The Senior Pastor of the Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA), Rev. Yomi Kasali, has urged churches to contribute their quota in alleviating poverty and hunger in Nigeria.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the church’s activities in celebration of its 20th anniversary, starting from Wednesday, September 17, to Sunday, September 21, Kasali said the church has a role to play in the state of the nation.
Kasali said churches should stop bragging about their buildings, Rolls-Royce and material wealth and address poverty among their congregation. He said that 75 per cent of those who attend churches are poor people, while 50 per cent cannot afford three square meals.
He said, “However, being 20 years old, we look back at the last 20 years as a church. Look at God’s faithfulness, God’s kindness upon our lives, the things we used to do, and we feel that we’re not doing them anymore.
“Our church was one of the foremost churches in this country that started welfare programmes called Five Loaves, Two Fishes. For some of you who are here, too many of you may know that. We used to feed 5,000 to 10,000 people at each event we did. We did it twice every year. This was 20 years back.
“Then poverty had not risen this bad. The country was not this bad with respect to poverty. The last time we did our welfare programme, we were almost kidnapped by the people. So we had to manage it. But of course, this year, our emphasis will also be on the welfare programme on Sunday.
“We’re going to be feeding the poor in church. And that’s why we thought we should speak about 20 years of God’s faithfulness to us as a church.
“However, we as a church feel that we haven’t done enough. We feel burdened, and we think the burden of truth is upon us to tell Nigerians that we’ve given ourselves a scorecard. And our scorecard as a church is very poor when it comes to what we should have done to help the nation.
“And churches and government should do a lot more with poverty alleviation. I’m sure you all will agree with me that poverty in the land is worse than it was five years ago. It was 20 years ago. It was five, two, three years ago. Things are very bad.
“As a result of that, I feel like I should make a clarion call to churches to say, please, it’s important for us to do much more than we do right now. I think we should stop all these Rolls-Royce competitions that we are doing online.
“I see churches bragging about their buildings and bragging about their Rolls-Royces. It’s madness. I think it’s time for us to think about the hearts of the poor. The people who come to our churches, 75% of those who attend our churches, are poor. Maybe 50% of them cannot even afford two or three square meals, while we are lavishing in wealth and pleasure and opulence.
“Listen, what happened in Nepal two, three days ago, can happen in Nigeria. No country is immune to revolution. The myth that it can’t happen here may not happen. It may not be our time.
“So I think the churches should do much more than just build buildings and buy Rolls Royces and buy things that are material. We should think about the lives of those that we pastor. We should do much more as a people, as a nation.
“Listen, two or three institutions should really work on alleviating poverty because God loves the poor. We must find ways of fixing poverty as a problem, or else poverty will fix us. If we fail to fix poverty, listen to me, poverty will fix us.”
According to Kasali, the government should find ways to squeeze churches to do welfare because the churches have tax-free funds. “Our money is not taxed, and that’s why we can buy luxurious houses, luxurious cars, and live like kings in the land of the poor.
“Find ways of, number one, rewarding churches that are very much active in doing this. Number two, forcing us to do something. I don’t know how it’s going to be done, but we must find a way.
“There must be a way where there’s a will, so that churches, not just, this is religious institutions, corporate Nigeria, and of course, government itself. So we have three major institutions that can help alleviate poverty,” he said.
Men of God expected to attend the conference include Dr Felix Omobude, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Pastor Funmi Beulah Johnson, Pastor Bidemi Mark-Mordi, Pastor Tolu Odukoya, and other anointed servants of God.
