Bringing religion into politics is dangerous – PastorAdefarasin

Pastor Wale Adefarasin is the General Overseer of Guiding
Light Assembly, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. In this
interview, he allays fears of possible disintegration of the coun­
try and other issues about Nigeria and the world in general.
You were the national secretary of PFN. Could you share your
experience with us?
Well, serving in that capacity gave me the opportunity to work
with most of the leadership of the Pentecostal Churches. It
also exposed me, because as the PFN secretary, I was on the
national executives of Christian Association of Nigeria. It also
gave me the opportunity to relate with the leaders of the five
blocs of CAN. I thank God for that opportunity because I was
able to see, sometimes, first hand, some of the things that
happened and I was able to build relationships with a lot of
the leaders in the Church, our national leaders and leaders in
the local areas of the Church.
One key desire of God expressed by Jesus is that the Body of
Christ be united as one. Do you see that oneness in the
Church today?
Well, to be honest with you, I don’t see it today. I believe it
will come, but it may not come unless we face persecution.
Persecution has a way of bringing people together. I think the
problem we have today is that every man is building his own
thing and nobody is building God’s thing, building God’s
kingdom. So, our ministries always seem to take priority over
God and His kingdom.
We have alarming figures of internally displaced persons, as
a result of the insurgency in the North-Eastern part of
Nigeria. Is this an opportunity for the ‘Body of Christ’ to rise
up to do something for the Lord?
I do know that there are lots of displaced people as a result of
the ongoing insurgency in the North. Some have their homes
burnt and their means of livelihood destroyed; others, out of
fear have had to flee from home. Is it an opportunity for the
Church to rise? I assure you the Church will arise. When I say
Church, I am not looking at the institutions we know as
churches. I am looking at the Body of Christ. The people, who
truly know God, love Him and have a love for mankind. So,
you’ll find there are already people doing something at these
camps. Their collective efforts may not be making much
impact now, but I assure you, we will find more people getting
involved.
There are so many things Christians should be getting
involved in. There are many people being orphaned in Liberia,
Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire because of Ebola. The Church needs
to get involved. We need to get involved wherever there is
human suffering. This is what Jesus did. He fed the hungry;
he healed the blind; he opened deaf’s ears, and he had pity on
mankind. If you are Christian, you should get involved in every
good work. These are opportunities through which people
should give and hope it would eventually get to the desired
people.
Let us look at CAN now. In the recent past, people have
thrown invectives on the CAN leadership over the controversy
surrounding the private jet belonging to the association’s
president. There are talks about money laundering, arms
deals and lots more. What can you say about this?
I have known Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor personally. He is a man
of God with integrity. I am satisfied with the explanation he
has given, that he was not in any way involved in the carriage
of money, even though his jet is used. I think that is all I am
going to say about that.
You earlier said we can’t really say there is oneness in the
Body of Christ, what do you think can be done?
I think that first and foremost we need to put our own agenda
aside. When people come together over a common agenda, it
is always more powerful that when they all have personal
agenda. I think we need to set aside our own agenda and
think about the things that need to be done by the Body of
Christ. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that God commands
His blessings, when brethren dwell together in peace and
unity. It’s really a question of setting aside personal agenda.
How do you see Nigeria in 2015, politically?
I am confident that Nigeria will not disintegrate this year.
However, 2015 portends to be a very difficult year. I can say
this, having studied the analysis of world-class experts and
those in position to make reasonable predictions. The oil price
may fall as low as forty dollars per barrel. That will put
Nigeria in hardship and austerity is indicative. When there is
austerity, there would be loss of jobs. As it is today, about 8,
000 graduates leave our universities every year and only 10
per cent of them are able to get jobs. This is quite poor.
Saudi Arabia is going to be affected by the slump in oil prices,
but because they have already developed their infrastructure,
they are not readily going to suffer much. What they receive
from oil is just a top up on what they have already developed.
For us in Nigeria, we have already wasted all those years of
boom spending money crazily, buying and owning private jets.
We will come to the crunch in 2015. We have to diversify our
economy; we have the need to build infrastructure, which are
very necessary for our survival. I hope that those who have
benefited immensely from the proceeds of oil largesse will see
the need to bring back the money to invest in Nigeria. So, this
is the background to our general expectations in 2015.
The biggest challenge Nigeria will face this year, in view of an
economy that is seriously challenged, is in dealing with the
monster called corruption. We have to deal with corruption
because the economic waste, as a result of corruption, is
phenomenal. We cannot play around it; corruption has to be
dealt with frontally. Anybody who steals public funds is not
just stealing government’s money; he is stealing our money.
It belongs to the commonwealth of Nigeria.
Can we look at the Church vis-à-vis, poverty? What can be
done and do we not have poverty in the Church?
I can assure you we have poverty in the Church. I have seen
many people come to me and say, Pastor, I can’t pay my
children’s school fees and these are not people you will see in
the streets and say they are poor. But these are people who
have come into hardship because of difficult times. That’s one
level. There’s another level where there are people who
cannot feed. There are people also who would rather beg.
I want to refer to something that is being done in Osun State.
The governor of Osun State said, all children in state’s
schools would, at least, have one good meal every school day.
You’d be amazed at the number of jobs created as a result of
that policy, because farmers now are on their toes to meet
with the demand for their bananas, eggs and so on. In fact,
they couldn’t meet up with demands. They had to source from
neighboring states. What is my point? Government can create
jobs. In Thailand, farmers are encouraged to produce palm
products because if they can’t finish selling, government would
buy the excess from them at an agreed price. So they know
there is market for their products. We can do the same in
Nigeria.
There has been clamor for Christians to occupy elective
positions in the land. A Christian is there in Aso Rock and
the two major contenders for governorship in Lagos are
Christians from the two main parties, that is PDP and APC.
Do you see the electorate faring better should Christians
remain at the top?
To be honest, you can have bad Muslims and bad Christians.
You can also have good Christians and good Muslims. I think
the issue of religion in governance is a dangerous game our
people are playing with. It should not matter in a nation that
is probably 50-50 in the ratio of religious indices. It should
not matter what the person’s religion is, so long as that
person will do justice, govern well and see himself not as the
leader to Christians or Muslims, but a leader to all. I think we
should begin to disabuse our minds on that.
What happened with that clamour was a situation when we
had a Muslim ruling the people for the past 16 years, and so,
people began to think it was deliberate and an attempt to
sideline the Christians. It is very important to try and preserve
a good understanding between the faiths. And that is why I
believe, the Church said, Lagos State has had 16 years, don’t
tell us that after 16 years there is no Christian that is
competent enough to ascend to the office of governance and
that is why both PDP and APC presented Christian candidates.
I think it is a good development because it corrects the
imbalance. However, I think we should begin to talk, so that
we do not allow a situation to emerge that could promote
mistrust between the faiths.
I am a Christian. Nothing can make me change. I am not
going to insist that someone who is not a Christian must do
as I say. We need to understand ourselves to promote
understanding that can promote change. Let me tell you one
of the changes I think about. Our constitution says that there
should be no state religion. When Christians come into the
office, they build a chapel and when Muslims come they build
a mosque. And now you have a chapel in government house
and you have a Mosque. I think we should do away with all of
those things. Let the government officials go to the nearest
church or mosque to worship because these things are
sending the wrong signals. I think we can change.
The youths can easily be lured to destruction because of the
elections. What is your advice to them in view of the coming
elections?
About 70 percent of Nigerians are under the age of 35. These
are the youths. In the next 20, 30 years these are people that
must be at the helm of affairs; we cannot neglect them. All I
can say is go on your knees and pray for them to get sound
education, so that they can contribute their quota to the
society. Let us pray for jobs. I like one of the programmes I
have heard so far from one of the parties. One of the parties
is offering to help farmers sell their products, should they be
elected to power next year. This will create jobs and people
will go back to farming because making money is guaranteed.
They will not come to the cities for the sake of riding okadas.
I say to the youths, in 2015, please shun violence. The
political parties will come to use you as tools; don’t accept.
They will offer you money and rice in exchange for your votes.
Take the money, take the rice, invariably they are yours
anyway, but remember the money will finish and the rice.
Make sure, in spite of these inducements, vote only your
conscience.
What would you say about the coming elections?
Let me just say this. Many people have asked me, who I am
supporting in the various elections; I feel that it is not my
place as a Church leader to be partisan. I definitely know who
I will cast my votes for. It’s a secret ballot. I will cast my vote
the way I feel led to do. I think the Church should not support
a particular candidate. I don’t think as a body, the Church
should