Extortion In The Name of God -By Tope Oke

Tope Oke

There are several videos trending on social media were a woman, by the name Pastor Funke Adejumo appears to demand several sums of money from her congregation as ‘divine seed’. After seeing at least 4 of these videos from the same woman, one can begin to understand why people who had hitherto been silent on issues relating to religion begin to speak out. It is wise and sensible to stay quiet when issues on the table are not within your scope of knowledge. However, after seeing these videos, it is expedient that we begin to speak up against this tirade that has not only deviated from the Holy Book but also leading gullible people astray.

Really cannot pinpoint the exact time the Pentecostal explosion happened but I would imagine it was around the time Late Sani Abacha and his own gang of herdsmen were on a mission to cow every dissenting voice into submission. We had never seen anything like it and I think it was around then that Nigerians began to seek God desperately. Of course, He didn’t disappoint. He was taken off the scene faster than a 30 yard shot would hit the back of the net. However, that Pentecostal explosion has continued to have a ripple effect that’s worse than Little and Fat Boy had on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If we cannot hold men or women of God accountable, how can we do same to politicians? You give $1,000 or N1m to a pastor who promises you that you will ‘’reap more than what you sowed’’, yet you see people who are in dire need of help or those who require investments for their business and you ignore them. It is pure inanity. The videos reek of brazen manipulation, deceit and extortion. Many have accorded god like status to humans, at the same time treating God like a human. We scream and rant when the constitution, a mere document written by fallible men is twisted by fallible men but just can’t seem to see when the Holy word of God is twisted by other fallible men. Religion in Nigeria has become a major catalyst in the get rich at all costs syndrome plaguing the country. The pastors live ostentatious lifestyles, almost oppressing the congregation who are the source of their sudden, perpetual wealth, same thing politicians do, only that they don’t do it in the name of God. This is levels above tithing which I believe is a personal principle.

Recently, a pastor of a popular church in Edo State said he had a vision where the candidate of the PDP would win the Ekiti gubernatorial elections only for him to turn around to say he had another kind of vision after the APC candidate won. Another said people were calling him from within Nigeria and the diaspora asking who would win that election when anyone with half a brain knew that the APC would win at all costs. Another of the flamboyant men of God who, after he apparently woke up on the wrong side of his bed or had a blurred vision woke up in the morning to say that the leading political parties should adopt him as their presidential candidate. He claims God told him so.

God told me that ‘’that many will come in my name, many false prophets will appear and deceive many people and because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved’’. If God revealed who’ll win an election, the process would be a mere formality not the buying of votes that happened in Ekiti. If God told you’d become President, you’d become President before you even mentioned it. I believe the hottest parts of hell would be set aside not for murderers or robbers or fornicators but for those who perpetuate evil in God’s name. He didn’t tell me that.