Category: Sunday magazine

Few weeks to the Azusa Conference last year, Pastor Connie Madubuko, wife of the General Overseer of Revival Assembly Lagos, Apostle Anslem Madubuko, passed on to glory. Madubuko spoke with Sunday Oguntola on life without his late wife and other national issues. Excerpts:

This is the 11th annual Azusa Conference. What new things do we look out for at this event?

The New Year does not change who God is, and what He has been saying is still the same. This is another opportunity for God to reach out to people.

It is about revival, something that is His heart cry. Revival is God intervening in man’s business. I believe that this will be a key moment in the lives of some people for God to be who He has promised to be.

If revival is about God’s intervention in man’s affairs, why is there no revival in Nigeria?

That is why we are praying for revival to come. We need the revival more than anything else. We are still praying. It has not come but it will come.

Azusa is a reminder that we need revival. We are fanning the flames of revival and very soon, it will burst into a great ball of fire. Revival is necessary. It will affect every aspect of our lives- corruption, crime, everything.

It is on record that people that have experienced revival noticed drop in crime and general wellbeing. Even in crop, there is a bumper harvest. In the years of revival, prisons were emptied as a result of God’s visitation. So, we trust God for divine visitation, which I know will happen.

Are church leaders or members responsible for the absence of revival?

I will blame both the clergy and laity for the dearth of revival because at times, pastors preach what the people want to hear. When you try to preach the word, you find that people don’t want to hear. So, some pastors who cannot endure hardship have causes to compromise. They begin to see visions for people, call people’s names, get some powers and begin to do things that are not really scriptural.

You see, people have itching ears, which is part of the signs of the end time. They give the world what they want to hear, which often times is not what God is saying. I believe that more than anything else, we need God now.

The Church is sick. There is corruption in the Church; there is occultism; there is magic. People are impatient; they can’t wait on God. You go through a little problem and you start looking for somebody to perform one quick magic.

Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation; so, trouble is part of the promise. It is in the Bible, so it should not be a big deal when somebody has problems. But Jesus said, “Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.” This means that the trouble will work for your good. If you wait through it and allow it finish its course, you will find it working for your good.

How do you assess President Jonathan’s second year in office?

He has done his best for Nigeria but what we want to see is for him to tackle corruption. I can’t lie to you; a lot of things have changed. If you look at the airports, you see that things are changing. The problem in the land now is security. He has done his best but he could do better.

Aside tackling corruption, what other things do you want him to look into?

Corruption is the main thing. When corruption is addressed, there will be fear. Right now, there is no fear. People just steal with impunity and nothing happens. Nothing will change until there is fear. I don’t know how that is going to happen, but until it does, nothing will change.

Now there is no fear to divert money. There is recklessness in high places. Nothing has happened to those indicted in times past; they are still walking the streets so freely. I believe that the mark of any serious government is to do something for everybody to know that it is serious; not just to pay lip service.

It is not enough to mouth it; government must act its commitment to tackle corruption. Until that happens, the much-desired change will not come. Also, there is need to tackle the problem in the power sector. I don’t know what is going on there. At first, we thought things were getting better but now we have gone back to square one. I pray that God will help him.

The Boko Haram sect reportedly agreed to sign a ceasefire deal. Will this be enough to tackle insurgency in the north?

The question is who is Boko Haram? If it is only one faction, it would have been better. Who does not want peace? If you want to come and make peace, then it is okay. The thing is after signing this peace accord, next week you will still hear that another Boko Haram bombed schools and killed thousands of students. It is supposed to be a faceless body, but now they want to show their faces; hence we are just watching.

What is the way out?

The use of force worked, but with force should be high surveillance. We have gone beyond the stage of using people to get information. There are ways to find out where these insurgents are. We should really upgrade our information network to tackle Boko Haram. How was Osama Bin Laden killed? It was through information.

They kept at it religiously and eventually found him. That is the way to go. We are fighting a bunch of wicked people; so they have to improve on their intelligence. Air surveillance can monitor people in the bush and forest. Why not go for it?

Some have argued that the emergency rule should have dismantled all democratic structures in the affected states. Do you subscribe to this?

You know, we are in a country where the political parties are more powerful than the nation. So, the general belief is that anything goes. Ideally, military rule in those states should be completely enforced but since the ruling party does not want it, it cannot be.

It is about a year that your wife, Pastor Connie, passed on. How has it been since her demise?

It is a new experience all together but God has been very faithful. He has been there for me and I am careful to give Him the glory.

How is ministry without her?

Everything has been wonderful. One thing about this incident is that she finished her course. There was nothing she left undone. She did everything she needed to do within a very short time. So we are able to move on after her. We did not stop after her; we just kept moving on. Looking back, I have every reason to thank God for everything.

It appears your daughters assumed pastoral duties after her passage

Yes! That of course gives me so much joy. They are holding on well. They came back from school and accepted to be with me and they have been a blessing. One of them serves as my Personal Assistant and she is with me all the time.

The other one heads the Administration Section. She took over all her mum was doing when she was alive. In addition, I have great pastors and leaders around me. So everybody just came together to promote the cause of Christ in this assembly.

Even when I am not around, nothing suffers. In fact, my travelling increased after my wife passed on. I had thought that her death would stop my travels but it is not so.

Is that to say that you will not remarry?

(Laughs) I will! When the time comes I will tell you. I am taking my time, but definitely I will remarry.

The International Director, Centre for the Advancement of Cross Cultural Missions, (CAPRO), Sam Kputu, has charged persecuted saints to find solace in the word of God and the promise that God can never fail in the midst of intense opposition of their faith.

Kputu made this known at a prayer meeting and donation of Christians in the South West of Nigeria to support persecuted saints organised last week by Voice of Christian Martyrs at the Chinese Restaurant, Lagos.

In his sermon, Going North: The Challenge of The North, Biblical Response, Kputu said that it is sad that the Church has always operated in a hostile world and the word of God remains our hope and an antidote to the wiles of the enemy in any environment we find ourselves.

He said, “when the Church faces persecution, we must not allow the word of God to suffer. The word of God is our hope. We must not leave it because it is our weapon of warfare, shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit.”

He noted that the spate of killings and maiming of Christians in parts of the north should not take you by surprise because the story has shown that the Jesus has always operated in a hostile environment.

“Persecution will not destroy the Church. However, the Church in the south needs to rise up to the challenges Christians in the north are facing. When the Church goes through persecution, the products are more solid,” he said.

Kputu cautioned the Church against materialism which must be looked into as investing in the life of the Christian community, most especially the persecuted saints is germane for the evangelisation of Christ on earth

He said that the Church should teach the theology of suffering and persecution of Christ as against the theology of success, prosperity, wellbeing and heaven on earth that will not prepare the Church for the unprecedented.

He said that the world is certainly facing a season of rage and in many countries, the Church of Jesus Christ is always at the receiving end of this rage. Statisticians have it that more Christians have been martyred and more churches destroyed in this century than in all the other centuries put together.

“We can only be resolute in preaching the gospel when we renounce denomina-tionalism and in unity of faith pray with passion and proactively set up plan to support ourselves so as to reach out effectively with the gospel in the midst of intense persecution in our world today,” he said.

In her words, the President of The Remnants, Prophetess Njideka Anyadike, appealled to the Church to embark on massive production of Christian literatures in many languages including Arabic and Hausa so as to reach out to unbelievers in the land.

She said, “It was disclosed that Bibles in Hausa language, books, tracts, comics, and pamphlets have achieved a high success rate in gaining converts in the north.”

Earlier, in his opening address, the National Coordinator of Voice of Christian Martyr in Nigeria, Rev Isaac-Newton-Wuse said that the prayer meeting was aimed at mobilising Christians in the south to support the persecuted saints in the north.

He said, “If there is any time the Church in the south west should wake up, I think it is now. For some time now a lot of blood has been shed in the north, and for those of us who are abreast of the situation we cannot but cry.”

Newton opined that a lot of our brothers and sisters have been killed, wounded. And the Voice of the Christian Martyrs in Nigeria has been working very hard to encourage Christian brothers and sisters for the past twenty years in Nigeria.

Archbishop Uriel Adesunloye presides over Faith Tabernacle of Jesus and Miracles Ministries. He is also the Convener of International Association of Christian Clergymen for Peace of United Nations, a body which seeks to promote peace among all nations of the world with 97 offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America Eastern and Western Europe. He is also the Proprietor of Habana International Staff Academy – a training institute that offers scholarships to indigent students. He spoke with Assistant Editor, Online, Justice Ilevbare, on issues relating to his organisation, the forthcoming programme for the school and state of the nation.

My vision for the United Nations…

The Lord spoke to me on the need to form the International Association of Christian Clergymen for Peace and to complement the efforts of the United Nations at achieving lasting peace in the world, to pursue and promote peace all over the world. We have our presence in 97 countries of the world. And our membership base is spread throughout the world. We have about 17,000 members. We established a school alongside the organisation because then we heard that our children outside indulged in many habits, mainly our female children. So we decided to establish a school.

Habana International Staff Academy…

The training institute first started with Holy Child International Institute for the training of our personnel but later changed to United Nations Staff Academy and now renamed Habana International Staff Institution of the association where we train our personnel in conflict resolution and also a training centre for world youth in Computer training, Hotel & Catering Management, Business Management, Accounting, Arts & Design, Electrical & Electronics, Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning, Pastoral Training, Foreign Languages, Crop-production (Manage-ment) and Animal health & Husbandry, (poultry, piggery, fishery etc).

Our major concern is to replicate the training institute in some parts of the world with tuition-free scholarships and to combat unemployment among world youths and make them self employed and self reliant. Habana International Staff Academy graduated over 5,000 trainees since 2000. The organisation established regional centre for African youths in Ondo State, and also plans to establish Distance Learning Centres in Sokoto, Kaduna, Plateau, Rivers, Delta, Imo, Anambra, Lagos and Akwa-Ibom states. African youths are needed in agricultural establishments; we call on parents to allow their children to learn technical work because technicians are the manpower of a country.

Wars among nations

Wars experienced among nations are because of ideologies – socialism and capitalism, and also religious differences. The UN was established to minimise or if possible stop wars after the World War II and bring all the nations back again together for peaceful world. In fact without the UN taking it upon themselves and with their sleepless nights terrorists should have caused greater havocs in the world. But these nations do not believe in prayer but they believe in concrete and workable strategies. There are Christian faithful and Muslins faithful in the UN while Christians go to church and Muslims go to the mosque, God is always on the side of the world leaders because God is against any act of violence and destruction .But during fasting of both Christians and Muslims the UN called for a ceasefire, till the end of the Holy fasting. It shows that whatever they do is God assisted.

Forth coming event…

We have been doing a lot of research work to make peace among our Muslim brothers in every country. Without that, there will be no peace in the world. It is the two religions that cause the peace in the world. When we recognise ourselves, there will be peace.

Establishing Radio and Television stations…

We are setting up television and radio stations in order to pursue and promote peace all over the world. Also, the peaceful world magazine is to serve as a newsletter for organisations of the past and the present events. It will be published before and after any of the association events and circulated free to not less than 97 countries. Nigeria has about 150 million population. When we have a radio station, many people will go there when we are about to broadcast or about to say series of things in connection with peace.

Nigerian Leadership…

Nigeria is yet to have good leadership.

Conference of Interna-tional Clergy

The conference will be holding at the University of Lagos on November 24. We hope to use the event to foster unity between Christians and Muslims in the country and the world at large. God will never come from heaven to save us. On many occasions, my colleagues in the Christian society called for the arrest of Muslims but I usually ask them not to do so because we are all brothers and sisters. Federal government is a body.

Already, I forwarded a letter to Mr. President that we are holding a conference of international clergy this year. We also sent invitation to the Vice President that he should be the special guest of honour at the occasion.

Churches in Nigeria and rising insecurity

The truth of the matter is that there is no sincerity among Christians. The churches are after money. I’ve been saying it. When you say the truth, your members will believe the truth. But when politics is practiced in the Church the opposite happens. In some churches now, women wear trousers and do not cover their hair. So because they need their money they allow them to do so. Who is suffering? It is the pastor there that is suffering when he never tells the truth to his followers. Of recent, I spoke to the press that Christians and Muslims should tell their followers the best way to live in harmony. You understand? But they will never tell them and they continue to indulge in that habit. They say Jesus Christ is coming. Will he meet Christians? Who will he like to meet when things have fallen apart.

The most important thing is to tell our people what to do. If you are very close to Mr. President, don’t be afraid of him. For example, recently, Pastor Adeboye told him that he should go and pray for forgiveness. He told him and I read it in the newspaper. If you want to be a good leader, you say the fact, let them hate you.

My advice for Nigerians

My message is for Nigerians not to relent in their efforts in praying. The leadership should also change their attitude. For example, the changing of election results can bring about anarchy. I want Mr. President to have a change of heart and let us have peace and allow the truth to prevail in the world. The federal government should appreciate the efforts of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) as the federal and state governments cannot do all to help the people. Parents should also allow their children to learn technical work because technicians are the manpower of a country.