By Matthew Mahmood
All General overseers and religious leaders must go to prison, so they can feel the Nigerian situation. Lock Pastor Adeboye, Oyedepo, Kumuyi, myself and others up in a Nigerian prison, may be if we come out we will change and put the interest of our people first.
“This is not the first time I am saying it. I know I will be quoted tomorrow. If the revolution does not begin in the church or mosque, Nigeria will not change. Dubai (United Arab Emirates) once came to Nigeria to borrow money; what stopped six Dubais from happening in Nigeria is the corruption of our leaders.
Radical Pastor Tunde Bakare
In Nigeria, a pastor is either a jet or 'jest pastor'; a pastor with or without a private jet plane. Most jet pastors are flamboyant and exceedingly intimidating. No pastor wants to become a laughingstock, and the best way to show how magnificent your godly ministry is would be to own a jet, bought by a congregation of pauperized worshippers.
On television, a pastor ‘mistakenly’ said that one day his followers would buy him a jet plane. ‘Mistakenly’ because he was probably ignorant of the fact that the Charity Commission is not a weak regulator and it is empowered to investigate some church accounts which could lead to prosecution in the UK. Some viewers were probably surprised because the pastor was ‘processing’ his downfall in a country where churches are mostly registered charities. Maybe, he was referring to his followers in African countries.
Pastors (especially those from the controversial jet countries) may need to think of the following legislation before thinking of buying jets in England and Wales:
Charities Act 2011
The Charities Acts 1992 and 1993 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2009
The Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Similar legislation do not exist in Nigeria that is why pastors are buying gets. The truth is that it is not the fault of pastors, and we might as well leave them alone to enjoy flying around at the expense of gullible congregants. The National Assembly should be the venue where these pastors’ wings are clipped but lawmakers are not better than the jets pastors, are they? A legislator, Bala Ibn Na’Allah said it was cheaper for him to buy a plane than to buy a car in 2009. He was making a mockery of the masses.
Some state governors are scampering to become jet owners at government expense. The government of Taraba, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States bought official jets while the electorate wallowed in penury. Some months after Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as President in 2010, his foremost assignment was to buy three official jets at N21 billion. Early this year, he was planning to extend the presidential fleet to 10 by buying two additional jets. Nigeria must be a rich country although the masses are poor. Maybe these politicians should meet President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, who is currently the world's poorest President. He 'donates about 90% of his monthly salary' to charity. He would probably narrate how 'he was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail'.
Former CPC Vice-Presidential candidate Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly recently said that pastors should go to prison including him. He actually released the minds of some brainwashed Christians. A lot of Nigerian Christians realized that they were being used to fund private enterprises aka Pentecostal churches. Have they ever thought of millions of Naira that churches would lose if they stayed away for a month? Don’t they know that church business booms like a boombox and pastors are entertainers with the art of theatrics? It is a very competitive industry. Some pastors never make it to television screens. They simply fall by the wayside into oblivion.
We should not always blame these prosperity pastors. Should they preach about poverty and President Mujica? If they did, they would not be successful because their followers do not want to hear the truth. Even when a pastor cannot see a vision, some followers would force the pastor to tell lies, in order not to be disgraced after being asked to make revelations. Can a pastor really tell you that he cannot see anything?
Years of bad leadership in Nigeria led a lot of Christians into ‘governmental depression’ and they found solace in god. People have been let down by the government for decades without basic facilities and adequate infrastructural development, yet Nigeria is among the top 10 crude oil producing countries. A lot of them believe that all achievements in life are through god and the church. They do not know that they are hoodwinked by religious dogma, and may not have questioned why atheists or godless people also prosper in life. Which means that you do not need to be a church attendant to proper?
It has reached the stage that most of these Christians believe pastors more than the president and state governors. Anybody who says anything against their general overseer is visualized as their enemy. On various websites, they normally converge to launch attacks on commentators. They even quote verses of the bible in their favour. The most popular is Psalm 105: 15, “Do not touch not my anointed ones; do my prophet no harm”. This means that they and their general overseers should be left alone. After that, biblical ‘curses’ of fire may follow.
As explained, there is not much that Nigerians can do about jet pastors who misuse church money or prefer to buy jets because they have not done anything that is legally wrong in Nigeria. They are not accountable to a Charity Commission that can scrutinize how they spend money. Of course, they are morally wrong. What is more important between getting to the jet age and going to heaven?
The jet pastors should have built free primary and secondary schools, funded by the church for the children of their congregants rather than own and maintain jets. Alternatively, they could have funded the medical bills of their poor followers with membership cards or built free hospitals. They should have been more compassionate before flying in private jets. What stops the jet pastors from forming an Association of Nigerian Jet Pastors? ‘Leaving on a jet plane’, a famous song written by John Denver should be the signature tune of Nigerian jet pastors. After all, Catholic Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah denounced pastors buying jets while the Christian Association of Nigeria shamelessly backed the jet pastors. 
CC32 – Independent Examination of Charity Accounts: Examiners’ Guide
“I’m Not Ashamed to Own a Plane” Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor speaks on Private Jet Acquisition
Private jets: CAN slams Kukah, Bakare
FG spends N9bn annually on 10-aircraft presidential fleet
The Politics of Buying Official Aircraft
