The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday clarified that he did not embark on any protest against a Nigerian administration but participated in a prayer walk organised at the directive of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
Adeboye said the prayer walk, which took place during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020, was wrongly portrayed as a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan, who had left office in 2015.
The revered cleric made the clarification during the church’s November Thanksgiving Service, monitored by our correspondent, which was dedicated to content creators, influencers, cinematographers and other creative professionals.
The November thanksgiving service had the theme, Activating Your Potential, with its anchor scripture drawn from Jeremiah 1:4–5.
Recounting the controversy, Adeboye said he had carried a placard during the exercise but insisted that it was part of a prayer walk organised in response to a directive from the CAN leadership.
He said, “When I heard about it, it was that I carried a placard against Jonathan, and we have a picture. True, I carried a placard; I can’t deny that. But it wasn’t a protest. It was a prayer walk.
“The CAN chairman said all churches should organise a prayer walk around their churches. That was what I did in Ebute-Metta. Then, a walk is a walk. Have you ever heard of someone carrying a placard on a walk? I did that because the CAN president said so.
“I smiled because I remembered when I was in Nsukka in the 1960s. In those days, you were free to go to any faculty to take a course or two to broaden your knowledge. In the Department of Journalism, I can’t remember whether it was Journalism 101, but we were taught something called investigative journalism.
“It explains that things may not appear as they seem. Investigate before you take them to the press. And I smiled as the whole country swallowed that.
“However, I carried a placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be President in 2015. I carried it during Buhari’s second term, five years after Jonathan left office.”
The cleric also faulted the media’s portrayal of his comments during an international gathering on the abduction of schoolchildren, saying a brief extract from his 30-minute speech was presented as though it represented the entire address.
According to him, one of the speakers before him had discussed the kidnapped children, prompting him to assure the gathering that he had prayed for them and believed they would return alive.
He said, “During that period when some children were kidnapped, I had an opportunity to speak abroad at a gathering. One of those who spoke before me talked about the kidnapped children.
“When it was my turn to speak, I said that those children were not destined to die. God was already at work on their behalf because I had prayed for them, and God had told me that none of those children would die. They would come out alive. I said it.”
Adeboye further recalled his comments about the response of the United States to Nigeria’s security challenges, particularly the suggestion that military action should be directed against those sponsoring terrorism rather than innocent Nigerians.
He said he had compared the responsibility of a commander-in-chief to issue instructions to military officers with the responsibility of Nigeria’s President to direct security agencies to rescue the abducted children.
He added, “I said our President had instructed all his officers: ‘Go and get these children out.’ I said that once Trump finished giving his orders, he went to bed.
“I said, ‘Don’t blame my President. He has already given instructions to his soldiers. He should also be allowed to lie down and go to bed. He has done all that is required of a commander-in-chief.’
“I spoke for 30 minutes.”
The RCCG leader regretted that those reporting his speech concentrated on the portion in which he said the President had done his best, while ignoring his other comments.
He said, “They all—I don’t want to use the word ‘mischief-makers’ but somebody took what I said in about five minutes and presented it as though it were my entire speech.
“I stated that the President had done his best. And you all swallowed it!
“Every other thing I said there was not news.
“When I said to the President of America, ‘Thank you. You are doing your best, but you have not done enough. We still need help, but don’t bomb us anymore,’ that was not news.
“When I said, ‘Don’t go and kill our people. If you want to help us, help us by taking care of those sponsoring terrorism,’ that was not news.
“They didn’t write that one.
“And you all swallowed it. God have mercy on journalists.”
Moving to the theme of the service, Activating Your Potential, Adeboye stressed that every individual possesses God-given abilities that must be activated and put to productive use.
He, however, warned that human potential could be harnessed for either positive or negative purposes, urging the congregation to ensure that their abilities were deployed for good.
“Potential is that God-given ability that was put into an individual before birth. Inside wood is fire; that is the reason it is firewood. If a potential is not activated, it dies with the owner,” he said.
