Why pastors, others are after my husband – CAN president’s wife
At last, Pastor Helen Oritsejafor, has opened up on the contentious
$9.3m money-for-arm saga, saying it was a grand design to cow Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor, the outspoken founder of the Word of Life Bible Church
and president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). She
described the episode in which an aircraft owned by her spouse was
caught in South Africa with the staggering amount on board as a
‘sinister joke.’ He dismissed it as the handiwork of enemies of progress
determined to destabilize the country.
“Whoever such people are, they are not true Muslims or Christians.
These are enemies of progress. These are people who are doing their very
best to cause unnecessary discord between Christians and Muslims in
Nigeria which is very sad. To use an innocent man to throw this sling is
very sad”, she said, emotion welling up in her voice.
According to Mama Helen, who spoke in Warri ahead of the Church’s
annual Jubilee Word Festival, “Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is not the target;
it’s every Christian in Nigeria. We are all the target. We are the ones
they have targeted but, of course, they can’t get to everyone, so they
have to look for the person who represents Christianity in Nigeria and
that is what we are experiencing.”
She descended heavily on some men of God who have called on her
husband to step down as CAN leader over the episode. She spoke further
on this and more with
BEIFOH OSEWELE. Excerpts:
Your husband has received a lot of bashing lately. How do you react?
For us southerners, we might not really appreciate what Papa Ayo
Oritsejafor is doing and the role he is playing in Christianity in
Nigeria because we are not directly affected by the activities of the
terrorist group,
Boko Haram. Christians in the North are the
ones experiencing it, they are the ones losing fathers and mothers,
children; being dislocated. They are the ones who see people’s throats
being cut off like chickens, their houses being burnt by petrol bombs
and their young ones both boys and girls being abducted on a daily
basis. They value Papa so very much. They know that whatever he is going
through today is because of them. They were actually the people who
came to persuade him to run for CAN presidency. The first time they
came, he used wisdom for them and said he would think about it. They
came back again and kept coming because they know who he is. He is a
good man. If there is anything I know my husband to be, is that he is a
good man to a fault, and sometimes, I really feel for him.
Unfortunately, the society of nowadays does not value a man like this,
especially those of us in the South. He is much respected in the North.
How did you receive the news of his jet’s involvement in the $9.3m money-for-arms saga?
I was really surprised. I didn’t even know anything about it. I
didn’t even know our plane was out of the country because we leased it
out to a company in Abuja so that we will be able to utilise whatever
comes out of the deal for the maintenance of the plane because it is
quite expensive. So, we didn’t know. Even though we read and heard some
comments some people made concerning it, unknown to us that our plane
was actually involved. We were really surprised just like every people.
In all honesty, by the time we got to know that it was Papa’s plane, we
knew that the enemies were trying to play some prank. It is natural
because he is a symbol of Christianity in Nigeria. If anyone wants to
move against Christianity in Nigeria, it would be easier for the one to
go after the symbol. The only thing is I wasn’t expecting people to get
really dirty as they did.
So you were really shocked?
The whole episode appeared as if somebody was out for some sinister
joke. It’s quite obvious. Take for instance, why was it that it was
Papa’s plane that would be hired? How would it be that it would be his
plane of all planes in Nigeria that they needed for that mission? It’s
still very baffling. Number two, it became obvious that it was
orchestrated and the whole essence of it is to see how they can give him
a name God has not given to him, and all because he has been a very
outspoken man. I know him too well, he is a very down-to-earth person,
and he doesn’t know how to hide his feelings. He is a very quiet and
reserved person. But then when there is a need for him to speak about
anything, he would rather confront things the way they are rather than
hide behind his fingers. That is not him. I know quite a number of
people have been very uncomfortable with that especially with the
Boko Haram situation.
Let’s be frank, who would not be affected? You are leading a body and
gradually, there seems to be an elimination of this same group of
people. You would be a wicked leader not to react. So, he made every
effort. He noticed that our government wasn’t really forthcoming with a
lot of things; we seem to try to politicise a lot of things in Nigeria
which is quite troubling. He went out of his way to address the US
Congress. It was quite obvious that terrorism was being financed not
just from within but from outside as well, whether to destabilise or in a
way, indirectly force on Nigeria a particular religion which is quite
shameful. And he was not comfortable with that. If you would know, this
was injustice. So, he is now paying the price for being an outspoken
man, defending his people, defending Christianity in Nigeria, and do
not want Nigerians having to hide their heads later on in life because
whichever way we look at it, history will tell.
Why do you think that some people would politicise a purely security issue like that?
Well it’s natural. Number one, it is the perception. By the special
grace of God, a man who has lived a life that is worthy of note, a man
with an integrity that is without blemish, who will never compromise his
stand whichever way it is; automatically, that man has added so much
value to Christianity and of course, the umbrella of Christianity in
Nigeria which is Christian Association of Nigeria. So, a personality
like Papa Ayo is a threat to anyone who sees him as one because they
believe he has a voice, he has a clout, coupled with the fact that the
present president of Nigeria happens to be a Christian who is also from
the South-South. So, they believe that this man is definitely going to
support his brother, he would want him to come back being a Christian as
well. Without having to say too much, if I could say this, it is quite
shameful. At a point, I was going to actually call some of the wives of
these so-called people who were going outside saying a lot of things
about my husband, having to engage them as well and see how it looks
like, telling them to come out and look at the issue, how would they
feel, how would people condescend so low? A lot of things I read in the
newspapers, sometimes they amuse me, sometimes I’m a little bit
surprised. But when people begin to fabricate stories and they are
doing everything in their power to hang a man, it’s quite surprising to
me because I would think that what we should be talking about should be
the dividends of democracy.
We don’t even have what they call political surgery. In developed
countries, they have surgery where there’s what we call town house where
it is expected at the local government level, state level and at
whatever level, where people would be able to ask certain questions from
the leadership, and challenge them on how they are piloting the affairs
of the nation. With what I have seen, Nigeria is yet to get to that
level and that is why we look for every necessary means to pull down
people instead of fixing the issues on ground.
At least now, we all know that it is the National Security Adviser
who hired that plane out, who happens to be a relation of the defence
minister and who happens to be an in-law to the Sultan of Sokoto. I had a
lot of respect for the Sultan of Sokoto. Before this issue of
Boko Haram and
so on, himself and my husband used to be very close. I could remember
every now and then when he wanted to talk to my husband; he would often
ask how is mama? If there were issues in the newspapers and all that, he
would call in to find out things and so on and so forth. I so much
cherished his relationship with my husband. But I’m a little bit
surprised because no matter how it is, you know your friend. We must not
allow bigotry to take away our innocence, our integrity, our conscience
in the name of what we are trying to get. We must not allow that to
happen. We must always remember posterity because one way or the other,
posterity will always judge. And we must not throw caution to the wind
because of whatever we are trying to achieve. We must also remember
that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is a husband of a woman who has children as
well, regardless of whatever we are trying to do. This is a man that I
know, and some Nigerians also know that this is a man who is so loving
and caring. If there’s anything this man can do to impact the lives of
the downtrodden ones in the society, he would do. He’s done many. Many
times over and over again, he goes out of his way to buy brand new cars,
tricycles, grinding machines and so on to alleviate poverty in this
country. He is a person who decided to start a micro finance bank, not
necessarily to make money, but to see how he can help lift someone’s
head up; in bridging gap between the poor and the rich.
He believes the poor in our midst deserves every right to be somebody
in life. This is a man who has sent thousands of people to universities
through his Indigent Scholarship Scheme that he has in place over the
years. This is a man who actively participated in the peace initiative
of Delta State that we are enjoying today. As a matter of fact, but for a
man such as this, I do not think that Delta State would have been what
it is today. There was nothing he didn’t do. He went out of his way to
the creeks to speak to the militants, confronted situations headlong
just to make sure he brings about peace.
What some people don’t know is that we love the Muslims. We do not
have anything against Muslims. A lot of people are sending wrong signals
to a lot of people, particularly Muslims, thinking that Pastor Ayo is
an enemy of Muslims. It is totally untrue. There is no iota of truth in
it. He has a lot of them as friends. Papa Ayo’s relationship with Sultan
of Sokoto is still strong as ever. When Islamic fundamentalists were
killing his Christian brothers and sisters in the North, he was forced
to urge their leaders to speak against the killings, let us find
solution to this, you have a right to practice your religion, I have
equal right as well to do same and we must not be at each other’s
throats; and somebody being at the receiving end and having to keep
quiet, I must speak out because I am the leader. That’s who we are
talking about here.
When the Niger Delta crisis was so heavy, a lot of Warri were closed
down. They took off when the gunshots and so on were such a very messy
situation. But he stood his ground. We have all kinds of tribes in Word
of Life Bible Church today; there are people from the North, people from
all parts of Delta State even at the time of the crisis. During the
crisis, the church was functioning normally because he has always been a
detribalised man. He is man that deals with people based on who they
are, not according to tribe or religion. He engages people based on who
they are. He went out of his way to spend tens of millions of naira on
internally displaced Ijaws at Ogbe Ijoh, shipping bags of rice, bags of
clothes and all sorts of things just to bring succour.
And naturally, many Itsekiris grumbled saying he did not extend the
same gesture to them and he asked them if the Ijaws were not our people
too? Whatever is happening, peace will definitely reign, we must not go
back at each other. It was later he had to balance the whole thing so
that they won’t think he’s one-sided.
When you look at all these, when you look at a man who can do
anything just to make sure that another man is comfortable, why should
any man, all because of his disposition towards his people, go after him
in this manner? It’s amazing. What that goes to tell you is that they
have looked for everything; we have heard of one or two people caught in
some unholy alliance and so on, thank God my husband was not involved.
They have done everything they could do to try and pull him down. What
they finally did was to use a gift that was given to him; he didn’t use
his money to buy it.
Some people said President Jonathan bought it for him.
I wish he did. I have the list of the names of people who
masterminded this thing on our record. Hundreds and thousands of
people, church folks who said this man served us with every vigour in
him, we could see in him a great man and he’s not getting younger
anymore. He is ever on the road constantly doing everything he can for
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us try as much as possible to
elongate his life by blessing him with this gift. He didn’t buy it or
put down money to say this is what he wants. He didn’t even know
anything about it. I was aware of it. What I would have loved for them
to tell me is to show me the receipt of the plane that was bought by
President Jonathan and the person who said he bought the plane. I have
heard all sorts of lies that maybe somebody did it on behalf of
somebody. There’s no human being that can stand up to say I bought this
plane. It’s a complete lie from the pit of hell. Because of his person,
realising the fact that what should he do with this plane knowing the
amount of money that it’s going to cost to maintain it; if he was using
church money to maintain it, they would have cried out to say he is
using church money. You can see how foolish people can be. If President
Jonathan bought him a plane, can’t the same President Jonathan maintain
the plane? Why must it be hired out so as to sustain the maintenance of
the same plane if indeed it was the president that bought this plane?
They politicise a lot of things. It’s really annoying.
Is Pastor Ayo really that close to President Jonathan as his accusers allege?
I would love it if people can help me define that word ‘close’. Yes
there’s a relationship that has to do with being in his position as the
President of CAN and President Jonathan as the President of Nigeria.
Automatically, whether he likes it or not, there will be some level of
interaction and that is what Nigerians are calling closeness. Maybe they
should tell us how President Jonathan gave him one naira to buy a
plane.
I don’t really think that Pastor Ayo is closer to the president than
the Sultan of Sokoto, the co-chair of NIREC. This is not to say that
Papa hates Jonathan, no he does not. He is a Christian and so as a
Christian father to the nation, he tries his best to provide a guard. He
speaks out whenever necessary. He goes in to offer his own advice or
suggestion as the case maybe whenever he is asked to. When he wants to
see the president, he makes request just like everyone else. And
mostly, it is to discuss the issue of the nation. Many times, he goes
with his CAN executive council members to sit down with the president
and confront him on certain issues all to see how the nation can be well
piloted. What I have noticed is that whichever way you see it, if I
say this man is not close to the president, they will say it’s because
of what happened, if I say he’s close, they will say that is what we are
talking about. I don’t even care what people might say concerning that
because you can never please human beings. What I am saying is that
please before you start giving this man a bad name, find out the true
position of things. Do not go out there forgetting that he is a husband
to a woman and he is a father as well. Besides, he is a man who has
sacrificed himself. I think Nigerians even have him more than I do.
He is a very passionate person. When he believes in something, he’s
driven by it. He goes all out to see how he can really push across
whatever he is trying to bring in. That’s who he is. When he got the
leadership, when he was elected to lead Christians in Nigeria, he made
up his mind that he was going to do everything and anything possible to
propagate what he has been given. And he sees it as an assignment. Many
times, people see leadership just to bear a name and enjoy it. I think
if this man had wanted to enjoy the leadership as it were, maybe by now
his relationship with the Sultan of Sokoto would be waxing stronger.
And maybe he would have been enjoying more from the government as well.
But he has decided to sacrifice all that just like Moses. Moses
sacrificed and said he was not going to allow the booty in Pharaoh’s
house to override his judgment and so he shut himself out completely
from the judgment at the palace and made himself a sacrifice for the
liberty and freedom of the Israelites. That is what we are seeing now
with our father as well. He has truly given himself out to the nation
and, then of course, to the people who we call his constituents.
How did he receive the news of the plane saga?
He didn’t also know. When everything happened, according to what we
heard, the plane was released immediately and it came back to Nigeria.
They didn’t even bother to contact us to tell us what happened. No one
said anything. It was when someone called him and asked ‘where is your
plane.’ And he said he didn’t know but he would find out from his wife. I
have been the one managing it. When everything happened, they put it on
him, but I have actually been the one running it. So he called me and
asked where the plane was, I said I didn’t know promising to call him
back.
The person who called him told him the plane was impounded in South
Africa. So the gentleman said something happened. It was at that point
he said one John came to hire the plane to South Africa. That was what
happened. The next they heard was they discovered this and that.
However, since they knew that the plane and the crew members had nothing
to do with the transaction, they let the plane go which is the normal
practice. The only thing they do is that once that occurs, the next
thing they do is to search whoever that is involved, pick the person and
that’s it. No one is now going to start putting it on the plane or the
owners or even the crew. The next thing he said was, ‘Oh my God’. He
said these people are after something. I actually thought it was a joke
because I wasn’t expecting anyone to condescend to that base level. I
expect someone to be able to see between the lines. Please let us not
belittle our government. Are you telling me that a whole Federal
Government of Nigeria would need a pastor to help him move money to a
location to buy arms? That is an insult on this nation. For anyone to
even phantom it shows how small minded we are really, and that we don’t
look at things holistically. It just does not make any sense at all
other than the fact that certain people just said since it is his plane,
let us just see how we can rope him with it so that we can malign him
at the end of the day since we have been unable to hook him to anything.
We were also told that the same people leaked the transaction to the media…
They did. They leaked it. When we now did our own investigation, we
discovered that by the time the plane touched ground in South Africa,
the picture was already taken. And some people were already having a
meeting in London, and coming up with all sorts of stories and so on and
so forth about him even before everything finally blew open. So it was
all orchestrated right from Nigeria. Whoever such people are, they are
not true Muslims or Christians. These are enemies of progress. These
are people who are doing their very best to cause unnecessary discord
between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria which is very sad. To use an
innocent man to throw this sling is very sad.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is not the target; it’s every Christian in
Nigeria. We are all the target. We are the ones they have targeted but,
of course, they can’t get to everyone so they have to look for the
person who represents Christianity in Nigeria and that is what we are
experiencing.
It’s sad to see Christian leaders calling for the resignation of
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and so on when some of them don’t even know the
details of what happened. It’s manipulation. And some of them too have
betrayed themselves. We also know the lives they live. I don’t even see
some of those people as Christian leaders. I want to use this
opportunity to appreciate our brethren at Catholic, our brethren at
Baptist and all of the five blocks of Christian Association of Nigeria
who stood their grounds knowing who they have as their leader and, of
course, standing to confront anything negative concerning him. When I
read the communiqué after a meeting they had in Abuja, they said this
jet wasn’t bought by President Jonathan, but if anyone has evidence to
this effect that it was bought by President Jonathan, make it public.
Number two, they also said that this particular plane was leased out
before now. If anyone has an evidence to show that it was not, make it
public. I’m still waiting. I haven’t seen anyone to do that. I think it
is at that time they will know that my own is more than my husband. I
have just been holding myself because of him. Otherwise, I would have
loved to scream and shout and show up on television and call out to
Nigerians to say that they should not kill my husband. The only thing
this man has done is to sacrifice himself for you. So if you do not
appreciate him, then what is the need for him making these sacrifices,
putting his 42 years in ministry on the line just because of you and I? I
think he is a man who is worthy of commendation, who is worthy to be
praised amongst men. A lot of people chicken out because they want to
appear in the good books of everybody. No one really wants to come out.
Everyone tries to shy away from anything that has to do with things
like Boko Haram or anything. He is the only one by the special grace of
God, and no wonder God decided to put him in this position for such a
time like this. If we had had a weakling there, I don’t know what would
have happened to this country by now. It would have been a different
ball game entirely.
 |
$9.3m arms cash was set-up – Oritsejafor
|
