Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal John Onaiyekan has stated that President Bola Tinubu rejected the concerns of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) during their recent meeting with him at the State House, Abuja.

Onaiyekan spoke on Friday during his appearance as a guest in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’.

He recalled that during the meeting with President Tinubu, the bishops expressed concerns about the reality in the country, contrasting it with the rosy views the president always receives from those around him.

The cleric said the president’s response was not a positive one, stressing that he was not surprised by Tinubu’s disagreement.

He emphasized their duty to present the truth to the president, despite the frosty reception.

“The president rejected our concerns of the country. Nigeria is bleeding. I was not surprised that he was not looking very happy. Not even his colleagues who were there.

“We knew that this is different from the kind of statements that our president keeps receiving from all kinds of people, and that is one of the things that worries us.

“That there are so many people hanging around Mr President, giving him a rosy picture of what the country is, which it is not, and we felt that we have no duty to do that.

“Indeed, we have the obligation to help him to appreciate the reality of the situation in which we find ourselves, and that is the reality that we painted, which I know is not the kind of thing that he wanted to hear, and in reply he was very clear,” he said.

On Tuesday, CBCN paid the president a courtesy visit, where the president declared the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was neutral, and that the nation’s economy was doing very well.