Some Pastors Have Turned Their Pulpits To Soapboxes – Femi Adesina

Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, has accused some pastors in the country of constantly attacking President Muhammadu Buhari.

The presidential aide stated that these pastors have turned their pulpits to an avenue to spew hate and ridicule the President over the state of the nation.

He agreed that religious leaders and Nigerians have the right to be angry over the challenges facing the country, it must be noted that the Buhari government was doing its best to change the nation’s fortunes.

Adesina made the submission via an article released on his Facebook page on Thursday which he titled ‘This Kumuyi is simply different’, in support of a statement by the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi.

He stated that the constant criticism of his principal by an Abuja-based pastor forced him to stop going to a branch of his church, accusing the pastor of seeing himself as someone who must bring the Buhari government down with his criticisms.

He added that some Nigerian pastors are guilty of giving fake prophecies, recalling how some religious leaders predicted that Buhari would lose the 2019 election.

He wrote, “I used to attend a church in Abuja from 2015 to 2018, till the pastor began to see himself as someone who must bring the Buhari government down. Sunday after Sunday, it was all sorts of criticism from the pulpit. But I endured, since it was a branch of a church I had attended for over 30 years. Till one day, he overdid it.

“The Dapchi girls were abducted and there was no name the pastor did not call President Buhari that Sunday. It was horrendous that such things could come from the pulpit. But I suffered long and sat through the sermon, or rather, what was supposed to be a sermon. I then went home, wondering what the church of God was turning to.

“Irrespective of the titles they bear, I hear bishops, apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, cursing the government, and issuing doomsday notices. One even said publicly that the Buhari administration was over, before the 2019 elections. But the man won handsomely, and that preacher still struts and frets on the pulpit every week, not repenting in sackcloth and ashes.”

Adesina went ahead to appreciate Kumuyi for urging Christians not to attack those in authority and destroy government property because they failed to keep to electoral promises.

The presidential aide, however, berated some pastors for supporting the youths during the #EndSARS protests in 2020 which led to the destruction of properties in Lagos State.

Adesina added, “Pastor Kumuyi also says if you are a true believer in Christ, you wouldn’t go on the rampage, destroying government property… But that was not what we saw in the country in October last year. The country was almost burned down under the subterfuge of EndSARS.

“And sadly, they were encouraged by pastors and preachers, who simply hate the fact that a Fulani man is their President. Many of them are on record as having encouraged the protesters, till things went ugly, turned awry. And the pastors vanished into the thin air. Not a word of caution or restraint as the cities were burning, and policemen were being killed, and even eaten up.”