By Kemi Kasumu
Primate Ayodele welcoming broadcasting ace and evangelist, Taiwo Akinsola, to the event.
Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele (JP), Founder and Spiritual Head of INRI Evangelical and Spiritual Church, Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos is one Christian leader that is not cut out for show. That he exemplifies in all of his actions, reason he refused to accept that his birthday this year was not a day of celebration of birth but of thanksgiving.
“Yes, today is my birthday but I am not celebrating birthday but just giving thanks to God Almighty.”
In giving thanks to Almighty, the INRI Church founder did one thing that is rare of any Christian leader in Southern Nigeria, as he chose this year to invite the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III as leader of the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria and other prominent leaders as a mark of a deliberate effort to blend Nigerians together as one united in peace and harmony.
The Sultan was represented at the event by Sarki Hausa of Lagos State Alhaji Yaro.
Ayodele also gave out gifts including a car, tricycle and cash donations in appreciation of dedication and sincerity of some of his Church members and gave pilgrimage tickets of Jerusalem and Makkah to both Christians and Muslims, respectively.
All of those gifts, the Ikere Ekiti-born member of the Lord’s Vineyard, said were things he needed to do to foster peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians just like, according to him, the Sultan of Sokoto had done since he ascended to the throne both as Sultan and as President-General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
Primate Ayodele said there was the need for inter-religious body which would ensure that Nigerian religious groups actually co-exist peacefully without hate and fight. Only this way, he said, the country could progress.
Primate Ayodele, who addressed the press supported by another man of God and astute broadcaster, Mr. Taiwo Akinsola, said he would not comment on Southern Kaduna crisis until he had gone to see and hear things for himself at the scene of crisis.
He said, “I want to go to Southern Kaduna and see things for myself before I make my comment. If I don’t do that and I make comment, you will criticise me and I will be helpless because I cannot defend my position as I would only have spoken on ear say. Look at a pastor saying don’t eat cow. That is not the best. If you don’t eat cow, are you breeding any cow that you and others can eat? There should be regulation even in Christendom. I don’t belong to CAN, PFN and I don’t want to belong to any of them because they don’t tell themselves the truth,” he said.
The Primate however warned that there should be no killing of Christians neither of Muslims in any part of the country.
Ayodele, who during the thanksgiving event honoured the Sultan, said “the Sultan has done greatly in ensuring peace and harmony among Nigerians that I can only urge Christian leaders to buckle up and do the same thing by bringing everybody together for the peace of the nation.”
The spiritual leader INRI Church said there were quite a lot of jobs for the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to do better than what it was currently doing.
To Primate Ayodele, there are a lot of people in the prisons whose case had not been decided and who were Christians.
He had expected that CAN, if active, should have visited the various prison yards to determine the extent of such problem and take up their matter.
He reiterated his advice that President Muhammadu Buhari should work on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in order for things to get better with management of the economy.
Ayodele has a particularly different attitude to prophecy and that has continued to stand him out among his peers even in the face of turbulence that confronts many others who are tagged prophets of doom.
Nothing that he said had been found to be false, nonetheless, he says anytime that his negative prophecy comes to past he feels so bad because the people concerned pays no heed. He however believes that prophecies are not meant to deplete but help the shapers of the society in their duties.
