I don’t know how to put this without being accused of publicly criticizing, and/or giving orders to this very respected man of God. You know, we are chastised to: “Touch not God’s annointed”. But Pastor Enoch Adeboye has just crossed the borderline. In doing that, unless he didn’t tell all of the story, he has denied a young woman her source of livelihood, pushed her into Nigeria’s deadly unemployment market, removed food from her table, rendered her dependants helpless, exposed her to public ridicule and, all these, because of his son’s irresponsible, childish, and disrespectful utterances.
Let me state, from the beginning, that Pastor Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, is one of the three Pentecostal Church Pastors I hold in awe, and reverence.
I like him. I listen to him when he preaches – something I’m not very good at. The main reasons I go to Church are hymns, choruses (praise-worship), and intercession.
But I find Adeboye refreshingly different from most Pentecostal Priests. He does not shout, or break ear-drums when he preaches. There is no drama. His sermons are not boringly long. He is not repetitive. His Church services do not last till forever. And he does not equate himself with God.
Unarguably, one of the most influential Priests in Nigeria’s Christian Community, Adeboye, is also taken very seriously by Nigeria’s Muslim community.
But like all human beings, Pastor Adeboye is, also, atimes, given to anger and mis-speaks, and exaggerations.
He once said he would kill anybody who dared touch (insults) his wife. I guess he said that to emphasise how much in love with, and protective he is of his wife. But given how seriously his words are taken, a few people may have taken what he said word for word and, begin to think of killing anybody who as little as ask their wives to shut-up. Before then, he had told a story of how he once drove his vehicle, without gas, for several kilometres. I, also, think he told that story to prove the efficacy of faith, and the powers of God. Men of God are allowed such poetic licenses from the pulpit.
But, I don’t think the license should be extended to Pastor Adeboye’s recent outing from the pulpit.
Preaching to his congregation on why it is important for husbands to stick to their spouses, Adeboye told a story that, at once, beggered belief, shocked, and angered.
To stress the point he was making, the Pastor told the congregation how he asked his son to fire his (son’s) Secretary – a female. And so you ask: Why? What for?
Adeboye explains: His son had the guts, one day, to tell him he usually got excited every Monday morning because he would see his Secretary in the office.
Is his son married? The revered Pastor said nothing to that effect. But he more than hinted. Afterall, that was the subject of his sermon – why men should stick to their wives.
What the young man said worried his father. His father felt he was attracted to his secretary. So he decided to save his son from this Biblical Eve – the temptress. What to do? Adeboye gave his son a marching order to sack the young lady. His words: “I asked him to fire his Secretary.”
Obviously, Adebayo felt strongly that his son was eyeing the girl; that he had, obviously, developed a soft spot for her. But the Pastor did not tell his congregation if the Secretary had the same feelings for his son. He acted, based on his son’s childishness.
When I first read Adeboye, as published in the media, I said to myself: This is not true. This cannot be true. Somebody is trying to rubbish Adeboye. Somebody is trying to present him as insensitive, as uncaring. So, I waited, going through newspapers everyday, to read him denying the story, or insisting that what he said was corrupted. Or, apologising to the lady. Or posted her to somewhere else. Or got her a job elsewhere .
But at the time of writing this, nothing. The silence from Adeboye’s quarters on this issue worries. It is as if nothing happened. It is like sacking the lady meant nothing, a non issue.
As a woman who has a couple of young girls in my house, who are struggling to take care of their families, I am, at once, taken aback, and outraged by the sack of this Secretary .
So, here is my opinion.
Since Pastor Adeboye told the story publicly, I wonder why he did not, also, scold his son publicly, and told his congregation the punishment he meted out to him. I, also, expected him to express his outrage at his son’s disrespect for him.
I know that many children discuss everything, anything, with their parents. That should be encouraged. But there, atimes, should be a borderline.
Adeboye is no ordinary father. He holds a moral compass for hundreds of thousands of people. From him, expectations are high. Not a few people cling to his every word. I know he is his son’s father, but I cannot imagine a son, a married son, walking up to his father, a father of Pastor Adeboye’s status, and telling him: “I get excited every Monday morning because I will see my Secretary at work.”
God forbid.
My father, of the blessed memory, would call that irresponsible and, flogged the daylights out of that son!
Unless what Adeboye said was edited, or corrupted, he never condemned his son’s lust for the company of another woman when he has a wife at home. It does not, also, seem that the Pastor gave a thought to how, and what, the lady felt after being fired so unceremoniously.
Did Adeboye think of how she would survive? How she would even eat? How she would take care of her family – parents, siblings, other dependants? How lost she would have felt at losing her job so suddenly?
I have heard people quoting the Bible to justify the firing of the lady. Cut off your right hand if it would lead you into temptation, they chorus. They see the fired lady as a temptation so, nothing wrong in firing her.
I disagree.
Here are why?
Adeboye did not tell his listeners that the lady was also interested in his son. But what if she was?
I submit that Adeboye should not have told his congregation this story. I submit that he should have handled the situation in a tidier manner than he did.
RCCG is such an octopus, that it would have been very easy for Adeboye to have quietly posted the lady to another department, or any of the many companies affiliated to RCCG – away from his son’s roving eyes, and overly excited disposition at the sight of the lady.
Even then, Pastor Adebayo is so influential that there is hardly anybody he would call to give the lady a job that would have had the courage not to do so.
Given the circumstances, here are what I think Pastor Adeboye should do.
Having publicly told this story, he should, also, publicly admit that he mis-spoke. He should follow-up with an apology (to her) for ordering her sack. In more civilized climes, I’m not sure the Pastor would order her firing, or told such a story publicly. A number of women in that congregation would have risen in anger. It could instigate a run in the Church. The sacked lady would have sued Adeboye and his son for everything they’ve got. But this is Nigeria. Anything goes, especially, from the pulpit.
Yet, he can make amends by apologising . To apologise when one is wrong is a mark of honour. The Roman Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis, recently did that.
The 83-year old Pope was, this other day, held, very tightly, on the wrist by an over-excited woman who wouldn’t let go. The Pope had to slap her hard on the hand to extricate himself. When the story made headlines, the Pope aplogised to her.
Such action from the General Overseer would pave the way for righting the wrong, which is: to immediately get a job for the lady somewhere else.
