₦airaland Forum

I fully understand your write up, Nigerian politicians and uniformed personnels are pathetically a hopeless bunch of idiots that should not be in charge of anything related to country governance. You go to other countries of the world and you see a near perfect system. It is just the shame of a nation

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

I now know why the black race can never be successful, he has black moral values, black value system a very dark and sinister approach of doing thing.
N4B will have built a world class primary health system for nigeria, a N4B investment into redeemers university will have put at least one nigerian university into global reckoning. A N4B investment in agriculture will alleviate and reduce the food insecurity of the country. But what did a black man do? He bought himself a Jet to fly to where? and for what purposes? I really wonder. People like this make me thing Michael Jackson was right to bleach his skin, but the likes of Obama give me a lot of hope. Very shameful and disgraceful purchase

She should please say in the marriage but outsource the pussy sucking to me

Please tell your sister to visit me for appropriate counselling

I like to believe your brain was on a long vacation that is why you cant recall the likes of OBJ, Atiku, James Ibori going to redeem camp before and during the third term saga, seeking the endorsement of a fellow thief

He is a MASSIVE ROGUE he still hasn't return Sheraton's hotel N34M paid to him as tithe

I have always suspected RCCG was fake, ever since he started praying for OBJ's third term and fraternize with the likes of James Ibori and Atiku. Ever since they made tithe paying a do or die affair - they even tell members to dance to the altar to show that they have paid their tithes like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I dont see any difference between the thieving men of GOD and Nigerian politicians - they wine and dine together. I respect Tunde Bakare only - he said from the beginning of OBJs regime that ' he is not the messiah we are looking for' . Do you see him Tunde Bakare mingle with politicians? do you hear of politicians going to him for blessings? He will not bless them but curse them and tell them the truth that the others cannot say. Bunch of Criminals

Why wont you pay tithe or where will the money come from. Even Fela Kuti said 'na pastor's house na im they fine pass and na dem dey do bad things pass thru Jesus Christ our Lord Amen ! Amen! Amen'

Redeemed Church Acquires N4bn Aircraft

The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has acquired a new aircraft for N4 billion ($28 million).
The aircraft, a Gulfstream 4XP, with number 707EA, arrived Lagos from Bahamas last Sunday.
Industry insiders said the Gulfstream 4XP is a transatlantic aircraft that has the capacity of about 15 passengers depending on the configuration.
The church acquired the aircraft years after the General Overseer of Living Faith Worldwide, a.k.a. Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, acquired a Challenger aircraft, with number D6640, which was parked a few meters away from Adeboye’s Gulfstream when THISDAY visited the airside of General Aviation Terminal (GAT) yesterday.
A pilot told THISDAY that the aircraft and many others privately owned by Nigerians are not registered with Nigerian code “N” because “they usually say that they chattered it for a while whenever they are questioned. You know Bishop Oyedepo of Winners has been operating this aircraft (pointing to the Challenger) for some time, but it has remained in foreign registration number.”
THIDAY also learnt that Oyedepo has ordered for another aircraft bigger than the one acquired by Adeboye.
By 2.00 pm yesterday, officials who looked like engineers were seen inspecting the aircraft, which was allowed to rev for hours.
Besides buying the aircraft, a lot of money would be spent in maintaining it and paying the crew, in addition to the landing and parking charges.
Unlike a commercial aircraft which is always in the air, the private jet will spend more time on the ground and must be checked before taking off.
An aeronautical engineer with one of the airlines said besides the mandatory checks, much money would not be spent on its maintenance for now “because it is a new aircraft, but you know that there are rotables which are time-bound parts which are changed regularly.
“The same with refitting parts. These are parts that are changed after every 12 or 15 calendar months whether you are flying or not. So, acquiring a private aircraft means that you are ready to be spending money to keep it going.”
Expressing surprise on the purchase, a former official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who craved anonymity, said with the present global economic recession, it was shocking that anyone, even a business man could spend such money on a private aircraft.
He said: “This is unbelievable. You know the amount of poverty in this land, which I know is widespread. How can he acquire such aircraft when he knows that members of his church are suffering?
“Look, even the Pope does not have a private jet. I am a Catholic. It is true that Catholic is the richest church in the world in terms of artefacts but the Pope flies Alitalia. How can the Pope tell the church that he wants a private jet?”
Since 1999, many Nigerians have acquired private aircraft.

Has he returned the N34M stolen from sheraton or he is still seating on it claiming it is his own. The receiver of stolen goods is also a thief

Good luck to you