By Williams Anuku, Abuja
A popular Lagos-based Clergyman, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo has debunked claims by the Federal Government that churches in Nigeria flout the COVID-19 protocols.
Ighodalo, who is the Senior Pastor of Trinity House Church, while featuring virtually as a guest on Arise TV flagship programme, “This Morning Show”, advised the government to focus on educating the vast number of citizens who move about without face masks and hand sanitizers.
The Clergyman pointed out that most churches have adhered strictly to most of the laid down regulations by the government, adding that it would be unfair to state that churches are flouting the guidelines.
He said, “To speak to the issue of whether the churches are the ones going against Covid-19 protocols, I regret to say that I don’t quite agree. I think the government has bigger fish to fry.
“If you go to any of the markets, any of the bus-stops, any of the busy places, people don’t even wear masks, so those gatherings of people is much more than the gatherings you have in any church from time to time, and in fairness to most churches, they have tried, a few no doubt have flouted the rules here and there but most of them have tried to keep to the COVID protocols.
“For about four months no church was open, everything was online, subsequently government began to reopen the church bit by bit, most of them had the social spacing that was required, they did the handwashing and temperature check that was required, a few flouted but most of the churches did not have their big gatherings this year.
“So the huge churches did their best to observe these things (protocols), so it’s not fair to say that it is the churches that flout Covid guidelines.”
While responding to a question on whether erring churches should be shut down if the need arises, Ighodalo said, “There is nothing sacrosanct about a religious house, it is just a gathering of people who want to worship God.
“If that gathering and that intimacy in the gathering will lead to the spread of germs or disease, God, because you want to worship Him will not say that the physical things you need to do should not be done.
“So if we need to shut down the churches, why not? It was shut down several months ago, we didn’t die, we survived, the churches learned how to go online and Christianity benefited from it because we now began to use more technology to offer our evangelism and worship of God.
“We’ve reduced things to house fellowships, smaller gatherings but you know what, life must continue. No church should feel the government is against them, we are just a social gathering, the same way they are against night clubs, the same way they are against event centres, it is nothing personal and I really don’t take it personally.”