Pastor Sam Adeyemi’s Tweets on Mental Health Issues Sparks Discussion on Faith & Health Solutions in Nigeria

Yesterday morning, Nigerians on Twitter were having their regular Sunday-Style delight. If you’re on Twitter you’d know the routine by now: football, gender roles & cooking (they never get tired of that one!) and church attendance quotes. So yesterday was pretty much standard. And then… a tweet by popular Lagos Pastor, Sam Adeyemi started making the rounds.
Hash tag… Mental Health!

Sam Adeyemi is the pastor of DayStar ministries; and in an age where we hear all sorts of scandalous stories about Nigerian pastors, this particular pastor has a clean ‘rap sheet.’

The story is that, yesterday he had talked about mental health issues in church… so, he decided to share the Rhema with his followers, and of course the unreached, on Twitter.

You know the drill… First tweets at the bottom, so read upwards

It was going all well and dandy! People were glad that this preacher was using his pulpit to do something other than talk about women’s dressing and whether women should be in the kitchen, or women’s ability to pray for more than an hour.

Oh so refreshingly, different…

Then, boom!

The Tweet that sparked the outrage.

The root cause of mental illness is Sin. (Rom 6:23)and the foundational solution to mental health is Salvation #MentalHealth

— Sam Adeyemi (@sam_adeyemi) October 30, 2016

Say what now?

Some Twitter users attempted to help the world understand what he meant… You know, break it down into layman’s speak for the rest of the world.

When we inherited sins we also inherited all other things with it including mental health and all other issues. Sam Adeyemi is right.

— Mallam Femi Ikenna (@femiTRIPP) October 30, 2016

Pastor Sam Adeyemi admitted that he wasn’t a psychiatrist and wasn’t tweeting from a position of expertise on mental health issues – simply from his position as a spiritual leader.

He then goes on to prescribe a solution: sensitivity to “God’s word” – and as an addendum, he tweets that you should seek medical help. Because “Seeking medical help for physical or mental illness does not contradict God’s word or having faith for your healing”

Nigerians were NOT having any of it

One

Shorter Sam Adeyemi: Mental illness is pretty much your fault for not being strong in the Word, but seek help sha.

— S. (@saratu) October 30, 2016

Two

There are times when you should put your foot down, be honest for once and reject bigotry and prejudice. @sam_adeyemi‘s tweet is a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/CHY5ndPKyh

— Pa Ikhide (@ikhide) October 30, 2016

Three

Pastor Sam Adeyemi reminds me of the Pastor that said that God sent the flood in America to Gay people.

His house was flooded after 🙂

— Ayobami (@dondekojo) October 30, 2016

Kids, calm down! There’s no need for mudslinging or flood invoking. Here’s some more explanation from Pastor Sam’s account on what he actually meant.

There was an attempt clarify on the type of sin Pastor Sam meant… Adamic versus Personal.

Oh boy!

You gotta love social media.  However on a very serious note, this tweet concludes it for us:

@sam_adeyemi Let us be careful and sensitive to the diverse audiences that read our messages daily. #wisdom

— Adetutu Balogun (@Tutsy22) October 30, 2016

Religious leaders have a huge, dedicated and almost fanatic following in Nigeria. It is important that the messages put out on their platforms are disseminated properly and effectively – without any need for some form of misinterpretation and misconception.

Here at BellaNaija, we consistently try to provide information to dispel existing stereotypes – especially in the hopes of creating positive change and to influence people’s lives. Our BN Contributor and psychiatrist Dr. Ayomide Adebayo regularly provides issues on getting mental health, within the framework of the Nigerian mindset on the subject. In fact, his most recent article was about mental health and the spirituality of it therein! {Click here if you missed it}

We also have contributors like Dr. Monica Alabi, who takes on mental health issues in her articles.

We have also shared stories of real Nigerians who have struggled with issues of mental health – Award winning poet, Bassey Ikpi, and Blogger, Seyifunmi. Knowing the stigma that exists in our society about mental health, it is incredibly brave of people who have come forward to talk about their lives on a public platform, with the hope of encouraging and helping others – to get help.

We have also reached out to Dr. Ayomide Adebayo in the past to help with some of our readers who have come forward to request help.

In light of this we are incredibly proud of people who use their influence to bring sustainable, positive change.

So guys, that’s the gist from Twitter over the weekend. Please share your thoughts on the matter.