A senior leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God has defended remarks by the church’s General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, after criticism that his comments on Nigeria’s worsening insecurity amounted to a defence of President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement titled Pastor Adeboye Deserves Fair Hearing, Not Unfair Criticism, the RCCG’s Continental Overseer for Continent 3, Pastor Johnson Odesola, said the backlash stemmed from selective excerpts circulated on social media rather than the full speech delivered at the US-Nigeria Faith Heroes Award Gala in Washington, DC.
According to Odesola, Adeboye had explicitly acknowledged that terrorism, banditry and kidnapping had spread beyond northern Nigeria and were increasingly affecting communities in the south. He argued that the cleric’s remarks had been taken out of context.
At the centre of the controversy was Adeboye’s comment that Nigerians should not expect the president to “wear khaki and go and fight”. Odesola said the statement was not intended to excuse the government’s handling of security but to explain the constitutional role of a commander-in-chief.
“He did not defend failure,” Odesola said. “He simply reminded Nigerians that political leaders provide direction while military professionals execute operations.”
He added that Adeboye had, in fact, challenged those responsible for national security to deliver results and had drawn attention to the networks that sustain insurgent groups.
“Terrorists do not operate in isolation,” Odesola said. “They require money, weapons, logistics, intelligence and political protection. Every insurgent group survives because powerful individuals somewhere are financing its operations.”
Addressing criticism over the cleric’s intervention in matters of national security, Odesola argued that religious leaders have historically played a role in providing moral guidance during periods of crisis and cited biblical figures who counselled rulers and confronted injustice.
He said Adeboye had consistently prayed for Nigeria and offered counsel to successive administrations regardless of political affiliation.
While accepting that Nigerians were entitled to disagree with the pastor’s views, Odesola urged critics not to distort his comments or reduce the country’s security crisis to a partisan argument.
Instead, he said, the scale of the insecurity challenge demanded collective responsibility from government, security agencies, the judiciary, traditional rulers, religious leaders and citizens alike.
Odesola said the focus should be on what he described as the central message of Adeboye’s intervention: the need for decisive leadership, accountability, national unity and sustained efforts to dismantle terrorism and those who finance it.
