Nigeria’s top religious and traditional leaders have issued a stinging, united rebuke to President Bola Tinubu: fix the country’s spiralling bloodshed or everything else you do will be meaningless.

The extraordinary message — delivered in person at a packed interfaith summit in Abuja on Monday — came from a rare coalition of Catholic cardinals, leading imams, Pentecostal presidents, and northern emirs who declared the security crisis a “national and spiritual emergency” now resting squarely on the President’s desk.

“Nigeria’s problem predates President Tinubu,” the leaders conceded in their communiqué. “But as the president of the day, the bulk of the job lies on his table. Everything he is doing will be meaningless if we don’t tackle insecurity.”

They issued the same blunt warning to the National Assembly: “You will have no constituencies left to represent if communities are consumed by violence.”

The high-powered gathering, organised by the Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, featured Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Sheikh Nurudeen Lemu, Rev. Stephen Baba (CAN Vice Chairman), Sheikh Nuru Khalid, Archbishop Sunday Onuoha, the Emir of Bangudu, the Emir of Doma, and dozens of other Christian, Muslim and traditional heavyweights.

Rev. Fr. Canice Enyiaka set the tone in his keynote: “When one Nigerian is killed, the entire nation bleeds. When one child is kidnapped, the whole nation is kidnapped.”

Quoting both the Bible and the Quran, he declared: “Whoever kills a single soul, it is as if he has killed all of humanity — and whoever saves a life has saved all of humanity.”

Speaker after speaker insisted no religion justifies the slaughter ravaging communities from Zamfara to Benue, and condemned clerics who remain silent or allow extremists to hijack faith.

The summit resolved to:
– Establish a Joint Interfaith Advocacy Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief
– Push for a National Commission on Freedom of Religion or Belief
– Strengthen local interfaith peace committees and early-warning systems
– Launch quarterly national interfaith consultations
– Document every incident of hate speech and religious violence

Archbishop Onuoha added a pragmatic note: “If we can borrow billions from abroad, we can also seek security expertise — but never at the cost of our sovereignty.”

Rev. John Hayab, Country Director of Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, called the meeting “a moral wake-up call to every leader and citizen.”

As the clerics and royals filed out of the hall, their message hung heavy in the air: Nigeria’s soul is bleeding — and the President has run out of excuses.