Femi Adesina: Why I stopped attending my church in Abuja

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has decried the manner many preachers have turned the pulpits to avenues to spew out hate, especially against government.

Adesina, in an op-ed titled ‘This Kumuyi is simply different’, narrated how he stopped attending a branch of his church in Abuja as a result of the pastor’s persistent attacks on President Muhammadu Buhari and his government.

According to him, the pastor never find anything good in the President or his government.

His words: “…What we rather see is the pulpit being turned to a soapbox, where hatred is preached, where fake news is spread week after week, and where congregants are instigated against the leadership of the country. And I know what I am saying.

“I used to attend a church in Abuja from 2015 to 2018, till the pastor began to see himself as someone who must bring the Buhari government down. Sunday after Sunday, it was all sorts of criticism from the pulpit. But I endured, since it was branch of a church I had attended for over 30 years. Till one day, he overdid it.

“The Dapchi girls were abducted, and there was no name the pastor did not call President Buhari that Sunday. It was horrendous that such things could come from the pulpit. But I suffered long, and sat through the sermon, or rather, what was supposed to be a sermon. I then went home, wondering what the church of God was turning to.

“If you recall, the Dapchi girls were recovered within a week, except for Leah Sharibu, and a few others. Awful, quite sad, but still there was cause for one to be thankful to God. So, the following Sunday, I went to that church, waiting to hear what the pastor would say, having excoriated and flagellated the government so badly the week before. I was dazed, nay, stunned. Throughout the sermon, not a word, not even a whisper about the recovered Dapchi girls. Bad faith.”

The presidential adviser counselled many of the hate preachers to be born again going by what they teach and preach.

“Irrespective of the titles they bear, I hear Bishops, Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists, cursing the government, and issuing doomsday notices. One even said publicly that the Buhari administration was over, before the 2019 elections. But the man won handsomely, and that preacher still struts and frets on the pulpit every week, not repenting in sackcloth and ashes. “If you are a genuine believer in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbour. Nor would you disdain those in power…” Thank you, Pastor Kumuyi.

“Without sitting in judgement over anybody, I just believe that majority of our preachers need to be born again again. If what we hear them preach and teach is anything to go by, they need to be born again again. Otherwise, Heaven seems to be very far away. May God help us all. Amen,” he said.