After last week Thursday's Abuja meeting with
President Goodluck Jonathan with some
Pentecostal pastors including Bishops David
Oyedepo of Winners Chapel and Felix
Omobude, the PFN president, PDP political
strategists are unconvinced how much the
pastors can truly deliver on their promises to
help the President.
It would be recalled that at the secret
meeting in Abuja, President Jonathan
confessed, "Osinbajo is my problem".
According to those at the meeting, the
President added, "everything was okay until
APC picked Osinbajo."
It is believed that this conclusion was reached
by the President after extensive discussions
with his political advisers and strategists on
the APC's choice of the law professor cum
pastor of the RCCG as General Muhamadu
Buhari's running mate.
A source at the meeting said while offers of
oil blocks are being made to some of the top
pastors at the meeting, PDP strategists are
warning the president that General Muhamadu
Buhari's running mate, Pastor Yemi Osinbajo
is not just a senior pastor trained by the
General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor E.A.
Adeboye, but a beloved spiritual son of the
highly respected religious leader.
The concern of the PDP strategists is that
their (the pastors') promises to support
Jonathan's second term ambition may not
after all hold much water.
Said another source, "Adeboye values loyalty
and Osinbajo is widely known to be very loyal
to the General Overseer of the RCCG."
President Jonathan's political strategists are
believed to be looking for means to break that
bond, but the General Overseer has simply
refused to allow himself to be so politically
encumbered.
A source said, for instance, that Adeboye did
not attend the meeting last Thursday as he
has said he would be apolitical since there are
members of the church in both APC and PDP.
But PDP strategists say coming from the
same Pastor who publicly blessed Jonathan
before the 2011 election, that was a sign
things have changed.
Perhaps not sure of the kind of reception,
Jonathan himself had last month stayed away
from the December 2014 Holy Ghost
Congress, the same event in 2010 where
"Daddy G.O" , as he is fondly called by RCCG
members, had publicly blessed him. Only a
minister from his government, Dr. Tammy
Wenike Danagogo, Sports Minister was in
attendance and being an RCCG member, the
minister was not introduced as representing
Jonathan at the event.
One of the very close pastors to the RCCG
leader said Jonathan's absence from that
event " was a mistake on the president's
part."
Some PDP members also point to the public
appearance of Pastor Adeboye with General
Buhari at the New Year thanksgiving service
of Lagos State as proof that Adeboye will not
abandon his spiritual children whenever they
need him. The PDP strategists are also
reminding President Jonathan that Adeboye
okayed it that Osinbajo should accept the
offer of a running mate from General Buhari
even before it was eventually decided and
announced by General Buhari.
An RCCG inside source said "Pastor Adeboye
is known to have helped some of his pastors
and spiritual sons even when they err and fall
into troubles, why then do you think, he will
not do everything to help his loyal pastor who
is being promoted in answer to his prayers."
The source said in training many of his
pastors several years back, Pastor Adeboye
had always given them his word that he would
personally be there for them in their hour of
need, a promise he has endured to fulfill even
under very challenging circumstances.
Yemi Osibajo, Muhammadu Buhari, Gov. Raji
Fashola, Pastor EA Adeboye and Mrs.
Adeboye during the annual Lagos Thanksgiving
service in Ikeja
There is therefore an acute confusion among
PDP Campaign leaders, and the president's
advisers on the effectiveness of the secret
meeting held last week with the pastors, and
exposing the division among the pastors who
attended.
Now, President Jonathan is being advised to
do more, possibly to reach out directly to the
General Overseer for a more public outing with
him as the elections draw near. For instance,
they cited the impact of Pastor Adeboye's
presence a the President's adopted daughter's
wedding ceremony earlier this January 2015 in
Abuja. It is believed that after his public
appearance with General Buhari earlier in
January at the annual thanksgiving service,
Adeboye's visit to the wedding in the
president's family restored some hope of his
"neutrality."
However inside sources at the RCCG say
Pastor Adeboye is not very particularly
enamoured of President Jonathan because as
the source disclosed "the president has not
been as obedient to Pastor Adeboye as one
would expect."
For instance, the source said Adeboye had
asked Jonathan, not to run for a second term,
and instead choose to support someone else,
but Jonathan said ok, but still went ahead to
run. This happened even before Osinbajo's
name was mentioned as a serious potential
running mate.
Others say Adeboye's close relationship with
Obasanjo, is another reason he could not
possibly support the president the way he did
in 2011.
On the other hand, there are those on the
APC side who think that Pastor Adeboye
should do more, now that a very senior pastor
he personally loves and counsels is on the
presidential ticket, a first in the history of
RCCG, the fastest growing church in Africa.
APC members also discount Pastor Adeboye's
attendance at the recent Jonathan 's
daughter's wedding in Abuja, saying even
former President Olusegun Obasanjo was
there.
Meanwhile, Bishop David Oyedepo may have
run into trouble with former President
Olusegun Obasanjo over his role in the secret
meeting with other PFN pastors in Abuja last
week.
A source revealed after the news of the
meeting became public knowledge that it was
Obasanjo who had saved Oyedepo's neck
when he ran foul of the law in Ogun State and
the APC Governor Ibikunle Amosun's
government was perfecting his arrest and
prosecution.
Bishop Oyedepo's aides had assaulted some
state government staff who were on visitation
to one of the schools owned by the Bishop for
assessment. It was alleged that it was
Oyedepo who ordered the assault on the
officials, provoking the government to threaten
legal and criminal charges against him.
In the circumstances, Oyedepo reportedly ran
to Obasanjo, who then asked him to come
over right away to his residence, where the
former president also invited Governor
Amosun to amicably resolve the matter.
A source said Obasanjo may have been
disappointed that despite Oyedepo's personal
knowledge of his disavowal of Jonathan, the
Bishop was still working hard to support his
second term ambition.
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