The founder of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Babatunde Elijah Ayodele has condemned the lockdown of Abuja, Lagos State and Ogun State, describing it as satanic to humanity.
Reacting to the order which was made by President Muhammadu Buhari in a bid to control the Covid-19 pandemic, Primate Ayodele criticised the manner with which it was hastily executed. According to him, the government should have given the masses time to prepare for the lockdown.
“It is what is happening all over the world. It is necessary in order not to allow the pandemic to spread. However, in our own case, the lockdown shouldn’t have been done the way it was done by the president. The president could have done a wider consultation, he should have met with all the necessary stakeholders who would bring a popular formula. What he has done will only bring pains, strain, and hunger to the country. People are hungry already, the power system is not in top shape. In my area, we have not seen light in the past three weeks and we have been living on generators. So, how do you expect us to cope?
“The government has failed God. God is not happy with this. I need to look for money to feed about 7,000 people and give them medication. The lockdown for two weeks is fine, but they ought to have made provision for the people who are in need, people who are suffering, people who are sick and still have to struggle to do one or two things. When you govern, you govern the poor and not the rich, the country is in crisis already and we need prayers. They said we should shut down the church, we have used our money to take care of the needy. This government is satanic to humanity. This virus will spread more than expected. Pastors should come out and talk, Imams should come out and talk. Buhari has brought hell to Nigeria.”
Further, the man of God said: “The lockdown has caused chaos, it has even encouraged the spread of the virus because Nigeria is not matured for a lockdown that will last for two weeks. There is no light, how do you want to store food. Even if you have the money to stock food, there will still be some problems because there is no regular power supply. How do you want people to buy fuel, how do you want them to buy diesel?
“The point is that the government of the day did not do it right. Who do they want to give N 10, 000 to? I have been giving money, food, to the needy and yet it is not even enough. I vacated my account for the people in my area to be okay. The government did not do it right, they are invoking more trouble. When there is hunger, there are diseases, so they are invoking more serious diseases on the land.
“I am not against what the government is doing, but they would have done it better. Nigeria is going to suffer because this thing will affect everyone notwithstanding if you are on the higher or lower class.”
Primate Ayodele opined that the government should have made provisions before effecting it. “They should have given the people notice so that they can be more prepared. We would have prepared and gotten enough money. It is only the advanced countries that can operate as the government of President Buhari has done as far as the Covid-19 is concerned because they will provide for their people. However, Nigeria is not capable of this. There are people who make money on a daily basis, what are the provisions for them, there are people who don’t make more than 10, 000 monthly, and still have to pay rent from it. They should have set up a very strong committee that could have tackled these issues. This is not a blessing for our nation, it is putting people into prison.”
Emphasising the fact that he had warned about the virus at the beginning of the year, Primate Ayodele stated that the country will be thrown into a bigger confusion.
“We have been saying this before now. Whoever planned this with the president is not a good thinker, they are just trying to punish the poor, and punishing the poor is like fighting God. I don’t know what the Christian leaders are doing, I don’t know what the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) are doing, this is the time that we should have one voice. It is prayers that we need, and we will get a solution to all of these threats.”
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