Men Dey! Pastor Bolaji Should Have Washed His Hands, Not Dust Shoes -By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

Can you fault those who dismiss Pastor Bolaji Idowu’s contextualisation of the “Men dey!” disappointment as mere damage control? Was his explanation even necessary considering what people actually heard and saw in the footage? How are people to believe that a gleeful chorus that sounded more like a consensus was just an echo of a lone voice’s whisper? These are questions begging for answers following the video that shattered the tranquility of the internet over the past few days. The intensity of reactions was such that the man of God’s disclaimer did little to halt the hoopla.

The viral video captured the founder of Harvesters International Christian Centre (HICC) dramatically ending a relationship coaching session following the cheerful contention by single women in the congregation. While teaching his members about three types of men – the predator, hunter, and farmer – a female congregant recounted her relationship with a “farmer” ex-boyfriend, stressing that she hates penny-pinchers.

Noting that ladies long for men who can gift them cars, iPhones, take them shopping or place them on a million naira monthly allowance, the Pastor wondered aloud how many eligible bachelors can bankroll such an exorbitant lifestyle. For his troubles, he got the chorus retort: “Men dey!” That’s a Nigerian street slang implying that wealthy men (also called ‘Odogwu’) who can lavishly fund luxury lifestyles and expensive gifts are readily available. What followed was the cleric dramatically removing his shoes and shaking the dust off the soles in an incongruous enactment of Matthew 10:14 – a pointer to the members’ incorrigibility.

We shall soon get to the incongruity of the altar act, but not before pointing out the lie in the ladies’ claim of “men dey!” Pray, how can that be when, as of 2024, the coordinator of the national economy disclosed that only five percent of Nigerians can boast of having more than N500,000 in their bank accounts? The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index released on Monday has it that Nigeria recorded the world’s largest increase in the number of people living in multidimensional poverty, with an additional 17.9 million Nigerians becoming poor between 2021 and 2024. If you dismiss that data from the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative for being two years old, check your personal economy and the living standard of your neighbours to see if there has been any improvement. So, where are the Odogwus sisters in Idowu’s Church say are readily available?

This column feels sorry for the ladies in that gathering who made Pastor B melodramatic. As it were, they ought to be pitied given the dire consequences that accompany the biblical dusting of an evangelist’s sandals. The Master speaking in Matthew 10:15 warned, “Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” This isn’t the only reason that the man of God appears out of order in his display. What Jesus asked the dispatched disciples to do while evangelising, was for strangers who they greet with, but wouldn’t accept the gospel – not the flock of the shepherd. Since they’ve been listening to your messages all this while, you cannot now disown them for this intransigence. Some are even reading it as the germination of seeds sown over the years.

Commentators online have been asking, what manner of teaching or discipleship has been going on in that Church to have raised members who are unabashedly worldly and purported gold-diggers? Have they been preaching 1 John 2:15 and Romans 8:6-10 to these folks at all? It’s past time the Body of Christ in Nigeria took Romans 12:2 seriously. The verse reads, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

It beggars belief that a congregation would have no scruples expressing such a sinful tendency (it is sheer love of money warned about in 1 Timothy 6:10) before their man of God. Imagine the audacity of shouting down their minister who was trying to put them right. It is to such an assembly that Hebrews 13:17 is addressed. By the way, I thought the general ecclesiastical order was that no one interrupts a sermoneer on the pulpit? This is in keeping with 1 Corinthians 14:40, which demands that all things be “done decently and in order.” How is it then that the congregation could so speak against the grain of the message?

Brother Paul’s admonition in the above verse also makes it difficult to understand the “Oh, I’m grinding him” play by Pastor B to depict a supposed Christian sister leading nightclub-goers to immorality. This was contained in the full video, where the Pastor also said, “The guy you’re grinding is now very hard; you say sorry o, me I’m a born-again; I don’t do that!” What a lurid illustration in the House of God! The Church must not be made to resemble a social hangout under any guise, please!

The virality of his members’ response must have been so embarrassing that the Global Lead of HICC couldn’t help but issue a hasty clarification where he said the following: “During yesterday’s teaching on expectations in relationships, we discussed what a 26-year-old woman should reasonably expect from a man at a similar stage of life… In the course of the conversation, a lady made a comment, and I asked her twice to repeat what she had said. The congregation echoed her response so I could hear her clearly. This does not mean every woman in the church shares that mindset.”

Thank Heavens that such vanity isn’t the general mindset in the Church. It’s another reason why the act of shaking the dust off his shoes shouldn’t apply. At least for the sake of those who agree with the truth being preached by the Pastor. Did the avenging Lord not agree to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if only 10 righteous people could be found in that sinful city (Genesis 18:24–32)? This is also why the Harvesters’ set man shouldn’t have discontinued his teaching, the same way the Lord Jesus rejected a premature uprooting of the tares lest the wheat be affected in the process. He should have continued so that “she, who has ears, let her hear.”

If the Pastor wanted to be theatrical, a more appropriate anecdote would have been Pontius Pilate’s washing of his hands off the resolve of Jewish leaders to crucify Jesus. It’s not as if that’s the best course of action, but acting like Pilate would have passed the same message without much contradiction or complication. What’s being recommended in lieu of the drastic dusting of shoes is so culturally resonating and regular that “washing one’s hands of something” is an idiomatic expression. Perhaps playing Pilate was too far-fetched given that the spur of the moment wouldn’t allow waiting for a bowl, water and a hand towel.

Nevertheless, while it is hoped that the abrupt end of the service isn’t an abdication of the very important assignment of feeding the Lord’s sheep, Pastor Bolaji deserves credit for not bending the truth to be a people-pleaser. Some GO’s would rather water down the Message than preach what is inimical to Church attendance.

For this particular general overseer to have resisted what seems like a popular opinion in service of the truth, kudos are in order. Yet, he should have gone the whole hog and not issued that statement, which questioned his resolve.

Paul the Apostle is a worthy model here. After rebuking the Church in Corinth, he went ahead to tell them in 2 Corinthians 7:8-9, “Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it – I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.”

No matter the exasperation, a shepherd doesn’t stand akimbo and watch his herd head towards the cliff because the sheep opted to act like goats!

VIS Ugochukwu is a sage, storyteller and branding specialist who welcomes feedback sent to nmiringwu@gmail.com