APC’s scurrilous attack on Adeboye

t  HE Redeemed Christian Church of God (TRCCG) embarks on the “Let’s Go A-Fishing” programme twice in a year. Usually a four-day affair, the programme coincides with the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ during Christmas (December) and His crucifixion and resurrection during Easter (March\April). During “Go A-Fishing”, existing TRCCG churches come together in various combinations to plant new churches; evangelize to win more souls into God’s Kingdom; undertake Community work; and give a helping hand in various ways and forms to the needy. Teams of senior pastors visit Go A-Fishing venues to assess work done, encourage the brethren as well as deliver the General Overseer’s goodwill message. TRCCG’s General Overseer is no other personality than the well-known Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye who, during Go A-Fishing, makes whistle stops at tens of Go A-Fishing venues. It is safe to say that Pastor Adeboye visits more Go A-Fishing venues than any other TRCCG pastor.

Apart from whatever facilities that may be at his disposal, he flogs himself mercilessly to make this happen. This December’s Go A-Fishing itinerary last Saturday saw Pastor Adeboye criss-crossing towns and villages in Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti states, among others. At Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, the governor, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, and the traditional ruler, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, were among the dignitaries that received Pastor Adeboye.

As is characteristic of him, Pastor Adeboye prayed for Fayose, who had knelt down before him for prayer. Fayose is not the first Nigerian VIP to have so coveted Pastor Adeboye’s prayers. Presidents and other governors had done so, including former President Goodluck Jonathan and the current president, Muhammadu Buhari. Outside our shores, it has not been different; the immediate past Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, attended a TRCCG programme in London and came forward to be prayed for by Pastor Adeboye. The prayers that Pastor Adeboye said for Fayose has, however, drawn the ire of Mr. Jide Awe, chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti state. Awe not only blew his top but also threw caution to the winds, making highfalutin statements, levelling unsubstantiated allegations, and calling the revered Pastor Adeboye names that must alarm every right-thinking person.

Whereas I am an Area Pastor in the said TRCCG, it needs to be stated that the views expressed here are entirely mine and by no means represent those of Pastor Adeboye and or of the authorities of TRCCG. And I enjoy the guarantees and protection of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other extant laws.

First, a recap of Pastor Adeboye’s prayers for Fayose as was reported in the media: “We thank God for your courage, for your boldness. We thank God for your being willing to take risks so that your people can be protected. You have been a governor who knows when to say ‘enough is enough’ in defence of his people. And I am sure you know what I am talking about and I am sure the world knows. I don’t want to say more than that but be assured that we are praying for you and you will succeed in Jesus name. We wish all other governors who stand for their people, who defend their people and who know when to say ‘enough is enough’, success.”

I wasn’t there but I suspect that the entire congregation must have chorused “Amen”! For this prayer said not only for Fayose but also for all governors who live up to their oath of office to stand up in defence of their people, Mr. Awe accused Pastor Adeboye of supporting what he called Fayose’s persistent insults on Buhari. Mr. Awe also tried to drive a wedge between TRCCG members and the pastor we all lovingly call “Daddy G. O.”  He alleged that Fayose must have bribed Pastor Adeboye since, according to him, the Ekiti governor was capable of bribing angels. So Awe had seen angels receive bribes before – in what currency, he only is in the best position to say! He then attempted to set the family of the late founder of TRCCG, Rev. Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi, against Pastor Adeboye by asking them to call the pastor to order so he would not, in his myopic reasoning, tarnish the legacy of their father. However hard they try to conceal the truth, it will out; so did Awe finally expose himself when he expressed the wish that Pastor Adeboye ought to be a supporter of the ruling APC since Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is a senior pastor in TRCCG!

Awe’s statement has done incalculable damage to APC. He was uncouth and lacked manners. He brought no finesse; nay, home training, to bear at all. He must have thought he was engaged in the usual banality between politicians where they trade abuses and insults and retire afterwards to beer parlours and prostitutes’ joints to throw banters; plot new assaults; and pick the next target. APC owes itself a world of good to do damage control by disowning the said Mr. Awe and his scurrilous statements; otherwise, it will pay a heavy price for this down the road. Pastor Adeboye did not in the least deserve the assault on him by the APC chairman. For one, many eminent Nigerians, spiritual and temporal, have made more damning statements about the state of affairs of the country.

For another, Pastor Adeboye only spoke the truth: whether we like it or not, Gov. Fayose is the recognised face of the Nigerian opposition today and the voice of the voiceless. This is a fact which Pastor Adeboye merely recognised. He did not create it. Coincidentally, the clueless, fumbling, and wobbling APC government created the situation that Fayose is exploiting to the hilt. Fayose is not the only one who could have taken advantage of the situation but up to this point, he is the only one doing so. And it is un-Christianly to deny a man his due. Awe must be told in clear and unmistakable terms that he cannot drive a wedge between our dearly beloved Daddy G. O. and TRCCG members. He also cannot engineer any disaffection between the Akindayomis and Pastor Adeboye. Talking about legacy, he should take time out to study the trajectory of TRCCG. This Mission is a covenant church and not a worldly organization where wives succeed husbands and sons succeed their fathers.

Fayose has been the Nemesis of Awe and his political family in Ekiti. It is, therefore, understandable why Awe was beside himself with rage over what appeared to him like an endorsement of Fayose by Pastor Adeboye; more so when we consider the status, nationally and internationally, of Pastor Adeboye, both in spiritual and temporal terms. Nonetheless, Awe’s unguarded response was not the right way to go. Treating Pastor Adeboye’s “offending” prayer as a wake-up call and beginning to ask the appropriate questions so as to make the much-needed amends would have been much more sensible, just as God told an angry Cain in Genesis 4: 6 & 7. By spurning correction and pouring expletives on Pastor Adeboye, Awe could be inviting sure catastrophe upon himself and the party he claimed to represent. Like Cain, he runs the risk of making a bad case worse.

• Bolawole, former editor of The PUNCH, is a veteran journalist and columnist