Former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has called on churches in Nigeria to shift their focus from preaching prosperity and wealth accumulation to instead emphasising the importance of peace, productivity, and community development.

While speaking at a public lecture over the weekend, the former Vice President argued that for too long, churches have been caught up in the pursuit of personal prosperity and material wealth, neglecting the true calling of the gospel to promote peace, unity, and the holistic development of the society.

“For too long, our churches have been caught up in the pursuit of personal prosperity and material wealth, neglecting the true calling of the gospel to promote peace, unity, and the holistic development of our society. If we truly want to see Nigeria rise again and fulfill its immense potential, the church must return to its roots, preaching the values of hard work, compassion, and service to the community. It is only through this shift in focus that we can inspire our people to become agents of positive change, rather than mere consumers of prosperity gospel,” he said.

Osinbajo warned that when preachers place a premium on benefits and rewards, especially Christians in government and positions of authority, national development suffers because the people’s minds will be soiled. They will be unable to do what is right. He opined that many prosperous nations of the world have no natural resources while many nations with many national endowments are impoverished because people do not play according to the rules of hard work and productivity.

“The major responsibility of christians, responsibility of the church is propagating the correct version of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is that correct version of the gospel of Jesus Christ that transformed other nations of the world. The nations that we copy, the nations we want to emulate, the nations whose developments we have seen, the nations in Europe, America, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the virtues of hard work, productivity, integrity, protection of the poor preached from the pulpit that transfer this nations.

If we must transform and impact on our nations as Christians and as a Church, we must be mindful of the messages we preach, such that it will encourage and promote virtues of hardwork, integrity, productivity while also caring for the poor and needy around us,” he said