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God of Jets, Not Jobs: The Unholy Greed of Pastors
God of Jets, Not Jobs: The Unholy Greed of Pastors.
(While factories rot and youths starve, the pulpit dines with politicians).
By George Omagbemi Sylvester | published by saharaweeklyng.com
For years we have blamed Africa’s rot (Nigeria’s especially) on crooked politicians and collapsing institutions. That blame is deserved, but it is not complete. A hard, uncomfortable truth sits in plain sight: a powerful slice of the modern church has chosen spectacle over service, prosperity over productivity and miracle-marketing over the mundane work of industry and jobs. The result is moral confusion and economic decay. In cities like Warri, Lagos and Port Harcourt, abandoned factories that should hum with machines and paychecks now echo with microphones and offering baskets. When pulpits replace production lines, poverty becomes liturgy.
This is not a broadside against faith or the countless pastors and congregations who feed orphans, run clinics and tutor children. It is a charge sheet against a WELL-NETWORKED RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL complex that mirrors the habits of the corrupt state: acquiring land like a feudal lord, converting industrial sites into prayer camps and mega-cathedrals and justifying excess with pious slogans. Nigeria’s own manufacturers’ body reported that hundreds of factories shut down in 2023 under the weight of energy costs, policy whiplash and currency turmoil; 767 closures and 335 distressed firms, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. As industry gasped, many shuttered spaces found new life not as workshops but as worship halls. Punch and The Guardian (Nigeria) have chronicled churches becoming the “new tenants” of old industrial estates; policy analysts have flagged the conversion of factory premises into event and worship centers as “worrisome” for jobs and competitiveness.
Let’s call this what it is: a reallocation of scarce urban land from production to passion. Scholars studying Lagos’s urban form describe how neo-Pentecostal infrastructures (prayer camps, auditoria and religious real estate) are literally remaking the city’s map, often without a corresponding boost to broad-based employment or skills. The political economy of these prayer cities may create enclaves of private order, but they do not substitute for the machine shop that trains apprentices or the light-manufacturing plant that anchors a value chain.
This drift has spiritual consequences, too. Paul Gifford, one of the most important scholars of African Christianity, argues that parts of the prosperity gospel (“covenant wealth” secured through tithes and tokens) are the antithesis of the sober, work-ethic tradition that historically linked faith to productivity and institutional responsibility. In his reading, the pastor’s personality cult risks reproducing Africa’s “Big Man” politics inside the church. Ruth Marshall’s landmark study of Nigeria’s Pentecostal revolution shows how powerful ministries have become political actors, shaping public morality and elections, yet too often without the accountability that genuine public service demands.
Meanwhile, the optics are obscene. Even as factories die and graduates hawk sachet water, headlines and watchdogs periodically highlight televangelists defending private jets and fleets of luxury cars as “necessities” of ministry. The United States has its own gaudy examples and the rhetoric used to justify them is depressingly familiar on our shores: evangelism is faster in a Gulfstream; commercial flights are “hostile” to communion with God. When religious elites flaunt luxury while congregants struggle, the line between prophet and politician blurs into a single gilded table.
This is not merely an aesthetic problem. It is a moral failure that weakens the social contract. The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” A church that refuses to challenge job-killing policies, that benefits from industrial collapse by buying up plants for prayer, cannot claim neutrality. It has chosen. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it even more sharply in 1963: the church must not be a thermometer reflecting public opinion but a thermostat transforming society’s morals. Our religious establishment has often preferred the easy warmth of applause to the hard heat of reform.
To be crystal-clear: faith communities have enormous power for good. They educate millions, deliver health care where the state is absent and knit together fragile neighborhoods. Power misused is corruption by another name. If a governor who hoards SUVs while hospitals lack oxygen is condemned, then a pastor who hoards aircraft while members cannot afford insulin deserves the same scrutiny. That is not anti-Christian; it is pro-conscience.
The economic case: jobs not just jamborees.
Manufacturing is a jobs engine. When hundreds of Nigerian factories went under in 2023, the losses cascaded through suppliers, transporters, service firms and households. Turning those sites into worship arenas extracts demand from the surrounding economy (parking on weekends, a few vendors) but destroys the production ecosystems that train artisans and pay steady wages. When The Guardian and Punch reported churches taking over failed companies’ premises, they captured a symbolic tragedy: we are praying for jobs in the very halls where jobs once existed.
Urban scholars have documented how mega-ministries build parallel infrastructures (roads, utilities, private security) around prayer camps. That can look like “development,” but it is development for members, not citizens; for enclaves, not economies. Lagos’s reconfiguration by religious real estate should alarm any planner serious about inclusive growth.
The theological case: work as witness.
Max Weber’s classic insight (hotly debated but still useful) is that faith traditions can discipline economic life. He contrasted a stern work ethic with magical thinking that treats wealth as a sign of favor detached from productive effort. When pastors preach “breakthroughs” more than budgets, “mantles” more than machinery, they baptize a lottery mentality. Gifford’s critique tracks this drift in parts of African Christianity; Marshall shows how the spiritualization of politics can become an escape hatch from responsibility. A church obsessed with seed-sowing but bored by supply chains is not a thermostat; it’s a fog machine.
A five-point manifesto for reform.
If the church is serious about nation-building, it must prove it; in concrete, steel and payslips:
Re-industrialize the grounds you occupy. If a ministry acquires a defunct factory, it should revive production on-site: lease a wing to SMEs, install a training center linked to local manufacturers or run a cooperative that fabricates furniture, garments or solar kits. Sunday services should FUND MONDAY-THROUGH-FRIDAY WORK. (City authorities can incentivize this with tax rebates for every job created.) The alternative is sanctified de-industrialization.
Publish audited accounts and related-party transactions. If politicians must declare assets, pastors who solicit public donations should publish independent audits, disclose land banks and vehicle fleets and list any businesses owned by the “man of God” and relatives that contract with the church. Financial sunlight is spiritual hygiene.
Adopt a “No Jet Until 10,000 Jobs” covenant. Any church considering private aircraft should first demonstrate (publicly) that it has helped create or sustain 10,000 verifiable jobs in its host communities through investments, apprenticeships or supply-chain partnerships. If that sounds radical, compare it to the radicality of the gospel’s demands for the poor. (And remember how grotesque the justifications for jets have sounded in other contexts.)
Tithe to industry. Earmark at least 10% of all offerings to a transparent, independently governed Local Enterprise Fund that backs tool-shops, agro-processing and repair clusters around the church. Publish the portfolio quarterly. Transform “seed” into steel.
Preach the dignity of building as hard as you preach the danger of “enemies.” Replace warfare liturgies with workshops. Teach financial literacy, export basics, safety standards and coding. Partner with polytechnics. Make altar calls for welders and machinists.
A word to regulators and city planners.
Governments enabled this drift by failing at energy, logistics and credit and by looking the other way as zoning laws were bent into halos. Nigeria needs an industrial land-use compact: once-industrial zones should not be casually converted to non-productive uses; any religious conversion must carry binding obligations for vocational training and SME tenancy. When the FT, Punch and MAN warn about factory carnage, policymakers must treat industrial land as a strategic asset, not a soft target for quick sales.
The moral bottom line.
The church that dines with politicians while congregants queue for fuel has forfeited the authority to thunder about “destiny helpers.” The pastor who hoards land and jets while factories die is not merely tone-deaf; he is an accomplice to unemployment. Tutu’s admonition and King’s thermostat test stand at the door of the sanctuary. Pass or fail.
Nigeria does not need fewer prayers. It needs prayers with payrolls. It needs pulpits that can drill boreholes and balance books, that can bless machines as readily as microphones. It needs bishops who will turn back from vanity purchases and turn abandoned plants into vocational hubs. It needs ministries that trade celebrity for citizenship.
If you’re reading this as a church leader, consider it an altar call of a different kind. Open your books. Reopen a factory. Fund a welding school. Lease space to small manufacturers at peppercorn rent. Publish impact numbers. And when next you stand before your people, remember the standard King set: be a thermostat. Set the temperature of our public life to justice, truth and work, then hold it there.
Until the pulpit returns the factory to the people, the gospel we preach in Africa will remain a loud cymbal in an empty hall; BEAUTIFUL on Sunday, USELESS by Monday.
Byline: George Omagbemi Sylvester
Publication: saharaweeklyng.com
Had FFK Faced Mehdi Hassan, Nigeria Would Have Spoken With Fire
By Mohammed Bello Doka
In politics, timing is everything. In diplomacy, character is everything. And in moments of national importance, leadership must be entrusted to individuals who possess not only experience but courage, intellect and an unshakable commitment to the nation they represent.
It is for this reason that the appointment of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode as Nigeria’s Ambassador to a foreign nation stands out as one of the most consequential diplomatic decisions in recent years.
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, better known in the South as “FFK” and in the North as “Sadauki”, is one of the most brilliant, experienced, accomplished, vocal, respected, educated, profound, intellectual, patriotic, disciplined, well-read, historically literate, versatile, forceful, persuasive, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, charming, eloquent, courageous and resilient men in Nigerian politics and he has paid his dues and proved his worth over the last 35 years in politics and political discourse.
In each role he has played he has excelled and succeeded even when he was in opposition.
His friends value him as a great and loyal defender and his traducers and political adversaries fear and respect him because when he goes to war he is utterly relentless, takes no prisoners and literally spits fire.
How I wish it was him that was interviewed by Mehdi Hassan of Al Jazeera and not the young and inexperienced Daniel Bwala because he would have not only humbled Hassan but also done Nigeria proud.
He played Bwala’s present role in the Presidential Villa 23 years ago as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s spokesman and not only brought the then President’s domestic enemies to their knees but also had a series of very hot exchanges with foreign Government officials like America’s Under-Secreatary of State for Africa Jendaye Fraser and the White House over the Charles Taylor issue and Liberia.
Tinubu decision to appoint him as an Ambassador for our nation was a wise one because he will fight for and protect the interests of Nigeria and the Nigerian community whetever he goes and will never sell his soul or bow to foreign imperialist interests.
His appointment is not about just rewarding loyalty for the key role he played in Tinubu’s presidentiel campaign organisation as Director of New Media and Special Operations in 2023 and the staunch support he has given the President over the last three years but also about putting a square peg in a square hole.
If you want to put Nigeria first Sadauki is the one to do it.
If he runs the Nigerian Mission in the country that he is sent to in the same way he ran the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Aviation when he was Minister to each of them one after the other twenty years ago he will do very well and both our nation and whichever nation he is posted to itself will benefit from his efforts.
History teaches that diplomacy is most effective when nations deploy individuals who possess both intellect and courage.
As the American statesman Henry Kissinger once noted, “Diplomacy is the art of restraining power.”
To do so successfully requires deep historical awareness and strategic clarity—qualities that have long defined Fani-Kayode’s political career.
Sending a politically seasoned voice like FFK to any nation that is a key partner to Nigeria signals that Bola Ahmed Tinubu intends to strengthen Nigeria’s diplomatic posture with confidence.
Throughout more than three decades in the political arena, Fani-Kayode has remained one of the most resilient and outspoken figures in Nigerian public life despite numerous challenges which would have broken and destroyed lesser men.
Regardless of all that was thrown at him he continues to pull through and come out victorious which is why many refer to him as the “Akanda Eledumare” and the “Ayanfe Oluwa” which mean “the strange one of God” and “the beloved of the Lord”.
There appears to be a divine dimension to his life that makes him unstoppable and irrepressible even though his enemies are legion.
One wonders what sets him apart and makes him so different.
There is no doubt that his education played a part in it and this set him apart from most.
He never went to school in Nigeria but was educated from the age of eight in England starting off at Holmewood House School in Kent, one of the UK’s best and most famous Preparatory schools, after which he attended the famous Harrow School just outside London which is, together with Eton College, an institution that is the exclusive preserve of high society in the UK, one of the two best private schools in that country where only the ruling elite, the rich, the well-to-do, the famous and only a tiny proportion of those in British high society can afford or even qualify to attend.
No less than eight British Prime Ministers, including the great Sir Winston Churchill, and countless British cabinet ministers attended Harrow and so did many leaders, diplomats and top politicians from many foreign countries.
After finishing at Harrow he attended some of the top universities in the world, including London University (SOAS) and Cambridge University (Pembroke College) where he did so well.
As a matter of fact his great grandfather, Rev. Emmanuel Adelabi Kayode, attended Furrough Bay College which at that time was part of Durham University and graduated with an MA (Hons.) in Theology in 1893. His grandfather Justice Adedapo Kayode attended Cambridge University (Selwyn College) where he studied law and graduated in 1922. His father Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode attended Cambridge University (Downing College) where he studied law and graduated in 1943. Sadauki himself graduated in law at Cambridge University (Pembroke College) in 1984 whilst his daughter Folake Fani-Kayode graduated from Durham University in 2009.
No African family has an uninterrupted streak of 116 years of Oxbridge-level university graduates except for the Fani-Kayode’s which is something that both his family and every patriotic Nigerian should be proud of.
It therefore makes perfect sense that a man from such a distinguished pedigree and intimidating lineage and that has such an extraordinary intellectual heritage should represent Nigeria on the international stage.
There is also his role in the debate on Gaza which made him a hero in the eyes of millions of people in the Global South both amongst Christians and Muslims.
He spoke out consistently about what he described as the genocide being committed against the Palestinians and he was prepared to put his life and career on the line for this cause even though most Nigerian leaders and politicians refused to say what he was saying publicly out of fear of the Zionist lobby and the Jewish state.
His sense of patriotism is unquestionable and nothing reflects this better than his series of essays written against Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the British Opposition Conservative Party and his write up against one Ben Llewelyn-Jones, who at that time was the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, when the former consistently sought to insult and denigrate Nigeria and the Nigerian people and the latter attempted to interfere in our internal affairs by making statements in support of Peter Obi and his Obidients in the 2023 presidential elections.
Sadauki successfully put them both in their place and when American Senator Ted Cruz, President Donald Trump, Congressman Tim Riley and other American politicians began to peddle the false narrative and fake gospel of Christian genocide and persecution in Nigeria Sadauki, a devout Christian himself, rose to the challenge and more than any other Nigerian wrote about the issue in a series of essays pointing out the fact that as many Muslims were being killed as Christians by the terrorists in our country and that Christians were not being persecuted by our Government and are in fact faring better when it comes to positions in the security apparatus and governance under Tinubu than they did in the previous administration.
He also spoke out boldly against President Trump and his administration when they accused the Government of South Africa of indulging in genocide against the white minority population in their country and pointed out the fact that South Africa, like Brazil, was a shining example of a successful multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation that was treating its white minority population with the greatest respect. Few Africans said a word to defend South Africa at the time even though they knew that Trump was wrong but Sadauki did so without thinking twice.
He is clearly a strong Pan-Africanist and a believer in the importance of the African Union, African solidarity, the BRICS coalition and the Global South alliance comprising of China, Russia, South Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other emerging world powers.
This is commendable and it reflects his courage and disdain for those that display ignorance, disdain and contempt for our nation and people and that seek to denigrate and misrepresent us.
Sadauki is not the type that bows and quivers before Westerners like so many other Nigerian leaders and politicians but rather takes pride in his Nigerian culture, race, heritage and identity and is prepared to defend us and speak for us no matter whose ox is gored and who is involved.
In an increasingly competitive global environment, Nigeria requires diplomats capable not only of negotiation but also of defending national interests with conviction.
If the energy, eloquence and intellectual fire that have defined Fani-Kayode’s political life accompany him to the country to which he has been posted, his tenure may well become one of the most consequential chapters in Nigeria’s modern diplomatic engagements.
I wish him well and I thank God that he is back in the saddle of public office after so many years.
What more could any of us ask of this great and noble son of Nigeria?
This is undoubtedly the quality of personnel and leaders that we need on the international stage.
I hope and pray that in his endeavours and during the course of his work he meets with Mehdi Hassan in a debate and prove to him and the rest of the world that Nigeria still has men that can not only match them but that can also remove their trousers in any verbal encounter. Bwala put us to shame but FFK can redeem us before the eyes of the world.
(Mohammed Bello Doka, the author of this essay, is the publisher of Abuja Network News and can be reached via [email protected])
Sunday Igboho Hails IBD Dende’s Exceptional Generosity and Loyalty
By Adeyemi Obadimu
A prominent Yoruba nation activist, Sunday Igboho, has publicly commended renowned businessman and philanthropist, Ibrahim Egungbohun, popularly known as IBD Dende, for what he described as extraordinary generosity and unwavering support during one of the most challenging periods of his life.
Speaking about his experience following his release from detention in the Benin Republic, Igboho disclosed that IBD Dende reached out to him immediately to inquire about his welfare and next destination. According to him, when he explained that he was planning to travel to Germany and that the cost of flight tickets for himself and his wife amounted to ₦6 million, Dende requested his bank details.
In a remarkable show of goodwill, Igboho revealed that Dende transferred ₦20 million to his account far above the stated travel expenses with the reassurance that the extra funds could assist with other pressing needs.
Igboho further recounted that upon his eventual return to Nigeria, despite ongoing financial restrictions, IBD Dende was the first person he met. At that meeting, the businessman reportedly provided an additional ₦10 million to enable him host visitors and manage immediate responsibilities, particularly as his bank account remains frozen.
The activist also expressed profound gratitude to former Oyo State Governor, Rasheed Ladoja, whom he credited for resolving issues between him and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Describing Dende as a man of rare loyalty and compassion, Igboho stated that anyone who harbours ill feelings toward the businessman “is under a curse,” emphasizing the depth of gratitude he holds for the support he received.
The development has sparked conversations across social and political circles, further highlighting IBD Dende’s reputation as a philanthropist and influential figure known for standing by associates in difficult times.
celebrity radar - gossips
BUA Chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu Records Africa’s Biggest Wealth Surge, Net Worth Hits $11.2bn
BUA Chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu Tops Africa’s Wealth Gains in the 2026 Forbes Rankings as His Fortune Jumps 120% to $11.2 Billion, Rising to 3rd Place; Aliko Dangote Remains No.1
Billionaire Industrialist, Philantropist, and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has emerged as Africa’s biggest wealth gainer in the 2026 Africa’s Richest People ranking published by Forbes, after his net worth rose sharply over the past year.
According to the latest Forbes list, Rabiu’s wealth surged 120 percent to $11.2 billion, representing the largest increase recorded among the continent’s billionaires in the latest ranking. The jump moves Rabiu, who is Nigerian, to third place among Africa’s richest individuals, up from sixth position a year ago.
The rise in Rabiu’s fortune was driven largely by the strong performance of BUA Cement, his flagship publicly listed company, whose shares surged by 135 percent over the past year. The rally significantly outpaced gains in the broader Nigerian Exchange, which has itself recorded strong growth amid improving investor confidence.
Forbes estimates Rabiu’s net worth at $11.2 billion, placing him behind luxury goods tycoon Johann Rupert, whose fortune is estimated at $16.1 billion, and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, who retains the top position with an estimated $28.5 billion.
Rabiu’s rise underscores the growing influence of Nigeria’s industrial sector and the expanding footprint of BUA Group, which has built major operations across cement manufacturing, food processing, sugar refining, infrastructure, mining and energy.
The latest Forbes ranking also highlights a broader surge in wealth across Africa’s billionaire class. The continent’s 23 billionaires now hold a combined net worth of $126.7 billion, representing a 21 percent increase from the previous year, as major equity markets rallied and regional currencies stabilised.
Nigeria remains one of the continent’s leading centres of billionaire wealth, accounting for four individuals on the list, including Dangote, Rabiu, telecommunications magnate Mike Adenuga, and energy investor Femi Otedola.
Forbes said the 2026 ranking was calculated using stock prices and exchange rates as of March 1, 2026, with privately held companies valued using comparable industry benchmarks.
Rabiu’s leap in the ranking reflects not only the strong performance of BUA Cement but also the broader momentum of Nigeria’s capital markets and the continued expansion of large scale industrial enterprises across Africa’s largest economy.
Analysts say the development signals growing investor confidence in African manufacturing and infrastructure driven businesses, sectors that are increasingly central to the continent’s economic transformation.
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