“If you are a true leader, you must be always ready to serve” – Pastor Adeboye

Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, has advised men to be humble in their marriage.

Mr. Adeboye said, despite his status, he still finds himself ironing his wife’s clothes whenever he’s allowed.

“I still iron/press my wife’s clothes when I’m allowed to,” the preacher said in a Facebook post Friday. “If you are a true leader, you must be always ready to serve, even when no one can see you.”

Mr. Adeboye’s advice could mean a lot in Nigeria, which is still ingrained in a patriarchal culture, despite women constituting a majority of her estimated 180 million people.

The pastor’s marital and pre-marital counselling has featured in his messages for decades.

But some of his teachings can be too radical or conservative to swallow, in an era of social media in which many are easily offended.

At the church’s annual congress last August, Mr. Adeboye drew social media backlash when he suggested that only women who can cook qualified for marriage.

“Don’t marry a girl who is lazy! Don’t marry a girl who cannot cook, she needs to know how to do chores and cook because you cannot afford to be eating out all the time.

“Don’t marry a girl who is worldly! If you do, you have carried what you’ll worship for the rest of your life!” Mr. Adeboye said.

Despite the criticism, the pastor stated a few days later that he meant what he said.