He is one of the long-standing prophets in Nigeria. He is a man renowned for his accuracy and integrity when it comes to prophecies. That is why Prophet Elijah Ayodele. Primate Babatunde Elijah has been around for as long as we can remember. And he has been consistent. He is the founder and Spiritual leader of INRI Evangelical Mission located in Lagos. This celebrated man of God whose prophetic works extend beyond the shores of this country will, in a matter of months from now, launch his book containing 10,000 prophetic utterances that have all come to pass. It will be a momentous occasion that will attract the high and mighty in the society, and especially those who have been following the man of God and his prophecies for over 30 years now and still counting. Those who know will tell you that Prophet Ayodele has distinguished himself from the hordes of prophets out there. Consistently, over the years, he has had many of his prophecies come to pass. This year alone, many of his prophecies released since December 23rd last year have since manifested, even though sometimes he prefers not to make any noise about it. But the respected prophet is not pleased with the way top pastors in the country have conducted themselves in the last couple of months leading to the Covid-19 lockdown. In this interview with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290), he bares his mind on this issue and many more.
Sir, a lot of men of God have said a lot about Covid-19. Some have made prophecies, some declarations, while some others don’t even believe it exists, they think it’s all a sham by the government to make money, what’s your view?
If any pastor is still believing that Covid-19 does not exist, such a pastor has a serious problem. Here, let me show you something (brings out his popular book, Warnings To The Nations and opens a page) I said it back then that a pandemic was coming. Although I did not know the name it would be called then but I knew it would happen. You know, it was since 2017 that the Lord revealed to me and it’s here on page 108 that (he begins to read) “At a global level, a contagious disease will occur. Let us pray so that a state of emergency will not be declared in any state or country under it.” And which has happened. State of Emergency is lockdown. And besides that, in this year’s edition of Warning To The Nations, in page 193, “The spirit of the Lord says there will be some natural disasters in various regions of the world. I foresee an outbreak of disease that will be of epidemic status, killings and attacks that will trouble the world leaders.” Can you see that? So, I believe that any pastor who says that there is no Coronavirus, then it means God does not speak to such pastor. But for those that God speaks to, they will know that there is indeed something called Coronavirus. Around October last year, God said to me, “gather your people, let them pray to me for seven Tuesdays and seven Sundays because there is a sickness coming from Asia which will kill several people.”
That is a warning. God sent this warning to his prophets, especially those who are close to his heart. God uses prophets to direct a nation, without prophets there won’t be a nation and a nation without vision will perish. What I’m saying, in essence, is that any pastor who says there is no Covid-19 has been blindfolded spiritually. They cannot see beyond their noses. And for those of us who saw this before time and declared it publicly, we have our records. It’s not when something happens you now start saying, we said it o, you must have records to prove you said before it happened. I have a video where we mentioned China specifically. And long before this thing entered into Nigeria or Africa, I was the first person God told that this thing will enter Africa. Go on the internet you will see it. I remember it was in the Sun newspapers of 2nd February, 2020, which was the first Saturday of February. The interview was conducted by a journalist called Lawrence and I said this Covid-19 will enter into Africa and Nigeria and people started abusing me, saying all sorts of things. But I didn’t care about what they were saying. I also said the sickness will affect the rich, especially those who have stolen from Nigeria. No one is saying we’re happy that people are dying, but that is the basic thing. That is why I said any man of God who is saying Covid-19 does not exist must be blind spiritually and physically.
Many have been asking, sir, where are the men of God who claimed to have healing powers? Why are they not healing Covid-19 patients because this would’ve been the perfect time for them to show that their powers are real?
Yes, you’re right. Many people have been disappointed with pastors all over the world. You will see pastors claiming they can do this or do that, but Covod-19 has proven that many of them are failures. God said to me that I should arrange 10,000 bottles of water and Anointing Oil. Some nations have come to take from it from all over the world. This is between me and them, I do not need to publicise it. Covid-19 has exposed many pastors who claim they are great healers. It is now clear that most of those miracles they show to us are fake. I won’t mention names, they know themselves. And this is not about Nigeria alone, it’s happening all over the world. Pastors claim they are supernatural people, which they are not. It’s all lies, they are ordinary human beings too. But they are lying because they are chasing worldly things. They are looking for miracles of the world, not what the Lord asked them to do. What they cannot give is what they promise their congregation. All these miracle pastors, especially those ones who have their own television stations are nothing but noisemakers. Covid-19 has exposed a lot of noisemaker pastors. All of them are nothing but career pastors, they are not real prophets. Shame to all of them!
In your own opinion, what would you have advised men of God, those who have been truly called by God, to do either collectively or individually?
I understand you. But you see, we have somebody who is not focused, who is not agile, who is not dogged, not vibrant, not energetic, is leading Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). His name is Ayokunle. I don’t think the man can even control a church not to talk of an association. He is incapable of doing anything meaningful as a leader. Ayo Oritsejafor tried it the other time and he failed woefully. All they do is patronize the government. We do not have leaders who have a mind of their own. Even if I’m not a part of CAN, I still rate his performance as zero. He’s not firm. He is not spiritually inclined. Collectively, this man should’ve called pastors together but he didn’t do that and that’s one of the reasons why pastors have failed collectively during this Covid-19. Instead of showcasing wealth all over the place, what we need to showcase is the power of God. He should’ve called all those pastors who say they can pray and let’s see what will happen. But he did not do anything. They are just a bunch of empty people. Empty leaders ruling empty people. They are like empty cans of Coca-cola, empty barrels who are only making noise all over the place. To even begin with, is the body approved by God? Is it of God? Let’s leave that for now. Why couldn’t he say, let’s call this person and that person, let’s give them an opportunity to display the power given to them by God? Look at churches these days, when they erect signboards, instead of putting the image of Christ, they will put their own pictures. You will see the pastor and his wife, Daddy G.O. and Mummy G.O., meaning they are worshipping human beings instead of Christ. As far as I know, in terms of collective responsibility, men of God have failed. And that includes me. All pastors from Pastor Adeboye to the end, including men of God from the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, C&S and Pentecostal churches, including myself, have all failed. We are only building churches, flaunting wealth, building auditoriums of 1million sitting capacity, that’s all they do. There is no salvation anymore. They are not interested in the problems people are facing. They are not interested in the problems their members are facing. Pastors are driving exotic cars while their members are suffering. A lot of them are close to the government, but do they tell the government the truth? Just because the government pays them stipends, they turn a blind eye when the government is taking the wrong step. They do not speak the minds of the people. They don’t tell the truth. If they don’t speak on behalf of the government they will cease to be the friend of the government. I am not a friend to the government, and I don’t want to be one.
I know you do not like talking about things your philanthropic gestures, but as an individual, tell us the little you have been able to do for your people and outside of your church during this period…
Pictures speak louder than words. I have pictures to defend my cause. I have fed over 250,000 people. I am a United Nations Ambassador, they have not given me a dime, I have done all of these entirely out of my own pocket. I have fed Christians, Muslims, the widows, the aged, the vulnerable with evidence. We gave them masks, we gave them sanitizers. I will give you pictures to this effect. My church doesn’t have that much money. We use our tithes to make provision for the needy every month and to pay salaries of the workers and do other necessary things in the house of God. So, at the end of the day, we are left with nothing. Every month, we must feed about six to seven thousand people. Every Christmas, we feed up to 18,000 people. Next week will be the end of Ramadan, I’m giving the widows here, about a hundred of them, a live chicken each with money, rice and vegetable oil. I’m not here to brag about it, you are the one who asked the question.
What do you think of the relationship between the government and pastors so far during this pandemic period? Some people believe that the government should’ve engaged men of God some more, that the government shouldn’t have just said all churches should close down?
You see, I will support Oyedepo’s position this time around. For Tunde Bakare, he’s not even there, he’s only a politician. He’s a clown. He fraternizes with the government because he wants to become president but I can tell you that he will never be vice president of this country talk less of becoming the president. Yes, Adeboye is close to the government, same with Bakare, but the thing is that these people are not spiritually inclined. They’re not prophets. For example, I supported Pastor Suleiman. After my own claims that I wanted to go to the isolation centre, Suleiman was the next person who said so. But because there is no synergy between us the pastors, nothing stops me from calling Suleiman and say, Oya, let’s go. People like Adeboye, Bakare and even TB Joshua are afraid of Covid-19. They were angry when I said that with water I have and the anointing oil here, I and my members cannot be infected with Covid-19, take it or leave it! They were angry but I couldn’t be bothered. I have more than 8,000 members and none of them has been infected. If there is a forum arranged for us pastors to go and pray against Covid-19, me, I’m ready to go, I’m not afraid.
