“Nigeria Was Not Created by God” — Pastor Paul Adefarasin Declares

Senior Pastor of House on the Rock Church, Paul Adefarasin, has set off a storm of debate after openly declaring that he does not believe Nigeria was created by God.

His remarks, delivered during a recent sermon, have quickly ignited controversy online and offline, touching raw nerves in a nation already grappling with questions of identity, history, and destiny.

Addressing his congregation with striking bluntness, Adefarasin argued that Nigeria was never the product of divine orchestration but rather a colonial project designed to serve the economic ambitions of the British Empire. “I don’t believe Nigeria was created by God. This nation was created for the business of the British purse so they wouldn’t have to bear the bill for the less prosperous parts of the region,” he declared, his words echoing like a provocation across social media.

The preacher reminded his audience that even the country’s name was not of indigenous origin but was reportedly coined by Flora Shaw, the British girlfriend of Lord Lugard, Nigeria’s first colonial governor. In his view, the so-called founding fathers — Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, and Nnamdi Azikiwe — were merely political inheritors of a system that had already been designed in Britain’s Whitehall offices. “Nigeria’s real architects,” he argued, “were not Nigerians at all, but some men in London who stitched together territories for their own gain.”

Adefarasin did not stop at history. He lamented Nigeria’s economic paralysis, stressing that the nation, blessed with abundant resources and talent, should by now be “the factory of Africa.” Instead, he noted bitterly, Nigeria has been reduced to a dumping ground for used goods, importing what it should be producing.

He warned that without urgent reforms, particularly in technical education, the country would remain trapped in dependency and waste. Citing China as a model, he urged Nigeria to channel its youthful energy into invention, innovation, and industry.

“We have people poorer than their laborers,” he said, drawing attention to the worsening inequality across the land. “Nigeria must rise to become the factory of the world. But it will take men of justice and equity who devote themselves to nation-building.”

His words have since ignited furious debate. To some, Adefarasin’s sermon is a needed dose of truth, breaking away from sentimental nationalism to confront the uncomfortable realities of Nigeria’s colonial birth. To others, however, his declaration is viewed as unpatriotic, even sacrilegious, undermining hope in a country already weary of despair.

Whether seen as prophecy or provocation, Adefarasin’s message has reopened a deep wound in Nigeria’s collective psyche: is the nation truly a God-given creation destined for greatness, or a colonial experiment still struggling to find its soul?