The founder and leader of the Celica Church of Christ, His Holiness, Reverend Adetunji Adeonigbagbe, is presently disenchanted with the President Bola Tinubu administration. He is displeased with some of their reforms and totally unhappy at the volume of hardship many Nigerians are passing through every single day. The very pragmatic and straight forward prophet who very rarely criticises government could not hold back his anger this time.
Known for his candour and honest assessment of things, Prophet Adeonigbagbe bared his mind on the state of the nation and explains why the present administration must step up and prove to Nigerians that it has what it takes to turn things around and that it means well for the people. For about one hour, Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) engaged the highly knowledgeable founder as he expressed his displeasure at the way things are going in the country. Enjoy excerpts of the interview.
Sir, tell us, are you
happy with some of the policies of the government? What really are your expectations
from the Tinubu government?
I will answer that question in two folds. Number one, I do not dislike anybody and my belief in life is that whoever is in government is there because God wants him to be there, either by rigging or by any other way possible. Even if anybody rigs the election and wins, God knows about it. It could either be because of our sins or God wants to liberate us, that’s why God will let the person get into office.
Now, let me say this very clearly, Tinubu himself may have good intentions. I have never met him before, never spoken to him before. But I am talking as a neutral person here. I am not a politician and I don’t even believe in politics. I think that Tinubu is a self centered person and anybody who is self centered will always find it difficult to make in government. And the reason is simple- he will always be looking to cater for only himself and his immediate and extended family. When someone says I must be president by any means possible, that person must be treated with caution. I am not saying anybody should not be ambitious, but my point is, you must not lord yourself over others.
Like I said before, the President may have good intentions. But there are three factors that will determine how well he will perform. Number one is the President himself, number two, the middle men (politicians) and lastly, the masses. What is happening in the country right now, and this has been happening before now, is that the president wants to do a lot but the middlemen are preventing him from achieving his goals. This happens because of their own selfish interest. In some cases, they even want to become the president themselves, so they will begin to sabotage the government efforts so they can actualise their own ambition. So, in order for him to succeed, he has to solicit for their support. He has to be their friend otherwise they will bring down his government. That’s exactly what's happening in Nigeria right now. This country would’ve grown bigger than this, but situations like this have hampered our growth. It is okay for anyone to solicit for votes, but don’t solicit for power. When you solicit for power, there will be a big problem. Anybody who solicits and begs for power will always be governed by those you solicited power from. The people you solicited power from, the people who helped you become president will be holding you back. Even when he says he wants to achieve some particular goals, they will not allow him, they will be after their own interest.
Look at Wike for instance, he should not have been made a Minister in the first instance because he is somebody that is power drunk so, why should you now make that kind of person a Minister if not because you have solicited power from him. You did not only solicited for votes, but you also solicited power from him because you felt that, by all means, I just want to be there. So, he has no control right now. He behaves like he is the one ruling the country. So, these politicians I call the middlemen are only after their own pockets alone and that’s the kind of situation we have in Nigeria. And for the masses, they simply give up and say, do we have any other choice? Let’s just continue to follow them and give them support. But for me as a person, I am certainly not like that.
As for our pastors and religious men, they have sold their conscience. Now, the Holy Spirit does not direct anybody again because we, too, we want popularity and we forget that it’s only God that gives popularity. And I am not saying I am a saint, but I will never look for popularity from anyone. Some men of God are so desperate to be relevant that they begin to romance people in power. And it is not for us men of God to romance people in power, out main responsibility is to correct people in power and criticise them whenever they do something wrong or come up with policies that are not people friendly. Ours is to criticise spiritually and when you do that, as a man of God, you also proffer solutions as well. That’s why I tell people sometimes that the problem of Nigeria is based heavily on religion, politics and the middle men. Until these issues are addressed, we will never be able to make any meaningful progress in our country.
Let me tell you the truth, I am not happy at all. People are suffering, people are hungry. They don’t have food to eat, some are seriously struggling to send their kids to school. In Nigeria, the poor keep getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer. I am not happy about this situation at all and that’s why I don’t work with any government. I do not seek help from any government, whether it is state government or the federal, I have never approached them for anything. Even the local government, I have never approached them or solicited for anything. And it is deliberate, so that as an altar man, I will be able to say the truth about the government without fear or favour.
A lot of things are wrong in Nigeria because we do not even have the right system. If you are in distress for instance, and you call the Nigeria Police, they will ask you money to fuel their vehicles. They won’t come unless you bribe them. Something happened to us in our house in Chicago in the United States. As a matter of fact, I wept on that particular day for my country. What happened was that somebody came over to the house for prayers and then stepped out of the house by 4 am and the alarm in the house went off. We didn’t call the Police but in a matter of minutes, about ten Police officers rushed to our house. They asked what the problem was and we told them there was no problem. But they didn’t believe us until it was break of dawn and they saw people leaving the house to go to work, yet they didn’t leave. They needed to be sure if people were not being held hostage inside the house. I cried that day for my country. Do you know that by the time we retuned later in the day, we still met about four Police vehicles in front of the house that were parked till the next day. And we never paid them a dime. These are some of the things we were hoping the government would be able to work on, but unfortunately, things are only getting worse.
But in Nigeria, the only focus is on reelection. You just watch out, by the time we approach election period, they will begin to release money into the system and begin to bribe all sorts of people. And we the masses keep jumping at the carrots they dangle at us, why do we do this all the time? This is something that often depresses me whenever I see it happening. Personally, I can’t see anything that’s moving progressively for the masses since Tinubu became President. I cannot place a finger on one thing the masses are benefitting from his administration.
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