Connect with us

Opinions

Osinbajo’s RCCGification Part of Plot for Theocratic State Capture – Farooq A. Kperogi

Published

4 years ago

on

Let me start by making it clear that most of the liberal RCCG members I’ve interacted with over the last few weeks don’t support Osinbajo’s overt bigotry in favor of the church.

Several of them are embarrassed by it—the same way that I’ve been embarrassed by Buhari’s favoritism toward northern Muslims. So, please don’t understand me as demonizing the RCCG, which I believe is a great spiritual sanctuary and source of hope for many.

Now, let’s get started with empirical facts and end with a conceptual wrap-up of what Osinbajo’s bigotry represents, which is scarier than the facts. Osinbajo’s deceitful parade of a little over a dozen Muslims who work in his office (which includes at least two that no longer work there and several that were appointed directly by Buhari or the Presidency) is a poor attempt to paper over his vast record of deliberate, religiously inspired exclusion of Nigerians who don’t worship at his church.

Here’s a list of the 80 people who work in his office. Most of them, I have confirmed, are members of the RCCG. Of the 80 people who work in his office, including those appointed by the Presidency, take a look and tell me what you see.

Osinbajo was the pastor of the Olive Tree Parish of the RCCG in Lagos. In May 2015 when he became VP, Okechukwu Enelamah succeeded him as the pastor of the parish. Months later, when Osinbajo was given a chance to nominate a minister, he chose Enelamah.

In the aftermath of Enelamah’s appointment as a minister, Alex Ayoola Okoh became the pastor of the Olive Tree Parish. In 2017, a vacancy emerged for the position of the DG of BPE. Osinbajo again chose Alex Ayoola Okoh, Enelemah’s successor. That’s three successive pastors of the Olive Tree Parish in government at the same time.

But it gets even more interesting. Osinbajo’s predecessor at Olive Tree Parish is pastor Olukayode Pitan. He is said to be the pioneer pastor of the parish. He pastored there from 1995 until 2009 or thereabouts when he handed over to Osinbajo.

Well, Osinbajo made him MD/CEO of the Bank of Industry (of course with the later approval of Buhari who had no clue what was going on) when he was acting president. That’s 4 pastors from the same RCCG parish!

Joseph Chiedu Ugbo, the MD/CEO of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, is another RCCG pastor whose appointment Osinbajo facilitated. (Osinbajo is the chairman of the company’s board.)

Another prominent RCCG pastor that Osinbajo caused to be appointed as Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation is Ben Akabueze. He was (probably still is) the pastor of the Lagos Province 39 parish of the RCCG.

Jumoke Oduwole, Osinbajo’s SA on Industry, Trade, & Investment (from 2015 to 2019) and SA on Ease of Doing Business (from 2019 to now) is an RCCG member whose husband, Tunde Oduwole, is an RCCG pastor.

Afolabi Imoukhuede, who leads the Job Creation Unit and is part of the N-Power/Job Creation Cluster Lead of the National Social Investment Program (NSIP) in Osinbajo’s office, is an RCCG member, although it doesn’t seem like he is a pastor there.

In a June 20, 2020, interview with the Vanguard, he said, “when I met him in 2015, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took the risk to appoint me as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation…” When he studied at UNILAG, the Vanguard story said, Imoukhuede “had come under the influence of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).”

Edobor Iyamu, one of the over 30 Osinbajo appointees that the Presidency fired in 2019, is a pastor of the Jesus Family Parish of the RCCG in Ribadu Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

What’s also interesting about the appointments is that these Osinbajo RCCG pastor-appointees always replicate their kind wherever they go. For example, almost all the management staff at the BOI that Pastor Kayode Pitan heads are RCCG members. The bank’s interventions also reflect the narrowness of the demographic profile of its management staff.

How to Make Sense of Osinbajo’s Bigotry

Yemi Osinbajo’s unflagging pursuit of appointing pastors and members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God every opportunity he has isn’t the run-of-the-mill nepotism we’re habituated to in Nigeria. It’s more sinister than that.

It’s the product of a deliberate, systematic agenda of theocratic state capture, which would certainly instigate national instability when it becomes noticeably manifest with a President Osinbajo.

You see, Osinbajo is merely the lynchpin of a phenomenon called entryism, which is the systematic, carefully preplanned infiltration of every structure of a government or an organization with the intention of taking it over from within.

Entryism isn’t exclusive to the RCCG, of course. The term actually came from Leon Trotsky, a Russian Marxist who recommended the infiltration of French workers’ parties by communists so as to change their form and character from within.

Northern Nigerian Salafists have a similar project, and it’s called “A shiga a gyara” (literally: “enter and correct it” but figuratively: participate in government to take it over from within). But they haven’t been successful so far.

So, Osinbajo’s RCCGification is particularly troubling because he is prosecuting a project that is beyond him. He is executing a plan that was conceived, birthed, and nursed by the RCCG whose General Overseer, Enoch Adeboye, prophesied that an RCCG member will become a Nigerian president in his lifetime.

Osinbajo thinks he is the fulfilment of that prophecy and that his march to the presidency is an inexorable manifest destiny that no one can stop. Osinbajo actually used the expression “manifest destiny” on March 22 to describe the expected outcome of the APC convention!

Many scholars of Nigerian Pentecostalism such as Professor Ebenezer Obadare who wrote the book “Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria” and Professor Ruth Marshall who wrote “Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria” have brilliantly and carefully captured this.

Osinbajo’s RCCGification is the fullest realization yet of what I call Pentecostal theocratic entryism. His quest for the presidency is propelled by the desire to complete what he surreptitiously started during his commisership in Lagos and continues during his vice presidency.

I’ll continue to expose it in the coming days and weeks.

In a country divided by two proselytizing religions, religiously inspired state capture is a recipe for disaster because it will inspire a forceful pushback from several constituencies—non-RCCG Pentecostals, non-Pentecostal Christians, Muslims, secularists, etc.—which would create another layer of instability on top of what we already have.

I’m doing my bit to warn the nation of the avoidable catastrophe that an Osinbajo presidency will engender.

Related Topics:
Advertisement

News

Breaking: Port Harcourt refinery begins production of refined PMS in two weeks — Kyari

Published

2 years ago

on

March 15, 2024

By

Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari has assured Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery will begin to deliver refined petroleum products in two weeks. 

 

Addressing Journalists after meeting with the Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, APC, Anambra-South led Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Turnaround Maintenance of the country’s four refineries on Thursday, March 14, Kyari also disclosed that the Warri refinery is almost ready too. He added that the refinery in Kaduna would be completed and ready to go into production in December this year.

 

 

He said;

 

“The Completion mechanical means that you are done with your rehabilitation work, now you are to test if this completion is okay. As for Warri refinery, we have also completed the mechanical works on it and it is undergoing the regulatory compliance processes that we are doing with our regulator.

“This also will be completed and it will be ready. “Kaduna will be ready by December, We have not reached that stage (of Port Harcourt and Warri) with Kaduna.”

 

 

Kyari also said there are no challenges with the pipelines to deliver crude to the refineries as the existing lines are fully pressurised to deliver crude.

 

He said;

 

“All crude lines are active and have actually delivered over 450,000 barrels into Port Harcourt refinery. We are confident of the integrity of it. Yes, there may be security issues, but also the government is responding to the situation.”

 

Continue Reading

Opinions

Lagos My Lagos By Barr. Ogunjimi

Published

2 years ago

on

January 26, 2024

By

I was at a colleague’s office in Finsbury’s Park, North London this week to train the staff on matters relating to anti money laundering’s ever evolving laws when the subject of Lagos and Nigeria came up.

 

I listened to every argument and happily enough, many of the contributors agreed that Lagos indeed is a city to watch and had nothing but praises for the masterminds of the current development of the modern city and with President Tinubu at the helms of affairs in Abuja, we can also expect some great transformation towards the country too.

 

Reno Omokri had these to say recently regarding the transformation of our country which has begun with Lagos about 25 years back: Isha Sessay is an American citizen who visits Nigeria often, and she praises our country to the high heavens because Nigeria’s healthcare saved her mother’s life. Time Out Magazine listed Lagos as better than Miami, Naples and Melbourne. (Some of) You have not been to these places, yet you are castigating Time Out as if you are better travelled than the 20,000 seasoned travellers they asked.

 

Are you aware that Lagos is now one of the world’s latest destinations for medical tourism? Please fact-check me. People from the United Kingdom and Europe, who have to contend with long waiting periods to see public healthcare professionals, are trooping to Lagos for inexpensive, IMMEDIATE treatment.

 

Let me add that our Stock Market is now the world’s most profitable bar none, and according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Nigeria is set to deliver a double-digit return on investment throughout 2024.

 

Governor Babajide Sanwoolu has just rolled out plans for an airline belonging to Lagos State to add to the incoming Lekki airport, the fourth mainland motorway, the rail systems covering not just the city but the whole state and beyond.

 

About 23 banks in the country are headquartered in Lagos and this tells you everything about those who watch over the city, those who labour day and night to make sure the city is free and secure to live and work. Those who selflessly plan for the progress of the city and her residents.

 

It is on this note I feel indignant listening to the provocative ranting of Senator Ali Ndume on the issue of moving some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to Lagos for easy administration.

 

How could Ndume come on national television to threaten fire and brimstone against the President so brazenly and with such impunity on a matter of mere administrative rather than political significance?

 

Who does he think he is to single out and address people from Lagos that work with the President in such a condescending manner? Look at the haughty manner in which he carried himself on national television insulting and attacking people he believes are less Nigerian than he and members of the self – conceited interest group he represents.

 

One of the first actions taken by OBJ after he assumed office in 1999 was to reverse the daft decision that moved the Hq of NPA from Marina to Abuja, which was taken by the Abacha administration. That was how SHIP HOUSE, Abuja was taken over by Ministry of Defence and the NPA Hq moved back to Lagos. Nigeria Railway Corporation also had its headquarters moved back to Railway Compound, Ebute Metta from Abuja by OBJ. When those decisions were taken the North cried foul but the world did not come to an end as OBJ stuck to his guns. I hope President Tinubu would stand his grounds on the decision that the Banking Supervision Department of the CBN and headquarters of FAAN be moved to Lagos. This is a test of wills and he must not back down.

 

We are copying the Presidential system of government from the US which literally allows the other components of the system to function along the central body or axis. In the US and the UK, strategic considerations determine where the headquarters of government agencies are located. When the need is compelling for some to be located outside the capital the headquarters is sited away from Washington or London. Abuja remains the capital but Lagos is strategically placed with all the amazing amenities being built by the government of the state to offer more opportunities to the nation.

 

Whichever way, Lagos continues to thrive and attract the best talents from all over the world and it will so greatly remain no matter the threat from her haters.

 

Unfortunately, no one can drag the lagoon or ocean from their God’s given abodes no matter how they try through their wicked devises and desires.

 

Lagos remains unshakable and will host many more departments thrown at it through the wisdom of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

Dr George Ogunjimi, the Bamofin of Ojo kingdom, Lagos writes from Goffs Oak. Hertfordshire, UK.

Continue Reading

Opinions

Why First Lady Oluremi Tinubu Deserves To Be Celebrated At 63 – Lagos Assembly 

Published

2 years ago

on

September 21, 2023

By

– praises President Tinubu for achievements in 100 days

 

Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have celebrated with the First Lady of the Federal Republic, Senator Oluremi Tinubu on her 63rd birthday.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who directed the Clerk of the House to transmit a letter congratulating the First Lady on behalf of the Assembly, described Oluremi as a wonderful woman whose doors are always open to Nigerians in need.

“As a former First Lady of Lagos State, she continued and upgraded the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, which is today appreciated far and wide.

“Her New Era Foundation lifted thousands of people, including widows, promoted and encouraged educational empowerment through the Spelling Bee competition that have produced many ‘One-Day Governors’ in the State.

“As Senator, she stood for Lagos in many capacities making the State proud of her.

“As the First Lady of Nigeria, she has continued with her strides for the well-being of others with unquantifiable compassion and zeal to help the less privileged, the challenged and those in need. She is doing this successfully through her Renewed Hope Initiative,” Dr. Obasa said adding that her philanthropic gestures have helped to build hope and motivated people.

He prayed for long life and health for the First Lady and her family.

Earlier, Hon. Omolara Olumegbon, who raised this on the floor of the House, appreciated Senator Oluremi for her achievements while she was First Lady of Lagos and in her capacity as the Grand Patron of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO).

Hon. Olumegbon also recalled how the First Lady touched lives while she served as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

She described the First Lady as a mother, philanthropist, politician and patriotic Nigerian.

While Hon. Joseph Kehinde extolled her as a woman who loves widows and children, Hon. Olotu Emmanuel commended her for always helping people.

Hon. Mosunmola Sangodara described Senator Oluremi Tinubu as a woman of strength who is also God-fearing.

According to her, the First Lady is “a humble person who respects people irrespective of their ages. She is a woman to emulate for the support she has always given President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Meanwhile, the House also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his achievements in the last 100 days in office while urging for equitable distribution of palliatives in the form of social amenities across the country.

The lawmakers expressed satisfaction with the President’s effort to ensure the economy is stabilised despite the removal of subsidy.

“When people are appreciated, they tend to do more and in the case of Mr. President, there have been changes in all sectors of the country.

“The country is witnessing the achievements of President Tinubu. We also need to ensure that people who are in need of the palliative enjoy it the most in terms of more input in transportation, health, agriculture, and education,” Speaker Obasa said.

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending