Olusegun Oyegbami is an economist, an oil industry
player, he is also the author of the book titled:
‘Reversing the Rot in Nigeria’. The economist in a
recent interview with Vanguard gave some in-depth
analysis of how Nigeria got into the current recession
and what he thinks of Nigeria's men of God.
Olusegun Oyegbami
First he spoke on the reason for the recession
saying: "The over dependence on oil has actually led
us into the situation we are in.
"Before the discovery of oil, agriculture happened to
be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and it was
providing employment for the teeming population.
"But when oil was discovered, we forgot about
agriculture. We have also been running the oil
industry in a fraudulent manner, manipulating
everything. For now, we are just deceiving ourselves
on the fight against corruption."
Then Oyegbami delved into the religious lives of
Nigerians, attacking what he called 'so-called men
of God'. Oyegbami says: "When life has become
hopeless for people, they want to take any chance at
all costs to get their bearings right.
"It is this kind of hopelessness that the so-called
men of God exploit to even render them more
prostrate, and that’s why I said that politicians
have destroyed people’s lives.
"They have made them to become hopeless and now,
in “going to God”, they have ended up being
deceived further and their situation is exploited and
the society becomes even worse.
"So, my postulation in the book is that there are
really no men of God anywhere, anybody who is
talking of God is doing it for his own personal
benefits.
"That is why we now have the so-called men of God
competing with politicians in the material
acquisition of wealth, such that we now have men
of God in Nigeria acquiring aeroplanes and building
estates, amassing material properties, which is
actually in contrast to what the Bible and the
Quran teach."
The author, also spoke on the high cost of tuition in
universities owned by churches, saying: "But the
men of God in Nigeria do not pull punches a bit.
"They are running universities where the tuition
fees are very high, because the sector is not put in
proper shape by government.
"These “men of God” take advantage of the situation
just to make money. That is why we now have so
many churches having universities.
"The money paid by people through their noses
should have been enough to provide standard
facilities and quality education if government were
sincerely running the sector."
In conclusion, he spoke about the place of religion
and politics, saying: "Religion has been a key factor
in politics, and that is why people think a Muslim/
Christian ticket will fly in the country than a single
religion domination.
"Can we separate religion from politics? In the first
place, religion is divisive. Religion is not actually
helping society to get it right. The problem we have
in Nigeria is that we are almost 50:50 Muslims to
Christians in our religious orientation.
"This is a negative influence in our
developmental process. In any society where
everybody is looking towards a direction, they tend
to make more progress, than when you now have
religious dichotomy."
Meanwhile, only recently, a South African Pastor
Rufus Phala was caught on camera given a member
of his church antiseptic liquid, Dettol, to drink.
The pastor popularly known as Prophet Rufus is
the general overseer of AK Spiritual Christian
Church in Makgodu, Limpopo.
player, he is also the author of the book titled:
‘Reversing the Rot in Nigeria’. The economist in a
recent interview with Vanguard gave some in-depth
analysis of how Nigeria got into the current recession
and what he thinks of Nigeria's men of God.
Olusegun Oyegbami
First he spoke on the reason for the recession
saying: "The over dependence on oil has actually led
us into the situation we are in.
"Before the discovery of oil, agriculture happened to
be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and it was
providing employment for the teeming population.
"But when oil was discovered, we forgot about
agriculture. We have also been running the oil
industry in a fraudulent manner, manipulating
everything. For now, we are just deceiving ourselves
on the fight against corruption."
Then Oyegbami delved into the religious lives of
Nigerians, attacking what he called 'so-called men
of God'. Oyegbami says: "When life has become
hopeless for people, they want to take any chance at
all costs to get their bearings right.
"It is this kind of hopelessness that the so-called
men of God exploit to even render them more
prostrate, and that’s why I said that politicians
have destroyed people’s lives.
"They have made them to become hopeless and now,
in “going to God”, they have ended up being
deceived further and their situation is exploited and
the society becomes even worse.
"So, my postulation in the book is that there are
really no men of God anywhere, anybody who is
talking of God is doing it for his own personal
benefits.
"That is why we now have the so-called men of God
competing with politicians in the material
acquisition of wealth, such that we now have men
of God in Nigeria acquiring aeroplanes and building
estates, amassing material properties, which is
actually in contrast to what the Bible and the
Quran teach."
The author, also spoke on the high cost of tuition in
universities owned by churches, saying: "But the
men of God in Nigeria do not pull punches a bit.
"They are running universities where the tuition
fees are very high, because the sector is not put in
proper shape by government.
"These “men of God” take advantage of the situation
just to make money. That is why we now have so
many churches having universities.
"The money paid by people through their noses
should have been enough to provide standard
facilities and quality education if government were
sincerely running the sector."
In conclusion, he spoke about the place of religion
and politics, saying: "Religion has been a key factor
in politics, and that is why people think a Muslim/
Christian ticket will fly in the country than a single
religion domination.
"Can we separate religion from politics? In the first
place, religion is divisive. Religion is not actually
helping society to get it right. The problem we have
in Nigeria is that we are almost 50:50 Muslims to
Christians in our religious orientation.
"This is a negative influence in our
developmental process. In any society where
everybody is looking towards a direction, they tend
to make more progress, than when you now have
religious dichotomy."
Meanwhile, only recently, a South African Pastor
Rufus Phala was caught on camera given a member
of his church antiseptic liquid, Dettol, to drink.
The pastor popularly known as Prophet Rufus is
the general overseer of AK Spiritual Christian
Church in Makgodu, Limpopo.