BISHOP OYEDEPO REJECTS CAMA

‘If you ran your government the way the church leaders are running churches, Nigeria might be a country to be reckoned with right now’.

The presiding bishop of one of the largest churches, the living faith church worldwide, came out on Sunday to criticize the company and allied matters acts CAMA in Nigeria being planned for the churches in Nigeria. According to the bishop,’ the church  is God’s heritage on earth”, and that it works “on the pattern delivered by God, not the pattern of man.” However, In a counter response, the Lauretta Onochie social media aide of President Muhammadu Buhari, said  the popular cleric would have to create his own country where he can live by his own laws. She describes the bishop’s action as bullying , saying as long as he lives and operates within the entity called Nigeria, he will live by Nigerian rules and laws. He will do as he’s told by the law Face with rolling eyes. Enough of lawlessness, she added. Many see this as a gathering storm, as many of the mega-churches in Nigeria will fight this in a court of law. Many see the law behind the formation of CAMA, as bad and sinister, in the country. We all know the secular nature of the country; the northern states are predominantly Moslems and the south Christians. The south with many mega churches has made a lot of contritions in Nigeria economy their contribution during the pandemic is notable; many donated tons of food stuff, ambulances, facemask, and a lot more to the people of Nigeria. As employer of labor a church like living faith and the christian redeem church have over 30,000 workers on their payroll working in educational sectors from primary school to universities. There are those who see this move by the government as a misplaced priority, Federal Govt now have power to replace church board of trustees, herdsmen will soon start being heads of churches, one observer remarked. Another said, they should prosecute any religion leader that refused to obey the law. They have their churches in US and UK, obey all their laws but refused to do the same here.The Bible speaks decisively to this issue. Romans 13:1-2 says: “Obey the government, for God is the One who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. So those who refuse to obey the law of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.” but another man finds this line of reasoning as unrelated to the issue at stake and a deliberate attempt to keep the church on a lych, saying, Carrying a bible, or taking part in any Christian related activity is illegal in Somalia, I think Christians there should obey that scripture and covert to Islam, that way they can obey the law of the land. How smart do you sound now…..No scripture stands on its own…..the argument here is not about Tax. In a country of over 80 million, the only viable sectors that seem to do well are the church. this has attracted many critics not knowing their secret of success alluded it to tithing and church collections and for many times the government of the day a moslem has tried one way or the another to reign in thier seeming success. Every sector of the mega churhes is an emblem of great success ,doing what the government can not do even the face of the oil welath. Nigeria is riddled with endermic corruption and nepotism. The northenres haveare awared oilwells and become instant biilonares yet, those wells are located in the soutern part of the country.

Perhaps the truth of the matters was summed up by this contributor who said:

In what way do pastors prevent Nigeria from having industries?

Less than 0.0001% of pastors own Jets in Nigeria. But no, let us forget the over 70% that earn less than 50k/month and focus on the 0.0001% than own jets.

If you ran your governments, the way church leaders are running churches. Nigeria might be a Qatar right now. In all these arguments Canaanland has had stable electricity and water supply for its over 15,000 residents since 1999 and is already on the verge of converting waste to electricity. RCCG is producing 25MW of electricity. Yet your useless Government you pay compulsory tax, vat, CIT, Pet Tax could not give you light decades after independence.

Living Faith has over 16,000 Staff and has owed none of them salary! Yet your state Govt that collects Allocation plus Tax cannot pay full salary.

Living Faith, a single Church, is schooling 16 thousand of your Citizens in Higher institutions and many more at primary and Secondary levels, yet you think you have the capacity to waggle your tongue. Let somebody tell Lauretta Onochie, social media aide of President Muhammadu Buhari, to use her office to tell truth and administer justice and fairness and not give up a good conscience for a morsel of bread. She should focus her energy on fighting for justice for the thousands of Christians that are being killed in Kaduna for their faith.