Adeboye urges journalists to verify stories before publication

Says misinformation threatens public trust, clarifies prayer-walk photo, Tinubu comment By OLAYINKA LATONA The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has urged journalists and social media influencers to verify information thoroughly before publishing, warning that misinformation could damage reputations and erode public trust.

Adeboye spoke at a monthly special thanksgiving service and prayer session organised for social media influencers, creative industry practitioners, content creators and drama ministers at the church’s national headquarters, Throne of Grace Parish, Ebute-Metta, Lagos. He said media practitioners and content creators had a responsibility to investigate claims before disseminating them, noting that unverified reports could mislead the public.

The cleric used the occasion to address two claims about him that had circulated in the media. He denied protesting against former President Goodluck Jonathan, explaining that a widely circulated photograph of him in white and green attire carrying a placard was taken during a prayer walk in 2020. According to him, the walk was organised in compliance with an instruction from the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, for churches to hold prayer walks in their neighbourhoods.

“It is true I carried a placard. It was a prayer walk. CAN said we should do a prayer walk near our churches. That is what I did in Ebute Meta. A walk is a walk,” he said. Adeboye pointed out that Jonathan left office in 2015, five years before the prayer walk took place during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. “And everybody swallowed it and believed I protested against Jonathan.

Nobody checked,” he said. He also faulted reports that, in his comments on President Bola Tinubu, he had said the President had “done his best”. Adeboye recalled speaking in the United States about the abduction of children in Oriire community, Oyo State, and stating that Tinubu, as Commander-in-Chief, had issued the necessary orders for their rescue.

He said his remarks were subsequently presented as an endorsement of the President’s handling of the security situation. “Somebody then reported, ‘Pastor Adeboye said the president has done his best,’ and we all swallowed it. When I said the US should not bomb us anymore, that was not news. When I said the US should help us deal with the terrorists, that was not news.

God have mercy on journalists,” he said. Recalling his undergraduate days, Adeboye said he took an elective course in the Mass Communication Department, where he was taught the principles of investigative journalism and the need to establish facts before publishing a report. He urged social media influencers to use their platforms responsibly and avoid circulating information that had not been properly verified.

In his sermon, Adeboye described potential as a God-given ability bestowed on every human being at birth, stressing that no one was created by mistake. Using the bee and wasp as illustrations, he said different individuals could respond differently to the same opportunities, just as the two insects produce different substances from the same flower.

He warned that people’s potential could remain dormant if they failed to develop and deploy it. “There are many journalists who could become world-class but will never go beyond their native towns because their potential was never activated,” he said. Adeboye urged those who had misused or failed to develop their potential to turn to God in repentance, saying divine mercy could help them fulfil their capabilities.