Bishop Francis Wale Oke, is the National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Presiding Bishop of Sword of the Spirit Ministries, also known as Christ Life Church. He spoke with AYOYINKA JEGEDE at the conclusion of the PFN 2025 National Executive Retreat held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. With the retreat themed “PFN Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” Bishop Oke shared his insights on pressing national issues — including insecurity, killings, kidnappings, and the broader challenges facing Nigeria — and proposed decisive actions for lasting change.
Myriads of challenges are bedeviling the country; insecurity, killings, maiming, kidnapping, sexual violence among others. What in your view is the solution?
The level of insecurity in this country is totally unacceptable. Some people have said it is communal clashes but that is not true.
It is an invasion by Fulani herdsmen who want to drive indigenous owners of land out of their lands and forcefully take over their patrimony. This is what is happening in Benue, Taraba, Plateau and various parts of the nation and the federal government should know the truth about this and do something decisively about it. These ragtag Fulani herdsmen carrying guns cannot withstand the highly organised army. It means something is wrong somewhere. There are inside agents that are colluding, conniving with the Boko Haram, ISWAP, Fulani herdsmen. The Federal Government should change the architecture and the structure of our national security.
They should remove all the compromisers that are in place now, in position of power and influence that are determining what goes on and they should put people that are truly patriotic, who will flush out these marauders that are afflicting, killing, maiming, raping our people in Nigeria.
And again, some people said, it is not the Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria that are doing it, it is the Fulanis that have come from neighbouring African countries like Chad, Niger and others, now if that is the case, then it means Nigeria is under foreign invasion and the Nigerian Armed forces should be very ruthless with them because the primary duty of the Nigerian Armed forces is to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and ensure that no foreign invaders come to trouble our people. So, let the Nigerian armed forces wake up and flush out all these evil people that are oppressing, killing, maiming, raping our people and driving them out of their patrimony. But you see the Nigerian Army cannot rise up except the Commander in Chief gives them clear command.
We appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President has done a lot of good things for Nigerians but first and foremost, deal with this insecurity decisively. The President should take another look at the security reports that are being presented to him because in most cases they are false narratives that make victims become culprits and culprits to become the victims.
For example, now food security is under threat when farmers cannot go to work on the farm because of fear of herdsmen. When those who go to work have to pay tax to be able to plant their crops, they are to pay tax to be able to harvest their crops, it means they become slaves on their own land. This is not acceptable.
When these people invade villages , they kill, they burn houses, they drive the owners of the villages out and they change the names of the villages to their names, that is like there is no government in place and that’s Banana Republic and the some people will be giving false report to the Commander in Chief.
What about the specific killings of Christians in their states?
It is true to a good extent because the three states that I mentioned, Benue, Plateau, Taraba, are predominantly Christian states and these invaders focus on these three states as well as other Christian states. That is not acceptable and we want an intervention. As for me, I do not advocate that all Nigerians should carry arms because that’s a call for anarchy rather the government should rise up and deal with this evil people that are inflicting our people with all manners of evils in Nigeria but let me say that the people that are being kidnapped and raped are not limited to Christian, they include other people but take note of this, those who are doing the killings , the maiming, the raping, Christians are not among the Perpetrators, No! It is on the other side and they claim they are doing it as a Jihad because they felt Nigeria belongs to their great grandfather and they must conquer it from the north to the sea and that is not acceptable because it is a lie.
Nigeria is not a conquered territory, Nigeria is a sovereign state, sovereign country under a sovereign government . The government should rise up and flush the marauders out and protect the people and the land of Nigeria.
How has PFN significantly, positively contributed to the growth and development of this country?
In many ways. First, fundamentally the Bible says righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people , so we teach ourselves and our people to live a life of righteousness that is acceptable before God. You see when light shines, it drives darkness away. Nigeria would have been filled and taken over by darkness but for the presence of the saints of God. I used the word saints because every believer that is born again is the saint of God.
PFN promotes righteousness- leading people to Christ, from sin to righteousness, from devil to Christlikeness and we are doing that on a daily basis. Before,we were few in number and negligible but now we are over 65 million in PFN and is growing, and apart from turning people to righteousness, we teach them to live a Godly life because if you are a true child of God you won’t steal, you won’t engage in corrupt practices, you won’t live in sin and you will fear God and do God’s will. PFN is an agent of transformation and we have been transforming people’s lives spiritually and in all facets including homes/marriages.
Apart from that, in the education sector, we have so many primary and secondary schools that are based on Christian faith where the young ones are being taught the ways of righteousness and Godliness right from their childhood. We give them the best education and mental development and not just that, we teach our students moral values, spiritual values, we teach them to be Godly and fear God.
We are raising our children to be great leaders of this nation not only in primary and secondary schools even in our tertiary institutions.
As the National President of PFN, I took a cursory look across the nation to access what we have done and I counted 27 private universities that are faith based, that are within the fold of PFN. In our universities there is no room for strike, you can tell from the day your ward enters the university when he will graduate and that doesn’t change. There is zero tolerance for cultism. Cultism is never heard in our faith based tertiary institutions and universities. There is zero tolerance for hard drugs.
I am a proprietor and Chancellor of Precious Cornerstone University. You can’t hear of strike, no cultism. There is zero tolerance for promiscuity, sexual abuse, sexual harassment whether among staff or among students, no! We raise our students in an atmosphere of Godliness and we give them the best form of education and educational exposures with our partners abroad across Europe , North America, Canada and others. We use our influence to do exchange programmes between other universities and Nigerian universities and our children are coming out top and they have good jobs and are living Godly lives with positive major contributions. We also train them in entrepreneurial skills which make them self-independent. Again, in the midst of the economic hardship of Nigeria, we have welfare packages and palliatives to encourage our people. We don’t stop at palliatives, we create jobs, the schools that we establish, we employ qualified teachers and administrators in hundreds of thousands of our schools across the country. In our universities, we have managements, lecturers, non-academic staff and we create jobs on our campuses. We employ architects, civil mechanical, electrical and different types of engineers. We employ builders, artisans, bricklayers, carpenters and others.
We are driving the economy and a lot of our universities have farms where foods are produced. We teach our students to be job and wealth creators, not just carrying papers around looking for jobs. Those who graduated from our universities are self-employed not only self-employed, they are also employers of labour. That gives joy. We are positively contributing to Nigeria’s economy day after day in a huge way.
But some people are complaining that church members can’t afford these faith based tertiary institutions due to the high tuition fees. What’s your view on this sir?
That’s a false narrative. Those who give license to private and government universities are not fools. They know that private university establishment is a high capital intensive project. If you don’t truly love this nation and our youths, you cannot get into the business of private universities because it is an investment that doesn’t yield instant result. It is only after a long hurl. Take for example our university, Precious Cornerstone University, is about eight years old and we are still pouring huge money into it on a monthly basis not because we are taking money from it. No! Even the master plan that we developed for NUC that NUC approved in the financial projection, they projected that we will break even when we are about fifteen years on ground but before that fifteen years we will be pouring money on landed properties, buildings, facilities, lecturers, non-academic staff, NUC requirements and others. As you can see, we give full and partial scholarships in faith based universities across PFN. In fact, in our own university, Precious Cornerstone University, almost half of the students are on scholarships between my wife and I. We sponsored at least 50 of the first set in full scholarships. We were paying through the nose. We invested in infrastructure, we invested in lecturers and non-academic staff and we still have to pay for 50 students and that’s a lot but it’s our pleasure to see them graduate with a smile on their faces, so we are making intense contributions, those who accuse the churches of using faith based universities to make money, let them go and start one and let them see how easy it is to raise a university and we’ll come and learn from their secret of success and how they could recover their money in two, three years.
Also, in Precious Cornerstone University, the first set of our students came from the twenty four states of the federation. When I walk on our campus and I hear students speaking different languages, such as Efik, Benin, Hausa and others, it gives me joy.
In PFN, what’s the Directorate of Politics and Good Governance all about? Is it that the church is romancing with politicians?
No! If the church had been romancing with the politicians I would not be speaking as I am speaking now. I am speaking as a man of God. I love politicians, they are part of our flocks that we watch over, they are Nigerians and they deserve to be loved , they deserve to be protected and to be cared for like any Nigerian but we are not compromised at all .We are ministers of God and we seek the truth to power.We want the government to rise up and do the needful.
About the Department of Politics and Good Governance in PFN, I set that up to be able to educate the masses of Christians, particularly the Pentecostals in this nation. By available statistics, we have over 65million Pentecostals in Nigeria. There is no President that has won national elections with 65million votes. It has never happened. So we now felt that if our people are properly educated to get involved in politics from the grassroots by joining the political parties of their choice, by joining the dominant political parties in their states and get involved from the grassroots.
Up till now what happens is that we are voting for the politicians, but we were not actively involved in politics because we’ve been taught that politics is a dirty game and we are avoiding it . The best that we have been doing is to get our voter card and vote for whom? Vote for the people who brought us to where we are and who are interested in keeping us as an underdeveloped nation and our youths are trooping out of the country in droves No!
We want to get involved because we are the salt of the earth. For our impact as salt to be effectively felt, we are telling our people, Christians to get involved in politics from the grassroots, from their ward levels and be involved in dominant parties in their states. When it is time to pick those that will be delegates, we encourage Christians to be there, when it is time to pick those that will be head in local governments, state levels and National Assemblies, Christians should not be behind the fence saying they are praying. Christians have been praying, we will continue to pray, yet let them get involved. Don’t sit on the fence by getting your voter’s cards alone. Be the person that will be voted for.
We establish the Directorate of Politics and Good Governance in PFN to enlighten our members and to let them know of the need to actively participate in politics from the grassroots, and we put somebody there who has experience, a truly detribalized Nigerian who hails from Edo but lived in Oyo State and won political position on Oyo State. He is an insider in what goes on in the political world before God called him; Pastor Femi Emmanuel. He is educating Christians not only to pray but to actively participate in politics from the grassroots because we have been edged out for too long and it is time to get involved.
I gave Pastor Femi Emmanuel the task of teaching and educating us and they have set structures from the national to zones, from zones to states from states to all the 774 local government areas and CDAs , now they are going to ward levels educating Christians on how to get involved peacefully in politics and political structures of this nation in order to influence the governance of this nation from inside and not from outside.
You just concluded the 2025 PFN National Executive Retreat in Uyo with the theme ‘PFN Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’. What were the key resolutions?
First, we resolved to intensify prayers and fasting for Nigeria. The challenges the nation faces go beyond human ability—we need divine intervention. All our delegates from across the country are returning with a renewed commitment to pray for Nigeria.
Secondly, we encouraged active political participation among our members—not just voting, but getting involved from the grassroots. While I, as a father to all, cannot engage in partisan politics, I urge our members to step out, contest, and lead with integrity.
Thirdly, we agreed that we must embody the change we preach. If we speak against corruption, tribalism, and nepotism, we must live above them. We are the light and salt of the nation, and through love and righteousness, we believe Nigeria will overcome its current challenges.
You also mentioned PFN at 40. What is the significance of this celebration?
PFN at 40 is a major milestone. Under the same theme—“PFN Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”—we will host a grand dinner and award night on October 27, 2025. We’ll gather 500 eminent Nigerians, including past PFN leaders, governors, lawmakers, and Christian business leaders, to honour their contributions to the nation and the fellowship. It will be a moment to reflect, celebrate, and look forward.
