‘What Adeboye, Oyedepo, Others Said In 40 Christian Leaders ‘Secret’ Meeting’

A fresh controversy has emerged regarding the narratives surrounding the 2015 presidential election battle between former President Muhammadu Buhari and then-incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

The General Superintendent of the Holy Spirit Mission Church, also known as the Happy Family Chapel, Bishop Charles Ighele, has openly challenged the assertions made by Femi Adesina, a former Special Adviser on Media & Publicity to Buhari, in his book titled ‘Working with Buhari’.

Adesina’s publication aims to shed light on the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the 2015 election, claiming that several prominent pastors actively campaigned and prayed for Buhari’s defeat in favour of Jonathan.

The book further narrates the transition of these religious leaders from opposing Buhari’s candidacy to resisting his administration after his eventual victory and subsequent inauguration as President of Nigeria.

According to Adesina, the book encapsulates the intense negative campaigning and antagonism from some clerics against Buhari, beginning from his announcement to run for the presidency.

It suggested that Jonathan’s strategic engagements with various churches laid the groundwork for the religious opposition Buhari faced, painting a picture of a concerted ecclesiastical effort to thwart his presidential aspirations.

Bishop Ighele, however, disputes Adesina’s portrayal of these events, labeling it as a misinterpretation.

The book states, “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!

“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.

He said, “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.”