There Is Nothing Wrong In A Pastor Becoming A Traditional Ruler – Ighodalo

The Senior Pastor of Trinity House Church, Ituah Ighodalo has said that there is nothing wrong with a pastor taking up traditional roles in Nigeria.

Ighodalo stated this against the backdrop of a former RCCG pastor, Ghandi Laoye, becoming the Soun of Ogbomosho.

Speaking during an interview with the Punch, Ighodalo insisted that Nigerians need to have a mindset shift.

He insisted that being a traditional ruler does not necessarily mean you are an idol worshipper.

Ighodalo maintained that one can rule according to tradition, and tradition does not necessarily mean idol worship.

According to him, “I think it’s quite right. I don’t see anything wrong with it at all. I think we need a total mind-shift in Nigeria and I think the challenge that Nigerians are having is that they associate traditional leadership or kingship with idol worship. They seem to think that there is a nexus there, that once you are a traditional ruler, you should be an idol worshipper. It is not necessarily so and even if it was so in the past, we now need a change of thinking with modern practices in that you can be a traditional ruler or a ruler of a local area but don’t need to be an idol worshipper. You can rule according to tradition and tradition does not necessarily mean idol worship.

“The world has moved beyond that and I will give you historical examples. The kings of England, the Tudors, and the people who were originally the kings of England, were idol worshippers. When a man called (William) Tyndale tried to print the Bible for the first time, he was executed for practising what the king called heresy but eventually, the most famous Bible today is called the King James Bible, King James I. That Bible came to being when the monarch got converted. King James became a Christian and instructed that the Bible should be translated from Greek to English and gave permission for it to be printed and published under his name and it became King James (Bible).

“The reason why you call Britain a Christian country today is because their kings became Christians and the kings became the head of the Anglican Church, supported by the Bishop of Canterbury, who was the head of all the bishops, but the king became the head of the Anglican Church and that’s why their anthem is ‘God save the Queen or the King.’ The same, exactly same can happen in Nigeria, where you have Christians becoming traditional rulers and then, they ensure the practice of Christianity in their traditional domain.

“There is a difference between tradition, culture, and idol worship. There have not been enough Christians in influential leadership to change the thinking of the people. When a pastor becomes a monarch, he tells his people what idol worship is, what culture and tradition are, and that he who has been chosen to be the monarch won’t worship idols.”