The Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, Rt. Rev. Sunday Makinde, has said that the belief in some religious quarters that American President, Mr. Barack Obama, is the anti-Christ spoken of in the Bible is not true.

Makinde said this in a statement made available to our correspondent on Sunday.

He also spoke on the forthcoming convention of the church billed to hold in Sagamu, Ogun State, from January 28 to 31, tagged ‘The church in a troubled world‘.

According to him, “Obama is a Christian and an African. So, where is the anti-Christ coming from? Either anti-Christ or not, God has turned the captivity of Africa and I commend the Americans for the courage to vote for him.

“There is no anti-Christ anywhere. Even if there was an anti-Christ there, we would go there and cleanse it.”

Speaking on the choice of the theme of the programme, the prelate said, ‘There are problems everywhere. In Congo, in the Middle-East, the Niger Delta and the global economic crisis. The end time is coming and that is why we have chosen that topic. There are problems in the world.”

On the criticism that the prayers of the church were not making any positive effect on the society, Makinde said what would have happened if the church did not pray at all could only be left to the imagination.

He said there were so many lessons to be learned from the election of Obama, one of which was that Nigeria had to organise credible elections and understood that elections were not a do-or-die affair‘.

He added that another lesson was that God is the God of the oppressed.

“They took them away as slaves, but they are now ruling. Those who are being oppressed should take heart and learn from this,” he said.

The prelate said that the church was not immune to crisis as it was made up of human beings