Top 10 FANTASTICALLY Corrupt Pastors and Church Members in Nigeria

Few days ago, David Cameron called us a fantastically corrupt nation and our president agreed with him. I’m very sorry to disappoint you:
I also agree with him. We’re a fantastically corrupt nation indeed. Everywhere you turn in the country, there’s corruption. To do the simplest of things in a government office, you need to bribe one person or the other. Nigerian politicians are some of the most notorious money launderers the world over. Fuel crisis, infrastructural decay, poor health sector, terrible security situation, economic crisis, every negative thing in this country, just name it, can be traced to corruption. And you’re still saying we’re not a fantastically corrupt nation?

But the corruption is happening in the public offices not in church. Why am I bringing the church in? ‘Peter, must you criticize Christianity (and religion as a whole)’, you ask? Well, I like to be focused. Every battle must be strategic or else it will fail. But where does corruption start from? It starts from the mind. And what forms the mind? For most Nigerians, it’s religion. Most people claim to get their morals from their places of worship. So once corruption is established in the places of worship, you can be sure that it’s spreading throughout the whole country. So we can’t but look at these places for causes of the corrupt minds in Nigerians. In a subsequent article, I’ll be looking in details at the link between religion and corruption.

Fantastically corrupt: a perfunctory list of Nigerian millionaire preachers

But let me go straight to the agenda of the day. Everybody agrees that our politics is filled with corrupt souls but that the churches are filled with saints. Well, churches aren’t filled with saints. The pastors and their church members are corrupt. These pastors who have been monumental failures to the nation are being helped by their gullible church members to contribute to the ideology of corruption that has pervaded our society. Ten fantastically corrupt pastors and their church members. More like five fantastically corrupt pastors and five fantastically corrupt church members. The pastors first, then the church members later.

Fantastically Corrupt Pastor #1

One of the meager corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects by the churches. They’re registered as non-profits but the pastors become rich at the expense of the church members.

This is the pastor that asks for donations from church members for gigantic projects. He looks at the faces of those poor people, most of them still finding it difficult to have two meals per day, and he asks them to still give towards some stupendous church projects. He tells them that their poor statuses shouldn’t discourage them from giving to 
God him. He’s a very corrupt fraudster (double negative) as he’s Iiving large at the expense of his impoverished church members. Isn’t that corruption?

They’ve even made themselves into a cabal now. And this cabal has taken over Lagos and it’s environs, all of them competing with one another as to who will erect the biggest auditorium. Their churches are registered as non-profits. So they’re not being taxed. However the pastors spend the money on themselves.

Fantastically Corrupt Pastor #2

This one directly or indirectly encourages his church members to become sudden, overnight successes. All the prayer points he leads his church members in are geared towards ‘sharp sharp’ success. He gives ‘words’ like ‘Before this week runs out, you will receive a phone call of destiny’. There’s even one that calls himself‘Lẹ́sẹ̀kẹsẹ̀’, meaning ‘instantly’. These are the ones that push their church members to steal money from the public coffers so that these prayer points can be actualized instantly. When you listen to their messages, everything is about money. They’ve turned their pulpits to an MBA class. In fact, if you’re in an MBA program, you don’t need to attend lectures. Just listen to their messages and go for your MBA exams.

Fantastically Corrupt Pastor #3

This one uses fake promises to cajole his church members to give. The church members are tantalized with too-good-to-be-true promises of abundant blessings, overwhelming joy, embarrassing success, divine favour, instant miracles, etc. One of them even said that people should give during an economic hardship and that they will withdraw from God later. How convenient! You give to physical men but withdraw from your unseen account with an unseen God. Please, this account is domiciled in what bank? Of course, the fool and his money part ways very easily.

One of the ways to cajole members to keep giving till they become cadavers. Source: Official Facebook account verified by Facebook

Sometimes if that doesn’t work, he uses threats. Devourers of all kinds — children’s sicknesses, sudden debts, business collapse, terrible calamities, etc — are invoked upon the church members. Of course, the church members don’t want God’s wrath upon their heads. They give everything they have and even borrow to give more.