President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in this interview with Ozioma Ubabukoh, bares his mind on controversies surrounding churches, the Boko Haram insurgency and sundry issues
Apart from being a general overseer in your church, you head Nigeria’s highest religious organisation, the Christian Association of Nigeria. How do you feel when people criticise you sometimes on all fronts?
Criticism is part of life. Anybody who does not expect criticism should think again because criticism can actually enhance a man’s capacity to do better. Criticism for me is not a problem. The only thing that is a problem, in my own opinion, is when you are not doing what is called constructive criticism. Disrespectful criticism is also wrong. It is a free world and people are free to criticise. I will also say that as a person, I believe that truth must never be mortgaged. That, perhaps, is one of the things that get me into trouble with some people. If you watch events in Nigeria, and if our Nigerian press would give me credit, they would realise that many things I predicted eventually came to pass exactly the way I said them.
Boko Haram has launched an onslaught on the church for some time now. How do you feel about this?
Boko Haram is an organisation of cowards. If you wish, quote me and print it boldly: Every member of Boko Haram is a coward. Cowards shoot people in the back. Cowards kill children, women and harmless people. They are cowards and I want to recommend that when such people are killed, their flesh should be given to pigs because they are not better than pigs. The cowards also include those who finance the activities of Boko Haram; those who give them moral and logistic supports. Anybody involved in Boko Haram is a coward and a nuisance to himself, to the society and to God whom they say they propagate or proclaim. It is difficult for any rational mind to believe that what they are doing is what God professes. I don’t know the God they are talking about. It is a disgrace to humanity.