The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, says God has not told him who would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023.
Adeboye, who said this on Saturday during the 2022 Crossover Service of the church held at the RCCG International Headquarters along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, added that prophecy is no guesswork.
The 79-year-old cleric said many people had been asking him who would become Nigeria’s President in 2023 but said God had not revealed Nigeria’s next President to him.
While announcing his prophecies for the Year 2022, on Saturday, Adeboye said, “I just want to give you a hint of what Daddy (God) says is in store for the New Year. There are all manners of prophets out there. So, you will be hearing all manners of prophecies in the coming days. I am talking to you my children, not criticising anybody. I have my duty to make sure I teach my own children.
“When God speaks, He speaks specifically. There is no may be or perhaps; He speaks. So, if you hear somebody prophesy, ‘It is likely one of the following people will succeed’, that’s not a prophecy; that’s personal opinion. When God speaks, He will say, ‘This fellow will succeed, that fellow is not going to make it’. That is the way God speaks; He doesn’t say, ‘It is likely’.”
He took a trip down memory lane and narrated how he was asked who would become Nigeria’s President in 1993. Adeboye said as the then President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, he was approached by his fellow pastors to know who would become Nigeria’s President between MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party and Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention during the planned transition to civilian rule by the military.
The cleric said, “When God speaks, some of the things He says may baffle your brain a little. Let me give you an example. I have always told you I am not a prophet; I am only a pastor but I hear from God once in a while.
“Years ago, there were three people contesting to be President of Nigeria — (MKO) Abiola, Aminu Kano and (Bashir) Tofa. At that time, I was President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and so the other Pentecostal people asked me, ‘Sir, what do we do? Who do we vote for? There are three of them – all Muslims. Who is going to win sir?’ I said, ‘None’. They said, ‘How can that be? If you toss a coin, when it lands, it is either head or tail’. I said, ‘None’.
“They said, ‘Why?’ I said because God told me. He spoke in parables. He said the winner will be the loser, the loser will be the winner and luckiest of them is Aminu Kanu. Aminu Kanu died before the election. Abiola won but he never got to the throne and the fellow who lost at least didn’t have the embarrassment of winning and not reigning. The winner is the loser and the loser is the winner, the luckiest of them was the one who died. When it played out, my colleagues came to me and said, ‘Well, it seems as if you really heard.’”
Though the National Electoral Commission did not declare the winner of the 1993 election but unofficial results indicated that MKO won. The then military leader, Ibrahim Babangida, however, annulled the election citing electoral irregularities.
Continuing, Adeboye said, “For example, if somebody asks me today like many people are already doing, ‘Daddy, who is going to be our next President?’ The answer is: I don’t know. ‘How can you say you don’t know? You’re Daddy’s (God’s) son.’ He hasn’t told me yet. You don’t do guesswork with prophecy.”