In a Tuesday, August 20 interview with ACI Africa, Cardinal Onaiyekan weighed in on the August 15 abduction of Medical students from the University of Jos (UNIJOS) and the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Nigeria, who were reportedly heading to a Catholic conference.
Nigeria's local media published the names of the 20 “medical and dental students”, who were reportedly kidnapped along the Otukpo-Enugu highway in Nigeria's Benue State.
The kidnappers have reportedly demanded a ransom of N50 million naira (US$31,738.00) for the students’ release.
In the August 20 interview, the Nigerian Cardinal said, “We heard about these abductions now because they are Catholics, but kidnapping people in their buses is regular.”
“They were not targeted because they were Catholics; they just moved at the wrong time and fell into the hands of the wrong people,” he added.
The Catholic Church leader, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 1983 as Auxiliary Bishop of Nigeria’s Ilorin Catholic Diocese lamented the government's “inability” to address security challenges.
“Until I was 70, I never had a problem moving around Nigeria,” the 80-year-old Catholic Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja told ACI Africa, and added, “We cannot continue to live in a country where people can't move around freely.”
He further lamented, “You go out, you reach out, you ask the security agencies to help you, they ask you for money, you negotiate, you pay.”
“We also always pray that they will not be kept too long in captivity and that they will come out safe and sound,” the Cardinal said, referring to the 20 university students abducted on August 15.
In the August 20 interview with ACI Africa, the Nigerian Cardinal, who retired as Archbishop of Nigeria’s Abuja Catholic Archdiocese in November 2019 went on to fault the government's handling of protesters during the August 1-10 anti-government street demonstrations.
The deployment of the huge security force was a waste of government resources; they could have been better used to combat terrorism and banditry, Cardinal Onaiyekan told ACI Africa.
“It is not unarmed protesters that are the cause of our problem,” he said, and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government to focus on rescuing the kidnapped students and addressing the root causes of insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation.
He went on to express “dismay” over the government's handling of a section of protesters, including freezing the bank accounts of those suspected of leading the street demonstrations.
The Nigerian Cardinal questioned the “sincerity” of the government's commitment to dialogue, saying, “Is this how to ask for dialogue? There is a need to change attitude completely.”
He also called on government to rethink the understanding of youth population. The Cardinal said, “When we are talking of youth nowadays, we are not talking of small boys or girls. We are talking of people who are 35 and below. Most of them have graduated, most of them have skills.”
“Our president told us he is ready to dialogue with all those who are not happy. But he has to take the initiative now. The people out there are just ordinary young people who are hungry,” he said.
“The only way to show that you feel our pain is to do things that will relieve the sufferings and pains of the people. And that is what government is there for,” Cardinal Onaiyekan told ACI Africa during the August 20 interview.