Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said religious leaders, especially wealthy and popular pastors in Nigeria have to pay ‘Pentecost tax’.
Our Correspondent reports the stance may affect the likes of Pastor Enoch Adeboye of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, Pator Olukoya of Mountain of Fire Ministry among others.
Vice President Osinbajo made this known in Lagos State during a public presentation of the biography of Pastor William Kumuyi, the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry.
Osinbajo charged religious leaders in the country to emulate early apostles of the gospel who also discharged the responsibility of paying tax, stressing that religious leaders in the country owe this as an obligation.
“Every person, especially those who succeed in their endeavours owe society three forms of tax. The first is Income tax; personal income tax. The second is a Social tax, another name for that is philanthropy; the obligation of the wealthy or simply those who have to give back to society.
“For the successful preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a fourth tax. This is the Pentecost tax; the tasks to tell what you have gone through in ministry and this is a huge responsibility.
“The obligation of the successful is to write their stories and share the histories of the phenomena they have become, in order to instruct, to admonish and to inspire the present and the future.
“The saints before us, discharge that responsibility. So we are beneficiaries of the Acts of the Apostles, the stories of the men and women who carry the gospel first to Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and then to the end of the earth. Their stories continue today, and the baton has been handed over to our own generation.
“This Pentecost tax is one that we must all pay, it is one that men and women who preach the gospel must pay. It is not about personal reflections and personal aggrandisement. They owe an obligation and it is that obligation that produced the Book of Acts.
“So the book, ‘Kumuyi: defender of the faith’ just begins the work of discharging that tax, that obligation to tell the story of the missionary journey,” Osinbajo said.
