Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina took a swipe at preachers on Thursday night, saying their “unguarded comments” inflame the insecurity engulfing Nigeria.
He made this known in a piece titled, ‘Inciting comments are part of insecurity’.
Adesina’s scathing criticism followed the sacking of a Chief Imam of an Abuja mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Khalid, who censured the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) for failure to protect Nigerians.
The remonstration of the presidential aide also followed the dissatisfaction openly expressed by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who last Sunday, knocked Buhari over his handling of Nigeria’s worsening security challenges.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also lamented that Nigerians are no longer safe on the road, on the train and at the airport, noting that Buhari has been overwhelmed by Nigeria’s complex security challenges.
However, Adesina said the detractors of his principals see no good in the regime but “they only talk of how you can’t travel by road, by rail, by air, and how nobody is safe anywhere in the country. How Federal Government is allegedly overwhelmed by security challenges. They trumpet only the things that give the impression of total anarchy.”
He added, “These instigators cut across all class of people. Former leaders, current political actors, pastors, imams, social commentators, talk show hosts (and hostesses), so-called human rights activists, socio-political groups, and many others. All they want is to give a sense of anomie in the land, and divert attention from whatever is going right…
“When negative things happen, like the sad and evil attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, they pretend to be sympathizing with the country. But their choice of words gives them out. They are who the Good Book calls ‘miserable comforters’. They are merely adding petrol to a flaming fire, and salt to injury. Under the umbrella of condolence, they are taking potshots at a government they both fear and hate…
“They pretend to be speaking truth to power, but you can see through the facade if you are discerning. You can tell the truth without inciting or instigating people against leadership. What they want is chaos, disorder, anarchy, all in the name of ‘speaking truth to power.’ Liars. Anarchists. People who have not made successes of their own homes or personal affairs, now attempting to dictate how the country should run.
“If a preacher brings down fire seemingly from Heaven, but speaks evil about the leadership of his own country, he impresses me not. Because the Good Book enjoins us to pray for those in authority, for there can be no power, except the one God has ordained. He installs kings and deposes them.
“Even as a preacher, Christian, Muslim, God has not ceded that authority to you. He sits in Heaven and makes the earth His footstool. The clouds of the sky are the dust of His feet. That is God, and no man should compete with Him. But uncouth language is the stock-in-trade of some preachers today. Words are no longer seasoned with grace.”
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