Prof Bola Akinterinwa, Secretary of the dissolved Board of Trustees of the Celestial Church of Christ, has accused some allies of the Pastor and Head of the church, Rev. Emmanuel Oshoffa, of frustrating efforts to birth Celestial International University despite personal sacrifices.
Akinterinwa, in an exclusive interview with Rifnote, said lies and misinformation stalled efforts to start the university.
According to the former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, the pastor was told that there was a plot by top members of the Planning and Implementation Committee to “take away the church from him”.
“ In the church, PIC means Pastor-in-Council. But for the National Universities Commission, PIC is the Planning and Implementation Committee. In the letter given to the pastor, somebody read it to him. He never might have read it. I don’t want to know. The pastor certainly was told that Baba Banjo, Akinterinwa had taken over. ‘Akinterinwa is the Vice Chancellor. Baba Banjo is now the Chairman of the PIC. And in that case, if the pastor sits down here, they have taken the church away from him’. On that basis, the pastor did not approve any money. You can quote me.”
Akinterinwa’s assertion aligns with an earlier submission at the wake of the former Treasurer of the BOT, Elder Pius Olanrewaju.
“ Pius said that you(Akinterinwa) are an academic. You are in this place. You handle Celestial International University. He would handle the Imeko building project. And we said Baba Banjo should be a member of the PIC(Planning and Implementation Committee), not Pastor-in-Council, to be reporting NUC to PIC. But when this matter was referred to our pastor, Rev. Mobiyina Oshoffa, we wrote PIC(Planning and Implementation Committee), but those who read it to him said we have taken over. They said it’s Pius-in-Council,” Akinterinwa said in an emotion-laden voice.
Asked why he didn’t make any attempt to convince the pastor that he was misled, he said: “I like this type of question. When you write an application to someone and it is refused, you want me to go back and be lobbying? I can tell you how many times I travelled by road to Abuja. After 10:00pm, no aircraft goes to Abuja. I was told that the Chairman of the lCouncil, Prof. Banjo, who was ready to help us, would be there at 9:00am the following morning. I would take a risk and travel by road at night.”
Shedding light on how the committee intended to make the dream of constructing Celestial International University come to fruition despite paucity of funds, he explained: “We asked the pastor to give us N286 million to start the university. The NUC said N100 million must be deposited in a bank on a permanent basis. You cannot withdraw it. In the case of any problem,the 100 million will be there to offset expenses, indebtedness, damages. So, when you take N100 million away from N286 million, you have N186 million. Do you think it can build a university? Certainly not. But we knew we could do it. We were encouraging parishes at home and abroad to come and build hostels that we would name after them. It can be CCC Elephant and Castle, London. You build it, you continue to take rent. By the time you are able to recover your investment, then the building will return to the university. We contacted some people to come and invest. We already contacted an organisation in China. All these things we were doing. “
He continued:”Of the N186 million, we budgeted N50 million for the Senate building, which is a requirement by the NUC. The NUC asked us to do six things. We were asked to come back in six months to get the final certificate, not the approval in principle. They asked us to have a medical centre, a football pitch, a Senate building, a library, and a sporting field. These were the things they asked us to do…Esther Ajayi gave N2 billion for the same project, which started after our own.”
Speaking on efforts to raise funds, he shared how an intervention by the pastor to raise funds through billionaire philanthropist and founder of the Love of Christ Generation Church, Rev. Mother Esther Ajayi turned out.
“ There was a time when the pastor was in Porto Novo, he sent for me to come. A vehicle was put on the road by Tosho( Venerable Superior Evangelist Olatosho Oshoffa) and others. When we got there, we agreed that we were going to write Esther Ajayi for funds. But after leaving Porto Novo, just as I got to my home in Lagos, I got a call that the pastor said I should write the letter and give it to Tosho,that the letter would be vetted and worked on.I told them that I’m an academic professor.I didn’t become a professor by going to a seminary.I worked for it. I know how to write a letter. I was Special Adviser to two different Ministers of Foreign Affairs. I was Special Adviser to the Minister of Interior. It’s not arrogance. Everyone deserves a minimum of respect,” he said.