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How Nigerian pastors mismanaged N700 million i gave for microfinance- Sunday Adelaja

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Sunday Adelaja

Pastor Sunday Adelaja has been been answering questions from Church Times. Here is just one of the many questions he answered recently.

You were able to raise 200 millionaires in US dollars and you are looking forward to lifting people out of poverty in Nigeria. But you began a microfinance in Nigeria called GS (God and Son) which had collapsed. Don’t you think you are only having a fantasy about the Nigeria situation?

ANSWER

Well, first, I think I should be commended for even thinking about Nigeria. I think I should also be commended for wanting to come and alleviate poverty off my people instead of desiring to build a mansion for myself.

Did you know the money I used to start the microfinance bank in Nigeria was withdrawn from the mortgage of my house here? I risked and put online everything that I had here. This is about 200 million naira which I brought to Nigeria not to buy a house for myself. For a fact, I still do not have a house in Nigeria up until today. I haven’t repaired my grandmother’s house where I grew up, and I haven’t done anything in my village.

But, I went to put that money in Lagos, in the hands of Nigerians who are pastors and I told them that the only thing I want is for them to do this as a microfinance bank to help people. They came to Ukraine to do a presentation to convince me that they understood what I wanted.

So, I said go and use this money which is a product of all my years of savings in Europe. I gave this money down to be used not for my family, my children or my siblings in Nigeria, but to be used for all Nigerians including my relatives and everybody else. I told them to start this microfinance bank that would help Nigerians.

They gave me assurance that it would grow and expand and they even made a business plan and structure for me that in the next 10, 20 years we’d be able to deliver about 40 million Nigerians from poverty.

But, instead of that, the bank didn’t even last two years before they came back to me reporting that everything was lost. Apart from my own contribution, other people contributed funds summing up to over 700 million naira, which was lost without anything to show for it.

So when people now ask me, why don’t you want to do anything in Nigeria? I tell them, I don’t want to do anything in Nigeria until I arrive. I need to be in Nigeria and see things by myself.

I cannot trust people because the people I trusted are pastors belonging to some of the most reputable churches in the country. This is a proof that what they are taught in their churches and what they are teaching others is wrong. We don’t have Christianity anymore in Nigeria. We don’t have values in our people. These pastors are just taking advantage of people.

So, I don’t know what has happened to my money and the 700 million naira we put into the economy. Hence, I am not to blame for the collapse of the microfinance bank. It could be that my fault was trusting people and I wouldn’t risk it anymore.

Before I start to do anything in Nigeria, I would have to come first.

 

5 comments

Samuel O. Laraiyetan June 19, 2018 - 8:38 pm
It is unfortunate. Those who have ability do not have opportunity and those who have opportunity do not have ability.
Daughter Zion June 20, 2018 - 5:53 pm
This is very sad, did these pastors shared the money among themselves? How can N700 million vanish in two years? What happened to the plan they presented to Pastor Adelaja as he stated in the article (copied here) ... "They gave me assurance that it would grow and expand and they even made a business plan and structure for me that in the next 10, 20 years we’d be able to deliver about 40 million Nigerians from poverty". Are these not 419 pastors? These group of pastors will definitely collect tithes from the proceeds of prostitution, yahoo yahoo boys, armed robbers, kidnappers, ritualist, etc. without feeling bad, their conscience have been smeared. If they can scam a fellow pastor, can you imagine what they are doing to their church members. Nigerian Christians, open your eyes, free yourselves from these 419 pastors, remove the chains of religion that they have used to bind you, know the Bible and God for yourself, stop giving your sweat, hard-earned money to these lazy pastors. None of these pastors can say they have a higher calling than Paul the Apostle and yet Paul still made tents to support himself as stated in Acts18:1-4 ...After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks." Note in verse 4 that Paul still preaches in the synagogue in addition to his tent-making job. So what are Nigerian pastors doing with their time - programs after programs, one anointing service to another, one building project to another, they do all these and more to occupy themselves and use it as an excuse for not having a secular job not even a part-time job to at least help themselves and their families if not the church. Only in heaven will we know the true Christians, no wonder the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2: 19 - "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." .
joe osifo June 21, 2018 - 5:02 pm
i am mot suprised that the funds went down the drain. in a society where there is crase for money and mediocrity is the order of day,ypu shouldn't expect sterling outcome.
Olusegun Olurin June 21, 2018 - 7:48 pm
l know its hard to do, but the reporter ought to balance the story by investigating the claim of this Pastor. Afterwards, names and Church should be published. As things stand now, its like giving the whole Pastors in Nigeria bad name. Please do due diligence name and shame them if its true. Pastor Adelaja has done his own bit, the newspaper must for the needful.
Daughter Zion June 22, 2018 - 5:30 pm
Mr. Olurin, It is true that this article makes other innocent pastors look bad. But the problem is that some of the innocent ones have bought into the culture of silence. How will the public perceive the news if Pastor Sunday Adelaja names all the pastors he gave the money? Would it not look as if he is trying to tarnish their names and their ministries? Pastor Adelaja already has a bad name among the few men of God (and their members) he corrected on his social media platform, creating this list will just fuel the already burning fire of people saying what he did was wrong and that he went too far, he should have corrected them in private. Those who misused the money knows themselves, let them come out, confess and repent. If the money was not misused, let them explain to the public what happened to it.
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