[Fact-Check]: Did Pastor Adeboye lead any protest against GEJ government?

Claim:

Multiple X accounts claim that the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Enoch Adeboye led a protest against bad governance during the former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration

Full Text

Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, 83, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world with millions of members across continents.

Nigeria in January 2012, during the administration of the former President Goodluck Jonathan, witnessed nationwide protests tagged the #OccupyNigeria movement. The protests erupted in response to the government’s removal of the fuel subsidy, which caused a sharp increase in fuel prices and triggered public outrage.

Nigeria in January 2012, during the administration the former President Goodluck Jonathan witnessed nationwide protests tagged the #OccupyNigeria movement. The protests erupted in response to the government’s removal of fuel subsidies, which caused a sharp increase in fuel prices and triggered public outrage.

Citizens from different walks of life, including civil society groups, labour unions, and religious leaders, took to the streets demanding accountability and a reversal of the policy.

Netizens have always called out Adeboye that he staged a protest against the PDP government but remain silent during the current APC government. As usual, recently, an X user, @ChuksEricE, on 23 March 2025 shared a video and picture, claiming that Pastor Adeboye staged a public protest in 2011 against bad governance under the then-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. These pictures have always been the public reference to these claims.

The caption reads, “Pastor Adeboye you will never make heaven. You claim to care for the sheeps but you are the wølf 🐺destrøying the sheeps

“-Man cålls out Pastor Adeboye (RCCG) for keeping silent under this hardship in Tinubu’s regime while he prøtest during Jonathan regime #30DaysRantChallenge” (sic).

As of May 1, 2025, the post has 137k views, 1271 reposts, 33 quotes, 162 comments, and 119 bookmarks.

Another X user, in June 2024 had posted: “This was Pastor Adeboye aka Daddy G.O. in 2012 when he led protest against GEJ . Since then , Nigeria economy is much worse than it was then. Daddy G.O or whatever they call you , it’s time to stand up and stage another protest against this failing govt.”(sic)

Similarly, @General_Somto, also posted a video in April 2025 where singer, Eedirs Abdulkareem also followed suit in accusing the clergyman. The caption reads: “Eedris Abdulkareem Blast RCCG General Overseer Pastor Adeboye For Protesting Against Goodluck Jonathan Government But Have Stayed Silent During Tinubu Hunger, Insecurity And Hardship Government. (sic)

The claims can also be found here, here, here and here.

Given the virality and relevance of the claim, we conducted this fact-check.

Verification:

We conducted a keyword search on Google to verify the claim. The result revealed that no credible news platform in Nigeria reported that Pastor Adeboye organised or led a direct street protest against bad governance during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2012.

A keyword search on Google showed that Pastor Adeboye, during the #OccupyNigeria protests over the removal of the fuel subsidy in January 2012, publicly condemned bad governance and corruption, suing his platform during the RCCG Holy Ghost Service and not a public street protest.

We observed that many of these social media users claimed that Pastor Adeboye led the protest in 2011. This could be found here, here, here and here.

We found that the pictures and videos in circulation are from Pastor Adeboye’s led prayer walk in February 2020 with some church members. This was misrepresented as a full-scale protest and mischievously linked to the Jonathan’s government.

We also checked Adeboye’s verified social media pages here and here but there was no record of a protest led by the clergy in 2012, as claimed by the multiple posts on X.

Conclusion

The claim that Pastor E.A. Adeboye led a protest against bad governance during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2012 is FALSE. While Pastor Adeboye condemned bad leadership during the #OccupyNigeria protests in early 2012, there is no evidence that he led a direct street protest in 2012. Adeboye’s led prayer walk in 2020 was circulated on social media to push a false narrative.