The Nigerian government has lifted the ban placed on religious worship centres as from Tuesday June 2.
The ban was placed in March to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, stated this during the daily briefing in Abuja on Monday.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari gave the approval on Sunday when the Task Force met him at the Presidential Villa.
Mustapha however said the relaxation of the ban would span for a period of four weeks from June 2 to June 29.
He said the decision would be reviewed on the four weeks completion.
“The PTF submitted its recommendations and the PRESIDENT has approved the following for implementation over the next four weeks spanning 2nd – 29th June, 2020, subject to review.
“Relaxation of restriction on places of Worship based on guidelines issued by the PTF and Protocols agreed by State Governments,” he said.
While the ban on religious gatherings lasted, no fewer than 12 state governors midway directed churches and mosques to open for services.
The states are Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Delta, Bauchi, Taraba, Rivers, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Cross River, Kogi, and Borno.
The federal government however frowned at the decisions of the state governments.
Mustapha accused the state governors of deliberately breaching the measures put in place to guide the country out of the pandemic.
“There is the need for states to diligently implement and enforce compliance. Particularly, I underscore the need for the governors to provide personal and strong leadership, carry the policy of community ownership to the grassroots and create deeper awareness,” Mustapha said at a press briefing on May 21.
“Governors are advised on the decision taken by some of their colleagues to permit large gatherings as such decisions could inadvertently endanger the elderly, the sick and those with underlying factors during such gatherings. The strong advisory from the PTF is that large gatherings beyond 20 persons remain prohibited and should be adhered to.”
The governors defended their action.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, said the governors held a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja on May 21 during which it was agreed that all governors should stick to what was agreed with President Muhammadu Buhari on easing of the lockdown.
Fayemi, who is the governor of Ekiti State, told NATION newspaper that a five-point agenda on the easing of the lockdown was with the president agreed and that no governor would violate it.
The agenda include restriction on inter-state movements; internal relaxation of stay-at-home order within a time frame; compulsory wearing of masks; and public gathering, be it social, political or religious, not exceeding 50.
“Our position on the five-point agenda we gave to the president has not changed. I think no governor will go against the agenda,” Fayemi told the newspaper.
Three prominent Nigerian pastors had repeatedly demanded the reopening of the worship centres despite the increasing number of cases in the states.
Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of the Living Faith Church aka Winners’ Chapel, says it is wrong keep the churches in Nigeria closed due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic when markets have been reopened.
He said there could be ulterior motives for the development, insisting that there was no tenable reason why the churches should not be allowed to meet for at least two hours if markets could open for six hours.
Punch newspaper reports that Oyedepo spoke during the Covenant Hour of Prayer on May 6.
Religious and social gatherings have been banned in most parts of Nigeria to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
“There is something wrong. For people to be allowed to be in the market for six hours and can’t be in church for two hours, it is an upside-down way of looking at things,” Oyedepo said.
“Which one is more orderly? The market or the church? I can smell a rat. The Lord spoke to me on it so strongly yesterday. I can smell a rat. Behind all this, how do we stop the church from exploding. The people involved don’t know it.
“The voice of darkness is influencing people at various levels, targeting the church because the growth and expansion of the church is the greatest headache of the devil. But the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The devil and all his agents shall surely pay for this.
“I don’t know what hospital that record the kind of healings that the church of God records. And now hospitals, where people die every day are open, but the church is closed because the oppression of the devil has no medical cure.”
Oyedepo’s view came days after his counterpart in Believers’ Love World, also called Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, berated Nigeria pastors for complying with government’s ban on church and other gatherings because of coronavirus.
According to Premium Times newspaper, Oyakhilome said in a telecast to his members, such leaders were not genuine Christians since they did not ask the government to be allowed to pray and consult their congregations.
Oyakhilome said the swiftness with which churches, including his own, complied with the ban was the reason Nigeria is yet to “see the hand of God.”
The cleric noted that the men of God that discussed the issue with the government did not behave like true Christians, as according to him. They never thought about going to pray about it.
He said, “As ministers of God, you are called for such a meeting and you couldn’t say give us a few days, then you call all the ministers and say this is what we just heard from a government representative, we need to pray.
“Then you would have seen the hand of God. But you were not thinking about the Father’s house. Do you know what it means to shut down the congregation of the lord? Do you know what it means? It never meant anything to you.”
Senior pastor of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr Paul Enenche, in a recent live telecast of the church’s service also questioned why markets were open but not the churches.
