When I started this self-appointed responsibility to watch and report on Coro in 2020, I did not place the pastors on the periscope but before long, they started asking for my attention . The first to seek my attention was, Prophet David Kingleo Elijah, GO of Mount of Possibility Church, Ojo, Lagos, who he boasted that “I am going to China to deal with Coronavirus. That was when Coro was a hear-say issue. By the time Nigeria became Coronised, I did not hear from him again. There was also the GO of Hand of Healing Ministry who sent Coro out of Edo State. But they ‘failed his hand’ because Oga-Coro wrecked havoc in Edo State, as it did all over the world with 7694 cases and 321 deaths as at 9/4/22.
About 10 years ago, I was so ‘fascinated’
by the outrageous antics, dual-personalities, theatricals, pretentiousness,
sinful opulence, and phariseesm, of some of our men of God( MOG) that I decided
to pay a close attention to these characters by opening a ‘file’ for them. Some
are criminals, some are fetish, some are outright entertainers, some hypnotise
and dispossess their gullible followers, some make outrageous claims, and some adopt weird methodologies. A good number,
by their body language, have little regard for Christ, their Master, whom they claim
to proclaim, ignoring what he said or how he lived his life or only remembering
when it is convenient for them. Some of them, according to Max Romeo and
the Up-setters are busy stealing in the name of the Lord.
They come in his name but unfortunately, they are devoid of his character and
principles. It has always been like this because even Christ himself lamented: They preach but do not practice… they do all their
deeds to be seen by men.. they love being called Rabbi (pastor; man of God)
neglecting the weighty matters of law justice, mercy and faith….inside they are
full of extortion and rapacity… they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. You
serpents, brood of vipers; how can you escape being condemned to hell? (Matthew, 23, 1-7 13-33).
Some of them even agree with the above unflatering picture:Thus saith the Lord has become a common tune in the mouths of many in our society. There are so many self-appointed prophets showcasing themselves and their ministration on the media. They use high-sounding words, push people down under porported annointing and are always quick to make prophetic declarations on every trending issue in the society. The most unfortunate fact of their life is that they have no knowledge of the God they claim to represent. They have in turn made their followers twice children of hell. These are imposters and deceivers in the world.( Pastor Kumuyi, Daily Manna, 15/7/21). Unfortunately, my plan to do a series on these MOG has not yet materialised because of other matters contesting for attention and because when you think you have seen it all, worse and more bizzare cases crop up and all of them start with Thus says the Lord but God has said Do not listen to the prophets; they speak a vision of their own and not from the mouth of the Lord. I have not sent these prophets and yet they ran; I have not spoken to them and yet they prophesied( Jeremiah,23) and in effect I have NOT sent them( Jer, 27:15)!
When I started this self-appointed responsibility to watch and report on Coro in 2020, I did not place the pastors on the periscope but before long, they started asking for my attention . The first to seek my attention was, Prophet David Kingleo Elijah, GO of Mount of Possibility Church, Ojo, Lagos, who he boasted that “I am going to China to deal with Coronavirus. That was when Coro was a hear-say issue. By the time Nigeria became Coronised, I did not hear from him again. There was also the GO of Hand of Healing Ministry who sent Coro out of Edo State. But they ‘failed his hand’ because Oga-Coro wrecked havoc in Edo State, as it did all over the world with 7694 cases and 321 deaths as at 9/4/22.
As we are gradually removing Coro from the front-burner, so as to effectively face other existential challenges, including the Russian aggression of Ukraine, as well as the economics and politics of transition in Nigeria, I have the presence of mind to x-ray the roles of these our MOG in the war against Coro. Some contradicted themselves, others rubbished both the virus and the vaccine, some enacted the 11th commandment: thou shall not be vaccinated, claimed that they could cure or that they actually cured Coro-victims, some made outlandish prophesies and claims, some manufactured special Coro-containment concoctions and some publicly disagreed with and rubbished, their fellow MOG regarding the nature and scope of Coro. Surely, a good number of them consumed an overdose of conspiracy theory concoctions.
My own
charity in this instance will begin from abroad, and particularly in Kampala,
where Pastor
but Augustine Yiga of Revival Church Kawaala was among the first to say that there was
nothing like Coro and that it was an
ordinary flu. As a reward for his ‘medical-scientific discovery’,
he was arrested and charged for undermining government efforts in
fighting the pandemic and misleading the public’. Televangelist Jim Bakker has was sued by the State of Missouri (
US) for selling a false and fake
anointing oil against Coro. On the other hand, Kenneth Copeland, a
‘compassionate’ shepherd, had directed his sheep to keep on tithing, since even
if their businesses and jobs failed, God, their limitless source, will always
provide more enough. A Myanmar born Canadian Pastor David Lah, held that there was no Coro, held services
against the existing protocol, caught the virus, along with his congregants and
was jailed 3 months for his efforts. He had preached that Christians, or more
particularly, his followers were immune from Coro and that if people
hold the Bible and Jesus in their hearts, the disease will not come in,” Bishop Glenn of Richmond, Va.’s New Deliverance
Evangelistic Church defied Coro, vowed to keep preaching unless I’m in jail or the hospital, held jampacked
services in a state that limited public gatherings to 10 max, but eventually and
unfortunately, he died of the virus!
In Australia, the Church of
Ubuntu, sacked a church-worker, Lainie Chait, for getting vaccinated, because
it is contrary… to
what is required of us by our Lord God and Creator. She
took legal action against the church. In what is a mixture of home and away
story, a Christ Embassy pastor in Glen View3, Harare, was arrested and fined
$2000 for pastoring 50 unvaccinated congregants. Another Christ Embassy Pastor,
Marvin Osaghae, the church itself, and 30 of his ‘apostles’, were fined $35000
for holding service in contravention of existing protocol in Australia. This
appears to be a regular feature of Christ Embassy because their TV Channel, LoveWorld, was fined
£125,000 by the UK authorities for misinforming the
public about Coro.
Pastor Wiseman, a Kenyan and
GO of Bishop Climate Ministries, London was arraigned for fraud and unfair trading practices for
selling Coro "plague protection kits" for £91 to his
congregants. The kit contained a small bottle of oil and a red yarn. Red yarn?
That was as the spirit directed. In Kenya, three pastors, Don Mutugi Majau, Joan Miriti, and Alex
Gichunge sued the Interior, Health and ICT Cabinet Secretaries, the
Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police for banning Church
services and religious gathering because of Coro. The pastors argued that their
activities were restricted without consultations and that as the Church
provided hope and solace, they should be
classified as essential service providers, so that they could congregate, while
abiding by the applicable protocols.
Late Tanzanian
President and servant-leader, John Magufuli was not a pastor but he was very Pastoristic
in his Coro-related utterances and reactions. He refused to closedown
churches because he believed that they provided healing, seeing the Coro outbreak as satanic,
which could not survive in the body of Christ because it will burn. He
later announced that the test-kits were faulty as samples taken from pawpaw,
goat and sheep tested positive and that
he patronise Covid-Organics from Madagascar. A month later (June 2020) he
declared Tanzania Coro-free, a feat achieved due to the prayers of the
citizens. He had earlier commended priests and worshippers for not wearing
cloves and masks and also expressed the fears that some of the items donated to
cure Coro could actually spread the virus. His death in 2021 was controversial
because while the Tanzanian Government announced that he died of heart disease
many people attributed his death to Coro. A very bizarre one happened in Idia
where a70-year-old ‘priest’ Sansari Ojha from the
Brahmani Dei Temple beheaded one of his
parishioners, Pradhan claiming that he was ordered by a goddess to
sacrifice a human in order to bring an end to the pandemic in India.
Now finally back home, I start with Pastor Oyakhilome, who was firing on all cylinders while the WAC
was at its hottest and whose disciples created records across the globe for
defying Coro protocols- and paying for that. Actually, if there was an Anti-Coro
Challenge, he would have easily won the gold cup unchallenged in
Nigeria and be a good contender across the world. As early as May 2020, he countermoted
his colleagues who supported the closure of Churches, accusing them of being settled by the
government and querying there pastoral genuineness
and concluding that they were not
prayerful originally and that ’Christ has never truly being their lord’. Three months later, August 2020, he
described the Covid test as one of the greatest frauds of all times querying the authenticity of the kits as well
as what they were testing. He also described social distancing as ridiculous. That same August,
he faced the FG, challenging its audacity to limit the duration of church services, hollering
How dare you? He even decreed that the number of hours you allow the
church is the number of hours you have left.”
In March 2021,he attacked pastors
who supported vaccination, querying their faith and wondering
How can you become a minister of vaccines? What
happened to you? Where is the word of God in your mouth? He told them
that if they believed in Christ and the Word as much as they believed in the vaccines, they
would do signs and wonders. He spoke with such anger that if they had been near
enough during those sermons, he would have Biancaad them!
He
now upped the conspiracy theory by proclaiming that the lockdown was a ploy to install
the 5G, which was a part of the new world order and the schemes of the antichrist.
He actually claimed that what was killing people was NOT Coro bot the 5G
technology and that the Federal government had to shut down Abuja and
Lagos so that the 5G could be installed.
What Pastor Chris did (anti-Coro
& antivaxx) was also done by other
pastors across the globe. He was different in that he was firing at his
colleagues. The way he spoke, it appeared that God had made him a SA on the spiritual-integrity of other pastors and how to whip them into
line. And they all let him be. However
on the 5G matter, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo
decided to hit back, expressing
disappointment at purveyors of foolish
conspiracy theories avowing that it is
fake news to associate 5G with Coro, wondering why Coro is in his village that
does not have 5G! Pastor Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian
also disagreed with the proposition that
churches were closed to install 5G, reminding us that during the 1918 influenza Churches, mosques, schools
and markets were also shut and that
nobody blamed the anti-Christ then.
Adewale
Giwa, the Senior Pastor of Awaiting The Second Coming Of Christ Ministry appears to agree with Oykhilome. He vehemently
rejected the vaccine, saying he would be killed before he would take it and that
it is not for his church, family and friends. He differentiated between religious
and spiritual leaders (like him for
sure)who are equipped with vision, hope
and faith and authoritatively declared
that ‘those asking their members to
take Covid-19 vaccines are shortsighted religious leaders who are not led by
the Holy Spirit’ He concluded that
Nigeria needed Jesus Christ, not a vaccine. Prophet Joshua Iginla of the
Champions Royal Assembly, came on board, openly took the vaccine and declared
that most of the negative
things said about the COVID-19 vaccine are totally erroneous and false, advised people not to die recklessly and telling his flock
and the general public not be
deceived and misled; some of the people advising you against the COVID-19
vaccine have secretly taken it.
Bishop David Oyedepo, the Winner-man
who does not know the number of jets he has, was also active in the WAC. About
three months after the onslaught of Coro in Nigeria, he boldly declared that
114 coronised people were healed in his church and lamented that markets where everyone is running over each other every day of the
week were opened while churches were
closed saying that
nobody can silent the Church, where real, tangible healings took place. He declared that he smelt a rat and that Lagos and Ogun states were afflicted
anti-church virus. And that he smelt a rat that chr “There
is something wrong. For people to be allowed to be in the ma. He wondered why
hospitals, where people died everyday were open while churches, where people were
healed, were closed, reminding the authorities that the oppression of the
devil has no medical cure.” At some other time, he declared that Coro
was the beginning of woes heralding the coming of the Lord but he assured his
followers that everyone in the army of the Lord will manifest greatness in
thick darkness; that being in covenant places a seed of exemption from the woes
of the world. He also warned that when they
stopped giving, they would start going
down, admonishing them to make giving a lifestyle. That might be why he
introduced tithe account numbers for his congregants, despite Coro and the
consequential triple locks: lock up Lock down and lock in. On this, he was in
league with Kenneth Copeland.
Later, he declared that Coro was a mere propaganda, noise
from hell, an ordinary fever and a plot by the forces of darkness to distract
the children of God; that Covid-19 is what the church can easily cure
just by the laying of hands. “Can
you imagine anyone bringing coronavirus patient to me and I won’t lay hands on
him? Will I wear gloves to lay hands on them? I will lay hands on them; breathe
into them; embrace them and nothing will happen because he is carrying
eternal life. He mocked those who have never been in a theatre before but will
‘now wear everything like a doctor; moving like somebody is under some
attack… they will(soon) know that they
have been grossly deceived. He had earlier prophesied that Coro would
end ‘soon’.When vaccines were introduced, he warned his members against taking
the untested ‘deadly thing’ and rather recommended a shot of
anointing oil( customized ones for sure) to cure the virus. He claimed that his views about the vaccines was affirmed by a
Church Elder working at WHO, who thanked him for speaking the truth about the
authenticity of the vaccine, saying it was a way of killing Africans after
their prediction that corpses would
scatter all over the street did not work. He spoke fiercely against compulsory
vaccination or termination of appointment of the unvaccinated, which he saw as
an insult and assault. He declared that his church ground was a covid-free
zone, where people cannot catch Coro, and that it was why some people were
upset. When he spoke on Commanding the Supernatural 2 at a midweek
Communion service in April 2022, he reiterated that Coro was just a noise of the devil, a money-making
scheme and stated that nobody could convince him that it was not targeted at
the church, which was growing stronger and expanding unusually and that even if
1bn viruses invaded the earth, the Church would not be touched. He reminded his
listeners that before each plague, God exempted the Israelites and as such,
they should have an exemption mentality. This was after the Covid rules had
been relaxed worldwide.
Pastor
Poju Oyemade, of The Covenant Nation, as if in response to Pastors Chris and
Oyedepo, disagreed with the strident criticisms against the closure of Churches,
arguing that “the sick healed in the book of Acts were healed on
the streets, in people’s homes, in public places and not within the four walls
of a Church.” He also avowed that “Closing the doors of a physical building
does not in any way mean the closure of the anointing of the Spirit from
working It does not stop the rivers of living water from flowing. He was also
against the criticism of other pastors, which does not evidence the critic’s
strength.
Pastor Tunde Bakare of Citadel Global Community Church, was
not among those lampooning the Government for lockdown on houses of
warship. As if in response to Oyakhilome and the Winner-Man, he recommended
that church halls be made available to government as Isolation centers’
while pastors should support the government. Even when the churches were
allowed to open, he was not in a hurry
to reopen, reminding us that Noah was on lockdown for 150 days. He also declared that the church is not about tithe and offerings but
also about edifying the people and
fixing the challenges of the world. He then advised his congregants to obey all
the necessary rules and to ’ please keep safe and do your best to stay
alive. Do not let anyone, to drive you like a sheep to the slaughter.
I did not want to discuss Chris Okotie of Household of God immediately after his namesake, because I
wanted to avoid Chrises (Chris+ Chris=Chrises). He disagreed with the
guidelines released by CAN and declared in his usual bombastic grammar that To allow the idol of coronavirus to determine the scope of
congregational worship is an abomination of gargantuan proportions, that
Social distancing in the Church
is tantamount to blasphemous infidelity and an impeachment of the
integrity of the word of God,” and that “No true minister of the gospel will succumb to such travesty of
the faith. He was against facemasks because it is a denial
of the finished work of Christ on the cross and that Christians should only
follow Biblical protocols. He said that online churching was unscriptural and
reiterated that Coro was satanic
conspiracy against the Church and that Bill Gates was a leader of that
conspiracy. When churches were allowed to open physically, he threw in another
grammatical bomb, that his church would not open until these profanation and secularization have been
pulverized by the Emperor of heaven.
Late Pastor TB Joshua proclaimed authoritatively that On
March 27th,(2020) it will be over.. whether we like it or not … If it is not a
medicine that brought this to the world, medicine cannot take it out. It will
go the way it came,” He was in league with Pastor Odumeje, the Liquid Metal
who said it would end in April. Odumeje also threatened Oga-Coro thus: “On the first week of April, I will come for you
Corona-virus in every country in the world, in overseas. You will know why I am
the end of sickness.” He went ahead to curse China, and promised that he would come for
India thereafter. It was around that time that Pastor Joshua declared and decreed that a one week rain in China would wash away the virus. However, as if in reply to TB and Odumeje, Bishop Mike Bamidele, the GO of
Victory Chapel International Church, said that no pastor could predict the end
of the pandemic, wondering the
kind of spirit those attempting to predict the end were operating with.
But in August 2020, Femi Fani Kayode announced that he watched videos
where TB Joshua healed thousands of coronised people from 43 nations, via
satellite and that Even the World Health Organisation has
publicly acknowledged and commended his good work . I didn’t know that he
had become the Director of Communication for WHO. Based on Mt 7:7
Pastor TB, requested all those in isolation
should connect all those in isolation, to Emmanuel TV and “Together we shall pray for them... set
(them) free from COVID-19, just as ‘people brought to Jesus all who had
various kinds of sickness, he healed them all (Luke 4:40). He later released an anointing
sticker, tagged ‘not mine but God’s
own’
saying: never a sickness, affliction, problem it never heal, cure and solve. He
eventually asked Nigerians to accept vaccines as a way out, saying that adverse reactions were normal as he always had reactions
whenever he took chloroquine. When Churches were eventually permitted to open
physically, he announced that his church would not open until he heard
from God
Pastor Lazarus Muoka, GO of The Lord's
Chosen, assured
that if churches were allowed to reopen, they would crush coronavirus within
one minute. That was as pastor, Moses
aka “Deadly Prophet” begged the Delta & Federal Governments to allow him
into the isolation centres so that he
would vanquish Coro within 72 hours …. Not for pride or popularity but for
liberty. The founder of Omega Fire
Ministry, Apostle Johnson Suleman, who assured that pastors could reduce this nonsense’ and ‘prove
that there are prophets in Nigeria. In response to this, witches under
the Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AFAW) challenged him, to heal any confirmed
coro case and receive $1000 for each healing, from the group. He has not
replied up to this moment. He had
described Coro as a chemical weapon manufactured in China, which had sinned
greatly, and that it is a part of the one-world conspiracy of which the Pope
was a part of. He had also prophesied that something worse would come in
2022and…from China. Well, we are now in 2022 and we are watching and waiting.
The grandfather of Nigerian Pentecostalism, Pastor Adeboye of RCCG
was also a part of the Coro discourse. He said that Coro had created a global
compulsory holiday, which God told him earlier, though his mind went to terror attack. He advised us not
to fear as only those whose time had come would die of the virus, took a jibe
at those who said Coro would end on 27/3/20 or that Coro itself would die,
saying tongue-in-cheek, that prophets were greater than pastors. He announced
that his grandchildren, wife and himself would not attend services immediately
the churches opened as the kids are under15 wile the first Family of RGGC were above 65, in obedience to NCDC guidelines.
His last major Coro intervention was during the 2021 crossover service when he
declared that he would assemble 1000 prayer warriors against Omicron, the
terror variant of that time. He had earlier said it would take a miracle for
Coro to TOTALLY leave the world, a position which other Coro authorities
eventually adopted, by degrading it from pandemic to endemic; something that cannot be eradicated , something we just
have to live with.
Fr Mbaka of ‘AMEN’ came into the Coro controversy a little bit late and started by apologizing to the many people who had been awaiting his powerful comments. He asked the people not to panic as God would provide healing and then ordered Oga-Coro ‘to be ceased’, saying it would go like Ebola before it. He went further to release healing and sunrays, which he described as one of the antidotes to Coro. Archbishop Samson Benjamin of Resurrection Praise Chapel, a.k.a. “Jehovah Sharp-Sharp’ broke the lockdown rules, when he led about 100 others to protest at the Chinese Embassy in Lagos about the maltreatment of Nigerians in China. He was charged for “failure to stay at home contrary to COVID-19 Regulations’ and “conduct likely to cause breach of peace”. Then, one Christopher Orji, I don’t know whether he was a pastor, prophet, an evangelist or a GO, emerged from nowhere to announce that a European nurse was cured of Coro INSTANTLY through an ordinary phone call!
It is also on record that even those
who accepted the existence of Coro and readily
supported Government measures had occasions to disagree. The Christian Association
of Nigeria, which inhouse guidelines were rubbished by Okotie had a cause to
say Enough is Enough. Its President, His Eminence,
Rev (Dr) Samson Ayokunle, recalled that CAN had supported Government
measures including lockdown but
regretted that“ with the reopening of the economy, especially the
markets along with the plan to reopen airports and schools, the closure of
churches anywhere in the country is no longer tenable and acceptable. It
was around the same time that the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Most Rev Alfred Adewale Martins, who agreed that Coro was
real, wondered why people were acting
that it is only when people gather to worship that coronavirus can be spread
while the virus is suspended when they cluster and huddle together in markets,
motor parks and banks. He also argued
that gathering to worship is the
Christian heritage and practice( Acts
Chapter2), concluding that “If Christians were willing to suspend their
right to gather in Church buildings for the sake of common good at a time when
all gatherings of people were suspended, it is unfair and unjust for government
to restrict gatherings for worship when other gatherings are being allowed.
He also recalled that CAN-Lagos and Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos had their own
customized guidelines, evidencing their
commitment to the WAC.
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