You Missed It, Akpandem James Replies Akinrinade on Pastor Adeboye

Akpandem James, former Media Adviser to the immediate past Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Udoma Udoma, barely allowed the ink with which Mr. Tunde Akinrinade, a United States-based technocrat, wrote his article: Nigerians and Their Self-righteousness, to dry before firing a rejoinder.

In the article published in The Crest, on Monday, April 6, 2020, Akinrinade had berated both Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer, Worldwide, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, and Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, for breaking the government’s order forbidding any assembly with more than 50 people.

This was one of the initial measures taken by government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the article, Akinrinade had alleged that the two mega churches held their full worship services on March 22, 2020, thus making their followers to contravene the law. This was shortly before the Federal Government shut down Lagos, Abuja and Ogun as the pandemic continued to spike.

But in his short and sharp rebuttal, Akpandem, also an ex-Assistant Secretary to the 2014 National Conference in Abuja, said Akinrrinade missed the point because, according to him, all RCCG parishes, nationwide, were under lock and key that day.

“I agree with his (Tunde Akinrinade’s) position (in the said article); it’s only that Pastor Adeboye did not ask members to attend church service on the day mentioned, neither did he hold any service in any parish himself. He, in fact, asked members to stay at home and join the Sunday service or any other major church programme on Dove TV, RCCG’s TV channel.

He himself preached from the studios of the TV station on the day mentioned here, not from any church parish.

Tunde may have confused the Thursday Holy Ghost service beamed on Dove TV for a normal service because of the crowd. If he had watched the telecast himself, he would have noticed that the clips that had crowd presence were sessions recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

These were clearly indicated by the scrolls rolled anytime any such session came up. These were basically during the intercessory prayer and Thanksgiving sessions which ran between 6.00pm and 8.30pm before Pastor Adeboye came in to preach. Even then, he was preaching from an office, not the church pulpit. He also explained why he had to preach from there and why he was sitting down as opposed to his usual standing while preaching.

From day 1 when the rule was given out, all RCCG parishes were clearly instructed not to hold any service that would attract more than the stipulated numbers. That was why house fellowships were encouraged instead of the normal church service.

I know all these because I attend the RCCG in Abuja. Our parish which is in Asokoro has not held any physical service or meetings in the last three weeks. All communication are online. In fact, the parish pastor created a WhatsApp platform from where he sends scriptures and related messages everyday.