08/08/2026
THE CASSOCK AND THE CONSCIENCE: TO BISHOP ADEGBITE ON TRUTH, SYCOPHANCY, AND THE BURDEN OF MORAL LEADERSHIP.
By Rowland Longs Chairman, Catholic Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CAMPAN), Jos Archdiocese
It is with deep respect and a profound sense of moral obligation and deep reflection on the state of our nation that I address the recent, rather unfortunate, criticisms levelled by Bishop Stephen Adegbite against the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN). The crux of his grievance by castigating the revered Fathers of the Catholic Church for their candour during a courtesy call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) which demands a rigorous examination of truth, morality, and the "conscience of Truth",the "inner conviction" expected of anyone who dons a cassock to shepherd the flock of Christ.
This epistle is not penned to malign the Bishop nor his denomination, but to interrogate the moral compass of a cleric who appears to have chosen the fleeting comforts of political patronage over the enduring agony of the masses.
When the Catholic Bishops stood before the President, they did not go as courtiers seeking the spoils of office, they went as the moral conscience of a bleeding nation. They spoke the unvarnished truth about the draconian realities, the abject poverty, and the suffocating hardship that the current administration's reforms have unleashed upon Nigerians.
One must ask Bishop Adegbite, "Could he confidently mount his own pulpit on a Sunday morning and repeat his criticisms of the Catholic Bishops to a congregation that is actively starving?", "Would he look into the eyes of his impoverished flock and defend the systemic oppression of the political elite?"
While I must confess that as a Catholic, my perspectives are naturally sentimental, it must be stated that the unwavering fortitude of the Catholic Bishops is drawn from a profound historical and spiritual well. There is a distinct, unyielding Ecclesiastical anointing that flows from Apostolic Succession from the Chair of Peter, a mandate that forbids the Church from becoming a mere appendage to the state. When clerics lack this historical grounding, it becomes tragically easy to compromise the gospel for a seat at the king's table.
Bishop Adegbite’s defensive posturing on behalf of the government forces a critical, practical question, "Is Nigeria genuinely safer today than it was?" If the Bishop truly believes in the success of the current administration’s security and economic architecture, I issue him a simple challenge. Let him abandon the retinue of heavily armed convoys and security details he drives around with, and let him travel by road from Abuja to Lagos, where he has long held sway as a church leader. The daily reality of the average Nigerian is one of kidnapping, banditry, and terror on the highways. To defend a government that has failed to secure its citizens while hiding behind bulletproof glass is the height of clerical hypocrisy.
As a Christian,it is deeply lamentable to witness church leaders going cap in hand, begging for the spoils of office from politicians. This unholy alliance between the altar and the state is the precise reason history demanded the separation of church and state. When a cleric becomes a spokesperson for the oppressor, he ceases to be a shepherd, he becomes a hired hand.
History, theology, and philosophy are replete with stern warnings against this tragic betrayal of the masses:
The great 11th-century Islamic theologian and philosopher,in his magnum opus, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), specifically within the book dealing with the knowledge and the traits of the scholars of the Hereafter, al-Ghazali categorised scholars into those who seek the Hereafter and those of the world (su' ulama) with core warnings, which he explicitly listed among other listings, keeping away from rulers and sultans, unless out of absolute necessity or to prevent a severe injustice as a primary distinguishing sign of a true scholar dedicated to the Hereafter.The Trap of Flattery according to Al-Ghazali warned that a religious scholar might start with good intentions to advise a ruler, but proximity quickly leads to compromise, flattery, and the rationalisation of the ruler's unjust actions to protect personal status or wealth.Corruption of the Heart,he argued that, the spiritual ruin of a scholar begins when love for worldly prestige and material comfort enters the heart, transforming sacred knowledge into a tool for financial or political gain. He maintained that a corrupted scholar faces a harsher reckoning before God than an ignorant person, because the scholar knew the truth yet traded it for a temporary worldly advantage.
Al-Ghazal's warnings to religious scholars (ulama) was about the dangers of mingling with rulers,that sycophancy corrupts the soul, stating that a cleric who frequents the courts of kings for worldly gain compromises his divine mandate and ultimately betrays the masses.
Similarly, another renowned Arab historiographerIbn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah highlighted key attributes stating that,Dynasties age and rot from within, transitioning from simplicity and social cohesion (asabiyyah) to luxury, waste, and despotism,when rulers sink into decadence, they prioritised self-preservation and personal comfort over public welfare, losing moral authority, while he critiqued the compromises of contemporary courtiers and religious jurists under shifting regimes, his primary focused had remained structural on how economic pressures, heavy taxation, and fading group solidarity doom a ruling house,noting, that when spiritual and intellectual leaders align themselves with failing, oppressive regimes for personal enrichment, it signals the terminal decay of that civilization.
Also, another 20th-century theologianDietrich Bonhoeffer,a German and pastor who was executed by the N**i regime in April 1945 has consistently warned that the church must never allow itself to become an instrument or mouthpiece for the state.Bonhoeffer's Stance on Church and State, in his essays like The Church and the Jewish Question (1933) and his later work Ethics, Bonhoeffer argued that the church has a duty to question state injustices and help victims of oppression, rather than submit to political ideology,resisting "co-optation", oppossing the "German Christians" movement, which tried to merge Protestantism with N**i nationalism to implement racist policies within church leadership. Bonhoeffer believed,that, the church's proper authority is the Word of God, not the sword of political power, and it must maintain its independence to faithfully serves as witness against tyranny. He famously declared that the church must not simply "bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam a spoke in the wheel itself." When clerics praise the wheel that is crushing Nigerians, they betray the Gospel.
On his part,the existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard fiercely critiqued the institutional church of his time for aligning with state power, arguing that it reduced the radical, world-upending truth of faith into a comfortable, state-sponsored enterprise. When religious leaders take sides with those who oppress the masses, they validate Karl Marx’s cynical critique that religion is merely the "op**te of the masses," used to keep the poor docile while the elite loot the treasury.
Another French law professor and theologian Jacques Ellul wrote about Anarchy and Christianity, arguing that political power is inherently demonic/oppressive and that whenever the church aligns with the state, it betrays the radical freedom of the Gospel, likewise the Jesuit scholar who argued that official church structures often baptises unjust social systems rather than defending the marginalised.
The above, references,I believe is to draw ,the reservoir of knowledge of the Bishop to his calling as a cleric and a shepherd in the Lord's vineyard to what,he might have read or learn in his days either as a student of Theology or teacher of same.
Indeed the position of Bishop Stephen Adegbite could be likened to the Russian novelist and religious philosopher Leo Tolstoy who explicitly wrote against the unholy alliance of the state and the institutional church then with reference to the Russian Orthodox Church, arguing that, both used violence and deceit to enslave ordinary people.It is with revered respect,that at
this moment of our history as a nation Calls for "True" Shepherding as
the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria have chosen to stand with the oppressed, the hungry, and the terrified citizens of this republic. They have spoken truth to power, fulfilling their prophetic mandate.
Bishop Adegbite, and indeed all religious leaders who find themselves comfortably ensconced in the corridors of power, must remember that the ultimate judgment of a shepherd is not based on the applause of politicians, but on the welfare of the flock. Sycophancy on the altar of God is a sacrilege. It is time to return to the side of the people.
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