The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has called on the Federal Government to swiftly eradicate terrorists and their sponsors, especially amidst the potential involvement of U.S. military intervention in Nigeria.

He made this appeal on Friday during the November Holy Ghost Service, in response to recent threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Adeboye advised President Bola Tinubu to set a three-month deadline for the newly appointed service chiefs to eliminate terrorists and their financiers.

He emphasised that failure to achieve this should result in the resignation of the service chiefs.

The cleric said, “This is not the time for apportioning blame. Our President inherited this problem, it started before him.”

Reflecting on the time of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, he mentioned that he had privately advised Buhari to take decisive action when the killings in the country reached an unbearable level. However, Buhari did not act on this advice.

He said, “Some of you will remember who called the service chiefs together and said, ‘I give you three months, get rid of all these Boko Haram people or resign. It’s not allowed to tell you who gave him that advice. He ran with that advice, but he didn’t follow it through, because he gave the order as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the security operatives moved fast.

“But three months went by, and the work was not done. So I went to see him. It wasn’t unusual. This time, somehow, the press got to know that I visited him. Of course, they were not there when we talked.

“Unfortunately, like I said, he’s not alive now. I would have asked you to go and ask him, ‘Sir, why didn’t you follow through? Because when three months passed and the work wasn’t done, why didn’t you proceed with your, are we going to call it threat?’

“I won’t tell you the details, but one thing came out of that meeting, which will lead me to my next advice to our government, in case there’s any of you who can get across to them. When giving orders to the service chiefs this time around, we should make it clear to them that they are not only to eliminate the terrorists but also their sponsors, no matter how influential they may be.”

Adeboye warned that if the US were to invade Nigeria, China, Russia, and other global powers would not defend the country.

He stated, “When I say our leaders should move fast, move diplomatically, and move wisely, we must take note of the fact that if America should attack us, China is not coming to defend us. Russia will not come to defend us.

“All the so-called world leaders will talk, they will condemn what America has done in the strongest terms, that’s all they will do. Britain is not going to come and help us. No other foreign power will come to our aid.

“This is not the time for joking. This is not the time for drama. This is not the time for semantics. This is not the time to begin to argue, is it suicide or kidnapping or whatever name they call it? And this is not the time to say, ‘Ah, it’s not Christians alone, Muslims are also involved.’ The point is, people are dying. Innocent people are dying.”

He also called on Tinubu to request Trump for a 100-day window to address Nigeria's insurgency. The cleric suggested that if Tinubu obtains Trump's support for this period, he should then instruct the service chiefs and security agencies to resolve the issues within 90 days.

He said, “Let the government use diplomatic methods to convince President Trump to give us 100 days of grace. All our service chiefs, fortunately, are new, should perform within three months, or resign.”

ASA