Dr. Moses Iloh, an elder statesman, Reverend pioneering Soul Winning Ministry and advocate of good governance and better life for the poor, in this interview with SUNDAY ODIBASHI in Lagos, laments that falsehood has become more destructive than corruption and has become the root of greater evils in the country.
Are you impressed with the pace of anti-corruption war by the Buhari administration?
At the moment, falsehood has overtaken corruption in the country. The tragedy of falsehood has traversed all spectrum of social organizations in the country, from politics to government, religion and the economy. This has made religion deceptive.
Now, Christianity is not religion, Christianity is life. We have Christ as our Lord, who has highest values like love, peace, patience, and others. As I am talking with you, there is an empty chair beside you, Christ is sitting there. So, we are three persons in this office now. If I tell you lie, I will be punished; when I tell you the truth, he is glorified. Let us not forget that God is omnipresence.
When you enter the pulpit as a pastor, you lie to people but when you go back home, you do the opposite. People are told when going to Church, don’t wear earring, neckless and so on. So, when going to church you dress holy but the moment you leave church and get to your home, you are a tiger or tigress; fighting, shouting. Christianity is the way you repent and relate with God, in the school, market, office, anywhere you are, you remain the same person. So, the soul and the body are one at all time. So, if they do not stop holding Christianity as religion, all these saying about God are nothing.
A pastor will tell you close that door, I don’t want anybody to hear what I am saying. They will, then, takechurch money and say robbery occurred. God is seeing you. You are deceiving yourself, God is omnipresence, omnipotent and omniscience. He knows everything at the same time. He is present everywhere at the same time.
Some Christians will hire prophets, pastors to pray and kill somebody. They pray, shout, speak in tongues but without Christ in them; that is religion. Christianity is when you pray to God to forgive you, saying I forgive them who trespass against me. But Christians want to revenge, punish back, yet they go to God to say forgive us. They have stopped issuing moral instructions, they are now teaching religion – Christianity in the morning, Islam in the afternoon. Which one are the children to believe or follow. We don’t need religious knowledge in our schools, we need to teach morals, ethical values.
We are fighting corruption, you loot the public treasury, take part of your loot, share to police, lawyers, judges and even prosecutors. Every one, then, give false information and you are set free or destroy the case.
Corruption means spoiling, telling lies. Today, in Nigeria, you find people raping their daughters, sisters, some, their mothers. They have gone somewhere and a spiritualist tells a lie to them. I will give you something; you must have sex with your mother or sister, then, you will get money and be rich. The lie has misled people. He told him when you start doing any of these things, you will be rich. So, the task now is to fight falsehood, otherwise, the fight against corruption will be nothing.
There is lie everywhere in Nigeria, those in government – ministers, permanent secretaries, directors, even judges, lawyers are lying. Then, how do you fight corruption.
Jesus washed his disciples’ feet; pastors, bishops can’t do that. In fact, you are a member of a church, you can’t see your pastor; the protocol is so much, that is corruption; they are spoiling the mind of the people about Christ. They are going to destroy this country. So, we have to fight falsehood; to fight falsehood is not just talking about it but to practice the truth.
Churches nowadays lie more than the devil. Pastors will say God say 10 of you should bring N10,000 for a particular blessing but God never said so, then, nothing happens afterwards. When you come next time and say God say, they look at you as a liar. So, unless we fight falsehood, we cannot fight corruption. They lie about God and collect people’s money. You are a Bishop flying private jet but people in your church don’t have transport fare to go home after service. You collect people’s money, build schools – universities, secondary – but children of those who contributed the money cannot attend those schools because of high fees.
Beggars now go to hire children and lie they are widows to collect money from people. In Nigeria, you cannot get money from people unless you lie.
Having said all these, do they validate the controversial regulation by Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) to control the Church, Mosque?
Where did anybody hear God say there is fixed duration to work for him. They are trying to cause confusion. It is even on record that the person who misguided the government is a pastor. People wouldn’t have worried themselves about the law, government would have arrest us, then, we will put a curse on that government. A renegade from government who is a sinner, who is satanic, made a law to stop God’s work and want us to abide. Then, the shameful thing is that Adeboye of the Redeemed Church resigned to appoint a Nigerian successor. Whose disciple are you.
One day, they will say you cannot operate more than one church outfit. They opened the space for government to interfere because they have turned the church to religion. However, they cannot stop us from doing God’s work.
Now, some church leaders support it, obeying it. Where do you learn this from; live like Christ and do not look unto men. Didn’t they take Christ to court twice and the kings who stood in judgment told people that brought him they cannot find this man guilty of anything. The man was in a church, a pastor, then, he went to government to fight the church, that is satanic.
The arrest of Apostle Suleiman over his comment on Southern Kaduna killings, do you think that is persecution of the Church?
Well, the fact is that there is no reason why you should kill anybody, whether you are a Muslim or Christian. God created man in His own image, why destroy the image of God. There is punishment for killing. If the man said Christians should kill back, you can’t fight for God. God will punish killers; whatever you sow, that is what you will reap. They kill Christians and southerners in Maiduguri, now, in Southern Kaduna, they are going to pay for it. Nobody should put himself in the place of God, we rather ask them to repent. A commandment says, thou shall not kill. There are repercussions for killing; both on the killer and the land. Don’t those Muslims hear what they call in their Islamic religion wutan la hira, that means hell fire. Is it waiting for animals, it is waiting for human beings who disobey God. All who are killing Nigerians will be punished by God, including their lands. They will suffer for it. Fighting them, physically, is like taking the place of God. You kill, when you die, you go to hell fire. Who will not die, the killers will also die. When you kill anybody, you will pay for it. So, they need to repent.
Do you support the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, who said Muslims leaders in the North should begin to train the girl child rather than building Mosques?
The Emir of Kano is trying to redirect leadership in the North on the right path. His advocacy is overdue. Which Emir in the North that does not have formal education, that did not attend good schools from secondary, technical to university. Then, they restrict children of other people to attending Islamic schools or go begging on the streets. Sanusi is a product of good education. Northern leaders give them poor religion; religion that makes you a beggar. They should come up with proper policy on education that will send people to learn modern civilization and contribute to the development of the North.
What is your take on the controversies over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari?
One thing to know is that the common agenda of all the fraudulent politicians and business people, the corrupt people, the only agenda among them is to kill Buhari. That is their agenda and they will not stop until Buhari is dead but they are not God and God will not allow them succeed. If you allow all political parties to come together to remove Buhari, in 24 hours, they will come together because their common agenda is to kill Buhari in resistance or effort to stop him from fighting corruption.
I heard somebody saying it is the turn of the Ibos to take over the Presidency in 2019. Is that not evil wish, didn’t the constitution say if you are a President, you are entitle to have two terms. Somebody even attempted to have three terms. Buhari has not finished one term, you are already projecting his successor after four years. That is huge mischief. God that put Buhari there will allow him to do what He sent him to do. In Nigeria, who has exposed the magnitude of corruption in the country as Buhari has done? Buhari exposed them and they will never forgive him. So, the general agendum for politicians and all the rich robbers is to kill Buhari so they can have their way. Buhari may not be able to destroy corruption but he has shamed the corrupt. After all, Buhari is human, is there any human being who will not die but they cannot kill him.