*Sanctuary of Christ Evangelical Church Dedicates Multimillion Naira Auditorium
By: SAYO AKINTOLA
A Cleric has admonished the President Bola Tinubu government to rejig the economy in pronto for the benefit of most of the downtrodden Nigerian masses who are at the receiving end of the present administration’s excruciating economic reforms.
Founder of the Sanctuary of Christ Evangelical Church, Pastor (Prof) Gbade Ojo, made the call during the official dedication of the church’s multimillion naira new auditorium in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
According to him, the reduction in the fuel price for few days is but a kind of tokenism that cannot bear the needed fruit of economic succour. He said that the government should be reminded that globally there is no economy that is not subsidized.
Without taking into consideration what the view of the irrelevant critique of government may be, he said government should consider the option of fuel subsidy in a reasonable degree rather than a kind of subsidy withdrawal in all hogs that has brought unintended economic consequences of pain and harmful inflation choking the poor masses.
The man of God who is also a Professor of Political Science at the University of Ilorin, pointed out that any policy that could lead to this kind of shock on the economy should be reviewed in pronto.
He noted that Nigeria may borrow a leaf from Egypt which took them a decade to gradually convert most of their vehicles from gasoline to CNG, adding that as much as the fuel subsidy withdrawal is desirable, Nigerians needed to be carried along with the issue of accountability to truncate the high rate of lack of trust in the government which has resulted into legitimacy crisis.
Th Cleric noted with dismay that every bit of government policies is badly criticised, adding that thus government may need an effective media plan to educate Nigerians better than what they are doing now.
Nevertheless, with the 2027 election campaigns picking up, he urged the government to beef up security nationwide in order not to compound the already precarious security situation in the country, adding that those in government should be reminded that one of the major canons of democracy is maintenance of peace and security.
‘In essence, government at all levels should double up their efforts at maintaining peace and security across the country. Election violence in any guise could taint the credibility of an election,’ he warned.
He maintained that pre-election, during election and post-election violence of whatever tempo and toga should be curtailed to the barest minimum for Nigeria’s bid to sustain the nascent democracy to be achieved. He however, urged church of God to always pray for country and the politicians to be able to govern well.
Meanwhile, going down memory lane, Pastor Gbade Ojo recalled that the church started in a classroom at CAC Grammar School, Aperin Oniyere, Ibadan in 1999 with seven members, ‘including myself and my wife.’
He recalled with excitement that the growth of the church is a big phenomenon and indeed, physical glaring evidence of the hand of God, adding that ‘ever since, we have been increasing tremendously even though I’m not a full-time minister.’
He said that the multimillion naira building with iron and steel could not have been possible without the miraculous hand of God in this period of economic crunch. More so, he said – this is a church that does not organise Harvest Service or fund raising of any kind but depend on the little tithes and offerings.
‘I must add that I’m not a full-time minister, so I do not draw salary and allowances from the church treasury. We have only one fulltime evangelist with the church and two cleaners taking care of the church premises. I give God honour, glory and adoration for His everlasting arms,’ he said.
