Mr. Oyedepo Dragged to Court for Slapping Congregant!

              Let me start by saying that I will not dignify Oyedepo by calling him a pastor, as he is not one. Jesus Christ told us who a pastor is: he leaves 99 sheep to look for one missing lamb!

Jesus Christ chased away moneychangers and bussinessmen from the temple, whipping and flogging them as they fled. With bosterious wind blowing away their flowing gowns, he upturned their trays and tables and fling their wares! That is Jesus, the true Pastor!

Mr. David Oyedepo, the General Overseer and Founder of Winners' Chapel, Covenant University and Landmark University among many other institutions in Nigeria, is undoubtedly a cult-hero to many Nigerian pentecostal (perhaps pente-rascal) Christians. Mr. Oyedepo owns the largest Church Auditorium in the world. Besides these, he has no other claim to fame!

In Nigeria, this credential is more than that of Professor Toyin Falola, an Ibadan-born, OAU Ile-Ife-trained History professor who has written and edited more than 200 African History books. It is more than that of Prof Wole Soyinka, the nobel laurate! It is more than those of Achebe and Ayi Kwei Ama, the literature greats!!

However, prior to now, Mr. Oyedepo stopped students of his university from graduating for being HIV positive and for not being virgins. Only pressure from the civil society pressured NUC to stop him!
Among many other attrocities, many who work in his university have claimed that he, like Jesus, also washed heads and feet of lecturers and staff of the university (and taking the water away). Those who allow him to wash their feet and head are paid a 'worship fee' while those who will not are not paid.

As these videos show, Mr. Oyedepo has been slapping and tramping on people's rights for very long and he often boasts of this special service.

http://www.youtube.com/​watch?feature=player_embedd%E2%80%8Bed&v=jvKRjETbIRg

Today, Robert Igbinedion, a Lagos based lawyer, has taken Oyedepo's ass to court for infringing on the rights of a female congregant. The lawyer is praying the court to cause Oyedepo to pay the girl N2bn as 'general and exemplary damages' and also to publish an open apology to the girl in many Nigerian newspapers and other foreign media.

It baffles logic that in Oedepo's church and schools, money changers like Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Bode George, Erastus Akingbola, Cecilia Ibru, etc. recieve warm embraces, open adulation, special prayers with annointing, etc. He, of course, set up his numerous schools for their children!

The difference between the hapless girl that Oyedepo slapped and the likes of Ibori and Cecilia Ibru is simple: they pay fat tithes, bring assorted goods, and build large auditoriums for the pastor and church.
What can a poor girl give Oyedepo, a multi-billionnaire!

I trust the Nigerian Judiciary; Oyedepo will return with no verdict of guilt in the same way an Asaba Court returned Ibori as a saint only for a UK Court to jail him for 13years after a self-confession.

Oyedepo may claim to be a man of God and his worshippers may see him as one; certainly he side-stepped our laws, the Nigerian laws, by slapping that girl. The fact that the girl walked into his church and also came to the front on her own volition has never mauled her rights. Oyedepo is a shame to Christianity and it beats my imagination that CAN and PFN can fold their hands, keep their mouths shut and remain 'characteristically' silent on the matter.

By the way, what right has a pastor to declare a congregant candidate of/for hell or heaven? On whose authority? Did we not read of one of the condemned robbers who got saved as Jesus was dying on the cross?

 http://www.youtube.com/​watch?feature=player_embedd​ed&v=jvKRjETbIRg

On Kaduna Bombing

Dear All,

 

At this point in our nation's ascent, certainly we need peace more than anything else. If the current explosion in kaduna is also by Boko Haram, it is no longer North against South or Muslims against Christians, but a deep seating problem that we all must face. For crying out loud, bombs are different from guns. Guns and bullets aim at specific targets, unless accidental discharges; bombs, when us...ed by untrained people, aims at all and sundry. Certain bombs and explosives can be selective in their choice of targets and impacts, but certainly IEDs are not. They are crudely made, hence, they are lethal in their impact.

When the dust settles, i hope government would not sit back on its arses again and start a spirited defence of the Nigerian state? This is not a matter of one group arming and preparing to defend itself, as those that were killed so far were not from any particular group or religious affliation. They are Nigerians. They are one of us. They are some people's family members and therefore, we have to transcend ethnic or religious chauvinism if we have to solve this problem.

I have been arguing this before now, but no one listens until Boko Haram took over the reins of power from Yar'Adua and now Jonathan. Recently, a Colonel from the War College mailed to say that he stumbled on my writings from 2005 on this problem and would want us to chat. Medicine after death, i would say!

There are ways to know these terrorists among us. There are ways to predict their next targets and why. There are ways to fish out their sponsors and their networks of suport, training and operations. Researches that could help abound, but nothing in Nigeria is research-driven, so i can understand why we are caught pants-down by these men and women who believed they can kill and main and go scot-free.

It is now too late for, say, Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, etc to prevent the raging inferno called terrorism, even in their cities. It is too late to stop them, however, it is not late to control their activities.

Terrorism, to start with, is a weapon of the weak. It is a bargaining technique by the weak with the strong. As such, those requests placed before the Nigerian state are not the real intentions and agitations of the terrorists. They are smokescreen aimed at legitimating their parochial demands and gain supports from otherwise innocent bystanders.

It must also be added that those guys bombing everywhere are mainly foot soldiers, the real terrorists dine and wine with us. They are writing in the newsparers and advising government. They provide the cover that has prevented government from achieving any meaningful success in the fight against terrorists so far.

Take a cue from this: althrough George Bush years and his fight against terrorism, did he as much as achieve an inch of what Obama achieved so far? No! The reason is simple, overt operations will normaly scare the big guns into hidden whereas intelligence and covert operations catches them unawares.

Everyday, government tells the terrorists we are coming after you along Sagamu road. Even if they are fools, would they not run towards Kaduna? So far, the arrest made was borne out of intelligence not out of brute and senseless force. El Rufai recently made a point, which many criticized. He argued that deployment of soldiers would not help. Pat Utomi, among many others, argued against him. He also made a valid argument that when and where lives and property of innocent people are threatened, government reserves the right to order police or army actions to restore order.

How often do we hear and say that some things are expedient but not necessary and some things are necessary but not expedient. As a logical solution, force will achieve nothing. Neither will dialogue.

Since we broker peace witn Niger Delta militants and even offered them pardon, has there been peace in the region?

The fist step in combating Boko Haram and similar problems across Nigeria lies in empowerment. People are poor and are therefore easy prey to many things, especially religion.

In Northern Nigeria as well as in the south, people have become too gullible that anybody can deceive them and get them to do anything in the name of religion. Are people not worshipping Adeboye, Kumuyi, Olukoya, etc in the south as almajiris daily troop to madrasas in the north? What is the rationale for trooping to RCCG camp everyday if not for the much sought after material gains? Poor people troop after God, religion and pastors and imams because they are poor.

Poverty, as used here, needs a broader conceptualization. Many rich people you find in camp and other religious assemblies are there for one thing or the other. Many are seeking solutions to problems that science has solved in other parts of the world. If they are not poor in thought, why cannot they seek cure in foreign land rather than GO's favour and mediated and, oftentimes, sexed miracles?

The poor hopes that by serving God wholeheartedly, their state would change. The pastors and imams knew that their situations can only change if they pay more attention to why they are poor, but if they are they are told this truth, will they believe? In addition, how will Olukoya, Adeboye, and others pay to park their aircrafts if these gullible idiots are wise?

It is this simple truth that Boko Haram and others are profiting from. For Boko Haram to kill christians, they know where to find them. To kill muslims, they know where to find them. To make their impact felt, they target markets on market days. They target Nigerians on independence days because we glory in shows and glamour. Independence days afford us opportunity to steal, so we gather people together to celebrate so that we can smile to the banks. In otner parts of the world, terrorists, until Bush smoked them into openly attacking people, attack icons and national monuments. Nigeria's terrorists would not attack any monument because we do not value them. They will attack churches and mosques and markets because we glory in them. It is all about value chain.

To end this sad commentary, let me say that these conditions are important for terrorism to fester: discontent stock, real or imagined differences, real or imagined inadequate resources, supportive diasporas, ethnic and religious polarization.

In real term, only the gullible would accept that we have ethnic and religious polarization in Nigeria. What we have is ethnic and religious pluralism.

Pluralism is about choices amidst many options. Ethnic and religious fractionalization is not the same as ethnic and religious polarization. When a thing is polarized, it is divided into two distinct categories. Yes, islam and christianity are two religions, but are they the only two religions in Nigeria? Same goes for etnnic groups.

Polarization leads to violence and conflict (same for terrorism) when two diametrically opposed groups can only achieve their objectives by liquidating each others objectives. What are the objectives of the religions, and are these attainable by liquidating each others objectives? Same goes for ethnicity.

For polarization to graduate into conflicts and wars, one group or religion must be large enough to swallow the other. Once this occurs, the smaller group or the swallowed group, would necessarilly use terrorists tendencies to express its voice.

If the above is true and logical, can we then find out if Islam and Northern Nigeria are the smallest ethnic group and religion in Nigeria and why are Boko Haram members solely from the north and are entirely muslims?

Can we also argue that their attacks on fellow muslims, irrespective of whether they are from the North and are equally muslims who may share in their religious fervour, not acts of religiously and ethnically polarized state? After all, they ought to be in the same group.

Those who are advising government in Nigeria needs to be educated and the same goes for Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan!

I commiserate witn those who lost loved ones and invaluable property to this latest act of brigandage in Kaduna. May the dead finds peace, and may the nation never witness this again.