Category: Worship

Renowned evangelist, Dr Uma Ukpai, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on 2015 elections and sundry national issues. Excerpts:

To you think Nigerians can have free and fair elections come 2015?

When a society that is not of honest people wants to have a fair election, it doesn’t add up. This is a country where the rule of law does not obtain; a country where there is no respect for the sacredness of human being around us. A situation where people don’t have the fear of God in their conscience, they can’t be fair to anybody. God will help us not to allow the 2015 general elections not to destroy Nigeria.

Is that to say the elections could pose danger to national unity?

That Nigeria is still one is a puzzle and miracle. If not for the prayers of the saints, this country could have been sacked long ago because the things that make for unity are not there. No corporate sentiment of our nation. Nigerians don’t think like a nation but they think like tribalists.

If one’s father is not from a given place and even if that person is born in that place, he would be taxed and be treated like a stranger not like one of them. It is difficult to have a united nation because the practices and constitution do not support that unity.

Unfortunately the most cheated man in life is the most selfish man. We are going to cheat ourselves in 2015 elections because of selfishness and only God’s mercy will keep us together after 2015.

What are the things to expect?

Well as usual, we shall witness stealing of voting materials, disorganised elections and killing but God in His infinite mercy would take control that the country would not be overturned. We shall have bruises, people shall be wounded and some of the wounded soldiers would be left behind.

All these are already on but we could have more as we approach the elections. We are political lepers who don’t feel any pains when hurt; Nigerians don’t feel pains anymore. We have lost the capacity for wonderment and that makes us dangerous and we can do the unimaginable.

But INEC has promised free and fair elections. Is that achievable?

History will repeat itself but if we want a change, let all the politicians go to school and learn the rule of politics. As long as we have untrained politicians, they will continue to break the rule of the game. When we have thugs as politicians, we will continue to have the same results. We need a school for politicians urgently. The longer the delay, the more people shall die.

Look at the ward congresses of the PDP we had, how many people were killed and nobody has been arrested for the killing? Security agencies did not say anything about the killing but the family members of the slain are weeping. A nation that kills her own is not a good nation; we are killing ourselves. It is the sheer mercy of God and miracle that makes Nigeria to still exist.

But how long do you think this mercy of God will continue to keep us?

Well, the bible says God’s mercy endureth forever and as long as His mercy endures, Nigeria will continue to exist. As long as God remains merciful, so shall we remain as a nation. What we do does not really add for us to be a nation. Love, care and appreciation for one another which are the basis for unity are not there. Nothing shakes us any longer.

Do you think there is something that makes us to be so?

Because we have no respect for God, a man who has no regard for God cannot have regard for his neighbours and this is frightening. I cannot even go near any of the congresses for instance.

What do you have to say about the Muslim/Muslim ticket, which some allege one of the parties is planning?

Muslim/Muslim ticket contradicts common sense; it is selfish. Whoever thinks about it is not thinking about its consequences and such is selfish. It is a selfish agenda to field Muslim/Muslim or Christian/Christian.

Are we not mixing religion with politics here?

You cannot separate religion from politics. The issue of M.K.O Abiola and Kingibe added to our sins. Did they rule after the elections? It is because God is not in support of that and that issue would have killed Nigeria if they had successfully ruled.

You cannot overlook religion in politics; it is like committing suicide in a broad day light and that has made Nigeria like an accident that is about to happen. Politics is what we do every day. Politics is what we all practice every day. When some people go to church and not a mosque and vice versa, it is politics. So, we are already playing that politics. When the church bells and you head to the mosques instead of the church, you are declaring your position.

Your home church, the Assemblies of God has been undergoing a leadership crisis. What is your take on it?

I think we have done well in that in 80 years, we have only had our major crisis. Even Jesus had a Judas. So, to that extent, I will say we have done very well. It is not easy to manage a church. The hardest thing under the sun is to be a leader of men. This is the first major crisis we have had. I won’t go into who is right or wrong.

Rev. Paul Emeka believes you belong to the other camp…

…No, let us not go into what he said and did not say.

…But you sent a goodwill message to the last General Council meeting where you congratulated the new leadership. Is that an endorsement of a sort for Rev. Chidi Okoroafor?

Yes because that is where my heart is. I am old enough to know what I want. It is an endorsement for the new leadership. Before then, I had called the two to Benin and made efforts to reconcile them but it failed woefully.

What were their contentions?

I will not go into that. But that was a big sacrifice on my part. Since I failed, the next thing was to look at what to do to save the church. So, everything we did was in order. The day we called Paul Emeka, he should have been there because I was the speaker but he didn’t. If he had been there, things wouldn’t have gone this bad. When I asked him why he did not come, he said he felt the people would have mobbed him. You cannot say that because it means your members are thugs.

Many believe that Christian leaders like you are working for the PDP. How do you react to this?

What is wrong with that? Since the APC has Islam practitioners, it is only natural that the PDP will attract Christians.

Isn’t that dangerous politics?

We shouldn’t be afraid of that because I told you that when you wouldn’t go to church but go to mosque, you are already playing politics.

Bishop of the Diocese of Calabar of the Anglican Communion, Rt Rev Tunde Adeleye, spoke with reporters in the Cross River State capital on national issues. Nicholas Kalu was there. Excerpts:

On leadership

Nigeria is blessed with people and natural resources. Our blessed country is so enriched in diverse ways that there is almost nothing that we do not have in Nigeria. We have mineral resources and we are also very rich in human resources.

It seems to us that what we lack are the leaders to harness these resources together in such a way that they will be useful and available for all the citizens. Simply put, we lack leaders who have vision with righteous intentions and missions in Nigeria.

There are not many leaders who are selfless, truthful, original, having ability to think about the nation and plan for the future of the citizens. We need men and women of economic, social and political intelligence, who will deliberately dream about Nigeria. We have numerous educated politicians (professionals) but this knowledge is yet to be used for addressing the challenges of the nation.

We also need bold leaders who can aggressively address our problems. We have leaders who talk, discuss and analyse our problems. But do not boldly find solutions to these problems. Some of them are rather busy acquiring wealth, money, property and possessions; lacking any urge to make us better. For as long as we continue to have leaders who are selfish, we are not likely to come out of our leadership challenges.

We therefore need leaders who would be visionary enough to positively influence the people and through whose instrumentality we can attain political, social and economic heights in the country. We need selfless leaders who would be willing to interact and lay emphasis on appropriate values and attractive intelligence.

Good leadership will project the nation as a “thinking” and a “planning” nation. As at now, we seem to be merely moving round the same circle. That is, we have movements without advancement. There are talks, debates, conferences, discussions and resolutions without actions. This is what Ola Rotimi aptly depicted in his play titled “Holding talks”.

The style is that when a new leader comes in, he first dismantles the existing arrangements and starts a new thing which, in many cases, amounts to nothing. At best it is merely looking out for the new things in the same old ways.

Good leadership will cause us to do things right. With the glowing intelligence of our leaders, we are sure to have good roads, electricity, good houses to live in, good food, functional hospitals, good schools, we will have banks that are alive and churches where God’s will is being done. The Bible says that when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. One day, for sure, Nigeria will have the kind of leaders she deserves.

On true federalism

The main solution to the major problems in our country such as corruption, insecurity, poverty, depression, and diseases is when and if we agree to practice true federalism. The just- concluded discussion by the National conference Committee headed by the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Idris Kutigi, is unfortunately an exercise in futility as long as the truth about introducing true federalism is omitted.

Nigeria is extremely heterogeneous and this present system of governing us as if we are in a military system or a unitary state is not only laughable but it is clear that it will not get us anywhere.

The military system of government has destroyed the foundation of federalism. The military governed us as a unitary system. We should humbly accept this and take steps to correct the issues. We probably have our own interpretation of federal system of government in Nigeria.

But the true federal system of government will allow individual states to have control over their own affairs with a loose central government. In which case, they are only bound together by a governing representative head. Right now, there is too much power at the centre. That is why local and state governments look up to the Federal Government, with cap in hand, for all that they need. A situation where there is a “strong” centre controlling the states is defective to be called a federal government. It cannot be a good example of federalism.

On Boko Haram

A few decades ago while we were trying to pray against the spread of Socialism in the world, (as being anti-Christian), a few of our Christian leaders cautioned us that the main danger ahead of our nation was neither Socialism nor Communism but radical Islam.

We were warned that the main impending problem of Nigeria was going to be an attempt to forcefully impose a particular religion on Nigeria. This is what is playing out now in various forms and styles including what is now known as Boko Haram.

We understand that the official name of the Boko Haram sect is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad. It means people committed to the Prophet’s teachings for propagation and jihad. It is a “militant” Islamist movement which has received training and funds from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It is generally called and believed to be a terrorist organisation.

Today, the news of killing, kidnapping by Boko Haram activists are quite rampant. Our radio and television constantly greet us with news of death, abduction, bombing all over the world and in Nigeria. Which of these do we refer to? Which of them do we comment on? The deaths are too many.

We cannot accurately count those who are daily killed at the major motor parks? Can we give accurate figures of those who were bombed in the busy places of major cities in Nigeria? Can we count the number of police stations already attacked by Boko Haram? Can we count the military installations and soldiers killed in this general attack on Nigeria by the Boko Haram? If we must, where do we start from?

Boko Haram has done havoc on this country. Innocent citizens have been affected. The heaviest of the attacks have been on the Christians. Nigerians have lost their dear ones. Children have lost their parents, while parents have lost their children.

On 2015

Thinking about 2015, sometimes, sends fears, bad feeling and fright to my mind. This is not to say that we have not had this type of political turbulence in the past. Our story has been that God, in His faithfulness, has always led us out of trouble and this kind of turbulence from time to time. We are eternally grateful to Him for this.

What is now disturbing to us is that there are new dimensions to our political experiences. There are now some political attitudes in our dear country that we think have some religious undertones. There are political parties, which appear to be different and to be fighting for the common man in the country, but are actually religious bigots. It is sad. It is obvious that such political parties actually represent and have the interest of a particular religion.

This does not look safe for our political development. A situation where a state government is deliberately prescribing religious (Islamic) attires for school children in the state is strange and unfortunate. In our opinion, it is the height of primitivism. This should be resisted by all means.

We must and should separate religion from politics. If things are allowed to go on in this way, then, we have a very serious danger ahead of us. We must sound this note of warning. We have seen political parties which are ethnically biased in the past.

But seeming religious political parties is new. It is also very dangerous. It should not be encouraged. Religious political parties are suicidal to any nation. This cannot work and everything must be done in the country to frustrate and destroy the effort.