Lorine Emenike
Bishop Ufuoma Bernard, the bishop of Godist church in Oyibo, has lamented the scramble for money in later day Christendom.
The Bishop while addressing newsmen in a press conference, on Sunday for its 48th years anniversary, said that religion which is supposed to be about service has seen educational facilities owned by both Orthodox and non Orthodox churches become too expensive for averages Church members’ children to attend.
Bishop Bernard said the Godist Church was first rediscovered by him in 1985 in Lagos State at the age of 21, “so every 7th August of every year the church anniversary is being celebrated” he said.
Bishop Bernard said: “Godist is an uncommon church, Godism has come to correct religious fallacies. Great religion are built on ideas, Godism is more like a refinery on mankind.
Religion is dangerous, religion enslaves people”
On the activities of some religious leaders in the country, Bishop Bernard said, “Religion is suppose to be transcendental, religion is suppose to be about service, a church is suppose to be non profit. But today, educational facilities owned by churches both Orthodox and non Orthodox churches are expensive, even members of the church pay exactly the same fees with non members even when they pay tithes and offering in same churches that own the schools”
“There is a scrambling for money today in Christian churches, there is corruption in today’s religion. If you want to render service, why fight for it, why lobby for it? The church is a society, the church cannot be better than the society. But today it seems that the church has been overwhelmed by the society. What Jesus preached was go ‘ye into the world and change the world’. But today, the world has entered into the church and has changed the focus of the church”
“When the society becomes very poor, religion becomes very rich; because when the government cannot take care of the certain needs of the people, they run to the church. It is not as if the church takes care of it, what the church does at the end of the day is abracadabra. Because, if the church needs anything, the church comes to the members to contribute. But if the members comes to the church for anything, the church tells the members my god will do it for you.
” I advice government to regulate church. No pastor should turn the church to a family business, no child of a founder should take over the church from him.
“I request that the minimum of a diploma in theology should be a requirement before anybody is made pastor. I also suggest that where Nigerians should congregate as a church should be a safe place, a decent place and there should be a toilet facility, there should also he a first aid box. The church should be sanitized, the church should be moderated. If the church is moderated, then I believe every money churches make will be accounted for. The churches today is just like a personal property of the pastor and it ought not to be so”
On his advice to the government and Nigerians, Bishop Bernard said “Godism can help Nigerians if Nigerians can adapt to Godism” which he said is service to God and mankind.
He added that the biggest enemies of Nigerians are politicians, ” they are not God fearing. Our politicians don’t get into politics to serve the masses but to provide for themselves, they are not there to provide security for the masses but themselves, our politicians do not have thinking plan, God is a thinker”
“I suggest that the national assembly, enact laws that will prohibit politicians from sending their children abroad for education. A politician who will not allow his children to school, access both healthcare here in Nigeria, eat with Nigerians must not be allowed to serve Nigerians. And the Nigerian government must get it right with adequate and uninterrupted electricity supply in Nigeria and political positions should be made short terms. If a politician can’t perform well in his first term, he must not be allowed to go back and continue ”
“The Nigerian system is faulty so the system needs to be corrected.
Nigeria does not need restructuring because Nigeria is already restructured.
The Afinifere, Niger Delta, IPOB and others are calling for restructuring, like I said, there is no need for restructuring. What we need is a system overhaul.
My appeal to those in power is that, Nigeria will never make progress until we make sure that recurrent expenditure falls to 40% minimum, then, capital expenditure goes to 60%. Ss it stands now, it is only 20% that is budgeted for capital expenditure, while 80% goes to recurrent expenditure and that 80% only services 1% of the population, politicians and the payment of civil servants salary’s, payment emolument.
“The national assembly is in place, restructuring is in place, we don’t need the national conference. The legislators are in place. They should find out a way to make sure that they make enough money, because every year you see them budgeting this money for that, the truth is that at the end of the day, there is even no cash. They don’t allocate the money but you will see the budget eight trillion.
“If they can free resources for capital projects and actually undertake this projects, we can breach our infrastructural deficits. Because the problem with Nigeria is infrastructural deficits. As it stands now, 25% is to infrastructure, 5% to GDP, for an economy like ours to be able grow at 8-10% we need 75% GDP to infrastructure and we can only achieve this if capital expenditure goes up and recurrent expenditure comes down. So the government should look at this critically, so that they can free money for security, for electricity, for health, for education. I believe with this components, the economy will move on. It is not prayer, prayer will not take us anywhere”
