By Promise Adiele, PhD
I have always been fascinated by the evident but veiled alignment between religion and politics. This complex intersection is effectively dramatized by American-born English playwright T.S. Eliot in his play Murder in the Cathedral. My interest in the relationship between religion and politics inspired me to research and write an academic paper titled “The Dialectics of Politics and Religion in T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral” published by Taylor & Francis in Comparative Literature: East and West (vol. 8, issue 2, 2024, pp. 155-169.) In the paper, I contend that the relationship between the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, and King Henry II reveals the putrid underlying tension between religion and politics. Intriguingly, they both imbricate each other in specific ways.
Many of those masquerading as men of God are diehard politicians. Conversely, many politicians exert significant control over most religious organizations for personal objectives. So religion and politics gravitate towards each other. My worry is that religious and political actors hide under a spurious cover of denial to delude the populace about their sainthood and neutrality while they covertly straddle between the two concepts. The tragic end of the Archbishop in the text, assassinated by four knights ostensibly sent by King Henry II, exposes the inherent unease between religion and politics. Although the Archbishop died as a martyr, his deep involvement in politics is established because he once served as Lord Chancellor of England, a political position, before King Henry II appointed him as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
There is documented evidence that many men of God are intricately immersed in politics. They advance their political convictions through the pulpits. While some of them prophelie and give fake prophesy over a perceived political enemy, others turn their pulpits into a political theatre, indoctrinating and swaying the emotions of their members. Did Karl Marx not admonish the world that “religion is the opium of the people”? Religion intoxicates like opium. To view the world or reality from the prism of religion is an existential myopia and sadly, many church-goers are victims of this bodily dysfunction. Since many worshippers see their pastors and General Overseers as infallible, God personified, they swallow whatever the preacher says even if it means engaging in practices that are inconsistent with morality, lacking any biblical validation. Thus, many gullible worshippers are led astray through psychological manipulation, but the preacher flourishes in materialism, power, and influence.
In Nigeria, there are highly revered spiritual leaders renowned as moral compasses given their perceived affinity with God. When they talk, the country listens, both Christians and non-Christians. Their humble beginnings motivate many people. They speak truth to power and identify with millions of ordinary people in the country as Christ did. Many of them are genuine philanthropists committed to lifting millions of people out of poverty and in many cases, contribute to social infrastructure, including educational empowerment. Among these figures, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), holds an unparalleled position of influence. Daddy GO (as many members of his church, including my wife, fondly call him) is a religious and spiritual colossus in the modern era. His sphere of influence extends beyond Nigeria to many parts of the world. To many people, he is God’s direct representative on earth.
However, Pastor Adeboye’s recent pronouncements regarding Nigeria’s cataclysmic security situation under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have infuriated many people, provoking widespread public anger. By declaring that Tinubu “has done his bit” because he has issued directives to security chiefs, Pastor Adeboye has basically delineated the parameters of presidential responsibility – a restructuring of benchmarks that stands in glaring contrast to his aggressive stance during the administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Speaking at the US-Nigeria Faith Heroes Award Gala in Washington, D.C., Pastor Adeboye argued that a President’s duty ends with issuing operational directives to subordinates. In a widely criticized analogy, he compared Tinubu to Donald Trump or other global leaders who command military strikes from the comfort of their executive mansions. According to Adeboye, “You don’t expect him to go and put on khaki and fight.”
Although it is true that no reasonable citizen expects an elderly President to pick up an assault rifle and march into the Sambisa Forest to confront terrorists and bandits, the argument itself is a classic example of strawman fallacy. The constitutional responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief does not include engaging in physical combat. It involves ensuring the security of lives and properties, managing policies, enforcing consequences for failing security apparatuses, and ultimately delivering results. To state that a leader “has done his bit” merely by holding meetings and signing memos while kidnappings, banditry, and massacres spread aggressively across the country is an insult to the victims of this pervasive violence. What makes Pastor Adeboye’s current defense of the presidency so unpleasant to Nigerians is the stark historical inconsistency it excavates.
Historical records show that the RCCG leadership maintained a drastically different standard of accountability a decade ago. When President Goodluck Jonathan was at the helm, navigating the brutal infancy of the Boko Haram insurgency, the RCCG pulpit was neither patient nor forgiving. During that era, the Jonathan administration was roundly condemned by prominent religious leaders, including influential voices within the Christian community, for failing to safeguard the nation. The government’s perceived weakness was actively used as a measuring stick for structural incompetence, and spiritual authorities frequently echoed the frustrations of an angry populace.
In fact, Pastor Adeboye organized a one-million-man protest march against the spate of insecurity in Nigeria when Goodluck Jonathan was the president. The respected man of God petitioned Jonathan over the growing insecurity in the country. Part of the petition read “As we mark our 50th anniversary as an independent nation, we are faced with the emergence of kidnapping as the latest Nigerian nightmare and one of the most serious threats to our common well-being, no one is safe.” In 2020 during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Pastor Adeboye participated in a nationwide prayer walk against insecurity organized by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Fast forward to the present day, and the security apparatus has devolved into a multi-headed monster. Bandits and terrorists dominate major highways, corporate kidnapping has become an institutionalized multi-billion-naira industry, and territories that were safe during the Jonathan era are now actively terrorized.
Yet, Pastor Adeboye is quiet or exonerating the government. There must be a name for this double standard. The fierce urgency of the RCCG pulpit has mysteriously transformed into a shield of executive empathy. This dramatic shift in tone cannot be isolated from the structural proximity between the RCCG hierarchy and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The connection is inexorably glaring to mortar and pestle. The First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, a former Senator, is an ordained Assistant Pastor within the RCCG structure – a title the church recently endorsed publicly despite ongoing controversies around her. Before the Tinubu presidency, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, an eminent pastor within the same denomination, sat at the right hand of Muhammadu Buhari for eight years. When proximity to power increases, the disposition for speaking truth to that power invariably diminishes. Since Osinbajo left power, he has not found it worthy to lend a voice and condemn the disastrous economic conditions or the catastrophic security situation across the country. His silence is almost scandalous.
By defending Tinubu’s performance on security, Pastor Adeboye has effectively transitioned from a national moral arbiter to a political apologist. His defense reduces the presidency to an administrative desk job where effort is celebrated over outcome. If leadership under Goodluck Jonathan was judged strictly by the bodies that fell and the towns that were lost, why should leadership under Bola Tinubu be judged merely by the circulars sent to the service chiefs? When religious leaders shift goalposts depending on who occupies the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, they do severe damage to their institutional credibility. The blood of innocent Nigerians does not look for political party affiliations, nor does it care about the religious titles of a leader’s spouse. Insecurity is an existential threat requiring absolute accountability from the very top. Pastor Adeboye has not found it fit to condemn the kidnapping of innocent school children or the gruesome beheading of a school teacher in Southwest Nigeria, his regional ancestry. SAD!!!
Pastor Adeboye’s attempt to exonerate President Tinubu is a profound disservice to millions of Nigerians living under the constant shadow of terror. Leadership is defined by accountability, and accountability stops at the President’s desk – not in his bedroom after a command has been issued. The pulpit must return to its historical mandate of defending the oppressed and holding the powerful to account, regardless of personal friendships, denomination, or proximity to power. It is excusable if a religious leader decides to stay away from politics and focus on preaching the gospel. But if religious leaders decide to venture into politics, they must identify with the oppressed and suffering masses no matter who is in power rather than pitching tenth with a government generally perceived as a failure.
Promise Adiele PhD is of Mountain Top University and can be reached at promee01@yahoo.com, X: @drpee4
