President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina has said that some modern preachers speak as if God was their personal property, who they can command and order around.
Adesina said this in an article titled ‘The Priest and the President’
In the article Adesina exalted his principal for making Rev Yakubu Pam, who is from Gyel, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), the regulatory body for Christian pilgrimage in the country.
He went on to say that ‘what Rev Pam didn’t get from a Christian, he got from a Fulani man from Daura, a Muslim. Is there any lesson we can learn from this? Think about it.’
Adesina in the article took Nigerians down memory line enlightening the people on what happened between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Rev Pam during a peace meeting in Jos were the then president called Rev Pam ”a total idiot.”
According to Adesina Obasanjo had told Rev Pam: “What role have you played to bring about peace as CAN Chairman in Plateau State? CAN, my foot! What kind of CAN Chairman are you? Did your own Christianity teach you about revenge? You are an idiot. A total idiot. And I have no apologies for that.”
Adesina went to say that ‘for a President, who laid claim to being a born again Christian, to denigrate the association of his own faith? “CAN, my foot!” It was the height of it’ and a ‘sacrilege walking on two legs.’
Speaking on what President Buhari had done Adesina said ”on January 14, 2021, Rev Pam was at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, leading an NCPC team on a courtesy visit to the President. An idiot, “a total idiot” was at the seat of power, being treated with the dignity he deserved, by a man of a different faith. Holy Moses!
Rev Pam delivered a speech at the event, under the title, In Peace We Blossom. He recounted how he had been campaigning on the need for peace round the country in places like Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa states, among others. He has met with church leaders also in Southeast and South-south zones, as well as youth groups. He submitted: “I humbly appreciate Mr President’s vision on peace building and deeply grateful for the confidence reposed on me in this respect.”
The Special Adviser also said that Rev Pam, is a reconciliator, a peace advocate, and that is why God has lifted him up today. And not through a Matthew, but a Muhammadu, one against whom all lies under the sun have been told: he’s a religious bigot. A herdsman. A nepotist. Jihadist. Everything. May God forgive those who condemn the person they don’t know, and have refused to know.
The Priest and the President, By Femi Adesina
‘Rev Pam is obviously a man of peace. That was why “when he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” (1 Peter 2:23). How many of us would be called an idiot, “a total idiot” publicly, and would not talk back? How many of our modern day preachers, who arrogate all sorts of powers and authorities to themselves, would not have cursed Obasanjo publicly, asking him to apologize or be killed by God within seven days? (You know, some of these modern preachers speak as if God was their personal property, who they can command and order around).’
