Apostle Johnson Suleman, the general overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International has attributed the problem of Nigeria to “bad leadership”.
According to Suleman in a video posted on his official Facebook page on Friday, the church is not Nigeria’s problem.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that a weakening economy, rising insecurity and violent conflicts threaten the progress made in Nigeria’s democratic development. While some Nigerians often play down the positive influence of religious institutions, Apostle Suleman strongly feels it is wrong to fault the church.
“I hear people say religion has made Nigeria poor. Which religion?” Suleman asks rhetorically. “Religion is not leadership: the problem of Nigeria is bad leadership. It’s not church. You’ll see somebody praying; you’ll see a group of Christians praying, the next thing they’ll carry it out, saying ‘look at that, Nigeria is praying and we are still poor. Does China pray like this’,” Suleman said.
“Don’t try to talk down prayer and bring the point that is very irritating, that does not even tally. ‘Oh look at Elon Musk, he is rich, does he pay tithe?’ Do you know the charity those men give? Bill Gates, the other time came to Kano and gave billions of dollars for polio. That’s worth more than the tithe of the whole church in Nigeria put together. Everybody have what they believe in. Leave people to believe in Jesus. Leave people to believe in what they believe in.
“I’m not of the support that pastors should exploit people, I’m against it. I’ve told our people, tithe in a church does not belong to a pastor, it belongs to the church. Every pastor should be on an allowance. So I don’t believe a pastor should ‘eat’ church money. No, I don’t believe in that. Get something doing.”
He added: “So don’t talk down on Christians just because you are angry at certain group of people.”
Watch the video here.
