Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has encouraged the Federal Government to swiftly eradicate terrorists and their sponsors ahead of the possible United States military action in Nigeria.
In response to recent threats made by US President Donald Trump, Adeboye offered the counsel on Friday during the November Holy Ghost Service.
He suggested that President Bola Tinubu provide a three-month deadline for eliminating terrorists and their funders to the recently constituted service chiefs. They should quit if they don’t do this, he said.
The cleric said, “This is not the time for apportioning blame. Our president inherited this problem; it started before him.”
He recalled the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and said he had once privately counseled him to act decisively when the nation’s killings became intolerable. However, Buhari disregarded the advice.
He said, “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. He’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.
“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.
“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?’
“I won’t tell you the details, but one thing came out of that meeting, which will lead me to my next advice to our government, in case there’s any of you who can get across to them. 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.”
Adeboye warned that China, Russia, and other international powers would not defend Nigeria in the event that the US invaded the nation.
Adeboye stated, “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.
“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.
“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.”
Additionally, he asked Tinubu to beg Trump to grant him a 100-day window to address the insurgency in Nigeria.
According to the cleric, Tinubu should issue a marching order to the military chiefs and other security agencies to tackle the challenges within 90 days after gaining Trump’s support to allow him 100 days to stop the attacks.
He said, “Let the government use diplomatic methods to convince President Trump to give us 100 days of grace. All our service chiefs, fortunately, are new; they should perform within three months or resign.”
The warning came after Trump said last Friday on his Truth Social platform that radical Islamist organizations posed an “existential threat” to Christianity in Nigeria.
The United States “cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening,” he continued, adding that his government would be “ready, willing, and able to protect our great Christian population around the world.”
Additionally, Trump asked Congressmen Riley Moore, Tom Cole, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and others to look into the matter and report back to him.
