Malaria Vaccines in Africa: Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and the BBC Attack

By Ifeanyi Izeze

Ordinarily, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report launched last Thursday against the President of the Believers Loverworld aka Christ Embassy Church, Rev Chris Oyakhilome would have been dismissed as another in the media outfit’s now familiar anti-African sterile academic adventures but for the obvious picture deliberately painted by the report which in itself smells of a well-sponsored smear campaign.

Not sure what they mean by this, but it is curious that either by omission or deliberate commission, the writers of the report were referred to by the organisation as “BBC Global Disinformation Team”. Were they assembled to educate and inform their readers and followers or to deliberately disinform them? Let’s leave that for another day’s talk!

Captioned: “Chris Oyakhilome: Nigerian Pastor pushing malaria vaccine conspiracy theories”, the BBC report published on Thursday, April 18, 2024 on its news site alleged that Pastor Chris has been spreading anti-vaccine messages to his followers, specifically targeting the new malaria vaccine as it is being distributed in African countries.

As said in the report, “We need to find a way to regulate preachers like him.”

Why is the BBC coming out in this manner?

The script they’re following is the one that labels anyone who questions the effectiveness and efficacy of vaccines with yoke tags such as “Anti-Vaxers.” This is because Pastor Chris has questioned the efficacy and effectiveness of vaccines including the notoriously harmful Covid-19 vaccine and its recently birthed sibling: the anti-malaria vaccine.

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Now, it’s the antimalarial vaccine that they’re trying to push which Africans are rejecting in mass numbers. The BBC blames the Pastor for this apathy of Africans towards the vaccine and has labelled him as an “Anti-vax.”

From all indications, the Pastor is only sounding an alarm like the biblical watchman he is, to forewarn not only his followers but every other person whohas ears to hear particularly those in authorityin African and Asian countries to look beyond the surface lines to be sure what they are getting is what they were told it was?

Does the BBC need any tutoring to know the difference between a conspiracy theorist and a watchman (as a preacher) which in recent terminology is called a ‘whistleblower’? From all he’s doing on this matter whether they want to hear it or not, Pastor Chris is clearly the latter rather than the former.

Fact is that for many of us, we have been expecting this kind of report but truth be told, we expected something more pungent and mentally stimulating; certainly not the shallow and petty assemblage that was published by the vain-glorying BBC.

If you would do a quick study, you would find that this is not the first or even the second time, the BBC has produced unbalanced and clearly biased articles with either an axe to grind or a clear agenda.

For instance, in its recent article on Pastor Chris, the BBC was clever to make Malaria vaccines the headline and objective. Yet, anyone who has followed the Pastor even from a distance over the years, would tell you that he has been on a warpath with Big Pharma since the COVID Vax era and that practically everything he has said concerning the COVID Vax has been proven to be accurate. Why did the BBC not controvert this rather than preying on the emotions of people by saying ‘Pastor Chris is spreading false and misleading information on Malaria Vaccines?’

Of course, The BBC conveniently left out the fact that just a few years ago, Pfizer had to cough out millions of dollars in damages by a Nigerian Court for the harmful effect of polio vaccines which crippled hundreds or even thousands of Nigerian children, especially in the northern parts of the country.

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Definitely, it was anticipated that sooner or later, they (the vaccine sponsors/curators) would initiate an anti-Pastor Chris commentary based on his avowed stance on the actual goal of the vaccines being sent to African and Asian countries. So the BBC report may just be the beginning of a coordinated smear to checkmate the Pastor by the drivers of this opaque agenda.

Make no mistake, the BBC’s commentary alleging that Pastor Chris is spreading false information on vaccines (Vax) does not sprout from any altruistic or moral standpoint in a bid to protect the sick and vulnerable in Africa or elsewhere. It comes from a need to protect its bottomline (by protecting the bottom line of its top paymasters). The Big Pharma Corps is amongst the media outfits big patronizers in ads so it’s clear the BBC is only acting out a script and to dance in sync with the pipers’ tune.

To show that this article was not one that came overnight and that they have been watching him closely for a long time, they even confessed that they were at the church’s last annual convention tagged: IPPC in November last year and that “there were tens of thousands of Pastors and Partners from all over the world in attendance at Asese. They went on to mention Asese specifically. So they have been spying on the church for a long time.

If Pastor Chris was not above-board and had skeletons in his cupboard, of a surety the BBC would have found them out and blown it most likely out of proportion by now. So what does it do in the absence of that? It puts up a quote of one or two unidentified persons who said they ‘left the Church’ on account of the Pastor’s stand on vaccines, in a feeble attempt to disparage him and raise credibility issues.

If people were really leaving the Church in droves as claimed, would the pastor be considered a threat sufficient to warrant the publication of the article by the BBC?

Isn’t it a bundle of contradiction by the BBC to on one hand even state that they were at the church’s annual Pastors and Partners Conference tagged IPPC in November last year and that “there were tens of thousands of Pastors and Partners from all over the world in attendance at Asese.” If people were indeed leaving in droves, who do the stated tens of thousands of pastors attending the conference preside over?

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Truth be told, all Pastor Chris did in reaching the conclusions he did with regard to the vaccines, was dig out and share videos of expert opinions across the world for everyone to see on his flagship program; Your Loveworld Specials. The videos were not his creations. They were all gotten from YouTube and other internet channels. And those videos were expert opinions that those under the influence of Big Pharma have refused by outright commission to share like it happened during the Covid era. They are now even forcing YouTube to pull down most of those videos so people don’t have access to them.

So, what exactly is the crime of Pastor Chris? Sharing credible expert opinions on his platforms and leaving the followers to reach the same conclusions he reached.

The BBC interestingly accused him of lying about the extent of his reach quoting from a source as justification for reaching this conclusion.

If Pastor Chris was actually making a whopper as alleged by the BBC, as to the extent of his reach, why is Big Pharma and by extension, the BBC so concerned as to make him a target for their smear attack? Do you think they would have reacted like they did, if he was only reaching just a few hundreds of thousands in remote places?

Ordinarily, its sponsors (Big Pharma) would have pulled the plugs (on Pastor Chris); yanked him off YouTube channels and social media platforms but they are unable to do so.

Pastor Chris not only has his own exclusive internet gateway into the cyber world (completely free of external interference) with his own social media platforms, TV and Radio networks with direct access and 100 percent control.

In other words, it is completely impossible to gag him. The fact that he has such a widespread reach is an even bigger problem for them.

The real crux of the matter has remained the question Pastor Chris has been asking: “How do you expect those who openly campaigned for Population Reduction, to go ahead to produce vaccines that will save lives?” The World Health Organisation (WHO) and all its ancillary organs (including public and private interests) have successfully ignored to answer this because it’s just like the question that the Lord Jesus Christ asked the Jewish leaders on the source of John’s ministry: “The baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven, or of men?”

Whether they want to hear this or not, Pastor Chris’ followers are in no way being misled or deceived at all rather they are waking up to the reality that everyone has been “lied to” about vaccination in Africa! This is morning!

(IFEANYI IZEZE writes from Abuja and can be reached on: [email protected]