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Tag: private jets

  • Private jets take over

    Private jets take over

    •Aviation sector should be sanitised and people made to pay appropriate fees.

    The Nigerian sky is today adorned by various technological birds. They fly like natural birds, but were created by man largely for pleasure and travel. In some other countries, they are used mainly to facilitate business, public or private, but in Nigeria, many use it to boost their standing in the social order. Everyone announces his arrival in the circle of the super rich with purchase of a jet or more. They are changed at will to further consolidate their position in the circle; a case of “my jet is better than yours”.

    Unfortunately, as is the case in other things, the sub sector is poorly regulated. Many of the jets are not registered in the country, while others, though registered for private purposes, have since migrated to commercial uses. They are available for hire. The owners

    would not bat an eyelid even when told that they were cheating the government.

    It is thus heartwarming that the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has now sounded the warning that the laws and rules guiding the aviation sector would be fully applied. To demonstrate his seriousness, three private jets have been grounded for malfeasance.

    We are in full support of the application of all rules and regulations. However, where some are deemed inappropriate for the current state of the economy, the laws could be amended as laws are made for men and not men for the law. We have a duty to carefully nurse the economy to vibrant health and the aviation sector cannot be left out.

    Those private jet owners found to have been cheating the country by failing to pay dues and fees over time should be brought to book since the jets have been toys for flaunting wealth.

    We are also in full support of the appropriate agencies of government digging into the sources of income of the jet owners. Where their declared sources of income, and returns made for tax purposes do not match the lifestyle, they should be made to report to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Read Also: Flooding: Facts about Cameroon’s Lagdo dam affecting Nigeria

    Nigeria is bleeding today because those who make the most out of the economy fail to pay appropriate taxes; only paid workers in the private and public sectors remit their taxes as expected. Developed countries do not joke with taxes. Even at the level of presidential candidates in the United States, their tax records are scrutinised by the authorities. In Nigeria, it used to be so. Towards the 1979 presidential election, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the  Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), and Malam Aminu Kano of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) were  disqualified by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) over tax matters before they got court orders reinstating them on technical grounds.

    Unexplained wealth had come up in public discourse of recent. The executive should look into it and get a bill sent to the National Assembly to probe into the background of the super rich who are won’t to flaunt their opulent lifestyle at will. It is not a crime to make wealth and use it to boost the economy. Nigeria needs captains of industry such as Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga and other industrialists who have become established employers of labour in the country and Africa. But, there are so many others who live like multi-billionaires and no one could vouch for the integrity of their riches.

    Again, we salute the measures taken by the aviation minister to sanitise the industry. He should be backed fully by the government. However, where some measures could harm the survival of commercial airlines and probably lead to loss of jobs in a tight economy, government should enter into productive discussion with stakeholders.

    For those who see purchase of private jets as a means of massaging their ego, they should be made to pay. Those who chose to sidetrack the rules by registering abroad and operating locally, those who registered as private jets but converted them to commercial in practice should be made to pay fully for the crime, but the ones willing to convert formally to commercial business should be assisted. The sector should be sanitised and made to conform to international best practices.

  • Africa to buy $3.9b private jets by 2025

    About 160 new private jets are to be delivered to Africa in the next seven years, industry data from Global Jet Capital, has revealed.

    The  data listed Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa as major players in the private jet business on the continent.

    The forecast value of the aircraft, was put at $3.9 billion for the seven years.  However, yearly, the projected cost of acquiring the private jets was put at about $500million.

    The global leader in financial solutions for private aircraft, revealed that the continent’s business jet market is set for significant growth.

    The company predicted that the African private jet fleet will grow by more than 25 per cent  by 2025, with 160 new aircraft being delivered to the continent.

    A key driver behind this growth, will be the southern Africa region which is expected to account for around a third of all the jets based in the continent.

    The total value of the jets to be delivered to southern Africa by 2025 is predicted to be around $1.4 billion.

    One of the biggest challenges to be met in realising these forecasts, is to have the financing solutions available to support aircraft acquisitions.

  • Why big businesses can’t do without private jets, by Peterside

    Why big businesses can’t do without private jets, by Peterside

    In this piece titled: “Being seen above the clouds: Perception of business aviation in West Africa and how to affect it”, Atedo Peterside, the Chairman of ANAP Business Jets Limited, explains the advantage of private jets to businessmen.

    Business Aviation has a terrible reputation in West Africa. Unfortunately, private jets are still seen in the region as expensive toys for playboy millionaires, insensitive and wasteful Heads of States/senior government officials or politicians and others, who acquired their wealth through questionable means. And yet, it needs not be so.

    Private Jets can be, and are indeed an indispensable and efficient tool for big business in the West Africa region where efficient travel between neighbouring capital cities can still be a nightmare because many of our airlines are seriously challenged. The traffic between many of the smaller urban centres is not large enough to support regular scheduled services. For instance, three flights a week between Lagos and Freetown means that, to attend a three-hour Tuesday morning meeting in Freetown, a Nigerian business delegation may have to depart Lagos on Saturday morning and only get back home on Thursday afternoon. Even travel between capitals of two neighbouring countries like Abuja and Yaoundé remains a daunting task in 2017. As a general rule, commercial flights are only available to and from major hubs. Point-to-point travel, which bypasses hubs, is therefore only possible in West Africa via business aviation.

    ANAP Business Jets Limited is on a mission to correct the narrative surrounding business aviation in West Africa and, so far, we are succeeding. Serious business people are surprised when they discover that, by embracing the fundamentals behind a “sharing economy”, a modest financial outlay through the ANAP Jets Fractional Ownership platform can significantly transform their businesses by giving them access to a private jet “on demand” for a few years. This helps to eradicate their regional travelling headaches in a most efficient manner.

    For business aviation, the watchword for these products which embrace the sharing economy is “Pay less and fly more”. The alternative description is “Fly smart”.

    The first time I realised that private jets had become an essential or indispensable business tool in our region was when I had a series of meetings with successful mining companies in Western Australia some years ago. I was trying to sell them the West African mining story. Miners typically bring out large maps and when you discuss specific mineral deposits with them, their first question is “where is the nearest airport or airstrip” from that location?

    The bottom line is that, in the 21st Century, senior executives of successful mining companies (and other large businesses) are only largely interested in destinations that they can fly into and out of efficiently to explore opportunities. Because they are realists, they do not expect to find quality airlines to fly them to the hinterland. They expect to fly into a regional hub like Lagos, Abuja, Accra or Abidjan on a commercial airline and to transfer efficiently unto a 6-seater or 10 or 13-seater private jet or turboprop that will get them within no more than a one hour car-drive from their destination.

    Airports and airstrips are therefore vital towards opening up the hinterland. Viewed from this perspective, the presidents or governors who insist on developing modest airstrips in the hinterland should not be vilified because business aviation should/could be the forerunner that eventually leads to significant investment activity in their undeveloped backyard.

    In most parts of West Africa, there are large distances between urban centres. The days of Mungo Park spending months sailing up the River Niger are long gone. Businessmen want to finish their journey within a region inside one or two hours and only air travel can achieve that over long distances. Security concerns have also helped to create that mindset. Indeed, it might be pertinent to remember that, even Mungo Park never lived to tell us about his last journey up the River Niger. Today, international businessmen and big businesses in general will no longer agree to travel very long distances by road in undeveloped parts of West Africa because long distance road travel is just too risky and is also time consuming.

    There is a chicken and egg situation with provincial airports and airstrips in the sense that if you do not build them, nobody will come, but then an excuse for not building them also is that there is no guarantee that anybody will come just because you built them.

    Government policy on aviation should therefore be futuristic. We should not kid ourselves that the hinterland will open up itself. That may not happen or it may happen too slowly. Provincial airports and airstrips can be built very modestly and are relatively cheap to build in areas that have natural flat grasslands and that is true for large parts of West Africa. Airports and airstrips are a lot more expensive in swampy and/or hilly terrain.

    The natural order/sequence of development of the hinterland would entail the following:

    • Airports/airstrips first
    • Business aviation
    • Sustainable commercial airlines.

    Note that commercial airlines come last in the sequence. If they rush in too early, commercial airlines will fail because they will be flying with lots of empty seats. In many provincial locations therefore, business aviation will hold sway for a while.

    I have already mentioned earlier that safety should be the number one goal. According to the ICAO Safety Report 2014, Africa had approximately two per cent of global air traffic in 2014 and yet our share of global aviation accidents in that same year was 10 per cent. Another way to present these statistics is to point out that Africa’s accident rate was 12.9 per million departures, whereas the global average was 2.8 accidents per million departures. There is no excuse for that. We (Africa) can and should be as safety conscious as the rest of the world. We should have safe airports, safe skies and safe aircrafts among others. Our accident rate needs not be above the world average. Indeed, Africa’s accident rate can and should be in line with the world average – and this goal is achievable in less than a decade. After all, we do not encounter snowstorms, icy runways, amongst several other hazards that exist elsewhere.

    Embracing safety as a priority goal sounds so simple and yet, we have had some past Aviation ministers in the region that only embraced safety, as a priority, after their country suffered some horrific air crashes that were clearly avoidable. If you ask West Africans to choose between safe skies and national carriers, they will choose safe skies first. Our Aviation ministers should constantly ask questions about the surface conditions of all our runways, the quality of lighting (runways and taxiways), quality of communications between air traffic control and the pilots they are directing among others. We want to get to a position where we can say that we should never have an aviation accident anywhere in our region caused by these avoidable factors. Are we there yet? Sadly we are not there yet, but with a little more application and focus, we could be our way there.

    Many people in our region wrongly equate private jets with safety and regional airlines with high risk. This need not be so and the correlation is not that straight forward. It is the operator and the premium that he places on safety and the good practices that he adopts that makes the difference. A bad operator can therefore run a risky private jet business.

    It is for our Aviation ministers to ask the hard questions and help initiate and coordinate policies that will get West African aviation to global safety standards. Priority attention must be given to expanding existing airports and equipping them properly with terminals and other facilities to keep pace with growing passenger traffic whilst also building new airports and airstrips to open up the hinterland.

    Aviation is the preferred mode of travel for long distance travel in the future. Sadly, the pursuit of ill-advised and grandiose national carrier projects in the past, made us take our eyes off the safety ball. Fewer and fewer countries around the world care about a national carrier. Successive European countries have given up on the old-fashioned national carrier model. Most African countries have also jettisoned the idea. West African countries should not lose energy trying to repeat failed experiments from past years. Instead we should embrace “safety” as the watchword and the call to action in aviation.

    Business Aviation means different things to different people. The old fashioned idea of owning your own aircraft and trying to manage it yourself is fast falling out of favour. In the same way that many of us use Uber in various foreign cities rather than seeking to own cars in multiple locations, Fractional Ownership, Jet Cards and Charter Services (all provided by ANAP Jets), are smarter ways to fly. Governments too should be encouraged to embrace the shared economy model. Tying down state resources in an aircraft or fleet that hardly flies is wasteful, uneconomical and largely unaffordable.

    Owning your own jet leaves you vulnerable to uncapped bills. Meanwhile, all the business aviation products that companies like ANAP Jets offer enable you to ascertain and cap your costs. You decide how much you want to spend and we tell you how long or how far you can fly. There are no surprises because we take large chunks of the equity and ownership risks away from even our fractional owners.

    If you want to be seen above the clouds, then, it is also best to be seen to fly smart by capping your costs and transferring virtually all the ownership risks to companies like ANAP Jets. Done properly, business aviation in West Africa can, and should be hassle-free, more efficient, private, convenient and flexible. Modern companies like ANAP Jets are there to alleviate the ownership burden and replace it with a fixed fee, convenience and reliability.

    Finally, it is good to remember that business aviation has a positive social impact. The airlines in the region are not able to absorb all the indigenous pilots and engineers. Two pilots are deployed to fly a seven-seater Embraer Phenom 300 aircraft by ANAP Jets. This is the same number of pilots that are deployed on the largest commercial airliners with 500 seats. In a sense therefore, business aviation is more labour intensive and so, it contributes significantly towards reducing unemployment amongst highly skilled pilots and engineers in the West African region.

    • Peterside, who was the Chairman of Stanbic IBTC is the Chairman of ANAP Business Jets Limited.

  • Why more Nigerians are buying private jets, by NCAA

    THE increase in the number of foreigner registered private/corporate jets in Nigeria has been attributed to lower insurance cover, convenience to secure crew as well the a ploy to conceal ownership, The Nation has learnt.

    Investigations reveal that many influential Nigerians, who have acquired private/ corporate jets in the last few years, have acquired them under foreign registration.

    Investigations aslo reveal that foreign registration of private/corporate jets will reduce the insurance cover significantly because Nigeria is considered as a high risk country.

    A part of lower insurance cover for aircraft with foreign registration, the owners of the aircraft in a bid not to trace the ownership of such luxury equipment to them request charter companies to manage such  aircraft for commercial utilisation, maintenance schedule consistency and other technical considerations.

    An industry source hinted that it is commercially convenient to dispose a private jet with foreign registration operating in Nigeria as opposed to an aircraft with Nigerian registration.

    He said the second hand value of a private jet with foreign registration is more valuable as opposed to a private jet with Nigerian registration.

    Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Captain Mukthar Usman, said there are 146 corporate jets in the country, of which only 46 are registered in Nigeria while 100 has foreign registration.

    Confirming the reasons  there is an increase in foreign registered private jets, NCAA spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said the owners of such equipment consider many factors.

    He listed the factors to include lower insurance cover as well as how to optimise second value for such equipment.

    Adurogboye said: “There is nothing wrong with people giving foreign registration to their aircraft. All that is critical is that they subject the operations of their private jets in Nigeria to the prescribed rules and regulations rolled out for such category of operations by the regulator.

    “At the NCAA, we have a list of such aircraft and the conditions of their registration. But, investigations reveal that people give foreign registration to their aircraft because they consider many factors such as country where there is lower insurance cover for taking their action.’’

    “Some operators also do that because they want to conceal the identity of the aircraft owner; there is also the consideration for the second value for such aircraft. There are a lot of reasons.”

  • Private jets: Allison Madueke gets fresh summon

    Private jets: Allison Madueke gets fresh summon

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke, has been issued a new summon to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account for spending N10 billion on private jets.

    This follows the directive of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Wednesday that the Public Accounts Committee should resume the investigation which had been stunted by a controversial court pronunciation.

    Also summoned are – the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (Andrew Yakubu, Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority, the MD of Pipeline and Petroleum Products Marketing Company; Mr. Haruna Momoh, Vistajet International Limited and other stakeholders.

    Chairman, House Committee in Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday that all those summoned are to appear between June 15 and 17 to shed light on the matter.

    His words: “We’ve invited all the stakeholders involved to appear before the committee between June 17 and 17. We gave this ample time because the people involved will have enough time to properly organise themselves.

    “The whole exercise is not designed to witch-hunt any public officer but to get to the bottom of the matter.”

    According to him, the PAC committee would take all stakeholders who have submitted memoranda before it one after the other.

    “We don’t want to stampede invitees. We are not after anybody, but to expose what is not right that is why we gave a long gap of three weeks,” Mohammed said.

  • Governors, private jets and states’ treasuries

    SIR: In Nigeria, the culture of impunity continues to assume frightening dimensions. We have enshrined mediocrity and selfishness as a nation. Those privileged to occupy one position of trust or the other have seized such opportunities to glorify absurdities. Some practices hitherto considered as alien to our system of governance and even to our lifestyles have become the fads nowadays. These practices have crept into our system of governance eroding values.

    Particularly, state governors have since constituted themselves as purveyors of financial recklessness and perhaps scandals. I have always argued that state governors remain one of the biggest challenges to development.

    Their Excellencies have unarguably become clogs in the wheel of progress. They have become so powerful and utterly influential that they decide whatever goes on in their domain. Governors control so much money that some of them now buy jets as toys. Clearly most of the governors are competing when it comes to the class of jets.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in October 7, 2012 acquired a Bombardier Global 5000 jet for the state government. The jet was said to have been bought at the sum of $45.7 million (N7.4 billion). In 2012, the state’s Embracer Legacy 600 jet was traded off to the Cross River state government. Recall that in 2005, former governor of the state, Sir Peter Odili bought two aircrafts, one an air ambulance and the other a private jet. The aircrafts were procured in the name of Rivers State government.

    In June 2011, the Akwa Ibom State government bought a $45 million jet. The state-of- the- art aircraft was manufactured in 2011.

    Former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori was also enmeshed in a private jet case. Elsewhere in Bauchi State, former Governor Alhaji Ahmed Muazu acquired aircraft for N3 billion. Taraba State governor Danbaba Suntai also crashed the state-owned Cessna 28 aircraft into a farm near the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot in Yola, the Adamawa State capital recently.

    Besides the purchase of these aircrafts, most state governments have embarked on the construction of airports and airstrips. Even some states that are battling with road challenges have gone on to construct private airstrips.

    What is the justification for such humongous expenditures on jets when the people battle with penury and poverty? In states where majority of the people are feeding from hand to mouth and where living daily has been an uphill task, wasting millions of dollars in private aircrafts is rather unwise, selfish and uncalled for.

    This kind of scenario tells what happens with our treasuries. How people who have access to our funds appropriate monies. It is clear that our treasuries are ‘loose’. The age-long question about the relevance and otherwise efficiency of the states’ Houses of Assembly comes into play here. What was the input of the states’ Houses of Assembly when these jets were purchased?

    This gross misplacement of priorities show how our governors spend monies perhaps to suit their jamborees, merry go round, et al. The purchase of jets by states at this time is unfathomable. We must curb the impunity before it becomes a natural order.

     

    • Stanley Ibeku,

    Africa Regional Centre for information Science,

    University of Ibadan.

  • ‘It’s wrong to acquire private jets with church funds’

    ‘It’s wrong to acquire private jets with church funds’

    The District Superintendent of Christ Ascension Church Nigeria, Aba, Abia State, Bishop Simeon Nwachukwu, bares his mind on national issues in a chat with Sunny Nwankwo

    What is the stand of your church on same sex marriage?

    The stand of my church is very clear because the Bible says that God created them male and female. After this, God said, “it is not good that a man should live alone. I will create him a helpmate; a helper that is suitable for him.”

    So the Bible said that a deep sleep fell upon Adam and the Lord took one of his ribs and closed the place thereof. And of that rib, God formed a woman.

    He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” So, I do not know how a man and his fellow man or a woman and a fellow woman shall be fruitful and replenish the earth.

    Christ Ascension Church in particular will never speak for gay or same sex marriage in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.

    Won’t that be an infringement on the right of people to freedom of worship?

    I do not think so. The Bible does not support it (same sex). It is an aberration of African cultures and traditions. It also does not have any backing by the present constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    How serious is the problem of corruption that you mentioned?

    Corruption has eaten deep into almost all the sectors of our economy. There is no sector that is free from corruption. In Nigeria, if you steal more, you will get lesser penalties and when you steal less, they will give you a heavier penalty. It is like governments at both the federal and state levels are paying lip service to the fight against corruption.

    Corruption is done with impunity. People no longer fear the consequences of their actions as it was the case in the past when civil servants were regarded as the most honest people. People have sold out their consciences.

    Majority of corrupt individuals are proudly walking freely on our streets today after they must have bought their freedom with part of the money they stole while in office.

    The unfortunate thing is that, after these individuals had committed all kinds of atrocities while in office, various religious institutions, communities and different society groups’ end up giving them special recognition(s). Maybe such people donated part of the money they stole to them or they want to share part of the ‘national cake’ with them.

    It has come to a point where Ministers of God and other religious leaders should question their members’ source of wealth. We see so many fraudsters, ritualists, armed robbers, etc coming to give huge donations in the church. It is not biblical for the church of God to be built with blood money.

    How do you react to the flamboyant lifestyles among some preachers in Nigeria?

    Well, my reaction is that some of those preachers who buy jets, establish universities where students pay N400, 000 to N1 million per session are not helping their parishioners.

    For instance, schools built by these churches were money made from donations, offerings and tithes members of the church donated for the progress of God’s work. Some of the members gave their “widow’s mite”. Some went as much as borrowing to help the church complete their projects.

    Building of schools by churches should be a social service the church will render for indigent members. I am not conversant with aviation laws in Nigeria but I understand that the parking space for jets is N10, 000 per day. It means that an average preacher that has a jet pays N3, 650, 000 in a year. I am sure that if you go round those churches, there are still thousands of widows, widowers and orphans who struggle to eat 3 square meals in a day.

    If God has given us money, let us use it to better the lots of those rural dwellers who live under a very terrible condition of poverty and penury.

    I still believe that those money that were used in the acquisition of jets and living flamboyantly can still be used in opening worship centres where people can come and find Christ and also find rest. That is what I can say about that.

    How can Nigeria overcome restiveness and insurgency?

    The answer is very simple. Let the federal and state governments encourage private individuals to open up more industries. They should provide job opportunities for our teeming youths to reduce youth unemployment in the country.

    It is said that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. It takes someone who is godly to stay a year or seven years without a job. If the person is not consciously engaged in doing something, he may be corruptly engaged in pipeline vandalism, cultism, kidnapping, ritualism and all that.

    Over a million admission seekers wrote JAMB some weeks ago and in the next five years, they will be off loaded into the saturated labour market, thereby increasing the number of job seekers.

    It is unfortunate that most youth empowerment schemes floated by the federal and state government have been hijacked by corrupt individuals.

    So, let federal and state government in all sincerity of purpose, do something to address the issue of unemployment in Nigeria. That will go a long way to curb youth restiveness in Nigeria.

     

  • ‘Nothing wrong with preachers using private jets’

    ‘Nothing wrong with preachers using private jets’

    Prophet Kayode Abiara is the General Evangelist Worldwide of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC).  He has been in the Lord’s vineyard for half a century. He spoke with Gbenga Aderanti on the rancour in the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the private jets controversy. Excerpts:   

    Nigeria is not short of men of God and people so passionate about evangelism, yet faces a lot of challenges. Why is this so?

    If it were not for prayers, Nigeria would have collapsed before now. So, we thank God Almighty for people praying for Nigeria. People often tell me that prayers are too much that even the prayers in the CAC and Mountain of Fire ought to have destroyed the devil. But the Bible does not put us in darkness over this. The Bible says in the last days, there will be critical times because there will be rumour of war, challenges and so on and so forth. Until Jesus comes, all these problems will not stop. But when we pray, God will sustain us and those who cause problems, the power of prayer will suppress them and destroy their acts. That is why Nigeria is still sustained up till now. That is why I said in my message to this nation that Nigeria must not panic at all because of the killings and kidnapping. After all, there are many challenges in Europe, Middle East and America. Yet they overcame their challenges. There is no one without his or her own challenges. There is no country without its challenges. If you are in this world, you will face challenges.

    There are those who are of the opinion that these problems are man-made. Do you share this viewpoint?

    It is because it is the spirit of Satan that corrupts. Now, those who are corrupt don’t want to know that people are suffering. There is money in this country. But it is those who are up there that are making things difficult. I don’t know what I can call them. People are corrupt and it is only prayers that can deliver us. Some people prefer to keep their money abroad, instead of investing it in Nigeria and generate employment. For me, that is wicked and callous. How can you accumulate so much money and your people are suffering? That is why you have many unemployed graduates. Government cannot provide work. That is why I said in my message to the nation that graduates should also do vocational studies because degrees are not enough.

    Considering the number of men of God who have access to political leaders, one would have thought that things would be a bit different. Why has our situation remained the same?

    Leaders are not alone. There are people surrounding them. There are good and bad people and sometimes bad people are more than good people. Leaders get diverse advice from their aides and it will be very difficult for them not to listen to their advisers, lest they are branded autocrats. If they ignore their advisers, they will abandon them and in extreme cases, work against them. We must not blame them. Instead, we should continue to pray for them. If men of God give these leaders advice, they will table it at their meetings and when they table this at their meetings, not everybody will agree with such a view. Sometimes the advisers or aides are responsible for the bad decisions leaders take. What I do is to pray. I don’t go to the President’s house. I don’t seek to see the President. The authorities of the Christ Apostolic pray for the nation and government in power. Either good or bad, we continue to pray for them. But it is very important to pray for government in power.

    Before the election, it appeared you had an unspoken support for President Jonathan. Would you say you still have the same feeling?

    Nobody can please the world. When Yar’Adua was there, he was tagged ‘go slow’. People were not pleased. Even before Yar’Adua, it was still the same complaint about former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They said he was not doing well. Jonathan came but he is still regarded as being slow. Even God, people are not pleased with Him because whenever it rains, they complain that the rain is too much. When it is sunny, people complain of too much heat. So what do you want God to do? I’m neither holding brief for President Jonathan nor backing him. He is really trying but the job is massive. Many people are criticising him. We want to thank God for his life because he is a man of peace. I’m not a politician, but we are telling the whole world the truth. Nigeria must be patient. Nigerians want magic from any government that is in power but it should not always be like that.

    Some people say the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has become an arm of government. What do you have to say to this?

    Many people say that but it is not so. It is good to be close to government because it is an opportunity for men of God to tell them the feelings of Nigerians. I don’t want Nigerians to see CAN as an arm of government. But sincerely it is very good to move very close to any government so as to advise it. Look at the way the President of CAN has handled the issue of Boko Haram, Islamic banking and other issues concerning Nigeria and Christians in particular. There is no way the leadership of CAN can be antagonising the President. We are men of peace; our father Jesus Christ is a man of peace and we must pursue peace.

    What are the implications of the Catholic Secretariat pulling out of CAN?

    If there are misunderstandings, let them come to the table and settle them amicably. The Bible says: ‘Let us come together and reason together’. If the Catholic Church is not happy about something, it should come to the round table to discuss. There are many good people in the Catholic Church. I think the disagreement is being blown out of proportion.

    Some people have argued that the rancour has a lot to do with the next election in CAN, do you agree with this?

    We will continue to pray. We cannot behave like politicians because all Christians believe in Christ Jesus. We cannot fight against ourselves; it is not possible. It is the media that blew this out of proportion. I don’t think they are fighting themselves and I don’t think there is politics in all of this. When it is time for election, they will come together, irrespective of who wins, irrespective of the denomination. The winner will be supported by all.

    Last year, you said Boko Haram was going to be a thing of the past but today they are still killing people. What is the problem?

    It is not too late. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would come. He didn’t come until after 800 years. So, it is not too late. But it is an opportunity for us to pray very well. Nigeria will overcome her problems. Nigerians should not worry and not panic; God owns Nigeria. Killings and kidnappings in Nigeria will stop. By the grace of God, my message to Nigerians is that they should put their minds at rest.

    Clerics have been accused of living ostentatious life style. How do you explain this?

    I know you are referring to planes being owned by men of God. Abroad, young men like you have planes and jets to travel for their businesses. It is a glory to Christendom that the President of CAN has a plane and they bought it for him. I want to celebrate my 50th anniversary in the ministry. If somebody comes and offers me a helicopter, should I say I don’t want it? I can’t say I don’t need it or I’m not in a position to fly in it. The Bible says give and those who give are obeying what Jesus Christ instructed. They have and they gave. The President of CAN was given an aircraft and some people are angry. I don’t know what is wrong with them. I want to appeal to all Nigerians that if there are Christians God has blessed, they should not be criticised; it is not good. Pastors use private jets not because of ostentatious life style but as a matter of necessity.

  • Nigerian pastors and private jets

    The news media and the social internet sites like Facebook, Twitter and several Nigerian online portals have been abuzz since Saturday, November 10, after reports that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), had joined the rarefied ranks of Nigerian pastors who owned private jets. It was Pastor Ayo’s birthday and he was also celebrating his 40th anniversary as an ordained minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, some wealthy members of the church where he serves as the Senior Pastor, Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, contributed money and bought an airplane as a gift for him. The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was among the several local and international dignitaries who were in Warri to rejoice with Pastor Ayo on the august occasion.

    Expectedly, criticisms have trailed the development. Pastor-bashing is now commonplace in Nigeria, especially on social media like Facebook, even by some who claim to be “Christians” but have no understanding whatsoever of the Bible and have no respect for spiritual authority.

    Not unexpectedly, even the latter-day “social critic”, good governance “crusader” and President Jonathan-basher, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, joined the bandwagon not wanting to miss an opportunity to politicise the matter. He tweeted “@afo4u: @elrufai And the church members are wallowing in abject poverty”…irony of life, but it is CAN, PDP branch…so anything is possible.

    And, in response to El Rufai’s malicious tweet which went viral on the internet, some have even alleged that it was the Presidency that actually bought the private jet for Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor!

    The statement by Nasir El Rufai, a chieftain of the Congress of Progressive Change, who has been critical of the Joint Task Force for its response to Boko Haram activities in the north, underscores the manifest mischief of some who have been attacking Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor using the airplane gift as their excuse.

    This is not surprising. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s election as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria in 2010 was historic. It was the first time that someone from the pentecostal fold would become the President of CAN. His emergence as CAN’s leader also happened at a time when the terrorist jihadist group, Boko Haram, began escalating its murderous activities in the northern part of Nigeria. And in January, 2011, just months after Pastor Ayo’s elevation as CAN’s President, the Central Bank of Nigeria under the leadership of its Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, introduced its Malaysia-style Islamic banking which Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja recently declared to be unconstitutional and illegal. It became incumbent on Pastor Ayo to articulate and voice out the stance of the Nigerian church on these two issues. And his passion and conviction in dealing with these issues have come to define public perception about him.

    For many Christians, particularly in northern Nigeria, Pastor Ayo’s leadership of CAN could not have been more timely. Not one to be intimidated into silence, Pastor Ayo’s forceful statements on national issues cannot be ignored. For those who would have preferred him to be subservient and kow-tow to the reactionary elements who, though not even of the Christian faith, had successfully influenced the actions of some of the past leaders of CAN, Pastor Ayo was soon accused of “heating up the polity” even when it was clear to all that he was merely responding to the actions of those who were actually causing division, strife and the death of thousands of innocent and hapless Nigerians. For a man known for his utmost commitment to God and the establishment of His Kingdom, hypocritical posturing and pandering to the gallery for photo opportunities to be hailed as a politically correct “pacifist” while thousands of his Christian brothers and sisters are plunged into utter misery and rendered widows, widowers or orphans was not an option. Loquacious Mallam Nasir El Rufai merely gave voice to his constituents who have been frustrated by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s uncompromising and principled stance on the on-going war against the church and Christians in Nigeria. As far as I know, the Nigerian pastors that currently have private jets are Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Adejare Adeboye, Pastor Chris Oyakhilomen and, of course, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who was given one just last Saturday by members of his congregation as he celebrated 40 years of ministry.

    These men have to travel very frequently around the world ministering. Redeemed Christian Church of God has thousands of branches and millions of members on all continents of the world. Winners’ Chapel and Christ Embassy equally have many international branches and hundreds of thousands of members. Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Oyedepo and Pastor Oyakhilomen travel thousands of kilometres monthly doing God’s work and have to be in places not well-served by commercial flights. On his part, Pastor Oritsejafor travels every other day within and outside Nigeria as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria. I know him personally and can confirm that he hardly spends a full week at home in Warri because of his very busy ministry itinerary.

    The Pope rarely travels more than thrice internationally in a year. Yet the Pope has a private jet. Why has nobody complained about that?

    Very few know about the social and philanthropic work which these men of God and thousands of others are doing. In reality, the church is doing more than any government, international agency or Non-Governmental Organisation to fight poverty, illiteracy and diseases in Nigeria today. The church in Nigeria is much more effective than the government at all levels. It is not just in the habit of churches and Christian ministers to be boasting about their poverty-alleviation programmes and charity work like companies and many non-faith based NGOs love to do for public commendation and approval. They leave God, the Rewarder, to judge what they do in the “closet” and reward their good work both here on earth and in the hereafter.

    That there are some pastors who are fleecing the sheep and whose god is their bellies does not mean all wealthy pastors are scammers. Many of them are entrepreneurial and do not even get remuneration from their churches. In fact, they are often the biggest donors or givers in their churches.

    Prosperity is scriptural. The worship of Mammon (money) is not. Let us not be like those “Christians” of whom Kenneth Hagin Sr. wrote in one of his books that they prayed: “Lord, please keep our pastor humble. We will keep him poor”!

    What was Jesus’ experience with matters like this? Let’s see John 12:1-16:

    1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

    2. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

    3. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

    4. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,

    5. “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”

    6. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

    7. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

    8. You will always have the poor among you but you will not always have me.”

    9. Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

    10. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,

    11. for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

    12. The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

    13. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

    14. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

    15. “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

    16. At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

    If Jesus were alive today and a Nigerian, religiously-minded “Christians” would abuse and condemn him for not agreeing to Judas Iscariot’s suggestion that the expensive perfume be sold and “given to the poor”. Some people like to point to the fact that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem. But, they conveniently ignore the verses in the same chapter of the Bible (John 12 above) where we are told Mary poured perfume worth One Year’s Wage. That is about N216,000 today if we use the minimum wage of N18,000 per month. Designer perfumes sell for no more than N20,000 for a 100ml bottle of a high-end eau de parfum!!

    The point is: “Moderation” is subjective. For example, if a person has a net-worth of say N1Billion, why would you begrudge him for having a car that costs even N50Million? Or why complain if he owns an airplane that costs $5million if he thinks his business and lifestyle demand that he owns a jet? And who says that means he cannot or does not give generously to the poor?

    What then would be said about very wealthy people in the Bible whom God blessed exceedingly like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David and Solomon, for example? And they were men of God: prophets and teachers. David wrote a lot of Psalms and Solomon wrote much contained in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Solomon was so lavish in his lifestyle that the Queen of Sheba heard of his opulence and travelled all the way to Israel to see for herself.

    1st Kings 10:

    1. When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.

    2.  Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind.

    3. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

    4. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,

    5. the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

    6. She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.

    7. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!

    9. Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

    10. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

    11. (Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones.

    12. The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)

    13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

    14. The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,

    15. not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.

    16. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels[ of gold went into each shield. 17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas[g] of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

    18. Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.

    19. The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them.

    20. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom.

    21. All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.

    22. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

    23. King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

    25. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

    26. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

    27. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.

    28. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Ku—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price.

    29. They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.

    So, how does one explain King Solomon’s immense wealth (which God Himself gave to him) and his obscenely opulent and exotic lifestyle? In fact, Jesus even endorsed King Solomon when He said: “A greater than Solomon is here” in reference to Himself. And, today, those of us who are truly Christ’s can even exceed Solomon’s wealth if we would be Kingdom-focused and walk with God in complete obedience and holiness. Personally, I am looking forward to being a billionaire and being used by God to advance the Gospel of Christ in these Last Days. Like God said in Zechariah 1:17, it is by prosperity that His cities (His Kingdom) shall be spread abroad.

    Let us honour our men of God who are celebrated worldwide. If there is any veritable case of fraud or embezzlement against any clergyman, let the law take its course. To generalise that all wealthy pastors are thieves and assume that they must be exploiting their church members is twisted, unjust and wicked.

     

  • Of Nigerian pastors and private jets

    The news media and the social internet sites like Facebook, Twitter and several Nigerian online portals have been abuzz since Saturday, November 10, after reports that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), had joined the rarefied ranks of Nigerian pastors who owned private jets. It was Pastor Ayo’s birthday and he was also celebrating his 40th anniversary as an ordained minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, some wealthy members of the church where he serves as the Senior Pastor, Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, contributed money and bought an airplane as a gift for him. The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was among the several local and international dignitaries who were in Warri to rejoice with Pastor Ayo on the august occasion.

    Expectedly, criticisms have trailed the development. Pastor-bashing is now commonplace in Nigeria, especially on social media like Facebook, even by some who claim to be “Christians” but have no understanding whatsoever of the Bible and have no respect for spiritual authority.

    Not unexpectedly, even the latter-day “social critic”, good governance “crusader” and President Jonathan-basher, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, joined the bandwagon not wanting to miss an opportunity to politicise the matter. He tweeted “@afo4u: @elrufai And the church members are wallowing in abject poverty”…irony of life, but it is CAN, PDP branch…so anything is possible.

    And, in response to El Rufai’s malicious tweet which went viral on the internet, some have even alleged that it was the Presidency that actually bought the private jet for Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor!

    The statement by Nasir El Rufai, a chieftain of the Congress of Progressive Change, who has been critical of the Joint Task Force for its response to Boko Haram activities in the north, underscores the manifest mischief of some who have been attacking Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor using the airplane gift as their excuse.

    This is not surprising. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s election as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria in 2010 was historic. It was the first time that someone from the pentecostal fold would become the President of CAN. His emergence as CAN’s leader also happened at a time when the terrorist jihadist group, Boko Haram, began escalating its murderous activities in the northern part of Nigeria. And in January, 2011, just months after Pastor Ayo’s elevation as CAN’s President, the Central Bank of Nigeria under the leadership of its Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, introduced its Malaysia-style Islamic banking which Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja recently declared to be unconstitutional and illegal. It became incumbent on Pastor Ayo to articulate and voice out the stance of the Nigerian church on these two issues. And his passion and conviction in dealing with these issues have come to define public perception about him.

    For many Christians, particularly in northern Nigeria, Pastor Ayo’s leadership of CAN could not have been more timely. Not one to be intimidated into silence, Pastor Ayo’s forceful statements on national issues cannot be ignored. For those who would have preferred him to be subservient and kow-tow to the reactionary elements who, though not even of the Christian faith, had successfully influenced the actions of some of the past leaders of CAN, Pastor Ayo was soon accused of “heating up the polity” even when it was clear to all that he was merely responding to the actions of those who were actually causing division, strife and the death of thousands of innocent and hapless Nigerians. For a man known for his utmost commitment to God and the establishment of His Kingdom, hypocritical posturing and pandering to the gallery for photo opportunities to be hailed as a politically correct “pacifist” while thousands of his Christian brothers and sisters are plunged into utter misery and rendered widows, widowers or orphans was not an option. Loquacious Mallam Nasir El Rufai merely gave voice to his constituents who have been frustrated by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s uncompromising and principled stance on the on-going war against the church and Christians in Nigeria. As far as I know, the Nigerian pastors that currently have private jets are Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Adejare Adeboye, Pastor Chris Oyakhilomen and, of course, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who was given one just last Saturday by members of his congregation as he celebrated 40 years of ministry.

    These men have to travel very frequently around the world ministering. Redeemed Christian Church of God has thousands of branches and millions of members on all continents of the world. Winners’ Chapel and Christ Embassy equally have many international branches and hundreds of thousands of members. Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Oyedepo and Pastor Oyakhilomen travel thousands of kilometres monthly doing God’s work and have to be in places not well-served by commercial flights. On his part, Pastor Oritsejafor travels every other day within and outside Nigeria as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria. I know him personally and can confirm that he hardly spends a full week at home in Warri because of his very busy ministry itinerary.

    The Pope rarely travels more than thrice internationally in a year. Yet the Pope has a private jet. Why has nobody complained about that?

    Very few know about the social and philanthropic work which these men of God and thousands of others are doing. In reality, the church is doing more than any government, international agency or Non-Governmental Organisation to fight poverty, illiteracy and diseases in Nigeria today. The church in Nigeria is much more effective than the government at all levels. It is not just in the habit of churches and Christian ministers to be boasting about their poverty-alleviation programmes and charity work like companies and many non-faith based NGOs love to do for public commendation and approval. They leave God, the Rewarder, to judge what they do in the “closet” and reward their good work both here on earth and in the hereafter.

    That there are some pastors who are fleecing the sheep and whose god is their bellies does not mean all wealthy pastors are scammers. Many of them are entrepreneurial and do not even get remuneration from their churches. In fact, they are often the biggest donors/givers in their church.

    Prosperity is scriptural. The worship of Mammon (money) is not. Let us not be like those “Christians” of whom Kenneth Hagin Sr. wrote in one of his books that they prayed: “Lord, please keep our pastor humble. We will keep him poor”!

    What was Jesus’ experience with matters like this? Let’s see John 12:1-16:

    1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

    2. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

    3. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

    4. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,

    5. “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”

    6. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

    7. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

    8. You will always have the poor among you but you will not always have me.”

    9. Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

    10. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,

    11. for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

    12. The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

    13. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

    14. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

    15. “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

    16. At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

    If Jesus were alive today and a Nigerian, religiously-minded “Christians” would abuse and condemn him for not agreeing to Judas Iscariot’s suggestion that the expensive perfume be sold and “given to the poor”. Some people like to point to the fact that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem. But, they conveniently ignore the verses in the same chapter of the Bible (John 12 above) where we are told Mary poured perfume worth One Year’s Wage. That is about N216,000 today if we use the minimum wage of N18,000 per month. Designer perfumes sell for no more than N20,000 for a 100ml bottle of a high-end eau de parfum!!

    The point is: “Moderation” is subjective. For example, if a person has a net-worth of say N1Billion, why would you begrudge him for having a car that costs even N50Million? Or why complain if he owns an airplane that costs $5million if he thinks his business and lifestyle demand that he owns a jet? And who says that means he cannot or does not give generously to the poor?

    What then would be said about very wealthy people in the Bible whom God blessed exceedingly like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David and Solomon, for example? And they were men of God: prophets and teachers. David wrote a lot of Psalms and Solomon wrote much contained in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Solomon was so lavish in his lifestyle that the Queen of Sheba heard of his opulence and travelled all the way to Israel to see for herself.

    1st Kings 10:

    1. When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.

    2.  Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind.

    3. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

    4. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,

    5. the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

    6. She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.

    7. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!

    9. Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

    10. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

    11. (Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones.

    12. The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)

    13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

    14. The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,

    15. not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.

    16. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels[ of gold went into each shield. 17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas[g] of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

    18. Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.

    19. The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them.

    20. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom.

    21. All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.

    22. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

    23. King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

    25. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

    26. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

    27. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.

    28. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Ku—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price.

    29. They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.

    So, how does one explain King Solomon’s immense wealth (which God Himself gave to him) and his obscenely opulent and exotic lifestyle? In fact, Jesus even endorsed King Solomon when He said: “A greater than Solomon is here” in reference to Himself. And, today, those of us who are truly Christ’s can even exceed Solomon’s wealth if we would be Kingdom-focused and walk with God in complete obedience and holiness. Personally, I am looking forward to being a billionaire and being used by God to advance the Gospel of Christ in these Last Days. Like God said in Zechariah 1:17, it is by prosperity that His cities (His Kingdom) shall be spread abroad.

    Let us honour our men of God who are celebrated worldwide. If there is any veritable case of fraud or embezzlement against any clergyman, let the law take its course. To generalise that all wealthy pastors are thieves and assume that they must be exploiting their church members is twisted, unjust and wicked.