I have been warning Nigerians for the past three years about the deceptions and exploitations that go on in the church and are perpetrated by their so called men of God. Not a day goes that I am not vindicated.
In his outburst on tuition fees, Bishop Oyedepo portrayed God as a monster and someone with badly misplaced priorities. According to him, the increase in the tuition fees of Covenant University was decided and approved by God. He warned that God would punish those who criticise the decision. He reportedly said one critic was smitten with halitosis (bad breath) and was "restored to dignity" only after his (Oyedepo) intervention. Let us get this straight right from the start: The politicians who steal our commonwealth, impoverish our society and whose actions directly cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our citizens are walking free; Boko Haram insurgents have orphaned children, beheaded our young men, abducted our young women and sold them as sex slaves, devastated communities, and caused immense humanitarian crisis. But according to Bishop Oyedepo, it is not these horrible people who deserve the wrath and judgement of God but parents and the guardians of students who have complained about the increase in the tuition fees of Covenant University. What a monster this God is?!
There are more pressing national and global issues such as climate change, famine, diseases, jihadist terrorism, and social injustice, but Bishop Oyedepo tells us that God is more interested in the internal affairs of Covenant University over all of these issues. There is a baby dying of leukemia this minute, thousands of children are killed daily by malaria, African migrants seeking better opportunities in Europe drown by the day in the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of innocent children have been killed in the Syrian civil war, but none of these issues make it to the top of God's priority. According to the bishop, none of these issues is as important to God as the matter of how much money Covenant University charges as tuition fees. Why would anyone want to worship a God who behaves like that? Why would anyone believe that an Omnio-benevolent God speaks to Bishop Oyedepo?
What do we know about the bishop? Oyedepo makes his living by selling our gullible citizens false hope in exchange for their money. He uses the money to build schools and universities affordable only to a tiny fraction of his followers. Unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, the bishop has no patents or innovations associated with his name that would account for his wealth. He became rich simply by exploiting the gullibility of vulnerable people. Unlike those entrepreneurs, Oyedepo enjoys tax-exempt status and he gets to keep 100% of his profits. Additionally, the workers in his church work for free and are not paid for their labour. He takes money from toilet cleaners, street vendors, labourers, teachers, gatekeepers, bus drivers, bus conductors, commercial okay riders, poor market women who break their backs in the heat of the sun to provide for their families, and other low-paid workers to set up profit-making business ventures that only the rich can afford. It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. In his worldview, affluence is a reliable sign of a healthy relationship with God and poverty is a state of sinfulness.
It seems silly anyone would believe that donating their hard-earned money to pastors will bribe God and induce Him to prosper them. But this is precisely the "message of hope" that Oyedepo and his fellow pastorpreneurs sell to their congregants. Pastor Adeboye has even managed to convince his followers to donate their entire January salary (they call it "first fruit") to his church with the promise that God will repay them in multiples of this amount. When pastors need money they ask their followers for donations but when the followers need money the pastors tell them to pray.
The ultimate proof Bishop Oyedepo is a charlatan is his plan to increase tuition fees. I thought God was supposed to make life bearable for his worshippers. Pastors like Oyedepo and Adeboye make out as if they have God on direct dial and anything they decree, boom, will just happen. These charlatans resurrect dead people and perform all kinds of miracles, so why can't they perform a miracle that would obviate the need to increase tuition fees? Why not dial God and ask Him to steady our economy or do whatever He needs to do so His children will not have to bear the high cost of living (including tuition fees)? If the European Christian missionaries who built schools and hospitals in Nigeria charged their students the kind of money people like Oyedepo are charging today, not many of our grandparents and/or parents would have seen the four walls of a school let alone sit in one.
I do not regret renouncing religion. Every time I hear the likes of Oyedepo, Adeboye et al talk about God, I am happy with my decision. I want nothing of the monster they call God, a being infinitely powerful and benevolent but who is more interested in peeping on humans having sex or masturbating than in ending the diseases that kill millions of babies every year. Even if we grant this God is real, I would much rather keep the company of the devil in hell than worship Him. Thankfully, there is no evidence He exists. All the evidence shows that gods were created by men. And I do not think it is a coincidence that gods always behave like the people who created them.
In other news, the Deeper Life Christian Ministry has just completed the construction of a 30,000 capacity auditorium at an estimated cost of N5 billion! And Deeper Life Ministry is one of the least extravagant Christian churches in Nigeria. According to the article: "Nigeria presently has a plethora of mega church buildings under construction, all of which rank among the largest in the world. The MFM Temple with a capacity of 500,000, Faith Theatre which is 100,000, Salvation Ministries-90,000, The Great Tabernacle of The Apostolic Faith Mission-75,000 and The Lords Garden of Dunamis International Christian Centre-70,000 are all under construction and are billed to be the five largest auditoria in the world in that order when completed."
And all these in a country whose citizens lack potable water!
Ijabla is a medical doctor and a humanist. He writes from the U.K. You can reach Ijabla at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ijabijay.
@sahara reporters
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