ABUJA – Dr. Josef Onoh, former South East campaign spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, has hit back at former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, over his remarks questioning the president’s recent attendance at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in Rome.
Lawal had raised concerns during a televised interview on Wednesday, suggesting that a Muslim president attending a high-profile Catholic event was inappropriate, recalling his earlier disapproval of the Muslim-Muslim ticket that brought Tinubu to power in 2023.
In a swift and scathing response, Onoh dismissed Lawal’s stance as “ignorant” and lacking an understanding of interfaith dialogue. He labelled the former SGF an “ignorant Christian” and accused him of failing to grasp the global significance of religious diplomacy.
“You cannot be more Catholic than the Pope himself,” Onoh said, stressing that the Vatican fully acknowledged Tinubu’s Muslim identity and still extended an invitation—a move he described as a recognition of Nigeria’s religious diversity and Tinubu’s inclusive leadership.
He defended Tinubu’s presence at the Vatican as aligned with his administration’s policy of religious harmony, describing the visit as possibly the first of its kind by a Muslim Nigerian president.
Onoh went further, citing multiple historical instances of papal and Islamic engagements, including Pope John Paul II’s 2001 visit to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and Pope Francis’s 2019 visit to Morocco, where he discussed God’s “permissive will” for religious diversity.
He also referenced key Catholic-Muslim peace initiatives such as the 2016 Vatican meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the 2019 “Document on Human Fraternity” signed in Abu Dhabi, and the 2024 “Joint Declaration of Istiqlal” in Indonesia.
Mocking Lawal’s silence on these examples, Onoh accused him of religious intoxication and self-righteousness. “May we continue to pray to always find ourselves religiously sober than intoxicated in a pious manner,” Onoh said. “In his old age, he speaks like a sophisticated rhetorician inebriated by the exuberance of his own verbosity.”
The rebuttal marks a deepening rift between the former Tinubu ally and the current administration, with Onoh firmly defending Tinubu’s outreach as a necessary step in advancing religious tolerance both at home and abroad.
