2015: PDP Doubts Pentecostal Pastors’ Promise To Support Jonathan

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) political strategists are unconvinced how much the pastors can truly deliver on their promises to help the president, even after President Goodluck Jonathan met with Pentecostal pastors last week Thursday in Abuja.

According to those at the meeting, President Jonathan confessed,“Osinbajo is my problem.” The President added, “Everything was okay until APC picked Osinbajo.”

It is believed that this conclusion was reached by the President after extensive discussions with his political advisers and strategists on the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s choice of the law professor and pastor of the RCCG as General Muhamadu Buhari’s running mate.

A source at the meeting said while offers of oil blocks are being made to some of the top pastors at the meeting, PDP strategists are warning the president that General Muhamadu Buhari’s running mate, Pastor Yemi Osinbajo, is not just a senior pastor trained by the general overseer of the RCCG, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, but a beloved spiritual son of the highly respected religious leader.

The concern of the PDP strategists is that their promises to support Jonathan’s ambition for a second term may not after all hold much water.

Said another source: “Adeboye values loyalty and Osinbajo is widely known to be very loyal to the general overseer of the RCCG.”

President Jonathan’s political strategists are believed to be looking for means to break that bond, but the general overseer has simply refused to allow him to be so politically encumbered.

A source said, for instance, that Adeboye did not attend the meeting last Thursday as he has said he would be apolitical since there are members of the church in both the APC and the PDP. But PDP strategists say, coming from the same pastor who publicly blessed Jonathan before the 2011 election, it is a sign things have changed.

Perhaps not sure of the kind of reception, Jonathan himself had last month stayed away from the December 2014 Holy Ghost Congress, the same event in 2010 where “Daddy G.O”, as he is fondly called by RCCG members, had publicly blessed him. Only a minister from his government, Dr Tammy Wenike Danagogo, sports minister, was in attendance and being an RCCG member, the minister was not introduced as representing Jonathan at the event.

One of the pastors very close to the RCCG leader said Jonathan’s absence from that event “was a mistake on the president’s part.”

Some PDP members also point to the public appearance of Pastor Adeboye with General Buhari at the New Year thanksgiving service of Lagos state as proof that Adeboye will not abandon his spiritual children whenever they need him. The PDP strategists are also reminding President Jonathan that Adeboye Okayed said that Osinbajo should accept the offer of being his running mate from General Buhari even before it was eventually decided and announced by General Buhari.

An RCCG inside source said “Pastor Adeboye is known to have helped some of his pastors and spiritual sons even when they err and fall into troubles, why then do you think, he will not do everything to help his loyal pastor who is being promoted in answer to his prayers.”

The source said in training many of his pastors several years back, Pastor Adeboye had always given them his word that he would personally be there for them in their hour of need, a promise he has endured to fulfill even under very challenging circumstances.

There is therefore an acute confusion among PDP campaign leaders and the president’s advisers on the effectiveness of the secret meeting held last week with the pastors, especially after the story broke, exposing the division among the pastors who attended.

Now, President Jonathan is being advised to do more, possibly to reach out directly to the general overseer for a more public outing with him as the elections draw near. For instance, they cited the impact of Pastor Adeboye’s presence at the President’s adopted daughter’s wedding ceremony earlier this January, 2015, in Abuja. It is believed that after his public appearance with General Buhari earlier in January at the annual thanksgiving service, Adeboye’s visit to the wedding in the president’s family restored some hope of his “neutrality.”

However, inside sources at the RCCG say Pastor Adeboye is not very particularly enamoured of President Jonathan because as the source disclosed “the president has not been as obedient to Pastor Adeboye as one would expect.”

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It will be recalled that with less than a month to the presidential elections, President Goodluck Jonathan is reportedly having sleepless nights over the vice presidential candidate of the APC, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

According to a report on Sahara Reporters, Jonathan is seeking help from a group of Pentecostal pastors on ways to solve the ‘Osinbajo’ problem.