In the last one week or so, there has been an exchange of words between the camps of one of Nigeria’s prominent prophets, Primate Ayodele Elijah, the founder of INRI Evangelical Spiritual church and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
And while it must be noted that the media handlers of the very popular clergy have been most refined and civil with their response, the Adelabu camp, on the hand, have lacked tact and professionalism in their response. They have resorted to name calling and a futile attempt to bring Primate Ayodele’s name to disrepute.
Typical of the renowned Primate, he has remained silent and unmoved by all the rhetoric and mudslinging of the Adelabu camp against his person. He is way too busy with his philanthropic and ministerial works to pay attention to a group of people who have lost all sense of decorum all in their bid to satisfy the whims and caprices of their sponsor. Of course, anyone who knows Primate Ayodele closely will tell you he is possibly the most vocal man of God in the land right now. For a man who constantly speaks truth to power and repeatedly calls out the government and elected public office holders and holds them accountable, everyone knows the last thing you could try with Primate Ayodele is to intimidate him. He literally enjoys watching people in power attempt to intimidate him because he is confident they will be humbled in the end.
When Primate Ayodele decides to take on the high and mighty, he does so with his full chest and stands by the truth without giving a hoot whose ox is gored. But when he considers your ranting as highly inconsequential, he dismisses you and moves on as though you do not even exist. Ask SatGuru Maharaji, when he senselessly took on Primate Ayodele, using his cronies in the media. The Primate never gave him the honor of a minute attention. He totally ignored the man and treated his mindless media attacks as nothing but the ranting of an ant. Today, Guru Maharaji gone tired of his own ranting, his tongue is weak, the house is quiet again. I suspect Primate plans to give the Honourable Minister of Power same silent treatment.
For the benefit of those who missed out on the genesis of the matter, permit us to do a recap for you. A couple of weeks ago, Primate Ayodele had released a prophecy stating categorically that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who also aspires to contest in the coming Oyo state gubernatorial election, will not win the election. He warned that the people of Oke ogun will challenge Ibadan’s dominance in the coming election and that Adelabu stands no chance of becoming the next governor of Oyo state, and except of course, if he seeks the face of God. Primate also affirmed that Teslim Folarin stands a better chance if only he can strategise better and finish as strongly as he often starts his campaigns.
And from the moment the prophecy got into the public space, the Adelabu camp went on rampage. They threw all sorts of tirades at Primate but the globally revered man of God who enjoys very cordial relationship with many African leaders paid no attention to them, focussing only on more significant matters on his table.
Personally, I am surprised that the Honourable Minister and his group of supporters have taken the matter the way they did. The minister needs to climb down from his high horse and try to see how he can even attempt to salvage the situation and turn that prophecy around. Candidly, I will advice that he listens to what the Prophet of God has said or be prepared to get hugely disappointed in the end. The Honourable Minister, to the best of my knowledge is a Muslim, a devout one for that matter, and here you are, taking on a man of God who merely issued a warning to you regarding your governorship ambition? Rather than go confrontational, you should listen to the warning, seek counsel and call on God’s intervention, not engage the man in a war of words.
And, just as the Minister himself knows, we are talking about a Primate Ayodele who has consistently shown incredible accuracies in his prophecies. He has done this time and time again, so why would you dismiss the warnings of a man like that? The intention behind this article is not necessarily to persuade you to listen to Primate Ayodele, it is your choice to ultimately decide what you want. Everything depends largely on how badly you want to become the next governor of Oyo state. But, in the end, I think time will tell.
Perhaps the Minister considers himself as above God, and one who knows better, so he does not need directives of any form from anyone. Perhaps that is the reason why he replied the man of God. And since he has taken it upon himself to not only reply the man of God but also ordered his camp to publicly critisise the man’s prophecy, then I take it that he has very little respect for God and for his prophets.
It is necessary to note that this will be the third gubernatorial attempt of Adebayo Adelabu in his quest to become the Executive governor of Oyo state. “Honourable Minister, you failed in your first attempt to become governor of Oyo state, you failed in your second attempt as well, and from the look of things, you will fail again if you continue with this show of contempt for the words emanating from the man of God. If you’re indeed ready to win the election, and you’re serious about becoming the next governor, then you should not have replied the Primate.
Rather than focus on improving the epileptic power situation in the country, the minister is using tax payers’ money to fund the media campaign against Primate Ayodele, when most parts of the country are perpetually plunged into darkness every single day.”
Personally, I do not think that being a Muslim necessarily means you should not show respect to a man of God. That you are the Minister of Power and close to the President is only by the grace of God, not necessarily because you’re better than the rest. You need to eschew arrogance and exude humility, this, more than brilliance, sometimes, can take a man far beyond his wildest dreams. That you know the President does not always translate to mean victory is assured, it is God that gives victory and makes a man Governor or President. What the man of God has said about the next Oyo governorship election is the position of God on the issue. Ask Andy Uba what happened after Primate Ayodele issued same kind of warning when he also wanted to become governor. Ask Segun Oni of Ekiti state and they will tell you about Primate Ayodele and his prophecies.
It will also be recalled that before the 2023 presidential election, Igbos thought Obi would win the election, it is on record that in January 2023, Primate Ayodele spoke to a section of the media and warned that both Atiku and Obi were not going to win the election because they lacked focus and direction in their approach.
Even as he warned Nigerians not to vote for Tinubu as his regime would bring hardship to the nation, he still called the attention of Atiku and Peter Obi to the message God had for them and made it clear they were not doing enough to win the election.
And today, the rest is history. If the Honourable Minister chooses to throw away the warning of Primate Ayodele, then he has simply shot himself in the foot and will be doing his gubernatorial ambition a big harm. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
