Pastor Kumuyi is a leading Christian leader; he has never laid claim to being a political leader. And let me say this clearly but briefly: If Nigerian people – not just leaders – will embrace Christianity and moral uprightness the way Pastor Kumuyi is known to teach – “decadent” will cease to describe Nigerian politics.
By Chris Nwankwor
Last Tuesday, some national newspapers reproduced and published negative comments made by a few X (former Twitter) users criticising the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, for saying at a press briefing that God would do good things for Nigeria through the current government. I did not have the privilege of reading what Pastor Kumuyi had actually said to the press, but these newspapers prominently featured the negative reaction it received from Twitter or X users; none of them was someone of note, though.
The following day, I stumbled on Ikechukwu Amaechi’s Candour’s Niche column in TheNiche. His article was titled “Kumuyi, Nigeria’s Decadent Politics and the God Factor.” Calling to mind what I had read the day before about X users’ comments, I swooped on Amaechi’s piece, knowing from his antecedents that I must get the gist of whatever the Deeper Life leader had told the press which the famed columnist was dwelling on.
For want of space, and to not lose some readers who may be bored and confused by a very lengthy piece, let me not dwell any longer on preambles, and say what I deem fit.
The context of the whole thing is that that the Deeper Life General Superintendent holds a global Crusade every month. This August it is the turn of Osogbo, the Osun State capital, to host the Crusade from last Thursday, 25th through Tuesday, the 29th. Pastor Kumuyi’s six-day evangelistic outreach will be beamed simultaneously to the whole world via satellite, Internet and social media channels from Osogbo.
The Pastor had left his headquarters in Lagos and travelled to Osogbo last Tuesday, two days before the commencement, so he would spend the two days preceding the crusade paying visits to leaders in that state and also holding a press conference during which he would formally tell the public, through the media, that he was already in town for the long-publicised outreach.
Kumuyi has done this in every state where this crusade has held since May 2021, meeting people as highly placed as state governors and former presidents. He visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta when the crusade held there some months ago, and guess what: Obasanjo attended the crusade in person. Governors Seyi Makinde, Rotimi Akeredolu, Udom Emmanuel and others are a few governors and former ones who have attended the Kumuyi monthly crusade when held in their states .
I return to the press conference. So Pastor Kumuyi’s aides, as is their practice everywhere he holds the crusade, called a press conference in Osogbo so the Deeper Life leader would tell our colleagues that all things were ready for the Osogbo crusade. The newsmen came and the Pastor addressed them, characteristically not primarily about the state of the nation. Rather, Kumuyi primarily told the press that his crusade would start in a few hours’ time; that God would save sinners, heal the sick, deliver the oppressed and solve long-standing problems of Osun people and those watching by satellite from outside.
As usual, after the Pastor’s remarks about his mission to Osogbo, our colleagues would not just compile a story of Deeper Life inviting people to its crusade, and send that to their Editors without, at least, prefacing or leading their story with a political comment. So when they asked questions to Kumuyi, they veered off to ask for his comment on the state of the country, about the government, about the ministers just sworn in the previous day, and about petroleum subsidy.
And this is natural because what an Editor would publish and what the public would read was if Kumuyi spoke against subsidy removal, if he called government insensitive for removing subsidy, if he bemoaned the sufferings in the land, if he said something earth-shaking about the case in the Presidential Election Tribunal – it was such questions that Pastor Kumuyi was asked in Osogbo, his home state, where he had gone for evangelisation. He was not there to attend a political rally or a public lecture on the state of the nation. No, that is not his area, not his calling. This was the context.
Columnist Amaechi criticised Pastor Kumuyi for saying at the Osogbo press conference that God would use President Bola Tonubu to build Nigeria and for soliciting support for the new ministers. He was irked by Kumuyi’s declaration that God would use the new ministers as instruments to build the nation and his positive belief and public confession that God had not forsaken Nigeria.
Another thing that made Ikechukwu Amaechi sad was Kumuyi’s counsel to Nigerians in these words: “Let’s forget the past. This is a new day.” Also, the author did not see any reason why the General Superintendent of Deeper Life should say that he believed that God would do a miracle and change the hearts of Nigerian leaders to do things that would benefit the country.
In the column piece, Amaechi quoted the Bible a handful of times, probably thereby showing he believes the Bible.
In response to some of the sentiments and opinions strongly expressed by Amaechi, let me start by saying that the write-up reflects a poor perception of the Deeper Life Leader by the author, a demonstration of ignorance as to the role of Pastors in political matters and national question as well as Amaechi’s misplaced aggression on a man whose hands are clean with regard to the political goings-on in the country.
The title of the article “Kumuyi, Nigeria’s Decadent Politics and the God Factor” is faulty for it seeks to link Kumuyi with what he calls decadent politics in the country. It is mere want of what to say, inability to pinpoint who to blame, and assignment of the wrong roles to the wrong person that should make Amaechi so definitively link Kumuyi to Nigeria’s decadent politics. Pray, how many of the country’s leaders, past and present, has the respected Columnist seen in any branch of Pastor Kumuyi’s Church? Had the title read something like “Kumuyi, Nigeria’s Religion…,” then there may even have been a logical link.
Pastor Kumuyi is a leading Christian leader; he has never laid claim to being a political leader. And let me say this clearly but briefly: If Nigerian people – not just leaders – will embrace Christianity and moral uprightness the way Pastor Kumuyi is known to teach – “decadent” will cease to describe Nigerian politics. It is ironic that a man whose teachings, beliefs and life principles negate all that is dark is here being callously linked to and blamed for the decadence his life so seriously negates. Amaechi’s title is faulty.
I don’t know why Amaechi who believes so much in the Bible does not like the idea of Christian leaders telling their members to pray for those in power. But the Bible is very clear about how to relate with rulers. It does not say to rebel or preach rebellion against them; it does not say to vehemently resist them; it does not say to daily criticize their every move. At least, it is not Pastors’ duty to criticize them. If anything, it is the press. It is the press – recognised for long as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the fourth leg of the realm, the most armed, most equipped, most suited, the group paid for the purpose – that should hold Government to account.
To think that the person who trained in school, earns a living, and has got national fame from using the pen should cast aspersions on an innocent, old man who is doing his own thing, pursuing his own calling! If Pastors left their calling and devoted their time and emotions to doing the work of the Press, as Columnist Amaechi seems to be demanding of Kumuyi and his fellow men of God, their pulpit and their congregations would suffer decay. Their sermons would lose depth, scriptural foundation and credibility as they would be received with different mindsets by untrusting, disappointed – and some politically biased – congregations. There would then be no true man of God. Nor church.
Oh! I was going to quote directly from the Bible what Gospel ministers should do about political leaders: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” – (1 Timothy chapter 2. Verses 1 and 2).
That was Paul, the great Evangeliist, admonishing on how to relate with political rulers. In view of this and many other scriptures, Pastor Kumuyi has done nothing amiss – but rather has done what God wants him to do – by always saying things that will douse tension in the country and not put petrol in any little flickers of fire that develop now and again in the country.
Yes, as Amaechi said in his piece, it is not God that comes down to choose or elect leaders for countries in a democracy. But neither is it Pastors like Kumuyi that choose. It is the people. And these people live in the society; they don’t live in churches.
The columnist is pained by Kumuyi’s statement that God will change the mind of our leaders to make them do well for the country. I thought this was what everyone is yearning for – a better country. OK. I get his point: He is disappointed that Pastor Kumuyi is bringing God into the situation and expects God to instigate the change of mind in our leaders. Now, is it that Amaechi does not want a change of heart by our leaders so they will do more good to and for more Nigerians? Or is it that he does not believe God can do that? He wants Kumuyi to blast them into doing good. But the political leaders do not attend his church, which even if they did, they are not bound to run the state as their Pastor dictates, because the state and the church are different. So what has this Octogenarian done wrong?
Another of Amaechi’s grouse is Kumuyi’s faith which made him confess that better days are ahead, that Nigerians should not dwell in the past. What God wants men of God to believe and preach is that with God all things are possible; that they should not remember the former (old, bad) things; that even if they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they should fear no evil; that if ten thousand fall at their side, it shall not come near them; that nothing shall by any means hurt them; that they should laugh at famine; that it shall be well with them; that when others are complaining of adversity, they should declare and believe there is a lifting up, and so on. All things are possible with God. All this is scripture, and Pastor Kumuyi’s confession and admonition to faith and positive disposition are in agreement.
What then should he have said to the headline-hungry newshounds to satisfy a Columnist who knows so little about the scriptures and the mind of God? Would it have been more acceptable to Amaechi if the Pastor who came for a Crusade in a city had told the Press there something like “There’s no hope for the country. Things will get worse. The country is going downhill. Everything scatter, scatter – like that young musician once sang?”
See, even if ‘everything actually scatter, scatter,’ this Pastor would not have said it from his pulpit, not to talk of at his press conference to publicize a six-day international Crusade. If ‘everything scatter, scatter,’ a good Pastor has a responsibility to shore up the faith and confidence of his congregation. And he owes it as a duty to the nation not to scatter whatever remains of their confidence, faith and moral stability but to inject hope in the masses.
No intelligent Pastor – and Amaechi acknowledged Kumuyi’s intelligence, at least, for graduating as the best student and with first class in Mathematics in 1967 – no intelligent Pastor with such scriptural insight and spiritual orientation as Kumuyi has demonstrated since he became born again in 1964, would use an opportunity of that press briefing to mess up his long-built ministry, dismantle his reputation as defender of faith and leader of one of the largest denominations in Africa, and shoot Christianity on the foot by attacking a government that is not quite three months old . Nor should the Pastor have begun a person-to-person assessment of the choice of Ministers who were sworn in just twenty-four hours before this press briefing. The man said the best thing God wanted him to say: “Pray for them; God will use them to bring good to the country.” Who among us would not want something good in this country? Is it not government and its ministers that will bring the good? Yes, the government and its ministers. The government of the day. The government now sitting in power. The present government.
Columnist Amaechi expected the Deeper Life Pastor to say of the new cabinet: “Oh! This man should have been put in that ministry; that woman does not have the ability to function in that ministry where she is sent; so-and-so person would have been a round peg in a round hole, if he was in such-and-such ministry.” What then would the analysts sitting on Arise TV, Channels Television, TVC, AIT, as well as Amaechi and other newspaper Columnists be doing? Pastor Kumuyi is neither a politician nor a journalist to begin to assess government performance. He carefully avoided what would have been seen by critics as political statement but just made a statesmanlike, nationalistic and pastoral statement by calling for prayers for the sitting government.
- Chris Nwankwor is a Journalist and Gospel Minister