The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has issued a strong warning to President Bola Tinubu, urging him to take decisive steps to eliminate terrorists and their sponsors before the United States makes good on its threat of possible military intervention in Nigeria.
Addressing worshippers during the November Holy Ghost Service on Friday, Adeboye reacted to recent comments by US President Donald Trump, stressing that the Nigerian government must not delay in tackling the rising wave of terrorism.
The cleric advised Tinubu to direct the newly appointed service chiefs to wipe out terrorists within three months and ensure that their financiers are also brought to justice. He added that any officer unable to meet the target should voluntarily step down.
“This is not the time for apportioning blame. Our President inherited this problem; it started before him,” Adeboye said.
He recalled how he had once urged the late President Muhammadu Buhari to take similar action during his tenure when insecurity worsened, but the advice was not fully implemented.
“Some of you will remember who called the service chiefs together and said, ‘I give you three months, get rid of all these Boko Haram people or resign.’ It’s not allowed to tell you who gave him that advice. He ran with that advice, but he didn’t follow it through because he gave the order as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the security operatives moved fast,” Adeboye recounted.
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He continued, “But three months went by, and the work was not done. So I went to see him. It wasn’t unusual. This time, somehow, the press got to know that I visited him. Of course, they were not there when we talked.”
According to the cleric, Buhari’s failure to follow through on the directive was a missed opportunity to end the crisis. “Unfortunately, like I said, he’s not alive now. I would have asked you to go and ask him, ‘Sir, why didn’t you follow through? Because when three months passed and the work wasn’t done, why didn’t you proceed with your, are we going to call it threat?’”
Adeboye urged President Tinubu to avoid such lapses and to be firm with his orders this time around. “When giving orders to the service chiefs this time around, we should make it clear to them that they are not only to eliminate the terrorists but also their sponsors, no matter how influential they may be,” he emphasized.
The revered pastor also issued a sobering warning about the possibility of US military action, cautioning that Nigeria should not expect any foreign support if conflict breaks out.
“When I say our leaders should move fast, move diplomatically, and move wisely, we must take note of the fact that if America should attack us, China is not coming to defend us. Russia will not come to defend us,” he said. “All the so-called world leaders will talk; they will condemn what America has done in the strongest terms, that’s all they will do. Britain is not going to come and help us. No other foreign power will come to our aid.”
He further lamented the ongoing killings across the country, saying, “This is not the time for joking. This is not the time for drama. This is not the time for semantics. This is not the time to begin to argue, is it suicide or kidnapping or whatever name they call it? And this is not the time to say, ‘Ah, it’s not Christians alone, Muslims are also involved.’ The point is, people are dying. Innocent people are dying.”
Adeboye appealed to Tinubu to reach out diplomatically to President Trump, seeking a 100-day grace period to tackle the insecurity threatening the nation.
“Let the government use diplomatic methods to convince President Trump to give us 100 days of grace. All our service chiefs, fortunately, are new, should perform within three months, or resign,” he advised.
His statement comes after President Trump, through his Truth Social platform, raised alarm over what he described as an “existential threat” facing Christians in Nigeria. Trump vowed that his administration would be “ready, willing and able to protect our great Christian population around the world,” and directed senior congressional leaders to investigate the situation.