Daniel Olukoya, the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), has said the current economic challenges confronting the country can only be surmounted with spiritual solutions.

Mr Olukoya said Nigeria is facing various problems, aside from the present state of its economic crisis, noting that the only ‘weapon’ to ‘cure’ the challenges is divine intervention.

He spoke when he was conferred with an honorary doctoral degree (Doctor of Management) at the 34th and 35th combined convocation ceremonies of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Ondo state at the weekend.

Mr Olukoya said Nigerian political leaders should allow God to intervene in some of the decisions and policies they make for the people.

“There is only one weapon that can cure any problem, which is prayers. No matter how strong it is, prayer can dismantle any problem.

“So, I keep preaching here that what we need in Nigeria is divine intervention. Let God intervene in what we are doing.

“Divine intervention is greater than your brain and what your brain can do. Considering what is happening in the world now, we can see that God is showing mankind that they’re helpless,” the cleric said.

Mr Olukoya, who lamented the cost of commodities in the country, said the energy cost of maintaining universities has also forced owners of faith-based institutions to hike tuition.

The cleric, who is the proprietor of one of the faith-based universities in the country, the Mountain Top University in Ogun state, explained that parents of the students attending the faith-based universities are now struggling to send their children to the institutions due to high fees.

“It is not the fault of those proprietors. I am one of them. I am always at the back of the poor because I know how difficult it was for me to get to the university. My parents didn’t have the money.

“But then the current situation states that if you cannot pay good money to the lecturers or the professors, you won’t get good teachers. And if you run a private university and you are paying less than the federal universities, you will not get good professors.

“So, it is the financing and paying the salaries. And that is the situation now. Even electricity, to run a university on a generator costs a lot of money. In our university, most of the money goes to diesel. It is now that we are installing solar,” he added.