Posted on: 09:24 Sun, 10 Apr 2016



A former National President of the
Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria,
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, says most
people who claim to be pastors or
men of God are not, as they were
not called by God in the first place.

Oritsejafor expressed displeasure
over how ‘these men of God’ have
now turned the church into a
business centre and living
flamboyant lives, stating that the
development was the reason
kidnappers now see the church as a
place to make money.

In a recent chat with the Punch, the
outgoing President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, CAN, said,
“The problem we have in the
church is that a lot of these pastors
are not men of God as they were
not called.

“They are mercenaries,
commercially minded people. The
duty of the church is to preach
morality not materialism and
because Nigerians are very gullible;
they are easy victims of deceit.

They fall prey to some of these
pastors or prophets of doom. The
way they live gives a wrong
impression of what should be in a
church of God. There should be no
room for material possessions.

“I am not saying a man of God
should not live a life of comfort but
it should be a life of good comfort;
that is why kidnapping is now a
common thing even in the church.
“It is unfortunate that we are
having this kind of problem
because most places of religious
gathering, particularly of the
Christian faith, are seemingly
reducing their faith to
commercials. So many people think
they have money and most of them
live a flamboyant lifestyle.

“As such, the kidnappers mistake
them for money men but there is
nothing there. The kidnappers
would be kept at bay if they
stopped preaching prosperity and
allowing dirty money to go into the
church coffers.

I also think the church is losing its
moral values. The values are
disappearing gradually.

“We should preach values and not
materialism. I think the churches
themselves should look inwards
and correct the poor impression
they are giving people outside that
there is money in the church,
whereas there is none,” he stated.
On his opinion on the Kaduna State
bill against public preaching,
Oritsejafor said Governor Nasir el-
Rufai had seemingly taken the
wrong step.

Oristejafor said, “He should call a
meeting of all the stakeholders in
that state with respect to religious
activities before rushing to the state
Assembly for any bill. Be that as it
may, we have to be very careful if
there is any bill intended to wear
religious colouration.

“When Sharia was introduced into
this country we were lucky to have
a Christian President, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, who tamed it.
Nigeria would have been engulfed
by the conflagration. Sharia would
have been misunderstood.

“There are already enough laws in
the statue book that take care of
what Governor El-Rufai has in
mind. I have no objection if he
wants to curb noise pollution in the
name of religion. I quite agree if
this is the basis.

But in a situation where it is meant
to tackle extremism, libel, sedition,
incitement and more, there are
enough laws in our statute book for
this. Doing otherwise is not good
for him.

“I have tremendous respect for him
for he was the person bold enough
to say that there should be no more
street begging. Yes, that was a
sensible thing because even in the
Islamic countries such is not
allowed,” the pastor stated.