As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, with Nigeria’s confirmed cases rising steadily in the face of the federal and state governments’ concerted efforts to contain the implacable virus, the Presiding Bishop of Holy Ghost Mission, a.k.a. Happy Family Centre, Bishop Charles Ighele, in this interview with ADEOLA OGUNLADE, speaks about the role of the church and how government can best stop further spread of the virus. Excerpts:
WHAT is your general overview of COVID-19?
As a man of God, looking at it from the history of the world, the first disaster that affected the world was the flood. That flood was caused by God Himself. It wiped out all the people of the race except Noah and his family who were found to be righteous. We have had a lot of plagues that had taken place on the planet earth.
I know that there was the Justian Plague, which came from Egypt, and half of the world population was wiped out. There was another plague I read about eight years ago in a book given to me by the renowned journalist, Dimgba Igwe, before he died.
The book was written by two great scholars –Darin Acemoglu, an MIT professor, and James Robinson, a Harvard University professor. I saw a plague in that book. The plague came from China in 1336. It was called the Bubonic plague.
In 1336, the plague reached England and Italy and any country it went into, about half of the population of the people died. It was called the Black Death. The plague travelled through the black sea from China to Europe. It came through travellers and sailors.
It was that period the word ‘quarantine’ came into existence. Plagues have already been there in human history. Since 1940, cholera and smallpox plague killed about 10 million people in Mexico.
So far, this is one of them. I see it historically and as I look at it, this is just one of them and by God’s grace, it will be contained.
Do you share the view in some quarters that it is one of the signs of the end time or do you think it’s just a reflection of the unhygienic ways people are living their lives?
You see in the end time, a lot of disasters will happen. Secondly, when men turn their back against God, anything can happen. Generally, the one caused by God Himself was because the people concerned turned their back against God.
The imaginations of their hearts were evil continually and it repented God that He made man. A lot of plagues that had invaded the earth were results of man saying I know too much or the unhygienic ways of men. In the bible; even in the old testament, God commanded that excreta should be buried.
God is a God who loves neatness. On the planet earth, men live their lives anyhow. People eat what they should not eat, and they are dirty all over the world. The more man turns his back against God, the more man is open to plagues.
For us as believers at this time, what should be our attitude?
I thought that many of the governors in Nigeria are either Christians or Muslims and I want to commend the Lagos State government where l stay, the governor has done an excellent job in sensitizing the people. There is not much one can do like he has done.
All the state governors have done tremendously well. Death is everywhere and imminent and we don’t know where we can run to and we don’t have the facility. What I want to say is that the government has tried. I want the government and citizens to sit up and come corporately closer to God.
I think when there is problem, man will come closer to God. Naturally and in this very instance, I hear that all mosques and churches closed down. I am saying if I were the governor, I will not close down a church or place of worship. In 1336-1338, when there was plague in England, the King of England, Edward The 3rd, called on the churches to pray.
He asked the Bishop of Canterbury to organise the churches to pray and bishops started praying. The plague came, and the people started praying and it drew many closer to God. Americans are washing their hands but they are still dying.
In London, a plague took place in 1665, and as they were dying, those who survived put the sign of the cross on their doors and with inscription on their doors saying, ‘Jesus have mercy upon us’. So, I think what the Nigerian authorities to do, if we are really a religious country, is to call for prayers.
Closing down churches is not okay with me. Instead, I will say families of the pastors, bishops and nearby families can go to church and worship and should, of course maintain the normal social distancing and other precautions.
If we are 12 at home, for example, do we keep social distances in the same house? The pastors and their families can go to church and keep social distances from one another. I know that a lot of pastors have misbehaved; some people who are called men of God are not truthful; some are highly immoral and some are running after money and many Nigerians generally are fed up with churches because they feel that many church pastors are after money and some are like satanic temples.
In Israel at a time, things were so bad that people badslided in the time of Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah thought he was the only one that was righteous but God told him that there were still 7, 000 faithful prophets that were not following Baal. I want Nigerians to know that there are still holy and honourable men of God.
Just allow pastors go to church and ensure that there should be social distances. I hear some pastors saying God is in your heart; this is not so, if you know how God operates. God wants people to know Him individually and corporately.
There is the spiritual energy that is released when people meet to pray. Let’s fight the virus spiritually because all of us will one day face death.
The president of Brazil last Thursday decreed that places of worship are essential services like supermarket, pharmacy; he said religious services of any kind should be listed among essential service providers but for us, such should be in accordance with health ministry’s guidelines.
Many churches were harassed and some pastors arrested for failure to comply with the lockdown directive, what is your own experience?
In our ministry, we have nearly 80 churches in this country. The police went to two of our churches. In one of them, they were satisfied with what they saw but in the other church, there were 20 in the service and members were still told to leave the church.
They were 20, which was in line with government’s regulation. They sat separately and they said that the church should close and go home. For me, that was not okay at all. If the government should say 20 should be in one place, as far as I am concerned, I obeyed.
Some of the medical doctors in one of our churches called me and said children cannot do social distancing, what do we do? And I said for now, the children’s church should be closed and let them sit with their parents in the adult church.
So, they sit by families in accordance with the law of the state. If they should say so and you go out and say, I will not comply …I think we should not disobey constituted authorities, the rule can be negotiated. There have to be law and order in any society
Are you calling on the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) to go back to the negotiating table with the government over the closure of churches?
That is what they should do. To me, I know that the governors are either Christians and Muslims and they will be assured that the church will adhere to safety guidelines but let prayers be made continually to God over COVID-19. Let there be prayers.
The God aspect of faith has not be brought into it. I don’t see how Christian leaders would be silenced, we can’t be silenced at this time. I want to plead with the men of God; no governor should be attacked or insulted. There is fear and they want to protect their citizens.
It is just a matter of negotiating with them. For example, if 20 people can be in the supermarket and shopping malls or even in the open markets, or other essential services such as hospitals, then, let them take the church, men of God and their ministry staff as essential services.
People are calling us, people are dying, they are committing suicide, they run to us. The real church is not a joke, especially those people going through emotional trauma. Nowhere to go to. If NEPA is an essential service, then, let men of God and their ministry staff be included as essential service providers.
Let them be there to minister to the needs of the people. In times like this, pastors don’t run away from the battle front. Likewise, medical doctors and nurses don’t run away from the battle front. All of us should be at the front of this battle. There are those who believe in prayers.
There are those who believe in the word of God and they are just happy. Fear has destroyed more people than Coronavirus. So, as they hear the word of God and the fear goes away, they are now going to be happy. So, let CAN and PFN and other leaders who have influence step into this thing and negotiate with the different governments so that there can be what we call skeletal essential services provided by the church.
Do you believe that Coronavirus will end soon?
When I look at the history of plagues, if God should cause a plague like the one that was caused by God which was restricted to Israel, people were dying and King David prayed and offered sacrifice and the plague stopped immediately.
So, if this plague is caused by God, as we cry out, it can end immediately but if it is plague caused by the misbehaviour of man, when man eats what he should not eat and do what he is not supposed to do, all we long for is that our families to be protected and God should bring the medical solution that can take care of it.
COVID-19 is affecting the world’s economy, human and personal relationships; it will also affect scientific inventions. In fact, COVID-19 will affect a lot of things. Some plagues in the past have brought about revolution. The poverty level has been very high.
What will be the effect of the lockdown on the people? Right now, my advice to government is, what is going to happen to the poor people? What will be the effect of the lockdown on them? On that basis, we need to bring about programmes that will help to mass-lift the people into productivity.
How can we as government lift the stark illiterates into productivity? How can we as a government have a census and help Nigerians to read and write? How can we help and position students in secondary schools into productivity? How can we raise people who though went to university but cannot spell their names? How can we make them productive in accordance with their reading capacity? After each great revolution, when we look at the French revolution of 1959.
I want to tell you that social protest will arise, serious war after this, and it will be more serious than the plague. So, countries of the world should be begin to get grains ready on how we can prevent it.
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