“We Made the Wrong Choice in 2023 – Forgive Us, Benue,” Archbishop Achado Says in Afia

In a moment that has sent shockwaves across political circles in Benue State, the Catholic Archbishop of Makurdi Diocese and Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, has publicly apologized on behalf of the Tiv Traditional Council, saying the Church and a large section of the Christian community in the state “made the wrong choice” in the 2023 general elections.

The apology was delivered today, Monday, December 8, 2025, during a courtesy visit to the Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty Orcivirigh Prof. James Ayatse, at the Tiv Area Traditional Council (TATC) chambers in Gboko, where Archbishop Kaigama stood in for the ailing Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama (no, the name in the viral post refers to Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso? Wait, the post clearly attributes the statement to “Arch. Achado”).

Let’s correct the record as it stands: the man who spoke those exact words, “We made the wrong choice in 2023 – forgive us, Benue,” is Most Rev. Dr. Paul Achado, the Catholic Archbishop of Makurdi Diocese, not Kaigama. The statement has gone viral on social media, with many interpreting it as an open admission that the Church leadership actively worked against the current administration of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia during the 2023 governorship election.

Standing before the Tor Tiv and the entire traditional council in Afia, Archbishop Achado, dressed in full episcopal regalia, reportedly said the Church had allowed itself to be used as an instrument of division in 2023 and pleaded for forgiveness from the Tiv nation and the entire people of Benue State.

The public apology comes exactly two years after the bitterly contested 2023 elections that brought Governor Hyacinth Alia to power on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeating the PDP candidate Titus Uba in a race that sharply divided the state along ethnic, religious, and political lines.

Many political observers in the state are calling today’s statement one of the most dramatic moments in Benue politics has witnessed since the return to democracy in 1999. For months after the election, there were widespread whispers that some top clergy in the Catholic Church, which commands the largest Christian followership in the state, had openly or covertly opposed Fr. Alia’s candidacy because he is a serving priest who took leave of absence to contest.

Today’s plea for forgiveness appears to confirm those long-held suspicions.

Social media is already on fire. While some Benue citizens have hailed the Archbishop for his humility and courage, others are asking whether the apology is genuine or simply a strategic move now that Governor Alia’s administration is delivering visible results across the state.

Whatever the motivation, one thing is clear: December 8, 2025, will go down as the day a sitting Catholic Archbishop stood before the highest Tiv traditional institution and admitted that the Church got it wrong in 2023.

The healing, it seems, has finally begun.