Cardinal Onaiyekan just told Tinubu the truth nobody around him will say

Cardinal John Onaiyekan fired back at President Bola Tinubu on Arise Television's 'Prime Time' on Friday over that 'all is fair in politics' comment, and honestly the man did not mince words. He said the president appears detached from the reality of Nigeria's worsening economic hardship because the people around him are not telling him the truth. That statement alone should make everybody in Aso Rock sit up.

Tinubu had told the Catholic Bishops when they visited him at the Presidential Villa that "All is fair in politics, and there are equal opportunities. INEC is neutral, they have never intimidated anybody. If political opponents are crying wolf, maybe they are afraid of their own shadows." But the Cardinal countered, saying "The position of Mr President came very clearly in that statement that he made: 'In politics, all is fair.' Is that true? If that is what politics is, that in politics everything can be done provided you win elections. That is certainly not correct. There is propriety in everything."

I have been teaching history for years and I can tell you that every dictator who ever lost touch with his people had one thing in common, they surrounded themselves with yes-men. When a president tells the nation that politics is a free-for-all and INEC is neutral while fuel prices keep climbing and families in Ibadan cannot afford garri, something is fundamentally wrong. This is the same pattern we saw in the past and it never ends well. Be honest, is the president living in the same Nigeria as the rest of us?