The minister of industry,
trade and investment Okechukwu Enelamah and the executive secretary of the
Financial Regulatory Council of Nigeria (FRCN) Jim Obazee are said to currently
be in a cold war over the ‘retirement’ of Pastor Adeboye from the Nigerian arm
of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
The alleged friction,
according to The Punch, stemmed from the FRCN’s regulation which stipulates 20
years tenure for heads of religious groups and civil society groups in the
Nigeria and which has allegedly forced the retirement of Adeboye.
According to Pastor
Adeboye, the regulation would also affect clerics like Bishop David Oyedepo of
the Living Faith Church Worldwide aka Winners Chapel; Pastor W. F. Kumuyi of
the Deeper Christian Life Ministry and Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed
Evangelical Mission.
Punch reports that the
minister had reportedly written the FRCN boss asking him not to implement the
controversial regulation but Obazee refused the instruction of the minister.
FRCN boss insisted that the
implementation of the regulation would go ahead.
According to the report,
the minister’s letter to the FRCN boss was written on October 17, 2016.
A source in the ministry of
industry, trade and investment, who confided in The Punch, confirmed the
directive from the minister in respect of the regulation.
He said: “There is an issue
with the new code of corporate governance and the minister wrote the Financial
Reporting Council and told the council not to execute it because a lot of
people from the private sector have complained about it.
“So, the minister wanted to
look into it and see what the issues were. He (FRCN boss) was asked not to go
ahead with executing it. There is a controversy on that FRCN issue and we are
now looking into the matter to know what the issues are before we can finally
take a decision. This is where the matter is currently.”
On the other hand, another
insider within the FRCN argued that the organisation would not heed the
directive of the minister on the code.
The source also stated
that: “The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment wrote a letter to us
saying that he didn’t want the code to be effective now and that he wanted it
to be suspended for now.
“But you know in government
circles, particularly in the public sector, when you are suspending something,
you back it up with a paper – a gazette and all of that, but as it is now,
there is no gazette.
“It must have a gazette,
indicating that the law has been suspended. There is no gazette to that effect
that this law has been suspended. So as it is now, the code has not been
suspended because there is no gazette to that effect and that is where we are
now.
“The code has been on
naturally, right from (ex-President Goodluck) Jonathan’s time and this has been
over four years. When the code was being done, we engaged all the stakeholders
and their presentations formed part of what was in the code at the end of the
day.
“The only people that took
the matter to court were the churches and they lost. It was on the day they
lost that our legal adviser said ‘okay, we could go ahead and release the code
and that if we don’t release this code, other bodies will go to court to challenge
it’.
“The private sector came to
us three weeks ago and they told us the sections they wanted amended and we
told them that we will look at it when we are doing what we call fine-tuning.”
“The code is still on as it
stands now. All the banks are complying with the codes. If it has been
suspended, why are they complying with it. The churches don’t want it and that
was why they went to court and they have lost.
“So, the law is still in
force. Mr. President is aware of this issue and he has not issued any directive
to stop the law.”
Meanwhile, pastors have
rejected the new Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) law which
specifically limited the tenure of general overseers of churches to 20 years or
70 years of age.
According to them, it is
wrong for anybody to make attempts in regulating activities of churches in the
country.
Nothing can replace Pastor Adeboye in the heart of his followers
ReplyDeleteWe love him dearly
ReplyDeleteThe nation should beware of how it interferes with religious institution. It can come into it if they are going contrary to what they are supposed to do. If pastor begin to misbehave, embezzling, immoral and the leadership of the church cannot handle it, the government can interfere but since it is not the government that called these men into Ministry nor started the mission for them, they should have no business with when they should retire. The church of itself can regulate themselves if they so wish.
ReplyDeleteThe Church of Jesus Christ is not like private organizations, it is a universal entity. The congregation, as incorporated bodies, are under the country of their incorporation so can be monitored to some extent as to avoid lawlessness but not to tell Pastors to retire. Has that improved the economic problem. Let us face our business instead of creating my noise. These two people are agents of trouble. If I were Adeboye, I wont leave, except if it is the church's own arrangement or when God speaks. We have been hearing, God says, God says, God says, only for him to make a very critical decision at the quote of "Government says." It is disheartening that there are insiders in the RCCG pushing for this, time shall expose them