In the early days of Christianity in
Nigeria the church was at the forefront
of society’s development building
schools, hospitals, vocational skills
acquisition centres, farms and cottage
industries, among others. They offered scholarships, gave free
books and teaching aids, and gave
food, clothing and shelter to those
deprived of these necessities.
Notwithstanding that the central
theme of sermons was on preparing for the life after death, the church tried
as much as possible to ensure that
members and those who dared to
come into God’s house had a good life
before death. The satisfaction of the church was the
welfare of members and the success of
the church was seen in the number of
lives touched and it therefore offered
safe haven to people in various
distress situations such as those needing food, clothing,
accommodation, financial relief,
treatment of debilitating illnesses such
as leprosy and mental disorders and
several others. As the church ministered to the needs
of members and their lives got better
they brought the proceeds of the
works of their hands in form of tithes
and offerings to God at Sunday
services, thanksgiving and harvest ceremonies. With these, more
cathedrals, mission schools,
orphanages, maternity homes and
farms were built. Pastor Enoch Adeboye, G.O, RCCG Pastor Enoch Adeboye, G.O, RCCG Also more scholarships to even higher
levels of education were awarded as
the house of God indeed became the
house of plenty. Pastors saved money
for social development projects by
living modest lives usually behind the church, riding bicycles and working
their own farms in a clear example of
storing up treasures in heaven as the
Bible recommends. Fast track to 2014, members minister
to the needs of the church paying
through the nose to fund broadcasts
on television and chain of businesses
including universities, publishing
houses, nursery, primary/ post primary schools, as well as buy flashy
cars and private jets. They are
reminded daily that givers never lack. In a bid to please “God” and achieve
the elusive breakthrough parishioners
squeeze themselves dry to contribute
to various projects in the house of
God. But surprisingly their situation
never changes. The more they give the poorer they become and the richer the
church. Today’s church is an epitome of
modernity operating from state–of-
the–art, imposing edifices fully air-
conditioned and complete with
evolutionary camera, klieg light and
other stage facilities for live broadcast from the pulpit. Yet poverty ravages
the same establishment. Due to this
religious paradox discerning
Nigerians have begun to ask a
pertinent question – has the modern
church abandoned social service that the old church used so effectively to
warm itself into the hearts of many? Take this: July 6, 2014 in a church in
Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, a priest
held the congregation spell-bound
with his homily. His delivery was
superb. Emphasis was to shift to
appreciating what God has done for all by been generous in the Harvest
contributions. He started by calling on those who
wanted to appreciate God with
N200,000 to come forward for special
blessing. From N200,000 it fell to
N150,000, N100,000 and to N50,000
to N5,000 and below. Although nobody came out for a supposed
N200,000 blessing, the priest at the
end of the day asked the entire church
to stand for general blessing. Oritsejafor Oritsejafor To the conservative Catholics it was
taking revenue drive too far. The
scene at the Amuwo Odofin church is
common in Catholic churches in the
country now. Before now, the
pentecostal churches appeared to enjoy the exclusivity of megabucks
from members. Some church leaders
even flaunt their wealth. Even in their
jerry-curl hair style they defend their
affluence on the grounds that “my
God is not a poor God.” The message is apparently for
members to strive to be like them as
they claim to enjoy the benevolence of
God. And so the craze for miracles that
could create rags to riches
phenomenon is unabated in our churches. Although the pentecostal
churches are in the lead for revenue
drive that see churches embark on big
projects only a few of them have
programmes to help the poor. And it is
in this area that the Catholic Church stands out. The programmes of their Saint Vincent
De Paul Society are geared towards
alleviating problems of the poor in
their various parishes. They visit,
hospitals, prisons, charity homes to
donate items to them. They identify with the poor in their parishes and
lend a helping hand. The Church is
known for their contributions in
education and health care that is
affordable by the poor. But unlike
before, the Catholic church in Nigeria appears to have joined the race to
grab and grab from church members
or parishoners. The harvest period in some churches
last up to six months. The mass is
usually longer for speeches and
announcements that plead to
members to appreciate God. Although
members, in many cases, attest to what the church does with the money,
the pressure on members to offer
resources during harvest is
unChatholic to many. Mr. Gabriel Bolade, an accountant in a
commercial bank who attends Baptist
Church, Yaba believes the church has
abandoned its members. He lamented
that the church of today has
abandoned the noble role of taking care of the weak and vulnerable in the
society. His concern arose from the
clear unwillingness to help enhance
education in the country. “Most of the private universities are
owned by well established churches
who charge fees far beyond the
means of ordinary members who
contributed to the establishment of
these higher institutions. Fees in the region of N1.5 million to N3 million per
session are charged which can only be
afforded by the wealthy. The ordinary members who helped in
donating materials, cash, labour and
even by praying and fasting for the
universities cannot afford such fees for
their children and wards.” Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his wife Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his wife But exorbitant fee is not the exclusive
preserve of Pentecostal churches.
Mission schools handed back by
government to the churches that
established them some years back as
part of strategies to improve education in the country have now been caught
in the web. The schools owned by
Methodist, Catholic, Anglican, CMS and
other churches that were reputed
social service providers have now
been hijacked by greedy capitalists. Their fees are no longer affordable,
just like private universities. Mr. Emmanuel Onyeji, past chairman of
the Laity Council at St. Thomas Aquinas
Catholic Church, Okokomaiko, Lagos
put the problem at the door step of
“churches that are mainly interested in
making money” and not in the welfare of their members. “Pastors of churches often preach
about the primacy of giving at least 10
per cent of their income as tithe and
more as offering to the church. Their
focus is on prosperity mainly”. But Pentecostal churches have faulted
this claim about church members
contributing towards the
establishment of educational
institutions. In fact, Pastor David
Oyedepo of Living Faith Mission (Winners Chapel) who is Founder and
Chancellor of Covenant University was
quoted as saying that he did not build
the university with tithes and offerings
of members. But he is yet to reveal the
sources of funding. His denial, however, does not explain why
majority of Winners Chapel members
cannot afford the fees charged by a
University owned by their church or
senior pastor; yet he owns private jets
– Gulfstream G550, Gulfstream G450, Gulfstream V and LearJet with
combined valued of $98.3million
(N15.9billion). The situation is not different at the
Redeemers University (RUN), owned
by the Redeemed Christian Church of
God (RCCG). While fees are also as high
as that of Covenant University, RUN
claims to have established a scholarship scheme for indigent
students. The scheme involves school
fees discounts of between 10 % and
80% for children and wards of the
university’s staff, children of pastors
and some indigent members of the church. Like Winner’s Chapel Senior
Pastor, the General Overseer of RCCG
Pastor E.A. Adeboye owns a private jet
– a Gulfstream V. Bishop Oyedepo Bishop Oyedepo That owned by the President of
Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN,
Ayo Oritsejafor has just been involved
in a scandal in South Africa. It flew $
9.3m cash into South Africa where the
money has been seized by the home country although the man has
explained that he leased the aircraft to
another company and that he knew
nothing about the transaction. .
Nigeria’s government claimed
responsibility, saying that the money was meant for the purchase of arms to
fight terror and that cash payments
are sometimes effected in such deals. Ayo Oritsejiafor has admitted owning
the aircraft and also admitted leasing it
out to a company he has substantial
interest. Nigerians want to know how
this has this helped evangelism? Critics
will be quick to answer that materialism is better for it than
evangelism. Mr. Daniel Ede, a banker who worships
with the Anglican Church expressed
worry that the present day church has
deviated from the practice of the early
church in terms of assisting those in
need and he recommends immediate change. “The early church in Acts of the
Apostles sold their belongings and
gave to the needy. Some of the wealth
being made by our churches should
be used for the sick, poor widows,
prisoners, etc. Churches ought to create more welfare programmes for
the indigent and needy in their midst.
They should have schools and
hospitals that the poor can afford”. A worker in a Pentecostal church in
Lagos, who spoke to Saturday
Vanguard on condition of anonymity
said churches in Nigeria are not doing
enough to help the poor and indigent
and asked for remedial action. “The Nigerian churches are not doing
enough. The church can begin a
revolution of wealth creation and the
development of education. We need to
give in such a way that those given
will not need alms again. Education funds should be created for those
who are eligible to attend university,
but are indigent. If churches build
schools, they should dedicate a certain
admission percentage slot for indigent
church members. Of what essence is a church that doesn’t give back?” He added that “churches should help
fund businesses for church members
and may also establish food banks,
where indigent members of the
church can access food in times of
food shortage. They can also generate funds for small businesses to grow, as
well as train the owners of such
businesses”. TB Joshua TB Joshua Speaking to Saturday Vanguard, the
Benue State chairman of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) Arch
Bishop Yiman Orkwar sees nothing
wrong in churches establishing
schools and running them in a professional manner, without
sentiments. While he is not against
churches granting scholarships to
children of the poor, he insists that
there is no way all members of the
church could be exempted from paying fees as a matter of policy as this
could harm the institution’s ability to
run the institutions properly and meet
the demands of staff. Sociologist Dr. John Akposibruke
disagrees with those suggesting that
the church has abandoned its social
service role to humanity like poverty
alleviation. “Some of the Pentecostal churches
being accused of collecting tithes and
offerings without giving back to the
needy members have commendable
welfare/poverty alleviation schemes. “I know of a church that pays rent,
school fees, medical bills and even
wedding costs of its indigent
members, but how many people can
they do this for with their limited
resources?” He explained that their efforts are not
being felt because the magnitude of
poverty and deprivation in the country
is so high that what is done pales into
insignificance. “In some churches those who need
help are up to 60% of members and
with the worsening level of
unemployment the rate is growing;
how do you attend to everybody?” He points out that some members
have developed unrealistic
expectations from their churches one
of which is that their children should
attend a church-owned university free
of charge simply because they gave tithes and offerings when the
universities were being built without
asking themselves the percentage of
these contributions to the cost of
setting up and running such schools. “Tithes and offerings are gifts to God
and the church, and like every gift
they are not returnable either in form
they were given, or by extending
discounts and privileges. “Since tithes and offerings are pooled
together to carry out various projects
in the house of God it is difficult to
determine who gave what and on that
basis extend any privilege; how can
you be sure that your own portion of the contributions was not the part
used to decorate the church or buy
musical equipment and not used to
build a school?” Investigation by Saturday Vanguard
revealed that some churches are
indeed engaged in one form of
welfare/empowerment scheme or the
other. Daystar Christian Centre runs a
leadership, entrepreneurship and skill development training for members to
empower them. While the leadership
programme is meant to impart
leadership skills, the entrepreneurship
class is a case-study based executive
business education that takes potential entrepreneurs from idea to
business plan, start up and fund
sourcing. The vocational skills development
teaches members various skills such
as maintenance of generators,
photography, cake and confectionery
making, bead making and video
production among others. The church also runs a benevolence scheme
under which foods, clothes and shoes
are distributed to the needy whether
they are members of the church or
not. The Senior Pastor’s wife has also
established a Real Woman Foundation to care for the female folk. The foundation operates an
orphanage and a street women
rehabilitation centre which imparts
vocational skills and education to any
level. Inmates of these centres are
given the kind of care and support that should have been provided by
their families. Saturday Vanguard also found out
that The Redeemed Evangelical Mission
(TREM) has established a number of
schemes to help members beat
poverty. Among these are “Career
Academy” – an after school touch up for graduates to help them secure
employment and “We Care” under
which the church pays rent, medical
bills, and gives foods and clothes to
indigent members. It is also involved
in rehabilitation of street girls through its “Rehobot Homes” programme. *Bishop Okonkwo *Bishop Okonkwo The church also offers scholarships to
intelligent but indigent members of the
church under the Bishop Mike
Okonkwo Scholarship scheme which
runs from secondary to university. Further investigations also revealed
that several other churches run one
form of poverty eradication scheme or
the other to empower members but
the impact of such schemes has
remained minimal. However, Dr. Joseph Antyo of the
University of Mkar, a private university
in Benue State owned by the
Evangelical Church of West Africa
(ECWA) believes that poverty issues in
Nigeria cannot be effectively addressed at different levels (family,
community, state and nation) in
isolation from the churches. He recommends that “churches should
see poverty eradication as a part of
their mission of evangelisation, since
not only spiritual but also material
salvation is needed to truly free
someone. Some of the money that some churches have should be made
available to their members in form of
loans and other poverty alleviation
measures, and the churches should be
able to build on their greatest
strengths which are trust and commitment rather than dependency. Churches should also motivate their
members to work or to help create
employment, since the lack of it is
probably the greatest bane of Africa
today.”

A common name for this is slavery.
The new age African slavery.