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President Bola Tinubu Is An Asset To Christianity, While Babachir Lawal Is An Asset To Corruption
Please fact-check me: When Babachir Lawal, supposedly a Christian, was the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Nigeria was, on Friday, February 3, 2017, officially cited by the United States Congress as "the most dangerous place for Christians in the world and impunity for those responsible for the killing of Christians seem to be widespread".
This was when Nigeria had not just a Christian but also a pastor as Vice President.
However, under President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, who are both Muslims, the US Congress has removed that citation on Nigeria.
So, the question Nigerians should be asking both Babachir Lawal and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is this: Does the religion of the President and his vice matter more than their ability to foster peaceful religious coexistence in the country?
Methinks not.
Nigerians should situate Babachir Lawal's scathing attack on President Tinubu and his attendance at Pope Leo XIV's inauguration in this context, which Mr. Lawal called an 'insult' to Christianity.
Ethiopia is the largest Christian nation in Africa, with about 80 million Christians. Ethiopia also has a social relationship with Italy and Rome due to cultural and colonial ties (although Ethiopia was not colonised by Italy, it was once occupied by that European nation). Yet, the Ethiopian leader, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, a Christian, was not invited to attend the new Pope's inauguration.
That speaks volumes and shows that Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church are more concerned about a leader's capacity than about his or her religion.
Mr Lawal is from Adamawa state. During his disastrous tenure as SGF, and before he was suspended from office due to alleged humongous corruption and eventually sacked by President Buhari on October 30, 2017, there were almost daily attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State's West Africa Province in Adamawa, including in Mr Babachir Lawal's hometown of Hong.
All of that is now history since President Bola Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023, and appointed Malam Nuhu Ribadu, also from Adamawa, as National Security Adviser.
Nigerian Christians want peace and freedom to practice their faith, and they have achieved that under President Tinubu. Pope Leo XIV, a veteran of Catholic missionary work in Nigeria, saw this, which propelled him to invite the President.
It also shows gross ignorance on the part of Mr. Lawal to allege that President Bola Tinubu's invitation to the Pontiff's inauguration was "arranged in advance by lobbyists, probably with the correct inducement."
Babachir thinks everyone is like him, who loves money to the extent that he was enmeshed in a 'grass cutting' corruption scandal just months after he was appointed SGF.
President Tinubu was invited by Pope Leo XIV because the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria made a representation to the Holy See about the improved state of Christianity in Nigeria under Tinubu.
This is why the Nigerian prelate of the Catholic Church, Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Abuja, praised the President on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. He said that he and three other Nigerian Catholic Archbishops joined President Tinubu in Rome because they were pleased with him.
And when Archbishop Kaigama said this, leading opposition figures in the audience, such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is also from Adamawa, clapped.
The homily from the Archbishop and the ovation from leading opposition figures in Nigeria show that both locally and globally, the world knows that President Bola Tinubu is an asset to Christianity, just as everyone knows that Babachir Lawal is an asset to corruption.
If I were Babachir Lawal, I would be more concerned about how his partner in alleged corruption, Peter Obi, was smuggled into the VVIP section during the Papal inauguration without an official invitation.
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