{"id":23294,"date":"2026-08-08T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/?p=23294"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:52:00","slug":"2027-tinubu-should-stay-focused-not-be-distracted-by-critics-says-lai-omotola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/2027-tinubu-should-stay-focused-not-be-distracted-by-critics-says-lai-omotola\/","title":{"rendered":"2027: Tinubu Should Stay Focused, Not Be Distracted by Critics, Says Lai Omotola"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Convener of The Renewal Group, Eng. Lai Omotola, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remain focused and steadfast in fulfilling his campaign promises aimed at improving the lives of Nigerians, rather than allowing himself to be distracted by critics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Omotola expressed confidence that Nigerians would make the right choice at the polls in 2027, arguing that President Tinubu stands a better chance of securing re-election based on the bold and courageous reforms and policies implemented by his administration, which he said had repositioned the nation\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

He spoke in an exclusive interview with THENEWSNOW at his office in Maryland, Lagos, against the backdrop of reactions trailing the recent visit of Catholic bishops to President Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.<\/p>\n

The visit sparked a war of words between the President\u2019s spokespersons and the leader of the delegation, His Eminence, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, following comments made by the Cardinal during a live appearance on ARISE TV shortly after the meeting.<\/p>\n

Omotola said President Tinubu deserved commendation for receiving the Catholic bishops despite being aware that their mission included raising criticisms about his administration.<\/p>\n

According to him, no leader would be comfortable listening to criticism after dedicating significant time and energy to improving the welfare of the people.<\/p>\n

The Renewal Group Convener, however, said while the Catholic bishops spoke truth to power during their meeting with the President, which elicited an immediate reaction from the Presidency, Cardinal Onaiyekan became political and biased when he subsequently appeared on ARISE TV to further criticise the administration.<\/p>\n

He described it as unfortunate that the Cardinal took advantage of the situation and escalated the matter unnecessarily by talking about how President Tinubu intended to win the 2027 election.<\/p>\n

Reacting to claims that Catholics have about 35 million members in Nigeria who could influence the outcome of the 2027 presidential election, Omotola questioned why such numbers had not translated into electoral outcomes in previous general elections.<\/p>\n

He noted that winning elections goes beyond boasting about numerical strength, stressing that what matters is the ability to mobilise people to vote when the time comes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Convener of The Renewal Group, Eng. Lai Omotola, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remain focused and steadfast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23299,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23294\/revisions\/23299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}