General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye has dismissed claims that he organised or participated in a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan while he was in office.
Adeboye explained that the incident being circulated in the media actually happened in February 2020, five years after Jonathan left office.
He maintained that the exercise was a prayer walk organised to seek God’s intervention over insecurity, killings and other security challenges facing Nigeria.
The cleric made the clarification while addressing members of his congregation during the church’s November Thanksgiving service on Sunday.
He expressed disappointment over what he described as the deliberate misrepresentation of the incident by a journalist who allegedly presented the prayer walk as a protest against Jonathan’s administration.
According to Adeboye, he initially found the report amusing because the circumstances surrounding the incident were different from what had been published.
He acknowledged that he carried a placard during the exercise but insisted that the activity had nothing to do with opposing Jonathan’s government.
He said the publication had portrayed him negatively without establishing the actual date of the incident or the reason behind the gathering.
“Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan,’” he said.
The RCCG leader admitted that he was indeed photographed carrying a placard during the exercise.
However, he explained that the activity was part of a church-directed prayer walk rather than a political demonstration against any particular president.
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.
Adeboye further explained that the exercise followed an instruction from the church leadership asking congregations to organise prayer walks around their respective locations.
He said he only participated in the programme in accordance with the directive given to churches.
According to him, the intention was to pray for Nigeria amid growing concerns over insecurity and the loss of innocent lives across the country.
“The chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did,” he said.
The cleric specifically questioned how the incident could have been associated with Jonathan’s presidency when the exercise took place in 2020.
He reminded his congregation that Jonathan had handed over power in 2015, following the 2015 presidential election won by Muhammadu Buhari.
“But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard five years in the second term of Buhari,” Adeboye said.
He accused the journalist of presenting the information in a misleading manner, arguing that a simple investigation into the date would have exposed the error.
Adeboye also criticised those who accepted the report without questioning its accuracy.
He said the publication gained attention despite the absence of proper verification.
“But a journalist twisted it. I said, I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,” he said.
The RCCG general overseer used the opportunity to speak about the importance of responsible journalism and the need for media practitioners to establish the facts before publishing reports.
He recalled his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, saying investigative journalism was among the subjects discussed during his academic experience.
According to him, journalists are expected to look beyond the initial appearance of a story and establish the facts before presenting information to the public.
“I remember in those days in the Department of Journalism, when you go there and you take a course, they talked about something called investigative journalism,” he said.
He further stressed that journalists should not rush to conclusions based on incomplete information or assumptions.
“That things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press.”
Adeboye also expressed concern that members of the creative industry and other media practitioners failed to establish the actual circumstances surrounding the prayer walk before the report circulated.
“I’m talking to those of you in the creative industry. Nobody checked,” he said.
The clarification has brought renewed attention to the February 2020 exercise, during which Adeboye led members of the RCCG on a public prayer walk in Lagos to express concern over killings, terrorism and worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
The exercise took place on February 2, 2020, following a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
The programme was organised to seek divine intervention over the security challenges confronting the country.
Adeboye participated in the Lagos exercise alongside members of the church.
The procession began at the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Meta and proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba before returning to the church.
During the walk, the cleric was photographed holding a placard with the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
Other participants also carried placards bearing messages condemning killings, terrorism and the destruction of innocent lives.
Some of the inscriptions called for an end to bloodshed and urged Nigerians to embrace peace.
