Unsettled Dust At The Pentecostal Fellowship Of Nigeria

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

Coming out of its crisis in Lagos State where the dust is yet to settle, PFN is embroiled in another.

Though election into the office of the PFN chairman of Lagos State had held, calm is yet to return to the body.

The fallout of the election led to the resignation of the Assistant Nation President for South West of the body, Archbishop John Alagbala Osa-Oni, who felt slighted by the alleged hijack of the process of election in Lagos by the national Executive.

A call to another leader of the body confirmed his determination to resign his position as the National Deputy President if The President; Bishop Wale Oke according to him will not paddle the boat of PFN away from troubled waters.

When I further asked the Archbishop, he simply responded; I don’t want to say more than that for now!A source close to the National Exco said, should the President have his way as against the constitution of PFN things might fall apart.

Alleging that the rejection of the first Lagos Election result was all in a bid to install his own stooge through unconstitutional means because the man who won is not even registered with PFN as a body!

The hornet’s nest is stirred by a purported letter to the Admin Secretary requesting him to proceed on terminal leave on the ground of his attainment of 60 years of age.

Opposition to the position of the President believes he is doing that to create an avenue for him to manipulate the elections coming up next February 2025.

The letter addressed to the national admin secretary reads:

Dearly Beloved,

NOTICE OF 20-DAY EXIT LEAVE

Calvary greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus.

This is to further congratulate you on your attaining the diamond age of sixty (60) years, to the glory of God Almighty. We rejoice with you.

Sequel to our earlier discussions with you, and our avowed goal of having a standardized process of exit for our staff upon attaining the retirement age of sixty years, we wish to convey to you that you will proceed on a 20 day exit leave from 4th to 31st July 2024.

Please note that,

– Your normal monthly salary will continue to be paid during the period of the exit leave.

– You are expected to prepare a detailed handover report towards a tidy and smooth exit at the completion of the exit leave. Take note that you are to hand over to the Accountant, Pastor Jude Nwabuzor.

– You shall be intimated with your retirement benefit in due course.

Kindly get in touch with the undersigned on any area or issue of clarification regarding this letter so we can have a mutually beneficial process.

Once again, we greatly appreciate your years of meritorious service to the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.

Yours sincerely,

For: Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).

The letter was signed by the General Secretary Bishop Cosmas Ilechukwu.

Another Stakeholder asked rhetorically; National Admin Sec has been asked to Proceed on terminal leave? Am shocked that I am hearing this from you! I had to remind him that I was asking a question and not ascertaining the authenticity of the information.

Shocked that some of the people who ought to be privy to the decision of the Exco are in the dark concerning it.

“This present Executive has stirred up too many unconstitutional things”, he said.

He went further, “Lagos is yet to know peace because of their inordinate attempt to give Lagos the status of 3 states by dividing it for political reasons.

Who does that? Thank God it was resisted? Not even secular politicians are this mundane in their quest for power.

As the church, we are the light of the world, a city that is set upon the hill. Tell it not in Gath doesn’t apply to the church. All eyes are on the church.

He brought in Bishop Akinsanya as Chief of staff and eventually smuggled him in as a National officer?

The termination of Pst Akinsanya is a Constitutional/NAC decision and not an exclusive decision solely to be taken by Mr President.

Akinsanya’s termination shouldn’t stand until NAC takes a decision on it.

It was during the tenure of Pst Ayo Oritsejafor that he recommended 65 yrs as the age of retirement for staff and that is yet to be decided on. This administration has just few months to go and I will therefore counsel that every major decision waits till the next administration comes in.

Remember Pst E. A Adeboye once said that no body should destroy PFN but am sorry to say without ambiguity that some of the move of this administration looks like attempt to destroy PFN. The body language of the President is causing tension and division.

Archbishop John Osa Oni resigned because he conducted an Election with 11 people and the President canceled it but the Chairman of River State conducted his own Election with 4 people and it was ratified by the National Exco”.

The source further raised allegations bothering on probity.

Demanding accountability on some missions and activities of PFN, “the last Diaspora Conference in London last year for which it would have been okay for Dr Goddy Okafor to go with Bishop Bakare only, but the President included his Chief of staff and they spend 8 million naira of the fellowship funds that is not available. More annoying is what transpired when they got there.

The coordinator of the program collected 8 thousand pounds from Bishop Okafor’s son to run the program, and up until now, that money has not been paid back to the young man.

The young man is being patient and quiet because his father is involved. What pictures exactly are they painting of the Pentecostal?

In a moment when we should be rising above the tag of “penterascals” that the world is mockingly calling us.

The Abuja Land was to cost us 250 million, but we ended up spending about 300 million.

So, who is actually destroying PFN?

One of the best presidents PFN has ever had is Rev Dr Wilson Badejo, not for just intellectual prowess but for what he brought to the table; exposure to institutional administration. Many of us in the Pentecostal leadership are too used to individualism form of leadership. We must not forget that PFN is a Fellowship, a Body of Pentecostal Believers in the country and not an individual ministry and therefore shouldn’t be handled the way it is. “

Another stakeholder who spoke with me on the issue said the PFN has become personal enterprise of the present leader on the saddle and hopes something is done to address the drift.

He urged the President to ensure that Fathers in National Advisory Council are carried along in decisions wherein the constitution demanded the same of the National Exco.