•And DAYSTAR Founder, Pastor SAM ADEYEMI
•For Saying Their Churches Will Remain Shut For Now!
The founder of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Ayodele Elijah is a man of God who says it as it without giving a hoot whose ox is gored. He does not like speaking from both sides of the mouth. If he has an issue with a policy or an opinion expressed by someone, he will not hesitate to let out his reservations about such opinion, especially if it is one that directly or indirectly relates to his Christian faith. This was why, two weeks ago, he let out his anger against some popular men of God whom he described as cowards for their inability to speak the truth and let the government know that shutting down completely the church of God was wrong. The respected man of God who has become extremely popular owing to his often accurate prophecies mentioned the likes of Pastor Adeboye, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Pastor Kumuyi and the CAN leadership, both nationally and state level as being part of the reason why the government took such insensitive decision. This outburst by the Primate which went viral has earned him the respect of thousands of his colleagues who have commended him for his courage and consistency in speaking the truth at all times. According to them, the cleric spoke their minds and reflected their thoughts and position on the issue.
Presently, Primate Ayodele is unhappy with a couple of men of God for making utterances that are in total contrast to the general feeling of everyone when the government announced the lifting of the ban on religious gatherings. He spoke with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) and opened up on why he is extremely displeased with these men of God for making the comments they were credited to have made.
Sir, it came as a shock to many when we read that a couple of top pastors are saying they’re not ready to re-open their churches just yet when everyone is excited and waiting to get the green light from the government to re-open their churches, what do you make of this?
Well, you see, this is happening because there is no solid unity in Christian fold. We do not have a vibrant leader. The CAN President is not vibrant enough. And I will not blame him. He is not spiritually inclined. Same goes with the CAN Chairman, Lagos chapter, he is an empty barrel who has nothing to offer the Christian community. Let’s even leave those ones. How can somebody like Sam Adeyemi say they should not open the churches? But I’m not surprised, this is somebody I see as a career pastor. He cannot see, spiritually I mean. CAN national president and his Lagos counterpart, they cannot see as well. But the person who has surprised me the most is Prophet TB Joshua. If TB Joshua is a real prophet of God, He wouldn’t have said that he is not ready to re-open his own church. But seriously, I don’t want to believe that he is actually the one who made that statement. Maybe somebody spoke on his behalf and misinterpreted his thoughts. But, if he indeed made that statement, then I must say that is unbecoming of a true prophet of God. As a prophet of God who claims God has told him three clear terms not to open his church, and so he would wait unto the Lord before he opens his church, that he’s not in a hurry, he should’ve kept that to himself. He shouldn’t have made it public. And at any rate, I do not believe he is speaking God’s mind. He is somebody that I respect.
We have spoken on perhaps one or two occasions before, but he shouldn’t have said what he said. If God told you they would shut down the church, for how long? Did He tell you the number of days, weeks, months the churches would be shut? This is what we are saying that these people are misleading the government. If you said God spoke to you and said don’t re-open your church, is it not that same God that speaks with other men of God? Or does he have his own God somewhere else? God is not happy that churches have been shut down. This is why I continue to say that I hail Pastor Oyedepo and I hail Chris Okotie as well, his statement was on point. I also hail Oyakhilome too. These are the people that should be at the forefront. We don’t need cowards. TB Joshua should withdraw that statement because I don’t think it’s from God. If indeed God said he should not re-open his church, he should’ve kept it to himself and not for public consumption. Keep it to yourself and when your members come and ask why the church is not opened yet, you tell them you’re still waiting on the Lord to hear from Him.
That’s why I don’t think this is from God, this is his own conception. They are saying to government, opening the churches at this time is dangerous. It’s not dangerous. There is no Coronavirus in the church. I support Okotie and Oyedepo who said pastors using nose masks inside the church is nonsense. God is angry that they’re closing the churches. That’s why I give credit to the Lagos state government, starting with Governor Sanwo-Olu, they have tried. The governor has a good agenda for Lagos state. He has fantastic people surrounding him,credible people who run the government with him, starting with his deputy, Hamzat. His Commissioner for Home Affairs, his Chief of Staff, his SA on Religion, these are wonderful people who have the fear of God in their hearts and respect the word of God. Sanwo –Olu is ready to open the churches, but it’s these people that are confusing him. Closing the church at this moment is very satanic. Right now, people are dying spiritually. People are weak spiritually. What can online evangelism and preaching achieve? How many people can afford to watch them on cable stations? People shouldn’t be using the name of God to cover up when God did not speak to them. I am really disappointed in TB Joshua. I now want to appeal directly to the governor of Lagos state, that people are dying spiritually, he should not listen to these people who cannot see beyond their noses. I am appealing to him because he’s a governor who listens to his people and he’s very intelligent.
I want him to know that God is not happy that the churches are closed. Give us the guidelines on what the churches must do to prepare for re-opening and we will do it. We will comply. If you go to some churches now, some of their ceilings are falling, rats running all over the place because nobody has been taking care of the place. And I’m being honest with the governor of Lagos State, it will help him a lot if he can open the churches within 7 days. We are prepared. If it’s for 30 minutes, we’ll do it, take one set after the other, ensure people wash their hands and use the sanitizers that will be made available. All I’m just saying is that let us open to serve our God. And this is not about tithes or offerings, all I’m saying is open the churches and let the people worship their God in true spirit.
Listening online or watching on television can never be the same. I have missed my members and they’ve missed me too. I receive hundreds of calls every day from them. Any pastor saying churches should not be opened for now is not a man of God. What is TB Joshua afraid of? Is he afraid of the Coronavirus? Does it mean that all these healings he does are not real? How can God tell you not to open the church when the same God is not happy that people have not been allowed to worship Him and He wants them to come and worship Him? Are you the only chosen person when we have other chosen men of God? No, it’s because they are afraid of Covid-19. It is because they do not have the capacity to handle it. We are ready to comply with government’s directives.
Governor Sanwo-Olu should open the churches and let the people worship their God. And this goes for the mosques too, they should open both the churches and the mosques. I am speaking on behalf of the other pastors who do not have the opportunity to speak to the media like I do. Same with the schools, the moment they open places of religious worship, they should open the schools as well. All these E-learning our children are trying to adapt to can never be like the real thing. Let the government give us clear directives, any church that does not comply should be dealt with accordingly, but they should please open the churches now. Christians are hungry to go back to church and serve their God. TB Joshua and the others are not speaking the mind of God, they should not listen to him. Let me just add that Coronavirus has come to stay, we only need to work out ways by which we can manage it and prevent it from taking too many lives. The vaccine will come but it will take a bit of time but we should not use that to stop what God is planning. That’s why we need prayers. Government should allow us to pray to prevent the situation from getting out of hand especially in Lagos state. There’s no way you can take God out of government, the two go together.
Let me take you back a bit, sir. Two weeks ago when you expressed your candid opinion of the leadership of CAN nationally and at the state level and you also indicted a lot of senior pastors for their inability to speak to the government, it went viral. A lot of men of God called to say that they stand with you on this. What this shows clearly is that there’s a disconnect in the Christian community between the senior pastors and the ones below them, how can this be amended?
You are the one calling them senior pastors, every pastor is the same. It’s just that some are more experienced than others. All these senior pastors, senior prophet, senior bishop, all these are mere worldly titles. Let me answer your question this way. We have people in CAN who have politicized the association. The people they put there are people they can control. This is why they can’t pick people like me because they can’t control me. They should make these positions open for everyone to contest for it. Let those who are interested go for debates and we check their antecedents. But they prefer to pick only stooges that they can use. Except they restructure the place, they won’t get quality people. A lot of people who are there today will not be there if they make the whole process transparent. So, I’m sorry to say, there cannot be any amendment for now. There’s nothing anybody can do about that bridge, that disconnect, that is affecting the Christian community for now.
