Much ado about GO…and 2015 by Opeyemi Oduwole

Much ado about GO…and 2015! 

If it is indeed true that Pastors Adeboye and Oyedepo were key figures in trying to broker peace between OBJ and GEJ, then I’m really sorry…. Cause I remember quite vividly during the fuel subsidy rallies when some human right activists appealed to both Adeboye and Oyedepo to please use their voices in joining the people’s yearning the PR dept of both churches went on full blast that the GOs should not be dragged into politics despite the fact that it is same people suffering that forms their congregation. 
But now that elections are abound, I wonder what the defense will be – as response to this ‘un-clandestine’ meeting in Abeokuta earlier this week. As far as I’m concerned these GOs were, and have always, been involved in politics but only choose to look the other way when they are being called to stay on the side of the masses. Their silence during the fuel subsidy saga was loud enough to show the smart minds whose side they were. 
Love them or hate them, I give kudos to Oritsejafor and Tunde Bakare for (at least) not hiding their political affiliations. The only difference is that one is a fraud and the other is a nation builder – my personal opinion anyway and have no apologies for that. I leave you to decide which is which. 
Whilst the dogmatic tendencies will not let many be objective as to the roles of religious leaders in the society. Can I please remind all that names like Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu, Rev Martin Luther King, St Francis of Assisi – and many more continues to be alive and will perhaps live forever, not because of their clerical activities but for staying in the right side of history. 
We will tell our children and grandchildren of our spiritual leaders that abandoned us when our stomach is empty, we will also tell them about those spiritual fathers who stayed silent in the face of mammoth corruption and those who walked shoulder to shoulder with us in the days of struggle. We shall relay the names of Tunde Bakare, Tony Rapu, Alhaji Abdulrahman Amodu and few others that weren’t ashamed to be seen or speak for the common man 

Therefore the never-objective people may continue to defend the indefensible whilst the GOs continue to fly private jets to the detriment of the members of the society they are called to defend. I dare say their 15 minutes of fame will soon be over. Who remembers Jesu Oyingbo today? Who remembers Partick Anwuzia today? Where is Sha Mashad today? I say they are all in oblivionosphere!