Oritsejafor: I am not ashamed to own a plane 
Published on November 25, 2012 by pmnews · 20 CommentsIn an interview published today, President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who has been under criticism for buying a private bombardier jet, explains why his church did so and the pains he has had to endure without a private plane. Below is an excerpt from the interview as published by Vanguardngr.com
Ayo Oritsejafor: I am not ashamed to own a plane
Oritsejafor: Coming to the issue of jet, I had no single idea of how it came about. It is true that people like us have gotten to a point where we need to have means of movement that will help us.
You may have heard me speak about my trip to Indonesia, to Jakarta.In fact, it wasn’t even Jakarta I was going to, but I had to stay inside an airport in Jakarta for five hours to wait for my flight, to get to the very city I was going. I was only going to preach for two hours there. I flew from Lagos to Dubai and I spent over three hours, changed flight to fly to Jakarta and then stayed five hours at the airport just to catch a flight to where I was going to, where I was to preach for just two hours.
Bombardier jet 601
Two weeks ago, a young pastor in Port Harcourt built a new church and had been on me all this while to come and dedicate the church and suddenly from no where, there was this flood that cut off the road to Port Harcourt.There is no road now to Port Harcourt. If you want to go by road now, it takes you up to 12 hours to get to Port Harcourt and I had to preach in Port Harcourt, I had to preach in Lagos, I had to preach in Abuja and other places.
Finally, I was able to find my way to Port Harcourt, it was on a Saturday.I had to get to Warri that Saturday so as to be able to preach the next day, Sunday. Do you know what I had to finally do? I chartered a helicopter that cost me N2 million to drop me in Warri. When they dropped me here, ah, I can’t tell you how I felt that I had to part with that sum. But I had promised the young man and the church and if I had said no, will it be right? I can go on and on and on.
So, sometimes, my schedule is so complicated. Now, with this plane, it changes everything about my movements. Now, I can move, I can even go and come back home. It is a bit more convenient for me and I suspect that this is one of the reasons a lot of these other preachers have planes.
Does your congregation understand all these engagements?
Oritsejafor: They do. They feel the pain I go through and they feel painful for not seeing me most of the time. They don’t like it, they are troubled. I know some people buy planes, I can’t buy plane. I can’t afford it. I don’t have that kind of money, I still don’t know the people that bought this plane, but I know that there is a committee.I hope you will get to meet with some of the people in that committee, I don’t know them. My wife is more involved with them. She (my wife) never talked to me, (about it) and she was acting strange. Well, I don’t want to get involved in this.
This is my story about the plane. And I’m not ashamed to own a plane, I think it is a necessity and not a luxury for some of us deeply involved in the work of God to own planes.
Nigerian pastors are accused of prospering while their congregants continue to suffer in poverty. What is your take on this?Well, let me begin like this, this is a major issue, especially now that I have just been presented with a gift of a jet. That makes it a major issue.
Oritsejafor: Let me say here that every pastor must be conscious of the people he pastors. It is very important. I can tell you that as a pastor for 40 years now, if you talk to people that are genuinely my members, they will tell you the kind of pastor that am I. If you watched me today, I was talking about a young man who has been trying to go to a university for three years now. I didn’t know him from Adam. One day, after a service here, one of my pastors brought him to me. As soon as he saw me, he held my legs and began to cry! He showed me all the papers, pleading that he had tried to gain admission to any university here, it never worked.So he finally got admission to study in Cyprus. I paid his school fees, helped him with ticket and everything he needed, he’s gone. He has since resumed school and is there in Cyprus now. How many people will know that?
In the last seven to eight years now, I have paid school fees of over 100 people in different universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.Some of them have graduated and have come here to share their testimonies, excitements and even their parents have come here to thank us. I don’t know them from anywhere. Every December 26, I do a very big thing here. We call it poverty alleviation.
This year, December 26, we will equally do it. Last December 26, I gave out about six brand new cars to people; your denomination means nothing. Whether you are a Muslim or a native doctor means nothing here. What qualifies you is if you are a human being. I gave out 25 tricycles, about 100 sewing machines, and grinding machines.
Some of these people come here to give testimonies; some are now married and have children. There was this young boy, a Moslem from Auchi. This young man, nothing good was coming out of his life, he was rejected, nobody wanted him and one of our pastors took him into a teaching centre and he was sleeping in the teaching centre. They were helping him. This boy had driver’s licence, I don’t know how he got it. He had no job and couldn’t do anything.
Last two years, when we were doing the poverty alleviation, he applied. And they brought out a name which happened to be this boy’s and he won a brand new car. Today, that boy has rented his own house; in fact, his parents who are Muslims came to church on a Sunday and worshipped with me and danced all over the place and, after the service, they came to me and thanked me, saying ‘oh, this boy that you don’t even know from anywhere, you dashed him a car.’They were very happy.
Besides that, many lives have been transformed here. We have changed many lives. We have an orphanage here. As we are talking, an American couple has gotten in touch with me. They want to adopt a child from our orphanage. We have a clinic here that hopefully will develop into a full blown hospital. People go there and pay little something for treatment, but generally on Sundays people are treated free.
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I have read Pastor Ayo’s reply and I can say that the man is just saying the truth. If you are a christian, if what the man has said is true, then I can say the man is just mindful of his call as a priest of God. I am not a member of his church and I do not subscribe to ministers buying jets up and here and just very arrogant with their answers and quoting all sorts of scriptures to back their jetventures and ignorant members hailing them.
I am not against Pastor Ayo buying a jet or using a private jet, after all if he was to be in the secular business and is making money, can he not buy a jet? But the issue here is that Pastor Ayo should not claim to be ignorant about how come about the jet. There is no way he should pay deft ears to this issue. This is the problem we have with the church pastored by the blacks all over the world including the African Americans in the United States. They do not want to know the sources but always accept the gift or money. That is why we have thiefs such as drug barons,419, thief politicians, etc. donating huge amount of money they stole through their nefarous deals, money meant for developing their constituencies and putting infrastructure in place are stolen into private pockets and giving to churches and we call all these prosperity. No. Prosperity is beyond what our present penticostal pastors are preaching. Someone with a motorbike in nigeria as the only automobile possession but having an indept knowledge of the Universal Father, doing the right thing without cheating, loving God and his fellow beings without manipulation (as the latter been the order of the day in our present day Nigeria both within the church and outside the church) is having a real prosperity that the church is yet to know.
But materialistic and so forth as taken over that if you are not having a car, a house, etc. you are not prosperous as a christian. If we want to measure this as a sign of success, then go see those who do not go to church, not having any interest in the things of God, yet are very rich and wealthy in terms of money and possessions and do they live sometimes longer than some christians. Thus this make them prosperious in the eyes of God, definitely no. These are just worldly possession and ofcourse, a very shrude person whether a christian, a moslem, a native doctor, etc would become rich or wealthy by following certain natural principles of displine and hard word. This wrong concept of prosperity teaching should not be encouraged in our modern day churches.
I can tell you this is not the religion Jesus Christ came to reveal. But one thing I believe is that the religion which Jesuch Christ came to reveal is still in progress or still evolving as the human race on earth is still evolving, gradually people would come to know God the Universal Father and his Son Jesus Christ whom he sent to reveal the loving kindness of the Father Universal in heaven.
Now, back to Pastor Ayo, your point is very clear and I also agreed with you regarding your schedules to preach the gospel, which is necessary. But this should not be the reason for jets. What if there is a bad wheather, your plane will not travel as well. You have been a minister for a long time having began with the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, who has gone to heaven, you know that sometimes flight delay or no where is caused by bad whether even here in the USA. As for the Nigerian situation, we know how the aviation sector is still growing coplied with high business environment, hence you need a jet, but let it not always be in the eyes of the public that it is, it is, it is just for the gospel as some men of God who purchased aircraft would always says. They they know the truth that most of the time. Some are now renting their so called gospel jets for business income because of maintenance. No problem with that. But let the people not be deceived that it is for the gospel. Tell people, I have bought a private jet from my so and so savings or investments especially your congregation. However, be ready to answer how come about the investment or savings because you started as a minister running church or ministry which is a non-profit or charity organization and you are a trustee? I know the way trustees run churches or ministries in Nigeria is different from the way it is run in western world. If Nigeria were to be a sane country, many ministers of the gospel would been in jail.
You have never been a business man before, so how come about it? You may claim that it is your books, good reason, but what is the value in terms of money your books have sold since you started publishing it? It is time, all sorts of lies, deceptions and hypocrisies be exposed at the altar of God. You know we are living in the times and season where religion is a big tool to deceive people and make money out of people whether the miracle happens or not. You know most of the donations and givings by people to God par say is non-refundable whether the miracle happens or not. But this is not the case in a secular business, it is refundable. This superstition in religion is happening in the christian domain as well as the moslem domain. All all these superstition stops, that is when Nigerian as nation will experience growth and would become a prosperous nation.
You know buying a jet is not a problem, even a really used jet could be bought with few millions of naira but the issue has to do with maintenance. Your church committe may be doing a good thing for you as their pastor to have a private jet, but let it not be as a competition with other ministers that have bought jets. It is no doubt you should be very mindful of their source of fund for buying the jet. Do not claim not to know. But have all knowledge of it because if anything goes wrong, it is you and not the committee that would be pronounce.
To conclude this, Pastor Ayo, it is not crime for you to acquire a jet. I can say that you have been a minister for a long time and good that now you have jet. I am just concern about maintenance and all sorts of follow up. If I can remember, Archbishiop Benson Idahosa also got jet(s) and a friend of mine told me that God told Archbishop that these things (jets) are the ones distracting you. And that was all. I pray that this jet would easy your itinery and schedules as you go around the world preaching the gospel the remaining years of your ministerial life on earth. I also continue to pray for you for God to provide more for your orphanage home and your givings to the poor whether a christian, moslem, native doctor, whichever because they are all children (natural) children of God. This is the basic of the religion Christ came to reveal to us.
I rest my case.
Felix
study82000@yahoo.co.uk
Christians in the North are suffering,pastors buying jet, isn’t time our so-called celebrity pastors in Nigeria practice what they preach by all selling their luxury jets and giving it to the flood victims and BH victims in the North.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/come-to-the-north-to-help-us-christians-plead/
The Catholic Church build Schools World Wide in the most impoverished Nations of the earth. It gives scholarships to thousands of deserving children every year and carry out countless charitable works yet the Pope or Cardinals do not own private jets. You buy Sewing Machines and give few Scholarships over many years and you go and buy Private Jet. You build schools that the children of your poor congregation cannot attend. Who is fooling who. With time people will become wiser.
Must you be everywhere when you do not have the means. Let us be realistic, i have always known that the overtly loud noise of Oritsejagor is a ploy to deceive Christians into believing that he cares; the question is, has he ever gone to any of these places to see the injured? The end has finally justified the means but we should remember that God is seeing everything and He cannot be deceived.
2. There is no amount of justifying that will make Mr Ayo Oritshejafor’s excuses to be right. If Jesus and his apostles wanted to be exceedingly rich they would have become so, for that was Satan’s desire for them in order to win them over and then scuttle the gospel of the Promised Kingdom of God on earth. To become a jet-owning pastor is the very antithesis of the Christian message! These nouveaux riches who call themselves pastors are the real servants of Satan – the archenemy of God the Almighty. Let the wise ones remove the dark veils on these pastors so that the true devils behind the veils can be revealed.
Frank Monye, Owerre-Olubor
If all what he say is truth then he is man of God, since God himself has said I dont send you to judge anybody He is there to judge everybody with thier faith, All what I know is there is no hiden plcace for my able GOD .
There is nothing wrong with a man of God owning an aircraft, if only he can take care of it .it’s like one who owns a car if Jesus were to be alive today ,he would as well own one instead of traveling mystically because if he travels mystically to preach the word the witches and wizards would find justification
I have never for once believed that Pastor Oritsejafor is a man of God right from his days under Bishop Idahosa. All his so-called explanations are simply after-thoughts, a kind of alibi in the peoples’ opinion court as a face-saving strategy after committing the huge blunder and SIN against God
Yes. Hardened criminals like this pastor are not usually ashamed of their shameful actions.
i always said there is no faithful and trustful person in this country , every body manupulated thing for the shake of money……ortesjafor is not a jesus christ neither he be prophet muhammed. fake pastors and religion leaders in nigeria have mislead people and this is a lesson for all followers .
For me and my household, we have always known Pastor Oritsejafor to be a Satan. This is no news to us, it only unfortunate he is dragging CAN along with him.
what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul? ayo pls rethink lord jesus never owned a donkey…. for his preaching… now u want to fly whom are you emolating
Lets emulate Jesus, do we?
Everybody will always proclaim his or her innocence but a faithful man/woman who can find. Ah…Nigerian pastors.
Because of freebies, the gullible and the gluttonous congregation of this false prophet will never know that they are smoke screened and scam on daily basis.
Nobody should be a Judge, God is the only true Judge. It depends on the motive behind it and in your own smallest way do you assist others when necessary?
Honesty I have no issue with Pastors buying jet, but what bothers me is the level of poverty in the land and what should be done about it. Men of God should be a voice drawing government attention to the plight of the ordinary people, for instance the aviation sector is comatose, Nigeria that used to boast of over 7 private airline companies is now left with about 4 that are barely flying, then making it difficult for movement via air. This is the problem, the companies died because of corruption so we need to tell government that the sector is being destroyed because of corruption instead of individual sorting out themselves by buying private jet.
My advice would be that the church should come together and float an airline, they should invest in ventures that will provide jobs and employment in the country, the church should invest in agriculture, indusrty and affordable education. This would solve a lot of problem instead of individual pastors or churches going solo. We can pool resources together and form a commonwealth. Why should different churches have their own university, CAN or PFN can established a unversity and have it campuses in all part of the country. The collective resources would benefit more peole than a pastor wanting to have a university named after him- This is nothing but materialism and worldliness.
criminal Orisejafor…!!!
Blaming Our Benefactors
> An elderly man wrote a letter addressed to God, describing
> his desperate needs and asking God for a certain sum of
> money. Not knowing how to deliver the letter addressed to
> God, the postal clerks in that town opened the letter and
> were moved to raise the money among themselves. They raised 80% of the old man’s request, but couldn’t raise
> it all. Rather than wait further, the postal clerks sent the
> man the money they had.
>
> A few days later another letter came addressed to God. The
> postal workers eagerly gathered around to see what his
> letter said. It read: “Thank you, God, for sending the money. But next time, please send it to me directly, not through the post office. Those thieving postal clerks pocketed 20% of it!”
>
>
“Many a time we have seen missionaries labour sacrificially for others, and then be totally misjudged concerning both their actions and their motives. In many cases, that which they had been desperately trying to correct and compensate for, has been
the very thing they were accused of. All of us will experience abuse and slander, sooner or later, but the worst kind of all will come from fellow Christians whom we have loved and tried to help.”
>
Have a wonderful day
Sunday Arikomi
The question is what are you doing to change the Status quo”. It is very easy to point finger and judge fellow human beings .What are you doing individually in our own little way to impact lives positively. we are only experts in critisizing.Every one will answer for himself