The Senior Pastor of House on The Rock, Pastor Paul Adefarasin is not in the good books of many young Nigerians, especially netizens, right now and the reason for this is not far-fetched.
Adefarasin has been the target of online vitriol for a few days and there seems to be no end in sight, probably not until Saturday’s presidential election at least.
Adefarasin’s “sin” began to catch the eye of his critics when he released a statement on Sunday disclosing that he was not endorsing any candidate for the general election.
He followed it up by narrating the infamous “Saul” parable, wherein he juxtaposed the Biblical story of Kings Saul and David with the Nigerian political situation.
According to him, Saul would come before David but the former had “half a heart” compared to his successor’s “whole heart”.
In the Nigerian context, he said, Nigerians (whom he called Samuel) must continue to pray for and encourage David.
However, many netizens were not impressed with the pastor’s analogy.
As gleaned from numerous interactions on social media, especially Twitter, many netizens were disappointed that Adefarasin did not toe the line of some of his colleagues, including Dr Paul Enenche of the Dunamis International Gospel Church, who on Monday openly endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) for Saturday’s presidential poll.
There appears to be an unwritten agreement that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) must be punished by Nigerian christendom for fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Many of Adefarasin’s traducers cited his rumoured closeness to the APC top echelon in Lagos for his decision to sit on the fence, an action that many have interpreted to mean tacit support for the ruling party.
Adefarasin specially invited the APC presidential candidate and former Lagos governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, to his wife, Pastor Ifeanyi Adefarasin’s 50th birthday ceremony in September 2022, according to a copy of the supposed invitation letter shared on Twitter.
Adefarasin has also been pictured on numerous occasions with the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is an APC chieftain and political protege of Tinubu.
Adefarasin was criticised for apologising to Sanwo-Olu, whose representative was booed at the popular gospel concert, The Experience in December 2021. Adefarasin’s church organises the concert.
Recall that the Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos state government has been blamed for the presence of soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate, where some youths were killed on October 20, 2020.
Adefarasin’s closeness to the powers-that-be was further manifested when he attended the wedding of former US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, to Michael Boulos, the son of Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire businessman, Massad.
This closeness, many claimed, have invalidated the pastor’s claim of neutrality.