PROFESSOR of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University Farooq Kperogi has again come under fire for claiming that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo uses his Office to facilitate job appointments for members of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) where he is a pastor.
Kperogi wrote on Monday that the Veepee sees his position in government as “an opportunity to promote the supremacy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)” which he has characterized as Osinbajo’s RCCGification project.
The article titled “Two Major Lies in Osinbajo’s Declaration Speech” has been the latest sensation on social media.
At the last count, over 5,000 followers have liked it on Facebook and 1,400 of them have shared it.
On Twitter, Kperogi’s followers have locked horns, defending or criticising the 760-word article.
But is his claim about Osinbajo facilitating the appointment of RCCG members in the Buhari government true or false?
Relying on public records, The ICIR profiles some of the government appointees whose recruitment Osinbajo allegedly facilitated.
https://www.facebook.com/TheICIR/videos/2318181238325036/
The first on the list was the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment between 2015 and 2019, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah.
Dr. Enelamah indeed was the pastor of RCCG Olive Tree parish at Banana Island Ikoyi Lagos.
He was commissioned in May 2015, a few months before he was announced as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He succeeded Pastor Osinbajo who then was transferred from RCCG Jesus Centre parish to Olive Tree in October 2009.
But at the time of his appointment, he was also the head of African Capital Alliance (ACA), Nigeria’s biggest private equity firm. The company raised over $750 million in managed funds since its inception in 1997.
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A graduate of Harvard Business school, Dr. Enelemah was Investment Partner at Zephyr Management, a global investment manager headquartered in New York, after a stint at Goldman Sachs.
Another prominent hire allegedly facilitated by the Veepee Osinbajo is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande.
Long before he returned to Nigeria to serve in the Office of the Vice President, the former reporter at The Guardian was also the pastor of RCCG Jesus Friends Assembly, Bayshore, New York.
According to the information on the Church website, Akande started the parish on May 13, 2007, then located in Brentwood.
In 2015, he was appointed as the spokesperson for the vice president.
Kperogi wrote that Akande abandoned his church to take up the government job in Nigeria.
“I’ve learned that Akande’s parish in New York has now closed,” he wrote.
The ICIR’s finding though shows that the church is still operating.
In fact, the Church’s Resurrection Celebration service is slated for Sunday, April 17 at its current address at 150 Motorparkway, Suite 304 Hauppauge, NY.
The third nominee of the VP on Kperogi’s list is the former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Babatunde Fowler.
The ICIR confirmed that the taxman is also a pastor of the Redeemed Church.
He is currently the assistant pastor in charge of Administrative Business for the Rose of Sharon parish, GRA Ikeja Lagos.
He and Pastor Bolanle Soremekun who is in charge of the church’s Corporate Social Responsibility deputise for the senior Pastor Emeka Obiagwu who has been overseeing the church since 2010.
Then there is Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Alex Ayoola Okoh whom The ICIR confirmed also to be a pastor.
Okoh is a pastor at RCCG Olive Tree parish. In fact, he was the immediate successor of Enelamah at the parish where Osinbajo also pastored earlier. Okoh became pastor at the church after Enelamah was appointed as trade minister.
In 2017, he got his own appointment as the overall boss at BPE.
However, Okoh also was the Managing Partner, Ashford & McGuire Consulting Ltd., a leading consulting firm that offers Financial Advisory services.
He was Managing Director/CEO of NNB International Bank from January 2001 to December 2005 and was regarded as the one that repositioned the bank as a leading commercial bank and led the merger between the bank and eight others to form Unity Bank.
Also on the list shared by Professor Kperogi is Pastor Olukayode Pitan, the pioneer pastor of Olive Tree parish. The parish was established in 1995 by Pastor Alfred Olufemiyimi and his wife, Abby.
Pitan was later transferred to Lagos Province 35 parish and Tabernacle of David parish, Ajah Lagos and he was succeeded by Osinbajo at Olive Tree.
In 2017, while acting as president, Osinbajo approved the appointment of Pitan as the managing director of the Bank of Industry (BOI).
Buhari, however, renewed Pitan’s appointment last month based on good performance.
Under his watch, BOI has promoted financial inclusion by supporting the expansion of over three million enterprises, thereby creating over seven million jobs, a statement from the presidency has noted.
Before his appointment, he was also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Interstate Bank Plc. He served as Executive Director of Unity Bank Plc in charge of Corporate Banking and Treasury Management.
Professor Kperogi did not mention Ben Akabueze, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation as one of the beneficiaries of Osinbajo’s RCCGification project.
But other critics of the Veepee have listed him as one of those who got the job because of his RCCG membership.
Akabueze was first appointed as a Special Adviser Planning to the President in 2016 and later was appointed as Director-General of the Budget Office by President Buhari. Curiously, he was also an RCCG pastor.
He was the Pastor-in-charge of Lagos Province 39 of the RCCG with headquarters at The King’s Court Parish in Victoria Island, Lagos till his appointment with the Federal Government six years ago.
There was also Edobor Iyamu, the former Senior Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. He was among the 35 aides of the vice president that was allegedly fired by Buhari in 2019.
Iyamu is the Pastor in Charge of Jesus Family Parish of the RCCG since
.
The ICIR yesterday sent questions to Arukaino Umukoro, the Special Assistant on Communication Projects, at the Presidency via Facebook for comment.
He is yet to respond even though he was active online one hour before the time of publishing this report.
He has, however, debunked the claim that Osinbajo nominated ministers, in a response to an article published in the media.
“The President appoints his Ministers,” he stated.
His defence notwithstanding, evidence has shown that several pastors of RCCG have found their way to the Buhari government even though they are men with an outstanding records of achievement.
But is it a coincidence that seven RCCG pastors got key positions in the Buhari government?
Does the vice president have agenda to fill the government offices with RCCG pastors as Kperogi claimed?
The ICIR contacted Laolu Akande for comment, “No I won’t dignify nonsense,” he responded.
Meanwhile, a source in the presidency told The ICIR that Enelamah and Pitan were actually nominated and brought in by the former chief of staff to the president, late Abba Kyari who had known the two men as bankers in Lagos when Kyari was also at UBA.
Meanwhile, a source in the presidency told The ICIR that Enelamah and Pitan were actually nominated and brought in by the former chief of staff to the president, late Abba Kyari who had known the two men as bankers in Lagos when Kyari was also at UBA.
The source, however, confirmed that Veepee nominated Okoh for the government job.
The source also dismissed the role allegedly played by the Veepee in the selection of Soun of Ogbomosho and Akirun of Ikirun as Kperogi stated in his article.
“He is not an appointing authority so could not play a role,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a video obtained from the vice president’s office showed that 17 staff at the Office of the Vice President are Muslim. Four of them are from the South, and 13 are from the North.
The video neither showed the number of Christian staff working with the vice president, nor disclosed their membership of RCCG.
Ajibola Amzat, Managing Editor at The ICIR. He can be reached via aaamzat@icirnigeria.org
and @ajibolaamzat on Twitter.