Buffoon

Pepeye:

Buffoon

Who
Me

Simple fact is, in a country like Nigeria with a depressing economy 4bn naira is rather excessive for a private jet owned by the same people that preach loving your neighbor as yourself and caring for the poor and needy.

   Lets not forget that buying the jet is one thing, maintenance is another (parts, fueling etc). Paying the crew is another aspect. That jet will take a sizable chunk out of the church's pocket each year.

Of course it's their dough, but really for a church there's nothing exemplary about this. Nobody's saying they should use a rickety Beetle, but 4bn in present day Nigeria? Come on.

900 thousand. . .1 million. . .100 million. . .900 million. . .1 billion. . .4 billion. . .for an aircraft? Wow. I hope members of the congregation get to use it sha

i watched on program on tv about the re-branding nigeria, nd one of the people sed we have to re-brand nigerians mentlity first b4 re-branding the country it self, the way nigerians think its obsurd, nigerians cannot see their fellow brother do some thing good without critising him ot her, dey react to every little thingg, The man never bought the jet with the church money, it was a group of people that bought the gulfstream jet for him, 1 kobo did not go out of the church moneyyy, if ya'll want onee, see ye first the kingdom of god den all odrr things wud follow. so ppl shud get their facts rite before they chat rubbish on the net, well its always nigerians that chat shit on the net, especialy dis nairaland

youngmonie:

i watched on program on tv about the re-branding nigeria, nd one of the people sed we have to re-brand nigerians mentlity first b4 re-branding the country it self, the way nigerians think its obsurd, nigerians cannot see their fellow brother do some thing good without critising him ot her, dey react to every little thingg, The man never bought the jet with the church money, it was a group of people that bought the gulfstream jet for him, 1 kobo did not go out of the church moneyyy, if ya'll want onee, see ye first the kingdom of god den all odrr things wud follow. so ppl shud get their facts rite before they chat rubbish on the net, well its always nigerians that chat shit on the net, especialy dis nairaland

The people that bought it for him, Are they going to help him maintain it too?

Please, who are these people that bought the jet for him?

Pastor AIO:

The people that bought it for him, Are they going to help him maintain it too?

Please, who are these people that bought the jet for him?

And what is their source of income as well.

well the r c c g is clearly one of the biggest churches in Nigeria and they are very capable of owning a jet, but a religious leader is way different from a business leader, that the wealth is there doesnt mean it must be spent the way moguls spend theirs, nevertheless people should address the issue with care as the man in question is a man of God who is accountable to God alone for his actions and not to Rccg members or any man in general,

Omolulu:

well the r c c g is clearly one of the biggest churches in Nigeria and they are very capable of owning a jet, but a religious leader is way different from a business leader, that the wealth is there doesnt mean it must be spent the way moguls spend theirs, nevertheless people should address the issue with care as the man in question is a man of God who is accountable to God alone for his actions and not to Rccg members or any man in general,

It is statements like i highlighted above that makes these gods of men feel they are next to God, in reality they should be accountable to members of their church as the money belongs to the church in the first instance. That is why in the well and better organized orthodox churches that are by far richer than these pentecostal jamborees you would never see a preacher indulging in such opulence and flamboyance, there are checks and balances and they are accountable to the church.

@ Poster

That is not a good development.

There are so many people suffering.

So i believe the money can be used for something better than that.

Omolulu:

well the r c c g is clearly one of the biggest churches in Nigeria and they are very capable of owning a jet, but a religious leader is way different from a business leader, that the wealth is there doesnt mean it must be spent the way moguls spend theirs, nevertheless people should address the issue with care as the man in question is a man of God who is accountable to God alone for his actions and not to Rccg members or any man in general,

@omolulu
do you mean to tell me that adeboye is too big to be questioned by men.People like you are the cause of the problems we have in this country

chukwudi44:

@omolulu
do you mean to tell me that adeboye is too big to be questioned by men.People like you are the cause of the problems we have in this country

what i'm simply saying is that politics and religion are 2 different issues and their matters must be addressed with caution. As regards adeboye being accountable to God it is a known bible fact that all ministers of God are accountable to him alone because of the position they occupy, so rather than insult every opinion expressed we should rather consider treating the issue with care so as not to offend the ultimate judge himself

Omololu,

was God angry with Paul when he rebuked Peter (the rock of Christianity) for display of hypocrisy? (He associated with gentiles but quickly withdraws whenever a circumcised Jew is around

@pastor AIO, when ur family owns a bank like oceanic and one of the most wealthy family business in Nigeria, wht is $20m to you, figure that out

youngmonie:

@pastor AIO, when ur family owns a bank like oceanic and one of the most wealthy family business in Nigeria, wht is $20m to you, figure that out

Give it to the poor if it means nothing.
Dont stand at the pulpit and tell me to give. You've got thousands of jobless, underpaid, and hungry people in your fold. $20 million will go a long way to address their plight. If that money had been spent to better peoples lives,, they would have made him a living saint. "papa Theresa" would be his new nickname
Why do you think many people patronise these churches?
For financial and spiritual salvation.
abi you no know

RCCG members would soon be going on excursion to Heaven to deliver their prayer request to God directly using the Gulfstream Jet

lmao

youngmonie:

@pastor AIO, when ur family owns a bank like oceanic and one of the most wealthy family business in Nigeria, wht is $20m to you, figure that out

If you say that what about the pope whose church have the richest Billionares in the world.Do you know Bill Gates pays his tithes to the Roman Catholic church in Italy right from his computer at home?And these tithes runs into millions of Dollars that would buy up all the businesses of the Ibrus.Bottomline line is that there is need for Pastors in Nigeria to do some spiritual check up,,,

REAL TRUTH:

If you say that what about the pope whose church have the richest Billionares in the world.Do you know Bill Gates pays his tithes to the Roman Catholic church in Italy right from his computer at home?And these tithes runs into millions of Dollars that would buy up all the businesses of the Ibrus.Bottomline line is that there is need for Pastors in Nigeria to do some spiritual check up,,,

Is this a fact? Please where can we look further into this?

this is a reply to mr dele momodu,s defence of the man of God, pst adeboye, i couldn,t help but share it.
it was written by a mr abiodun oladimeji.

Mr Momodu, I have been an avid reader of your column for sometime and on most occassions, I have had reasons to agree with your opinions but on some occassions, I have found them to be a miss rather than a hit. Your defence of Pastor Adeboye and his so called jet is a MISS.

You have allowed your personal feelings for this man of God to becloud your judgement and sense of reasoning. You have not been objective at all. It was same the same bias you displayed in favour of Tokunbo Afikuyomi during the primaries for AC govovernorship in Lagos State few years ago. It therefore seems to me that when someone is in your good books, they can do no wrong, a la Mike ADENUGA but God help those who are in your bad books. You are like a chameleon.

Now to the subject matter: Let me state that my opinion here is based on the assumption that Pastor Adeboye did indeed acquire the private jet. If not, I take my statements back.

Among other things, you mentioned that Pastor Adeboye travels a lot and is therefore entitled to have a private jet. You also mentioned he travels more than the Pope and as such should not be begrudged for buying a jet. Now, on whose authority did you base your comparisons of the itinerary of the two men? If Pastor Adeboye was running his private company like Oprah as you mentioned or your favourite businessman, Adenuga, nobody will begrudge him or raise an eyebrow on this subject of private jet ownership. But he is not a running a private enterprise. RCCG like other churches rely on contributions from their members. The membership of any church comprises of both the rich and the poor. There are those who can\'t afford three square meals a day and yet will religiously pay their tithes just to seek the kingdom of heaven. If those people can bear the pain and agony of poverty and probably hunger just to fulfill their religious obligation to their creator, then what stops a man of God to bear little bit of inconvenience in the matter of commercial air travel, in the propagation of work of God. What is he going to acquire next to make things easier for him; a YATCH or a HELICOPTER or his own private AIRSPACE!

He is a man of God and I respect him a lot. He is a role model to many people including non Christians. He is looked upon by many people partly because he is a man of God and because of his own personality. He exudes brilliance,simplicity and a touch of grace. His words carry influence. His actions are bound to be copied by every Pastors Jack and Jill who think that whatever is good for Adeboye is good for them too irrespective of whether its justified or not.

Why should the hardship of a commercial air travel be too much of an inconvenience for a man of God whose members go through the same hardship daily?. What would happen if he was driving on the road and found a gridlock as is normally on our roads? Would it then be right for him to use his connection in the police force who will then clear the way for him through use of brutal force and horsewhips just because he had to get to his private jet or to get to his destination quickly. Would he want to build his own private road?

We need people like Pastor Adeboye, whose words carry influence in the society and among govermment functionaries to shun these kind of ostentatious living by public servants and men and women of God in the midst of excruciating poverty. If he does not experience the daily rigour his members go through on daily basis, how is expected to understand their sufferings and then use that experience to preach to our so called elite who have put the rest of us in bondage?.

Why should he,his aides and family want to travel in opulent luxury and detach themselves from reality especially when Pastor Adeboye is a public servant?. I say public servant because he serves the members of his church. He is accountable for every penny of their contributions and such will be expected to be above board.

I am always riled by arguement or defence put up by sycophants or praise singers who think or see nothing wrong in what their favourite people do. God help anyone who has a dissenting view. They often forget these people are HUMAN BEINGS and are not above reproach if found wanting. They are not infallible and as such are wont to make mistakes like any other human being.

Pastor Adeboye is a human being. He is not God. He is sure to make mistakes and take wrong decisions once a while. Its natural. It\'s therefore wrong to villify those who call him to order or call them bad names just because he is a man of God.

Pastor Adeboye's private jet
By Ebenezer Obadare

MEDIA reports that the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has purchased a private jet worth almost N4 billion (different news sources have quoted different figures) for its General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, have provoked a minor public storm. I am of the opinion that the matter ought to be utilized as an opportunity to bring to the table and open up for discussion broader issues centering on the relationship between religion and society in Nigeria.

In proceeding, I think it is only fair that I declare my bona fides: I am, of course, hardly a believer, but as a student of society, especially its postcolonial African type, I take religion very seriously; and like many African public intellectuals, especially those of a humanistic temperament, I am genuinely alarmed at the way in which Pentecostal Christianity has run riot in Nigeria. If religiosity in general comes with the capacity to numb the intellect, the brand of Christianity that has been on the ascendance in our country for the past decade and more fosters a certain incuriousness that borders on total intellectual surrender. Beyond this piece therefore, my project is to see how we might begin to advance the cause of intellectual skepticism in our country, with the ultimate aim of reclaiming the public sphere of critical deliberation, and our common understanding of public morality, from the forces of religious superstition.

So, what are the issues that, I suggest, demand our attention? The first critical issue, to my mind, is what both the decision of the Redeemed hierarchy to purchase a private jet, and the Redeemed Church itself as an institution, tell us about both the Nigerian state, and the state of things in Nigeria. For the truth of the matter is that in its practices and dynamics, the Redeemed Church itself has become an expression of the Nigerian state. In the current configuration, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Adeboye, operates more or less like a megaphone of the state, and these days, it is no coincidence that he is more likely to be seen mixing it with the political elite (governors, ministers, the vice president, the president), than with ordinary members of the Nigerian public. Such is the social proximity between the Redeemed Church and the state elite that the Redeemed Christian Church of God has virtually become the Redeemed Christian Church of State. Pastor Adeboye, in a dynamic that works quite well for the state and serves the ends of holders of political power, attends their (office holders') birthday ceremonies, blesses their respective families, and, at the end of each year, unfailingly prophesies positive things for the country they so spectacularly misgovern.

How has it come to this? How did we arrive at a situation where a man who was (and in some quarters, still is) widely respected for his personal austerity and moral courage, has now become the handmaiden of political power? And why does he now acquiesce in a decision to buy a N4billion private jet in a country with 80 percent youth unemployment, and where the majority of the population (including most of his own congregation) continues to wallows in absolute immiseration?

Part of the answer-and this is my second point- has to be found in the evolution and transformation of Nigerian Christianity in general, and the Redeemed Church in particular. I think it is fair to say that both are actually imbricated, and that to a large extent, the transformation of the RCCG from a backstreet church to a global brand (yes, brand) mirrors key developments in the evolution of Nigerian Christianity. The crucial milestones in the development of the Redeemed Church, and the important role played in it by the mathematician-turned-pastor, Enoch Adejare Adeboye, are now available in the public domain, so I will not allow it to detain me here. For the sake of clarity and because of its centrality to the argument I am trying to make here, I want to highlight the (Redeemed) Church's passage through three distinct, though quite inseparable, moments.

The first was the early period when the Church was literally under the spell of the austere pietism of its founder, the Reverend Josiah Akindayomi. During that period, the Redeemed Church, with its emphasis on a rigorous, no frills personal regime for its members, was very similar to what the Deeper Life Bible Church was- and still largely is. The unflattering apothegm, Ijo Elekun (literally, the church of the grieving) is recalled here as a testament to the perceived doctrinal severity of this early period. This image was to change with the ascendance of Pastor Adeboye in 1981- and the Church's rapid transition into a new era. The significance of Pastor Adeboye's ascendance lay in the departure from this somber model and the development of a new, less abstemious, theological outlook for the Church. We now live in a critical third moment in which that model has apparently triumphed.

The problem of course is that in taking its message to the world, the Redeemed Church has also, almost predictably, taken in a considerable part of the world. Today's Redeemed Church, with more than 6,000 parishes worldwide, is no doubt a successful religious brand, but like all brands, it has had to forge all sorts of shabby accommodations with corporatist 'sponsors' and 'the rulers of this world'. This is why, today, it has become difficult separating the leaf of the Church, from the soap of the world it was established, and still purports to, transform. Obvious material success, and a fatal conflation of ethos with corporations and politicians means that the Church that redefined Biblical economics (at least in this part of the world), is now in clear danger of being consumed by its creation.

But this is not just a problem that is unique to the Redeemed Church alone, and it is imperative- my final point- that we properly understand the broader formation in which the Adeboyes and Oyedepos of this world, and other members of what, elsewhere, I have described as a 'theocratic class', are produced by, and themselves reproduce, the logic (and illogics) of the postcolonial Nigerian state.

Because space is at a premium, I will flag this issue by posing a single question: Where did the RCCG get the money (N4b) to buy a private jet? Partly, no doubt, from the sale of the Redeemed 'franchise' and the fruits of its amorous affair with the state elite. And where does state money in Nigeria come from? Oil of course. So, the point is that the material preservation and sustenance of the political elite and the theocratic class in Nigeria are traceable to the same source, and to the extent that oil extraction in Nigeria is subtended by the logic of plunder, the (Redeemed) Church in Nigeria is directly implicated in it. It partly explains why the religious elite (with a few distinguished exceptions) is loathe to antagonize the state, and it comes as no surprise that, as in the current instance, the leading lights of the Pentecostal class, have adopted one of the worst aspects of the political elite's rampant consumerism.

* Dr. Obadare is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, United States

RCCG members would soon be going on excursion to Heaven to deliver their prayer request to God directly using the Gulfstream jet,

, @dayo kanu, was dat ment to be joke dat we shud all laugh @, bruvv, wise up mehn

Do u say 4billion or 4million,a whole N4billion going into the purse of the foreigners,kai it a pity.
while some people are even looking for 40 to eat,dey dont even get it.
well maybe God said he should buy,if that is the case we,dont need 2 query or question him since it is for God,s work.
Pls let me ask first,is pastor adeboye,a businessman or business mogul,because I just don,t understand.
$28,if such an amount is pump into the nigeria economy,guy I tel u nigeria go be one of the developed nation in the whole of africa.
N4, N40, N400, N4,000, N40,000, N400,000, 4,000,000, N40,000,000, 400,000,000, N4,000,000,000
Though the money is not much as u people cal it,but, ,He needs 2 be corrected,some if not 30-40% of his member doesn't even have N40,000 in account not talking of millions.

These men of God have lost focus of their calling. They should know that the purpose why we all trend the path of Christ is to bring Salvation to people. Acquiring earthly possession should be moderate and controlled.
4b on a private jet whether it is meant for the church or for the GO is a waste of money.
Check out what that cash would have gone for:

A good hospital where people can go and get easy and accessible medical attention.
Build vocational centres where people can go and learn certain trades and craftwork
Build additional schools where the poor ones may pay less and get what is obtainable in private school.
Support the widows, less privillege, destitute and unemployed
Rehabilitation centres to help those who are mad, out of prisons and those who have lost hope.
ETC
With these, Jobs are created, Hope is given to life, and people are happy.

We keep saying the government is bad, but what are the religious leader doing in their own capacity to ease life for the people who put their entire trust in them more than the government and the political leaders.

It is really a shame. I hope we all realise that God is watching.

To whom much is given much is expected, God is watching.

@Kunle,

God has shamed you. You and all your supporters, remain in abject poverty while others move forward.

If e pain you, go and do your worst.

gosh
I’m still trying to figure out what so unjustifiable about the JET
I mean the man is worth it at the end of the day. @ poster “seek ye first the kingdom of God and every other thing shall be added unto you” WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS
make una leave baba alone jare
your turn will soon come

benedictac:

@Kunle,

God has shamed you. You and all your supporters, remain in abject poverty while others move forward.

If e pain you, go and do your worst.

On the contrary i have been vindicated these men just deceive us that they need the money for God's work but at the end of the day, they are after their own selfish desires. And if you must know poverty is far from me i happen to be a very well to do young man  

Jeremiah 8:8-10:

   8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,”
     when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies?
   9 These wise teachers will fall
     into the trap of their own foolishness,  
  for they have rejected the word of the Lord.
     Are they so wise after all?
  10 I will give their wives to others
     and their farms to strangers.
  From the least to the greatest,
     their lives are ruled by greed.
  Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that.
     They are all frauds.  

Do you thing prosperity is about having kobo kobo in your account?

Wake up boy

benedictac:

Do you thing prosperity is about having kobo kobo in your account?

Wake up boy

The teachings of christ is about love and Salvation it as nothing to do with prosperity like your deluded pastors want you their gullibe sheeple to believe. I don't worship christ because i want money like you lazy thieves in prosperity preaching churches, i worship him because i have genuine love for him, i appreciate his love for me and i also value his message to humanity which most of you blockheads don't even know talkless of understand.

fake minister.

Adebayo is  a  close friend to  ibori the ex criminal gov of Delta state.