane level,” he wrote.
“I expected Bayo Onanuga and his cohorts to respectfully and intelligently disagree with whatever the Cardinal said that they didn’t like. All they needed to do was to reel out the macro and micro indices that support their position on the economy and allow Nigerians to judge. Bantering the cleric for saying what is obvious does the government no good,” he added.
The priest argued that government officials should acknowledge the hardship Nigerians face, which he said is reflected daily in the prices of basic commodities, and then explain how structural reforms will bring relief.
While commending the Tinubu administration for what he called bold policy decisions on restructuring, Oluoma said dismissing public complaints about hardship would be insensitive.
He also defended the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and Cardinal Onaiyekan, noting that they have consistently spoken on the welfare of citizens under successive administrations from Abacha to Tinubu.
“You can disagree with him, but you can’t accuse him of unethical behaviour, hatred or prejudice against Tinubu. The Bwalas and Onanugas should learn to defend their principals with rational and intelligent arguments rather than pedestrian diatribe,” Oluoma concluded.
The Presidency had earlier in a statement defended the administration’s economic reforms, citing improvements in GDP, higher allocations to states and better debt management, while describing some criticisms as based on outdated 2024 data.
