The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has lashed out at the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide also known as Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, for tagging the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as the worst in the history of Nigeria.
It described the clergyman’s position as a jaundiced and fraudulent view fuelled by his lingering bitterness over Nigeria’s rejection of his preferred candidate at the 2019 presidential election.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said it was disingenuous for Bishop Oyedepo to take to the pulpit to launch a scathing attack on President Buhari over a purely legislative matter.
“We expected a man who is well-traveled to be more knowledgeable about lawmaking but we are surprised to find out that the reverse is the case judging by the Bishop’s tirade against the President over the social media regulation bill.
“We, like many Nigerians, know he desperately wanted someone else to be President in 2019 and also know how he openly campaigned for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer Atiku Abubakar, even from the pulpit, but God had a different plan and a majority of the voting public opted for a man they considered better in more ways than one.
“It is on record that President Buhari won in virtually all polling units in the area that the global headquarters of the church is located in what is clearly a rejection of the Bishop’s incursion into the political field.
“We are not surprised that the bitterness is still lingering for more than one year after the election but it is not proper for a Christian leader of Oyedepo’s standing to allow it to becloud his sense of reasoning.
“We make bold to say that the Buhari administration had no hand in what is clearly a private member bill that is not even a piece of legislation, yet an influential religious leader does not consider it necessary to direct his words at Federal legislators that would be considering it,” it added.
BMO also took exception to the clergyman’s choice of words on Nigeria aside from saying that President Buhari administration’s days are numbered.
The group said: “That was not the first time, the Bishop will allow his emotions to override his sense of duty on the pulpit.
“We can easily recall how he preached a sermon from a false narrative of the silly ‘Jubril of Sudan in Aso Rock’ notion and used a satirical piece in a national newspaper as a confirmation of the fake news.
“So, him saying that President Buhari’s administration days are numbered and adding that he was speaking as a prophet is quite laughable. Or is there any Nigerian that does not know that the President has a tenured term in office which elapses in 2023?
“To add insult to injury, the Bishop was even quoted as describing Nigeria as an ‘animal farm’. This is clearly not the type of comment one expects from a respectable clergyman.
“But we need to ask him at what point a country that went through a 16-year long PDP misrule without a whimper from him became an animal farm in his view?
“Was it after President Buhari opted to put a stop to free funds going into the pockets of tainted political and religious leaders at the expense of average Nigerians?
“We don’t need to be a prophet or Bishop to know that these funds are now finding their ways into modern infrastructure and social investment programmes to help millions of Nigerians out of poverty rather than funding the expensive lifestyles and maintain private jets of the elite.
“And just like when he jumped on the ‘Jubril of Sudan’ narrative, Bishop Oyedepo has again shown that he is a partisan clergyman who has forgotten the admonitions of the Holy Bible on political leadership.”
The group called on the clergyman to repent, transform his mind and resort to non-acerbic sermons from the pulpit targeted at a perceived political opponent.
