During a recent sermon, Paul Adefarasin, the Senior Pastor of House on the Rock Church, sparked debate by voicing a provocative opinion: he challenged the notion that Nigeria was created by God.

In front of his congregation, Adefarasin suggested that the country's formation was actually a product of colonial engineering, crafted primarily to benefit British economic interests rather than being a divine act.

“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,” Adefarasin said.

He argued that Nigeria's name wasn't originally local but was bestowed by a woman—girlfriend of a British official—during the period when Lord Lugard and his colonial team were establishing the union.

Furthermore, Adefarasin claimed that the celebrated founding fathers—Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, and Nnamdi Azikiwe—weren't truly the architects of the nation. Instead, he pointed to “some men from Whitehall” in Britain as the real founders.

The preacher also expressed sorrow over Nigeria’s economic stagnation, emphasising that the country should have already become “the factory of Africa". Instead, it has become merely a dumping ground for second-hand goods. He emphasised the necessity of educational reforms, especially in technical schools, to empower ordinary people with skills for innovation and production, using China as a prime example.

“We have people poorer than their laborers. 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,” Adefarasin charged.

ASA