Senior Pastor of House on the Rock Church, Paul Adefarasin, has stirred controversy after declaring that Nigeria was not divinely established but rather a colonial arrangement for Britain’s economic interests.
Delivering a sermon on Sunday, Adefarasin dismissed the notion that Nigeria’s existence was the result of divine will, stressing instead that it was crafted to serve foreign powers.
“Nigeria, I do not believe it was created by God. I believe it was created by colonial deals and interests. This country was stitched together to serve Britain’s purse, not as a divine arrangement,” he said.
He further argued that Nigeria’s constitution lacks legitimacy, as it was not developed through a collective will of the people but imposed by the military.
“Our constitution says ‘we the people,’ but in truth, it was written by soldiers. That foundation is faulty. Psalm 11 verse 3 says, if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? You cannot build a lasting nation on a corrupted foundation,” the pastor declared.
Using infrastructure as a metaphor, he compared Nigeria’s governance systems to poorly constructed projects.
“Look at the difference between the road to the Lagos airport and the other roads they resurface wrongly. Someone told me they make them that way just to get another contract the following year. That is injustice,” Adefarasin noted.
He also challenged the widely celebrated status of Nigeria’s nationalist leaders, contending that they were not the true “founding fathers.”
“Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, and Nnamdi Azikiwe are not the founding fathers of Nigeria. The real founders were the British, Lord Lugard, and those in Whitehall. Even the name ‘Nigeria’ was coined by Lugard’s girlfriend,” he argued.
According to him, the country’s current struggles stem from being created as a colonial enterprise rather than as a nation built on equity, justice, and the will of its people.