Edi Umoh
VeryDarkMan has tackled the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye for defending President Bola Tinubu over the rising insecurity in the country.
Reacting to the clergyman’s defence of Tinubu, Martins Vincent Otse popularly known as VDM accused Adeboye of double standards against his stance under ex-President Jonathan.
Adeboye had defended President Bola Tinubu against criticism over worsening insecurity, saying the president has fulfilled his responsibility by issuing directives to the military.
Speaking at the US-Nigeria Faith Heroes Award Gala organised by the Save Nigeria Group in Washington on June 23, Adeboye said those blaming Tinubu for the country’s security challenges were unfair in their assessment of the president’s role as commander-in-chief.
“I need to make this one clear: I don’t support those who are accusing the president of not doing enough. When the commander-in-chief has given instructions to his subordinates, he has done his bit. You don’t expect him to go and put on khaki and (fight),” Adeboye said.
Despite defending the president, Adeboye acknowledged that insecurity had deteriorated and spread to parts of southern Nigeria.
“Things have gone far, far worse than before the bomb came,” he said, referring to the US bombing of Islamist terrorists last December.
“Far, far worse… so bad that they are asking: ‘Where is your God?’ That is how bad it is. The terrorism, kidnapping, and so on that were in the north are now even at my doorstep. They have come all the way down to the south. And, of course, the sponsors — they are all known, and they are still moving about freely.”
However, VDM countered Adeboye by revealing how he petitioned ex-President Jonathan over rising kidnapping on the May 5, 2010, and how his church – RCCG also threated to embark on a 1-million-man march to protest against kidnapping during Jonathan administration on 11 October, 2010.
He argued that leadership requires enforcing directives and holding subordinates accountable.
Adeboye and RCCG’s stance on Kidnapping during Jonathan’s era
Pastor Adeboye petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan urging him to urgently address the malaise in 2010.
In the petition, Adeboye said the emergence of kidnapping in the country was becoming one of the most serious threat to the people and a nightmare to them, adding that the nation was in deep peril with parents either in anguish mourning the loss of loved ones or in mortal fear of not knowing who will be next.
The petition sent to President Goodluck Jonathan by the spiritual leader of RCCG, Adeboye, was equally attached to the registration form that was used to collect signatures of members interested in the protest rally.
“We, your subjects and citizens of this nation whose signatures appear hereunder, greet you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and congratulate you and every Nigerian on this auspicious occasion of the Jubilee of our nation.
“As we mark our 50th anniversary as an independent nation, we are faced with the emergence of kidnapping as the latest Nigerian night mare and one of the most serious threats to our common well being, no one is safe.”
Similarly, The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, commenced a nationwide collection of signature of its members that would partake in a planned one million-man protest rally against the spate of insecurity in Nigeria.
The General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who, on October 10, 2010, initiated the move, insisted that it was high time religious organisations raised awareness over the depreciating standard of security in the country.
“We cannot afford to celebrate, clinking glasses and congratulating each other when a horrendous decimation of the most vulnerable is picking up a pace and our stock of human capital heading for the abyss,” he noted.
