Who is deceiving Nigerians?

The truth is that things are very bad and Nigerians are virtually pushed to the wall. When a goat is pushed to the wall, it fights back.

In those days, Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the pastor of the sprawling Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, now the biggest pentecostal church in Nigeria, lived in the strict holiness of his faith. He walked quietly, talked gently, concerned himself only with how he and his congregants will make it to heaven. For him things of the earth must be left to go with the earth. But things have changed, Adeboye is engaging government in a very daring way. He has become the darling of the media in Nigeria. This is not because he suprintends over the largest congregation in the nation but because he is a ready source of news for newshounds. RCCG has also become a Mecca for big politicians especially during election period because even if they hate Jesus Christ who Adeboye preaches and would work to obliterate his religion in Nigeria, they flock to Adeboye because they need the votes of Adeboye's congregants.

Muhammadu Buhari, ever the Islamist with a perceived Islamization agenda was at the kilometer 19, Lagos/ Ibadan expressway camp of RCCG in 2011, and 2015. Tunde Bakare, a spiritual son of Adeboye and Buhari's running mate in 2011, took Buhari there. Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria is a constant visitor to the camp. Also, Bola Tinubu, the ambitious politician now angling to be president after Buhari has been there many times; reportedly he made a nocturnal visit there recently with his wife who is a pastor in the church, to smoothen the opposition to his Muslim - Muslim ticket. To cap it all, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Adeboye's spiritual son and a pastor in the church, became Buhari's running mate and now vice president. "Daddy GO" as Adeboye is fondly called among the faithfuls in the church has become the unofficial pastor of the nation. But things are not going well again. Adeboye is not happy and he's spitting fire. On Sunday, Oct 1, 2022, which is the thanksgiving service of the church and which also coincided with the independence anniversary of Nigeria, Adeboye stood before the congregation and roared: "Now kidnappers can go to the palace to kidnap the kings. We are in a war situation, let no one deceive you."

War? and who is deceiving Nigerians? Adeboye is a prophet, which means he hears God and sees visions of what is to come. As Adeboye spoke to the congregation, Muhammadu Buhari was giving his independence anniversary speech to Nigeria. According to Buhari, Nigerians have never been privileged as they are since they voted him to office in 2015. He's leaving Nigeria better that he met it. Everything has improved significantly but inspite of the globally induced inflation, corruption, spiking inflation, insurgency, banditry and oil theft, Nigeria is still far better than America in all things. Adeboye and the Redeem congregation did not have the advantage of radio or television but Adeboye told them, "don't let anybody decieve you." Was Adeboye hearing what Buhari was saying and was he addressing Buhari? Was Buhari deceiving Nigerians?

Political actors tell lies because they don't write their speeches by themselves, they commit it to their speechwriters who are masters in the art of deception and sophistry. They can make the worst scenario look the best. They know crowd psychology and how to assuage a people frustrated. But when they push their masters to the wall and get the people to rise against them, they are the first to tell them "we told him he was not doing well." Shehu Shagari, Nigeria's first executive president in the second republic said he was afraid to mount the saddle when he was invited by the northern conservative leadership to be president because he had seen former leaders fail not because they didn't mean well for the people but because "close advisers walled them in and didn't allow them to see the reality among the people." Shagari was talking of Ahmadu Bello, the powerful first and only premier of the Northern Region of Nigeria. Shagari eventually caved in to the pressure of this "born to rule" cabal and became president. But he also fell by the affliction he detected. First year into his second term in office in 1983, Nigeria's buoyant economy when he took over had been brought down, so bad that Major General Muhammadu Buhari and his fellow military colleagues thought it fit to terminate Shagari's reign.

It is Buhari who fulfilled Shagari's prophecy that Adeboye is probably warning Nigerians about not letting "anybody deceive them". When men don't take lessons from history they inevitably repeat it. Shagari did not allow history to guide him and he fell. He repeated the mistake of history. Obviously, history is not guiding Buhari and if the worse happens, historians will say one more leader has fallen to the errors of past ones before him. Seven years since 2015, Nigerians are saying it has never been this ugly but the president through his speechwriters with their golden pens are saying, there had been no man like Buhari. Israel of old thought it was wise because she had the law of God, yet that law had been twisted by their teachers called scribes. They lost wisdom because they twisted that law. Buhari's speechwriters are the law twisters of today in Nigeria, they are the ones smoothering the leaders to sleep and telling the people lies. Buhari is better advised to listen to the media and collect his intelligence not from his security agents but from the social media. The truth is that things are very bad and Nigerians are virtually pushed to the wall. When a goat is pushed to the wall, it fights back.

Adeboye said the cost of bread has gone beyond the roof but despite this, Aso Rock, the abode of Buhari has bread in abundance. Mr President, a little history here, it was scarcity of bread that provoked the revolution of the fifth French Republic. Nigeria survived the last #EndSars revolution. It is doubtful that the one that will come can be stopped except the president rejects the lies of his advisers and speechwriters and do something very urgently. Adeboye talked about the cost of air tickets. Adeboye has jets and choppers but he was careful enough to ask people and he was told it is 250000 naira from Lagos to Abuja. In my immediate years after university, it was less than 50 naira. Since Buhari began to fly presidential jets in 2015 and could fly his daughter to Bauchi in a presidential jet, he has lost touch with the cost of air tickets. Adeboye didn't say this because he did not know and did not ask but a litre of kerosene is now 850 naira and that is what the poor use. Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi who said he would remove oil subsidy if he succeeds Buhari as president had better go for more homework on how to combat the disaster that will follow the removal of oil subsidy. If things continue as they are now, Obi may have no Buhari to succeed and Adeboye will have to pray harder.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.