THE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Enoch Adeboye, has said that most people joining politicians at campaigns across Nigeria to seek votes for the elections coming up later in the year are hired.
Adeboye stated this on Friday night during the church’s monthly Holy Ghost Service held at the Redemption Camp along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Wonderful,” Adeboye said he watched “hundreds of thousands of youths” at the rallies with amazement.
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According to him, only jobless youths appear at such rallies.
“If you look at the crowd, the majority of them are young. When I see the hundreds of thousands of youths, you have to be jobless to be attending these rallies. What is going to happen when the campaigns are over, and there is nobody to rent anymore?” he wondered.
The ICIR reports that 18 political parties are fielding presidential candidates in the general elections, scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold on February 25 and March 11 this year.
The Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold first, and governorship and Houses of Assembly elections will follow.
Four leading presidential candidates have lit the campaigns across the country, with their loyalists hoping their preferred candidate succeed the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, whose two terms of four years apiece in office end on May 29.
Buhari took over from Goodluck Jonathan, whom he defeated in a historic poll in 2015.
Adeboye also mentioned during his sermon on Friday that he became sad after Nigerians criticised and petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he had bought a private jet.
Adeboye, who had his first private aircraft as far back as a decade ago and is among the richest pentecostal pastors in Nigeria, justified the aircraft purchase, saying, “The work has expanded that there is no way I can do it by commercial travel. If you want to travel by commercial, you have to wait for their timetable. If I have to wait for their timetable, I won’t be able to do what God wants me to do.
“To give you an example, I finished our European convention in Spain – one night. Thirty-three nations gathered together. As soon as I finished the programme around 12 midnight, I headed straight to the airport to travel to Hong Kong. I arrived in Hong Kong the following day, did what I needed to do, and then moved on to Singapore. I arrived in Singapore, did what I needed to do and then headed for Australia. I got to Australia, did what I needed to do, I headed to Papua New Guinea.”
He said he needed to visit those places and accomplish his mission before returning to Nigeria for the next major programme in the church in Nigeria.
Adeboye explained there was no way he could achieve the goals with commercial aircraft.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].