Human rights lawyer and social critic, Dele Farotimi, has launched a blistering attack on Nigerian pastors and religious leaders, accusing them of moral failure, hypocrisy and complicity in the country’s worsening insecurity and governance crisis.
Speaking during a public engagement, Farotimi said many Christian leaders have abandoned their moral responsibility by choosing comfort and personal gain over speaking truth to power, despite being fully aware of the depth of Nigeria’s problems.
“You, the Christian leaders—in the comfort of your megachurches—knowing the truth, what have you said?” he asked. “Your silence in the face of evil renders you complicit.”
Farotimi accused prominent pastors of engaging in what he described as “performative Christianity,” claiming they routinely travel abroad for lucrative preaching engagements while failing to condemn injustice, violence and corruption at home.
“You cannot be moving up and down America earning fat honorariums, pretending to be Christians, while Nigeria is being sold,” he said.
He faulted religious institutions for failing to act as moral guardians, noting that religion, by its very nature, is rooted in morality and should help shape societal norms and laws.
“Every religion proceeds from a point of morality. That morality eventually becomes the norms of society. What are the religious authorities in Nigeria doing?” he asked, before declaring that the church in Nigeria had “sold the country through silence.”
Farotimi also criticised religious leaders for encouraging Nigerians to fast and pray rather than openly condemn acts of violence and injustice perpetrated by individuals and institutions.
“Telling people to fast and pray in the face of crimes committed by men, when you should be condemning evil forthrightly, is a betrayal,” he said.
Turning to politics, Farotimi questioned the role of religious leaders in promoting or remaining silent over divisive policies, including the Muslim–Muslim presidential ticket, which he described as a distraction driven by selfish interests rather than national unity.
“You found nothing wrong in promoting division in a place where unity should be preached. Look at where we are today,” he said.
He further accused clerics of normalising evil through sermons that subtly legitimise injustice, arguing that such actions make them as guilty as those directly responsible for violence across the country.
“By normalising this evil, you invited it. You are just as guilty as those bearing the killing of men and women,” Farotimi stated.
He also questioned the silence of church leaders over attacks on churches and the abduction of worshippers, asking whether they had publicly condemned such acts.
Despite the proliferation of churches and mosques across Nigeria, Farotimi said evil continues to thrive because religious leaders are more concerned about access to power and patronage than confronting wrongdoing.
“Nothing excites you about speaking truth to power because it may lead to exclusion. They may not invite you to the State House to say morning prayers for people you know are evil in the extreme,” he said.
Farotimi concluded by warning that religious institutions risk irrelevance if they fail to reclaim their moral authority, noting that a society saturated with religious centres should not be collapsing under the weight of injustice and violence.
