6. Bishop David Oyedepo
In the league of those who are raking in billions in the vineyard of God is Bishop David Oyedepo of the famous Living Faith Ministries a.k.a. Winners Chapel. The church, touted to be the world’s biggest church building, is situated in Ota, Ogun State.
Also inside the vast expanse Canaan Land is Covenant University of which Oyedepo is Chancellor as well as a secondary and primary school.
The primary school, named Kingdom Heritage, is very expensive and is not for children of the poor. It has branches in 12 other Nigerian cities. The secondary school named Faith Academy charges N250,000 per session. The university charges different fees in three different colleges but the fees are from N650,000 and above.
Recent happenings show that the school may be bringing in more money as the bishop has taken more interest in the establishment of tertiary institutions he introduces Landmark University in his Omu-Aran, Kwara State home town and another one is under construction in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. He was also said to have announced that he will be starting seven more universities in different parts of Africa with South-Africa’s university already under construction.
Aside from the levies generated through the schools, it is also the duty of members in all the branches of the church to contribute towards the development of the institutions. Members of the church call themselves Winners, an allusion to their perceived victory over poverty, demons and diseases and their general overseer, who is affectionately called Papa, is an exponent of prosperity teaching and his followers believe that his teachings inspire them to see themselves as winners and every Sunday, they troop to Canaanland for service.
And as they stream into the vast auditorium, they are handed envelopes for offering, tithes and other donations. But according to a reliable source, that style is now archaic; the instruction to all members now is to bring their envelopes that will contain their different donations from their respective homes. The routine is also repeated during Shiloh, a week-long annual camp meeting which draws members from Nigeria and abroad.
His foreign branches are also mandated to send revenue to the headquarters, to which “Papa” has unfettered access. It was this money that caused problems between Oyedepo and his pastor in Ghana, George Adjeman.
It was said that the monthly revenue being remitted by the Ghana church was $60,000.
Bishop Oyedepo is also into publishing. According to Oyedepo, God gave him a publishing mandate and told him: “Your books are supernatural arrows for the liberation of mankind; send them forth! My presence shall go with them and they shall subdue and devour the works of the wicked multitudes…(Readers) will be saved, baptized in the Holy Ghost, healed and delivered from all oppressions of the devil. Emphasize the books and your publications; that is my task for you.”
And Oyedepo seems to have fully accomplished this task. As part of his business empire, Oyedepo established Dominion Publishing House and has written about 70 books covering various aspects on the Christian faith, teaching followers how to be successful in business. The books are bestsellers in their own right and have been translated into French. On the church’s website, the prices range between four and eight pounds each.
His wife, Faith, is also an author with a number of books about marriage to her credit. In 1998, Oyedepo established the Gilead Medical Centre at his headquarters in Lagos. Two years later, he opened its branch in Kaduna where his ministry began.
However, the church claims that the clinic provides treatment at heavily subsidized rates. Oyedepo’s church also sells gift items online. Its website bears information on the use and how to buy. “Our gift certificates are the perfect gift solution that will put an end to those tricky moments when you just can’t seem to find the right gift, or you need a gift in a hurry. Send as many as you want to let friends, family or customers and colleagues select the present they really want. We have something for everyone,” says the website.
Recently the church decided to start their own airline called Dominion Air. This according to source is because the number of aircraft in the possession of the man of God is increasing by the day and rather than just allowing it all wasting away without use as he can only travel in one at a time, he decided to commercialize it. With its long product chain, Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel is something close to corruption. The bishop himself lives like a business mogul and he owns a garage that parades state-of-the-art cars as sources claim he has a very big garage where about three Chrysler brand of cars were abandoned and not in use as well as other cars like that.
Discussion about this post