Dr. Solomon Adegboyega Alao, head of the Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Unification Church of Nigeria, was the managing director and chief executive, Nigeria Life and Pensions Consultants. In this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI, the 4th head of C&S bares his mind on crucial national issues, his thoughts about the new government, corruption, religion and other issues.
Before the presidential election, you predicted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would win. Now that your prediction has come true, what agenda would you set for the new government?
It does not follow a straight line. The agenda is multi-dimensional. There must be a division of authority between Buhari and the party. It will be in the interest of the nation to leave Buhari alone and just advise. I prefer to be one of his advisers behind the scene. If they give him a free hand, Nigeria will be better for it. But if they encumber him with party discipline and party machinery, there could be friction between him and the leadership of the party.
If they overcome that and allow Buhari to concentrate, the first thing he should tackle is the issue of security. Unfortunately, security cannot be tackled without decapitating corruption. He has to tackle the two simultaneously because if there is no discipline, corruption will still be there.
Having set up his agenda to tackle corruption with all the drops of water within him, discipline will come and corruption will stop. We pass through a lot of things in this country because of corruption. If the security agencies do their work the way they should, some of the problems confronting us would not have arisen.
Again, we have to put electricity on the front burner. If they can arrest indiscipline, which is part and parcel of our life, and secure all Nigerians wherever may be their residence, and tackle the power situation, the cost of living will fall. Some of the industries that have fled this country would come back. We are now living on imported goods from our own factories that left for the neighbouring countries. That should be his agenda.
He must be given free hand. He hasn’t got all the time in the world. The first one year would be significant for the president. If he needs to listen to people, he should. Again, he should set his team carefully; not with those who are already tainted. He should rise above partisan politics. Fortunately, he has somebody like Osinbajo as his deputy; he should give him enough authority. That will be good for him. But his agenda from day one should be security, corruption and power.
I would not advise Buhari to set up any probe. That will consume his precious time and may also generate bad blood. It may even boomerang because there are some elements in the governing party who are not likely to be above board. Setting up a probe, internally, there will be resentment. If I had the opportunity of seeing him, I would tell him what to do, which would achieve the same objective of a probe and bring the same result but cost him less without generating bad blood.
He should not waste his time probing anybody. It won’t do him any good. Is he going to start from the Nigeria Ports Authority? Is he going to focus on the NNPC? Is he going to go to the Ministry of Works? Is going to the Central Bank? That will consume his time. He hasn’t got time for that.
Talking about corruption, religious leaders have been accused of perpetrating the act. In the last dispensation, some of the leaders were found wanting. I want you to react to this.
First of all, I don’t have direct evidence, but I have no doubt in my mind that some religious leaders, not all of us, got themselves involved. All you need to do is to extend your imagination. Twelve months before the election, ex-President Jonathan was virtually visiting all the churches to worship while he had a chapel at the Villa. One did not need a saint to know what was happening. We were lucky that he did not use his vantage position to create religious division in this country.
Yes, he employed the services of some religious leaders, I will advise the new president not to see himself as the president of Muslims or Christians; he should see himself as a Nigerian. He should not allow religious bigotry to dominate his thoughts. I being a Christian priest is an accident. If I was born in Saudi Arabia, I would probably be a sheikh. If the Sultan of Sokoto was born in Rome, he would be a Catholic priest. Religion should no more be a factor in this country. Ex-president Jonathan thought religious leaders would help him. He relied so highly on the Christian community and he thought he would get their votes. Some religious leaders have compromised their calling. There is no doubt about that, though I have no direct evidence. But from what I saw and heard, there is no doubt that religious leaders have disappointed me.
Was there anything wrong in him going to churches?
If he was going without any agenda, there was nothing wrong. But then he was pursuing an agenda. He wanted to set Christians against Muslims, thinking that if that happened and all the Christians voted en bloc, he would be home and dry. There is nothing wrong in going round the churches.
Why did it boomerang?
It boomeranged because some of us who were disappointed in our colleagues disagreed with what he was doing. I have been consistent on who should govern this country even before the emergence of this mega party. It boomeranged again because of this campaign of hate. From the first day I saw this campaign of hate, I stopped tuning to the NTA (NigeriaTelevision Authority) because I saw it as National Teleguided Authority. All the time, it was Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan. The NTA is not owned by Jonathan.
Because of this campaign of hate, Jonathan lost the sympathy of many people. A lot of people asked me, “Baba Alao, you said Buhari is the person, even though he is a Muslim?” I said religion is not part of the consideration; it is somebody who can solve our problems; somebody who is disciplined and who has an antecedent we can rely upon. Buhari fitted into that. This was a man who was petroleum minister. Here was a man who was the chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund and he came out of all these assignments clean. That is the type of Nigerian we require. I don’t think he is one of those who own oil wells.
The little discipline we ever had was initiated by Buhari; there is no doubt about that. That was why I was consistent from the beginning. He was the kind of man we required, I thank God that he is there now. May the Lord be with him. He should not only rely on his direct constituency; the Islamic faith, He should listen to people who can give him the right advice; not people who want to have the crumbs that fall from his table.
You seem to have much faith in Buhari. What if tomorrow he disappoints?
That will be a calamity. If he changes, I will be totally disappointed. But I pray for him that he will not disappoint us. So far, I have no reason to believe that he will disappoint us, provided he is given a free hand. If he fails, it is the All Progressives Congress (APC) that has failed.
Corruption cuts across all the parties. Do you forsee a problem if Buhari moves against some people in his party?
That is why I said at the outset that I would not advise him to go into probing. Probably, some of his people in the APC are not exonerated, and if he wants to do selective probe, that will not be in his interest. If also he has to probe those who are supposed to be probed, he will have internal resistance. You can fight the battle outside but the battle within your four walls is difficult to win.
I really don’t know if you are aware of that your brand of Christianity is not accepted in some Pentecostal circles. How do you intend to handle this now that you are the head of unification?
It depends on what you mean by Pentecostal churches.
I’m talking about the new generation churches.
When you say Pentecostal churches, it is wider than what you are saying. C& S is the foremost Pentecostal church. Cherubim and Seraphim is the first Pentecostal church in Nigeria. The people you are talking about are Pentecostal fellowship. They are American founded mission churches; they are not Pentecostal churches. But if that is what you are saying, yes some of them, including some of my colleagues in C & S, will not accept their philosophy. I’m not a bread-and-butter priest. I don’t earn any remuneration from being a priest even right now.
If you read the bible inside out, you are not supposed to live on religion; you are supposed to have a job. You must have a vocation which you live on. But they won’t accept that because by saying so, you are probably exposing their deceit. What I’m saying is in the bible. Samuel was given to God at birth, yet he had his own job. The Bible did not tell us what his job was, but if he had no job he would not have asked the congregation whose money had he taken? ‘From whom have I borrowed money? Who have I cheated?’ And the congregation said, ‘Man of God, you have not taken anything from us. Now, using Christ as my role model, and his disciples, they were not living on the church; they were using their time to fend for themselves. I’m not against giving gifts to prophets if God blesses you, but if you give me gifts that I think it is outside what you legitimately earn, I will not take it. That is why you see me on television saying I don’t mind receiving payment from people to support my radio and television programmes, but I don’t want looted money. I don’t want stolen money.
You see them donating hundreds of millions of naira to churches, but how much is their salary? This is where problems start in the Christendom. They know I don’t support it and I won’t support it, I’m not born here to live on bread and butter. That philosophy is too hard for them. Some of them are super 419, if I may use that phrase.
But I should again not destroy my constituency. But within ourselves, where I can make correction, I will. I don’t expect to be popular by that, but I have to say the truth. John the Baptist was not popular because he was saying what was right at that time, Elijah and Elisha and so on were not popular.
The C&S is under a body now. Why do you think the so called Pentecostal churches still find it difficult to accept the C&S Church?
Maybe for three major reasons. Number one, most of their members are poached from C&S churches. If that is their poaching ground, then it is essential for them to discredit the C&S Church to convince those they are poaching. That is the underlying reason. The second reason is that they see us as a threat in the sense that what they condemned us doing is what they do now. When we speak in tongues, it means something is wrong with us. Or when we use conscripted water, it means something is wrong with us. They don’t call it olive oil, they call it anointing oil. They refined it and polished it. It is just like when the imperialists were around, anything that was African they discredited it. The third major thing is that they see us from the distance but if they come nearer, that is my major focus, they will see us better. The jaundiced eyes with which they are looking at us will disappear and they will see that there is nothing particularly bad about us.
Some of them, due to ignorance, use the blackboard of a few wearing white to label us idolatrous. We are not idolatrous. There are lots of people wearing white who are not members of the C&S Church. Most of them are babalawo (herbalists) per se, but they use that to deceive people because they know that many Nigerians have spiritual problems to solve and, because of ego, instead of going to the babalawo directly, they say they are approaching a prophet. A lot of them are super con men.
The reason why our shortcomings are being talked about is because we wear white. I have been inviting them to our programmes and they have seen that there is nothing objectionable in C&S.
As the head of the fold now, the buck stops at your table. How do you hope to stop the babalawo in white garment churches?
You know in Nigeria there is freedom of religion. Somebody would just rise and call himself a prophet and set up a money making device called church or place of worship. The first question you should ask is who ordained the person as a priest? Nobody cares.
Telling people to go to the stream to bath naked is not allowed by me. All these things they tell you that we are doing is not part of C&S. What we need is part of what I’m saying right now. In the past, there was no publicity or public enlightenment. This is what I’ve decided to do.
My thinking is that you would set up a committee or a task force to deal with those who give C&S bad name…
I can only do that by public enlightenment, and I have been doing it. And those who have been carrying the ark of covenant know my stand. Those who slaughter fowls, you know my stand against them. If we educate the public that by their signs you will know them, when we tell them the type of things they should be looking for before dealing with any pastor, that is why I said I will step on so many toes not only in the C&S but even in the old generation churches. There is no doubt about that.
You said you would step on toes. How do you intend to step on toes, especially in the body of Christ?
In so many ways. While I’m not against a priest living a comfortable life, I’m against a priest living a flamboyant life. What has a priest got to do with owning a jet? That does not add up as far as I’m concerned. These are the people I’m likely to step on their toes. Why should a priest own a jet?
For evangelism…
What evangelism? The cost of maintaining a jet is enough to set up a factory. Do they go evangelising every time? Then the person that donated the jet to me, how much does he earn? How much has he paid in tax? Where does he get that money from? They are part of the problems we are facing right now. I’m not saying they should not live a comfortable life, but living a life of super affluence is not right.
What were you doing in your private life?
I was a chief servant at Nigeria Life and Pensions Consultants
I doubt if there is any designation like that
But God gave me the glorified title of managing director and chief executive. I worked there for a couple of years as the chief executive. There, I was a tent making priest. That is what distinguishes me from other priests. A tent making priest is a priest that feeds himself just the way Paul did without being a burden on the church. That is what I have been since 1970. I have been a tent priest for up to 30 years. Later, when I found out that it was difficult to combine two executive functions, I resigned in 1998 to concentrate on my job as a priest.
What was going on your mind when you decided to leave your comfort zone for one that was not comfortable?
God gave me no choice. I remember that blessed day. I was on a business trip to Mexico City. For about three days, I could not sleep, God was ministering to me, ‘The time has come. Leave this job, go and concentrate on your spiritual service.’ I said, ‘Father, you know I have not been earning salaries. I don’t want to live on the church because Paul didn’t live on the church. Prophet Mohammed (SAW) didn’t live on the mosque. Joshua didn’t live on the church.’
My fellow people don’t like to hear that. The Bible said when Joshua died, he was buried in his estate. A man of God who has an estate would have stolen the church funds if he had no job. Jesus Christ, when he was here along with his disciples, was preaching along Galilee with their net. This is what informed my decision not to take anything from the church. He gave me no choice even when I assumed the post of sacred.
It was not easy because of that fear of how I was going to feed myself and my family. At that time, I had two of my children in the university. I fled to Britain, thinking that they would pick another person to be their leader. From Britain, I came back home because I was sick. Every hospital I went, they could not find what was wrong with me until I came back to Nigeria to take up the mantle.