Maureen Badejo: When Pastors Silence Critics
By: Deji Yesufu
Social media in Nigeria entered a frenzy a few days ago when reports emerged that a social media personality, Maureen Badejo, had been arrested at the Muritala Mohammed Airport as she embarked on a trip to Nigeria from her base in the United Kingdom. She was allegedly arrested because of petitions from the duo of Pastors D. K. Olukoya and Johnson Suleiman. Badejo has a history of criticizing the two men on her social media handles, and she has even entered legal battles with Pastor Olukoya in the UK. Badejo was arrested on February 6, 2026, but has since been granted bail. She is not likely to be able to leave Nigeria, as her bail condition would require that she stay in the country until the conclusion of her case with the two pastors. This essay will centre on why Nigerian pastors employ the police and the judiciary to silence critics. I would be examining all these in the light of scripture, and I hope to help readers come to a balanced understanding of the issues on the ground.
There are very strong connections between law, religion, and society. Societal cohesion is the product of years of interrelations between human beings, laws enacted in those societies, accepted norms, and religious injunctions. What this means is that our society is what it is today because of what you and I have made it to be. What it also means is that there are certain institutions that are leading influences on what society would become. One of such institutions is the church. Now, when I mention “church”, I would request my readers to, for a brief moment, exclude Nigeria from that illustrious concept. I say this because Nigerians have destroyed the concept of the local church – and many denominations are guilty of this. What I have in mind, rather, is the biblical conception of church. The story of the Bible is that of God revealing himself over a period of 4,000-year to his people. Eventually, he would take up flesh and bring redemption to the sins of his people. In the process of God relating to men over this period, he gave them laws and told them how they ought to live within a society. In fact, the concept of the executive, legislature, and the judiciary is a biblical concept found in the book of Isaiah (33:22).
The church is therefore a product of years of biblical learning. What you then expect is that the church would be the source of law for society. One would assume that the judges, the police, and other persons who are involved in keeping law and order in our society belong to churches where the Bible is taught. When these people encounter conflict, as every society would, they should then look into the repository of societal laws and the laws of God written on their conscience to resolve these conflicts. The tragic situation in Nigeria is that many churches do not teach the laws of God; therefore, the people in these churches do not have a conscience that is weighed down by the laws of God, and so, every man is left to decide how he or she must resolve conflicts. As we face these dilemmas, the trouble that social media brings also comes hand-in-hand with all these. Social media has made information easily transmittable to society. People can now stay in the security of their rooms and even in foreign lands and publish damaging allegations against other persons. Society finds itself challenged with dealing with these problems, and all kinds of unorthodox and unbiblical solutions are being provided. The question that must be answered is simple: how does a pastor handle social media criticism or allegations? The biblical answer is twofold: it is either the pastor replies his critics with silence, or he replies to them with a statement. When pastors have to use the judiciary or the police to silence critics, they are embarking on fleshly cover-ups that are totally unnecessary.
I am in the middle of producing the story of Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, for our next publication on TextandPublishing (History). I saw a story during my reading on the project that I would share here. When the soldiers arrested Abubakar Tafawa Balewa during the first coup in January 1966, they also arrested Okotie-Eboh. The latter was the country’s finance minister, while the former was the nation’s Prime Minister. It was alleged that while they were being conveyed in a truck, Okotie-Eboh offered the soldiers million pounds if they would only spare his life. Balewa looked at him and said, “…you do not know God”. Both of them were eventually assassinated. But the point I wish to bring out of that story is this: crisis reveals the content that we are all really made up of. When pastors have to rely on the judiciary and the police to silence their critics, they reveal they do not know the God of heaven. Who is God?
In this context, it is safe to say that God is the Judge of the whole earth. He is witness to agreements; he sees when someone has been cheated; he is witness to robbery, defamations, lies, character assassinations, and all kinds of evil. The witness of the Bible is that God knows how to judge evil and how to repay the wrong of the evil-doer. If you and I trust God enough and we have nothing to hide, we can leave judgment to God. He would avenge every wrong. It is this very reality that demands that you and I respond to our critics with silence. There are, however, some cases that might demand we reply to those who may be defaming us. In such cases, a written statement or a published video on the subject is enough. Why do Nigerian pastors employ police and the judiciary to silence their critics?
First, because in many instances, the allegations being brought against these pastors are true. The Maureen Badejo detention has brought to light another case against Pastor D. K. Olukoya. The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church had three men detained in prison for close to a decade because the church was trying to cover up a situation where the chief security officer in the church was found in the house of a herbalist. The three men won their case against Olukoya, but this was after their lives had been damaged; their families broken; their means of livelihood taken away; and some of their marriages destroyed. The allegations brought against some of these pastors are things that make for soft-sell magazines, and many of them are true. These pastors cannot employ silence to ward off their critics, nor can they issue a statement. They would require forceful and fleshly means to silence their critics. They would need the Nigerian Police and the Nigerian Judiciary.
A second reason why these pastors employ the police and the judiciary to silence their critics is that they do not know God. God and natural justice are not on their side. So, in such a case, they do not have the ability to hand over issues to God and wait for his judgement on the matter. They must handle the matter themselves. The reason I am heavily critical of these churches is that one would expect that churches like these would be an avenue for people to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. Unfortunately, it is never so. These men preach a prosperity gospel – a message that promises a good life on earth, but that has no assurance for heaven. There is no way they can preach a message that points men to heaven because they themselves are sons of hell. That pastors would require the Nigerian police, with their history of corrupt practices and the Nigerian judiciary (with its own history of alleged practices), is a pointer to the fact that they have no confidence in the Judge of the whole earth. They dare not wait for God to judge the matter because they would be found guilty.
A third reason these pastors use the police and the judiciary to silence critics is that the natural man employs the things of the flesh to fight what is clearly a spiritual battle. In the denomination I belong to, the reformed Baptist churches, I once pointed out a fact to a pastor that an allegation running among our churches dare not see the light of the media. If it does, many people’s reputations in our denominations would be damaged. This person, recognising that I am a blogger, threatened to sue me if I ever published the story. That encounter was very revealing to me. It made me understand that many people in church are more intent on preserving their own reputation than upholding the truth or the glory of God. This is a denomination that vaunts itself as one that propagates truth, that combats error, and that is a purveyor of sound doctrine. But the moment a threat of unveiling their own sins is made, they threatened to employ the Nigerian police and the Nigerian judiciary to silence the issue. And it was not a mere threat: the same people had done it to someone else before. It was that incident that informed my writing the article: Reformed in Name, but Word of Faith at Heart. Let me conclude this article.
The Maureen Badejo story is a reflection of the state of the church in this country. Our churches in Nigeria are not sanctuaries where the weak would find strength, or where the weary would find rest, or where the disillusioned would find the light of salvation. Our churches in this country have become business centres. The pastors are trying to preserve their reputation because that reputation is the means to their livelihood. Churches in this country often do not preach the gospel; they preach self-preservation. There is no doubt that there are many other churches and pastors that are faithful to their calling and doing what God has called them to do. But they are very few. In Nigeria, you do not want a police case – it does not matter whether you are the one at fault or you are the one wronged. You also do not want to go before a law court – you do not know what the defining principles of the judge you will meet there are. Many of them can be bought by the highest bidders. And, last of all, you do not want to be involved with a Nigerian pastor who is doing everything to preserve his image before men, while he cares very little what God thinks of him.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at naijareformed @gmail.com
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