“Nigeria is gone, let’s stop deceiving ourselves. Once you’re still counting in Naira, you’re already poor.” -Pastor Paul Adefarasin Speaks

Senior Pastor of House on the Rock Church, Paul Adefarasin, has stirred reactions after speaking about the state of Nigeria’s economy during a church sermon on May 17.

While preaching, the clergyman said, “Nigeria is d+ad, let’s not deceive ourselves. Once you are counting in naira, you are p%or.”

He went on to reflect on the value of money in past decades, saying, “I was not born p%or cause my father was earning up to like 18 thousand naira in the early 80s and 90s.”

According to him, the value of the naira has dropped significantly over the years compared to what it used to be decades ago.

“Do you know what a billion naira was then when I was 15–16? It was 2.8 billion dollars and we are taking it cause we live in the now, we don’t study history and don’t even research data,” he added.

The preacher added that many people fail to understand how much the nation’s economic value has changed over the years because they focus only on present realities instead of comparing historical data.