14th July, 2022
Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja will not endorse any candidate for the 2023 election as his flock cut across political parties.
The Department of the Social Communications of Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja said this in a statement issued in reaction to viral news that Kaigama has endorsed Kashim Shettima as the running mate to the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But in the statement signed by Fr. Patrick Alumuku, its Director of Communications, the Catholic Secretariat said Kaigama cannot endorse Shetimma as he would not prefer one candidate above the other.
It also added that endorsing a candidate of a particular party is not a possible action by Catholic cleric.
“It is up to Nigerian voters to make their choice through the ballot box by electing the best candidates,” said the statement.
The Catholic Secretariat also pointed out that the statement being circulated was made in 2016 when Archbishop Kaigama along with other bishops, graced the Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri while Shettima was the Governor of Borno State.
“As it was customary, he led the bishops to pay a courtesy visit to then Governor Shettima. Archbishop Kaigama minced no words in reminding his listeners that the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria has prophetic voice. His words: “We are a voice for the people. Our voice is a prophetic voice. We see things where things are good, we say it so. Where things are bad, we say it so.”
“Coming from such premise, he of course commended some virtues he found in the governor as it relates to his working relationship with peoples of other faith. Six years after however, it surprising that his innocuous comment has been reinvented by mischievous makers to mean endorsement of Shettima as Tinubu’s vice presidential candidate, what a shame!”
“To set the records right, at no point has the venerable archbishop either in his personal capacity or as the Metropolitan of Abuja Ecclesiastical Province made such comments.
“Those familiar with the norms of the Catholic Church understand that Canon 285 § 2 admonishes that ‘Clerics are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state.’
“Endorsing a candidate of a particular party by any cleric as purported is certainly foreign to the clerical state and not a possible action by Catholic cleric.
“It is therefore unthinkable that Archbishop Kaigama who knows better the workings of the Church as a top cleric in the Nigerian sphere, would make such alleged endorsement. How could he when such posture contradicts the very essence of his episcopal ministry?
The rumor peddlers depict that they are out of touch with ecclesiastical reality in Nigeria. Archbishop Kaigama ended his tenure as President of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) since 2018.
“After him, there have been two successors, yet the bearers of the false news *presented* him now in 2022 as the President of CBCN, which he longer is.
“The general public is hereby notified that Archbishop Kaigama has not and will not endorse any candidate as his flock cut across political parties and he would not prefer one candidate above the other. It is up to Nigerian voters to make their choice through the ballot box by electing the best candidates.”
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