Chinyere Abiaziem 
Parish Priest of Our Lady of Holy Rosary, Rev. Fr. Raymond Anoliefo, is the Director of Justice, Development and Peace Centre (JPDC), Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, the social arm of the Catholic Church saddled with the responsibility of addressing social ills in the society and promoting the development of humans. In this interview with CHINYERE ABIAZIEM, he speaks on the lack of sincerity of the Nigerian government, some challenges of priesthood and the continuous decision to stay true.
In your 2023 Independence message, you bemoaned the rate of unemployment among the youth. This year, life has become more unbearable for many Nigerians, with frustration and the question of where the nation is headed. How do you see the situation?
There is no gain in saying the fact that the nation seems to be taking a backward step into a much more difficult time than it was in 2023. That said it is a dicey situation we have found ourselves in. Political officeholders will quite agree with us that things are challenging. Nigeria has never been this challenging. Most things are challenging and seem to not be giving hope, because of this, there is a lot of gloom, there is sadness, and people are complaining of poverty. Recent statistics also show that unemployment has increased, and all sorts of negative indices in the continent, or in the country as it were. Insecurity is at an all-time high, political banditry, and the elections that have just taken place, local government elections, and state elections, have all shown us that not much has changed since after 2023. It has not given us hope, to be particularly hopeful that 2027 will be any different from what we have had in the past. It is almost a tale of gloom and sadness and darkness. But then, we will be optimistic, we believe that things can change.
If you were to advise the present government, what would your advice be?
The government knows what to do. The problem is that there is no political will to do what needs to be done. There is no altruism to do what needs to be done. There is no sincerity in the government. There is no honesty in their portfolio, beginning from the top to the last. In a situation where once upon a time, people were celebrating a government that a president presented a WAEC certificate, what happened? There was a media frenzy that WAEC presented. That is to let you know how low we have fallen. The truth is that the Nigerian debacle, the Nigerian challenge that we are having if I explain it to you and you understand, that means I did not explain it properly. The true test of whether you understand what I have explained and whether I have explained it properly is that you do not fully understand. I am sure you do not fully understand how we are going to get out of this, which means I have succeeded in explaining the Nigerian problem very well to you.
You are one of the clerics that do not support state sponsorship of pilgrimages but some faith leaders do not see anything wrong with this. How do we reconcile such varying views?
It is a personal opinion. But it is an opinion that is derived from careful analysis of where we are as a nation. Your house cannot be on fire, and you are busy chasing rats. The religious activity you know begins first by looking at the church-state relationship, or religion-state relationship, so I do not particularise it to Christianity. The truth is, there must be a difference. The government should not interfere in religious activities beyond a certain level. Religion, too, should play its part in the overall polity. A situation whereby the whole noise coming from the government is that the country is broke. If you say the country is broke, and the most urgent thing to do is to take the funds that are not available and use them to sponsor people to go and pray? What has happened to praying in Nigeria? What has happened to the plethora of churches, and the multiplicity of denominations that we have in the country? Who is saying God does not answer our prayers here? What has happened to the multiplicity of mosques that you find all over the country? Now, if for one reason or the other, you are buoyant enough and you feel, I think I need to go on pilgrimage, it is a personal decision. Nobody should begrudge anybody who chooses, ‘I want to spend my money on going to the Holy Land because I have faith, I want to connect with it, I want to see what happens there.’ But I would constantly be against using scarce resources to send people to Mecca, to Jerusalem for state-sponsored pilgrimages, come on! People are still looking for what to eat. Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children. Look at infrastructure deficits at an all-time high. The housing deficit is well over 17 to 20 million and we are not talking about individuals, we are talking about families now who have no shelter. So, tell me, what scale of preference/priority? Maybe if we have dealt with all the important things and we have changed, we can now say, ‘Okay, you know what, let’s go and pray. Let’s go on a pilgrimage.’ But till tomorrow, I’m not convinced that that is the responsibility of the government and the state. Yes, some Christian leaders will support it. This is because, of course, who does not like free things (who does not like free things)? It is not as though they put it there and say, I want to sponsor you, Rev. Fr. That is talking who knows? I might say no, I might say yes. Yeah, I might say yes and jump on it. I have gone on a pilgrimage, but it was self-sponsored and not state-sponsored. While I was aware of the state-sponsored one, I chose not to use state-sponsored pilgrimage. I went because I wanted to go on a pilgrimage. It is a personal choice.
You are also known to be among the most intelligent, outspoken, youthful and attractive priests. How do you cope with opposition and admiration, especially from the opposite gender?
Well, when you say intelligent, I do not know. I do not reckon myself as one. I am not going to put myself on the ground. We try our best to pay attention to the things that happen around us. We try to read a few books every once in a while. But as for being intelligent, well, thank you. I am humbled about that. It may not completely be the full story. Well, opposition, as far as the things that we say, nobody truly loves to be criticised, negatively or positively, that is the truth. But because, again, we know that positive criticism can help us to be better. You dispose of yourself out of humility to learn from someone else. But are there times when you say things and people do not agree with you? Of course, I have talked about pilgrimages. Government not sponsoring pilgrimages. I got a few kicks here and there. It is a choice. As I said, it is a personal opinion. You are entitled to yours. A few people have insulted me in the past. You take it on the chin and you move on. You just know that it is part of the task of nation-building. I believe that. I’m in this world but once. Scripture says after death is judgment. So, now that I have the privilege and the time and the opportunity to pass through this world, I have to make a conscious effort to make it a better place. With regards to admiration, no one does not love being admired or complimented, but you take it in a stride, that is one, and then you acknowledge the fact that first from the point of view of humility, all that you are, all that you have, have been given to you by God, and because again, the Catholic priest is in quote seen as a successful person, so success has many children, failure is an orphan.
The natural thing is a lot of people will come, like you said, compliments from the same gender and opposite gender, they will always come and sometimes some do not know how to place boundaries. But well I’m I young? I do not know. I’m I attractive? If you say so, then the truth is, it is not a major problem, from a personal standpoint, maybe because I have been in the ministry for quite a while. This is my 17 years in the ministry, so I have pretty much seen all types of maybe advances as it were, at this point, we know where we are going, and we know what we want, so there is no room for too many distractions. Some of the offices I occupy also keep me a lot busier, so that I do not have a lot of time for too many things that are beside my goal. Ultimately, as an adult, we live by the choices that we make, every choice you make, there is a consequence to those choices, and if you are conscious of it, you will always try to make the choice that brings you closest to your goal. The temptations will always be there maybe till the end of time because as a human being, those things are going to be there. Maybe today it is from ladies, tomorrow it may be something else, could be money, could be wine, it could be whatever, and it could be power, so it is constant vigilance. The first letter of Saint Peter says, to be calm but vigilant because your enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, so you must be vigilant, avoid bad associations and stay focused. In being a priest it is a continuous ‘yes’ to God. You cannot be a priest in the morning and not be a priest in the evening. It entails constant vigilance, so you have to keep renewing your ‘yes, yes Lord, here I am, send me.’
