By Matthews Otalike, The Searchlight.com / August 5, 2026
There is a peculiar comfort that comes with power, the kind that convinces its holders they can rewrite reality, manufacture consent, and parade fiction as fact. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demonstrated this comfort with breathtaking audacity. Twice caught fabricating the very Christian support it claims to enjoy, first renting fake bishops to bless a Muslim-Muslim ticket, then forging an entire Catholic youth organization that does not exist, the party has traded moral legitimacy for theatrical desperation. This is not strategy. This is sacrilege dressed in political garb.
The Phantom Bishops of 2022
in July 20, 2022, when Bola Ahmed Tinubu unveiled Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate at Abuja’s Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, journalists watched in bewilderment as men in clerical cassocks filed in, presented as Christian bishops endorsing the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Their cassocks hung awkwardly. Their demeanour betrayed no familiarity with ecclesiastical decorum. One “bishop” was caught on camera trying to cover his face with his bag.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) immediately disowned them. Rev. Joseph John Hayab, CAN Vice President for the 19 Northern States, likened them to “desperados who went there for themselves,” adding that Tinubu was “free to hire mechanics and other artisans and sew clerical garments for them”. The Catholic Church declared them impostors.
Then came the confession. One of the hired men, Joseph Odaudu, revealed he and others were recruited in a car park behind Eagle Square, promised ₦100,000 each, given food, and dressed in clerical garments to create the false impression that Christians supported the ticket. He was paid only ₦40,000. Activists erupted. Aisha Yesufu alleged the campaign used “fake bishops to divert discussions from the Muslim-Muslim ticket”. Rinu Oduala tweeted: “The APC is fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket but went to rent fake bishops. What sort of ridicule is this?”. Reno Omokri warned that “Nigeria will burn under Tinubu”. Even Lagos socialite Pretty Mike mocked the party by staging his own appearance with a retinue of fake bishops.
The answer was simple: the APC needed Christian cover for a decision that had alienated the Christian community. Rather than engage in genuine dialogue, they chose theatre.
The Forged Catholic Youth Association of 2026
Fast forward to August 2026. Cardinal John Onaiyekan led a Catholic Bishops’ Conference delegation to meet President Tinubu at the State House on July 28, presenting grave concerns over economic hardship, insecurity, and the “increasing danger of Nigeria drifting into a one-party state”. The bishops told the President the country was “bleeding”. The Presidency responded by attacking Onaiyekan, accusing the Catholic Church of political bias.
Then came the forgery
A document surfaced, purportedly from the “Catholic Youth Association of Nigeria (CYAN),” distancing Catholic youths from partisan politics and urging church leaders to refrain from political comments. But the Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria (CYON), the actual body, issued an immediate disclaimer. National President Gosife Eze dismissed it as fake. The organization clarified that no entity called the “Catholic Youth Association of Nigeria” exists. The logo was wrong. The motto was wrong, “Christ Our Light” instead of CYON’s official “Let Your Light Shine.” The letterhead, contact details, and signature were all fabricated. One observer noted the document used the acronym CYON while signing as CYAN. The listed phone number was traced to an individual identified as Sarah Ify.
Sam Amadi, former NERC chairman, berated the APC: “Is it not possible for APC to stop forgery? You can make a powerful counter argument without resorting to forgery. Forgery is not good. Please stop”. Social media commentators accused the Tinubu government of creating its own Catholic youth organization. CYON declared the publication “false, fraudulent, unauthorized and a deliberate act of impersonation,” reserving the right to pursue legal action.
Atiku Abubakar put it most sharply: “Perhaps the Presidency has become so accustomed to inviting ‘fake bishops’ that it now assumes every cleric can be recruited into political propaganda. But Catholic bishops are different. They are not political props, rented cheerleaders or praise singers”.
A Pattern of Manufactured Piety
Two incidents, four years apart, reveal a disturbing pattern. When the APC faces criticism from the Christian community, it does not engage. It does not reflect. It fabricates. In 2022, it rented fake bishops. In 2026, it forged an entire youth organization. The first was a performance of support; the second, an attempt to silence a prophetic voice by manufacturing a counter-narrative from a body that does not exist. Both are acts of desperation dressed in religious garb.
Speaking Truth to Power
The Catholic bishops who met President Tinubu were not seeking political favour. They were fulfilling their pastoral duty, speaking for millions who cannot speak for themselves.
Cardinal Onaiyekan said the bishops told the President the country was “bleeding”. They raised concerns about poverty, insecurity, and the cost of living. They did not go to praise; they went to prophesy. As Onaiyekan stated: “We didn’t go there just as Catholic bishops pushing the Catholic agenda. We went there as people who are with the spiritual mandate to speak to anybody in the name of God”.
But the APC has shown it prefers praise singers to prophets, rented bishops to real shepherds, forged documents to genuine dialogue.
Conclusion
The Searchlight does not shy from inconvenient truths. The APC has a problem with Christians, not because Christians are difficult to please, but because the party has chosen to alienate, manipulate, and now forge its way through the Christian community. The fake bishops of 2022 were a disgrace. The forged Catholic Youth Association of 2026 is a scandal. Both are symptoms of a deeper malady: a ruling party so comfortable with power it believes it can manufacture reality itself.
But reality resists fabrication. The Catholic bishops will continue to speak. The Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria will continue to exist, with its correct name, its correct motto, and its correct conscience. And the APC will continue to be exposed, every time it reaches for the clerical collar it does not deserve, and the forged letterhead it cannot defend.
Truth to power is not comfortable. But it is necessary. And The Searchlight will continue to shine.
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