General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has denied leading a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan over insecurity and economic challenges, saying he carried a placard during a prayer walk, not a political demonstration.
He gave the clarification during his sermon at the church’s November Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, accusing some journalists of misrepresenting the circumstances surrounding photographs of him holding a placard.
Adeboye said the photographs, which had circulated in the media, were used to portray him as having protested against Jonathan, who left office in 2015.
The cleric explained that the placard was carried during a prayer walk organised in response to a directive by the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), asking churches to organise prayer walks around their locations.
Adeboye said the exercise took place in Ebute Metta in 2020, during the second term of former President Muhammadu Buhari, rather than in 2015 when Jonathan was still in office.
He said, ‘Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers or said somehow, Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan. Everybody said yes, and they brought out the picture of me dressed in white and green, carrying a placard.
‘Everybody said, yes, see him. When I heard about it, I said, me? I smiled. True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was not a protest. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray. The CAN chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did in the Ebutemeta. A walk is a walk. Whether prayer walk or…I did it because the CAN President said, ‘do show.”
The cleric’s clarification comes amid public discussions about his perceived support for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, with some critics suggesting that his position is influenced by shared Yoruba heritage and the fact that the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is an ordained assistant pastor of the RCCG.
Oluremi Tinubu was ordained in August 2018 during the church’s 66th Annual Convention at the Old Arena along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Adeboye also faulted the media over what he described as a failure to investigate claims before publication, recalling lessons on investigative journalism during his undergraduate days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the 1960s.
He said journalists were taught to establish the facts surrounding a story rather than rely on appearances or unverified claims.
Recalling how he reacted when he first encountered the reports, he said many Nigerians accepted the narrative without questioning its accuracy.
‘I remember when I was in Nsukka in the 1960s. In those days, if you were a student of any subject at Nsukka, you were free to go to any faculty and take a course or two, just for the enlargement of your knowledge. I remember in those days, in the Department of Journalism, when you go there and you check-I can’t remember the number now-whether Journalism 101, they talked about something called investigative journalism.
‘That means that things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press. And I smiled. And the whole country swallowed that. But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard for five years in Buhari’s second term. But a journalist twisted it. I said I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,’ he said.