·Top Pentecostal pastor Ighele says Femi Adesina misinterpreted parley in his book
·'Why Osinbajo didn't address clerics'
· Narrates how Tinubu fell into Buhari trap
· Church at 50: I use the gospel to fight poverty
There is a new storm over the events leading to the 2015 contest for the presidency between former President Muhammadu Buhari and then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan who was seeking reelection, as General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Mission Church, also known as the Happy Family Chapel, Bishop Charles Ighele, dismisses claims made by a former Special Adviser on Media & Publicity to Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina, in his book, 'Working with Buhari', as a misinterpretation of events.
In the book, Adesina reveals how prominent pastors vigorously campaigned and prayed for his then boss to lose the 2015 election to Jonathan, and progressed from there to pray against him (Buhari) and his government after he won the poll and assumed office as Nigeria's leader.
The book chronicles what it calls the hordes of vicious rhetoric and hate campaigns which the men of God orchestrated against Buhari and his government right from the time he signified interest in contesting the election.
The book recalls how Jonathan opened the floodgate of church mobilisation against Buhari by visiting and speaking in many churches ahead of the 2015 election so as to win against Buhari, thereby setting the tone for many pastors to use and attack Buhari.
"Before the 2015 presidential poll, the then President Jonathan went church-hopping.
He visited most major congregations, secretly campaigning for votes and generating hatred for the APC candidate.
In fact, there is one Pastor Emmanuel who recorded a widely circulated audio tape, describing the APC as a Muslim/Jihadist party, and its candidate a precursor of the anti-Christ. Horrendous!" the writer notes. "Buhari still won the election, but a disgruntled army had been mobilised against him.
Another mass of Armageddon. Prejudiced preachers and congregations with scant knowledge of the word of God. They just follow their leaders unquestioningly, not like the Bereans Christians as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in Chapter 17.
"A good number of preachers displayed blatant hostility against the Buhari government. Even when they went prophetic, and hit the crossbar, they still continued to parade themselves as somebody, instead of suiting in sackcloth and ashes.
"Bishop... had arrayed himself against Buhari before the election. Indeed, he was on tape as instructing members to kill any Fulani they saw near the church. Jesus sure wouldn't say that, would He? "There is a story, on good authority, of a meeting convened of top Christian leaders by Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye at the Redeemed Christian Church of God Campground, off Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was shortly before the 2015 presidential poll.
"A renowned pastor at the meeting told me that Pastor Adeboye asked the preachers if any of them had a word from God on the forthcoming election. Bishop O... was said to have stood up, and pontifically declared that God told him President Goodluck Jonathan would win. Another pastor was said to have indicated support for the then President Jonathan, as government was going to do bid rounds for oil blocs soon, and he needed one for works of the kingdom.
Fine. The election held, and you know the rest of the story. The pro-Jonathan pastors never forgave Buhari and the APC. "Many times, one of the most prominent pastors reportedly cursed President Buhari and his government. In fact, there was a time in the first term that he declared Buhari's time as over, that God had rejected him.
"The President not only won re-election in 2019, he also completed his second term. So much was the top pastor's antipathy toward Buhari that he publicly identified with former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the PDP in the 2019 election. He forgot that Atiku was also Fulani, the breed he had asked his members to lynch, if they saw any near the church.
Of course, Buhari trounced them all together. "In June 2022, he declared the Buhari government as the most wicked and corrupt in the history of the country. Without any shred of evidence. In the process, he mixed up his facts. Months earlier, he had proclaimed seven days of fasting and prayers for the fall of Buhari, in which had been joined by two of his acolytes of Dunamis Church and Salvation Ministries.
They failed because God was not in the enterprise. "In August 2020 Bishop O had publicly rained curses on the president of his own country. He said judgment was closer than ever. None of malediction came to pass.
In December 2018 Bishop O deeply embarrassed himself, when he said the Buhari that returned to the country after the health challenge of 2017 was a clone. He didn't understand satire, and was gleefully reading a piece done by Dr. Olatunji Dare in The Nation Newspaper.
"He did not know that the piece was a caricature of those who had sold the story of Jubril of Sudan, as the man occupying Aso Rock Villa. In April 2018, he said God was angry with Buhari, and that his days were numbered. But the Almighty smiled at the man till he handed over power on May 29, 2023".
Adesina, who is a pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, also recalls how he temporarily left the church when the Abuja Pastor of the church started using the pulpit to attempt to denigrate Buhari and his administration.
The former presidential spokesman said: "I am a member of the Foursquare Church in Nigeria, and I have been since I got converted in 1988. When I went to work in Abuja in 2015, I began to worship at the Asokoro branch of the church, pastored by Rev. Babajide Olowodola. A retired very senior civil servant, Olowodola is a good preacher and pastor.
But at a stage, he began to exhibit some messianic tendencies, in which he believed he would pull down President Buhari single-handedly. "Week after week, I heard snide remarks he made against the president from the pulpit. He would threateningly ask people to get their permanent voter cards against 2019, and vote out the incompetent government. I did not let it bother me initially. "Matters however came to a head in 2018, when Boko Haram abducted the Dapchi girls. I was in church on Sunday, and there was no name the pastor did not call the president. He even went into the fallacy of saying more people had been killed in the country since 2015, than what we lost during the Civil War. Recall that Nigeria lost between two and three million souls during that fratricidal war. He went on and, on that Sunday, but I kept my peace. "As it turned out, the Dapchi girls were recovered within the week, save for Leah Sharibu, and a few others. So, the next Sunday, I went to church, waiting to hear what Rev.
Olowodola would say. Not a word! Not even by accident! He did not mention the positive development, thus showing him as unfair and prejudiced. After the service, I picked my Bible, went home and never returned to the church. "Some elements in the church made the going very tough for President Buhari in eight years. There are remnants of pastors who stayed true to their callings, not joining the mob. One of such is Rev. Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church and Pastor Williamson Folorunsho Kumuyi, General Overseer of the Deeper Life Bible Church". Adesina further wrote in Chapter Six of the 488-page-book that is bound to throw up many controversies and challenges from those named in various facets of the Buhari government: "Those of us who were Christians in the Buhari administration were demonized, ostracized and considered enemies of the faith, simply because we were working with a Muslim Fulani. But they miss it. In Nigeria, there is no way Christians would wish Muslims away and vice versa".
Ighele, a top Pentecostal pastor based in Lagos, who blames the former presidential spokesperson's source for feeding him with wrong information on the meeting called by Pastor Adeboye at the Redemption Campground ahead of the 2015 election, in this interview, also comments on the state of the nation, just as he takes us through his journey to becoming a clergyman and why he uses the gospel to fight poverty on the 50th anniversary of Holy Spirit Mission Church. Excerpts:
On claims in Adesina's Working with Buhari'
Mr Femi Adesina was misled into making certain allegations which are not correct. I am not here to attack Adesina, who I regard as one of Nigeria's senior journalists and whose articles I enjoy reading. It is true that over 40 very senior ministers selected from all over Nigeria were invited to a meeting at the Redemption Camp (now Redemption City) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God before the 2015 presidential election. It is also true that Papa Enoch Adeboye presided over the meeting, which was supposed to be a secret meeting. The two areas of errors I am particular about is where Mr Adesina writes: "A renowned pastor at the meeting told him that Pastor Adeboye asked if any of them had a word from God on the 2015 presidential election. Bishop O was said to have stood up and pontifically declared that God told him that President Goodluck Jonathan would win."
I was in that meeting and nothing like that happened. The so-called Bishop O, who those who read Mr Adesina's book and the excerpts published in Vanguard Newspapers of January 21, 2024, easily interpreted to mean Bishop David Oyedepo was also in that meeting. However, at no time did "Bishop O" say anything like that. What happened was that the then running mate to former President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Osinbajo, got wind of the meeting and was around the venue to speak to us to support his vice presidential ambition. From what I can still remember, the general view of the men of God present was that this particular forum of Nigerian church leaders should not be turned into a partisan political forum. The highly respected Professor (Osinbajo) ended up not addressing us. Therefore, he was not invited into the venue of the meeting. "Bishop O" never said that God told him that Goodluck Jonathan would win. Never! Second, Mr Femi Adesina writes: "Another pastor was said to have indicated support for then President Jonathan as government was going to do bid rounds for oil blocs soon and he needed one for work of the kingdom of God".
No. No. No. No man of God said so. The only thing a highly responsible man of God said about oil blocs was that some of the people who wanted either Jonathan or Buhari to win the election were doing so for highly personal economic interests, not for national interests. It was then he said that the bid for oil blocs was around the corner and that it was oil blocs such people were fighting for, not Nigeria's political future. Does it make sense for a man of God to publicly tell a meeting of some senior ministers in the land that he needed an oil bloc? Were we in a position to help him? Not at all! It is, however, very clear that someone who attended the meeting passed on the information to Mr Adesina. I do not expect such a man of God to be a liar. I think that the man of God who leaked the information to Mr Adesina did not properly understand what was said or dosed off a little during the meeting. I also seriously do not think that Mr Adesina, of all people, will tell lies against a man of God despite political differences. There was a misunderstanding somewhere. I know that Femi Adesina was not telling a lie, somebody told him something and because the person possibly didn't understand it well, it came out in this watery form. These meetings are done in secret and one of those there must have been highly partisan. In fact, more partisan politics must have eaten into the person deeper than our religious obligation, which was to keep the secrets of the meeting. The problem is from that particular person, not Femi.
State of the nation
For the first time since the 1979 presidential election, I did not vote nor did I tell my family or branch churches in our ministry on who to vote for. I wanted to be apolitical for the first time. I wanted to see if a man of God can mature above the emotions of partisan politics. It was not easy. If we have to look at the Tinubu presidency with a good lens, you will agree with me that any person who would take over from Buhari will certainly find things extremely difficult. For example, prices of basic foods such as yam, beans, rice, garri, tomato, pepper, chicken, beverages, petrol and diesel were already beyond the average man's reach. Those privileged Nigerians earning N400, 000 a month could hardly afford to absentmindedly buy a common sachet of powdered milk or a crate of egg. The economy was very bad and I was already having pity on who will be president after Buhari. I had already told a section of the Nigerian press that Buhari tactfully retained petroleum subsidy in the 2023 Budget till the end of June 2023. I said political accuracy, economic reality and high class emotional intelligence would have to be displayed by the next president so as not to strike a match stick on an already inflammable economy. For me, President Tinubu ought not to have said "subsidy is gone" during his inauguration as president. That statement and the total removal of the petroleum subsidy about a month later made a worse situation get out of hand. I seriously believe that he will admit that he could not have said "fuel subsidy is gone". Remember that all the major presidential candidates said they would remove fuel subsidy. Whoever would have won the last presidential election might have faced some form of unpopularity because prices of things would still have gone up, although not up to the way things are going on now. I say so because I believe that the laid back temperament of the other presidential candidates might not have pushed them into making an out-of-script statement of subsidy during their inauguration. From what I can see from afar, Tinubu has a quick attacking action loaded temperament, hence he said what he said. But leaders with his type of temperament can equally take action to remedy the malady.
Way forward
He (Tinubu) will make better progress if he is able to understand that the access of every citizen to the four factors of production (land, capital, national development focused on a well-educated labour force and a well-assisted indigenous entrepreneurial class) which are the foundations for the prosperity of nations. But the average Nigerian politician sees the construction of roads, provision of drinking water, building of government-owned schools and hospitals (which their children will never attend) and provision of palliatives as the only duty of a government. The quality of life of the human being should be the essence of government. After all, after God created the moon, stars, crops, animals and all creation, He created the reason for creation, the human being. This government and all politicians should be politically re-educated to know that the quality of life of the human being is the reason for the establishment of a government and that access to the four factors of production by the masses should be the goal of government. The Tinubu I used to read about when he was governor of Lagos State was a smart man and I can still see traces of that smartness in him despite his age. Things are bad, very bad. Nigerians will not forgive him if he fails to change things. This suffering is too much. He has an opportunity to be a great man or a little-minded leader.
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Your ministry is celebrating the 50th anniversary. Did it occur to you as a child that you would one day become a clergyman?
It didn't really occur to me. In 1969, I gave my life to Christ in Class One (now Junior Secondary School One) in the Scripture Union. But because I wasn't baptised in the Holy Spirit, I didn't receive proper discipleship. As young boys, we used to go from one village to another to preach every Sunday. Even though I did these things, the power to stay on was not there because I was not baptised in the Holy Spirit. After some time, I backslid. In the 70s, I found out that I was going into the world, but something in me knew that I didn't belong anywhere other than in the body of Christ. At that time, I was in the Palm Wine Drinkers Club, whose aim was to promote African culture. I was made a World Marshal, thus in charge of the club's discipline. I was also made a World Parrot, thus in charge of information because the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University was then the club's headquarters. I had to leave the club at one stage because I saw that I belonged as minister of the gospel for Jesus Christ.
Activism
I have always hated injustice. As a preacher, I heard a voice speak to me that I should use the gospel to fight poverty. On campus (then University of Ife but now Obafemi Awolowo University), I was seriously involved in activism, one of which was the 1978 student demonstrations led by Segun Okeowo, who was then President of the National Union of Nigerian Students, NUNS. I was actively involved in the demonstration against the increase in foodstuffs and feeding, which rose from 50 kobo a day to one naira fifty kobo a day. When some students died at the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, we rose up. I was also actively involved in campus journalism. I was the editor-in-chief of King Cobra, the largest selling newspaper in any university. We printed nearly 2,000 copies for a university that had 11,000 students in the 70s. We changed the face of campus journalism, made it concrete.
Buhari administration
It is the most inept government we have ever had. The country had a president who didn't have the intellectual capacity but had the crowd - the constant 11,000,000 votes. A big mistake was made. The foundation of what we are passing through right now was laid by that administration. Prices of things went up, everything skyrocketed and the suffering became so much. Even as a preacher, I find many of our people over the past three years relocating back to their villages from Lagos. Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, some relocated from where our church is to the outskirts of Lagos in their huge numbers. How much was rice when Buhari took over and how much was it when his tenure ended? Everything went out of control. With Tinubu coming in and making that statement (subsidy is gone) which he shouldn't have made, things escalated to another level that even economists can't explain. Under former President Goodluck Jonathan, the dollar to Naira exchange rate was between N150 and N200; under Buhari, it got to over N600. The foundation for what we have right now was tragically laid by that administration. It is a pity that Tinubu fell into that trap by saying subsidy is gone. For me, it is the worst blunder. I hope that the President is able to get people who can get things done so that the nation can get back on the path of development.
How economy is affecting the church
If I tell you about the people who have left our ministry across the country to travel abroad between last year and this year due to the 'Japa' syndrome, you will be shocked. People from my church meet one another on the plane while leaving Nigeria legally. Those leaving are among the best brains in the church. There are also others who resigned from their jobs because the pay is equal to their transportation fares. The Japa syndrome and relocation to villages or the outskirts due to increase in rent affects every church.
