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Tag: composition

  • ‘My journey into hymn composition’

    ‘My journey into hymn composition’

    Primate of St Peters Cherubim and Seraphim Band Nigeria and Overseas, Rev Apostle Albert Arojah, is arguably the most prolific hymn composer with over 400 to his name.  He speaks with Sunday Oguntola on the many myths surrounding the church and his sojourn into hymn composition. Excerpts:

    How did you come by the name Arojah? Is it your surname, an adopted name or a given name?

    It is not my surname; it is not an adopted name but a spiritual name. I heard that name when I was in a trance sometime ago but I didn’t take cognisance of it until around 1999. It happened that I went to a church in Alapere, Lagos. The church started under a coconut tree and I was privileged to be there.

    I went to play a game of draught with my friend, Eniola Adeomo. He is a pastor too and the man said ‘we thank God that you are here because we are having a special revival and the Lord said He’s going to send a visitor that will minister for us.’

    They begged me since the man was not around and my friend said I would take the ministration. The man looked at me because I was very young and I didn’t look like a pastor. I was just on a jean trousers and T-Shirt.

    He looked at me with scorn and I just dropped my face. He grudgingly said okay, since it was God that ordained that day for them. So I preached and the Spirit of God arrested people.

    For three days, the revival continued. Someone went on trance for 21 days and the woman hugged me, saying ‘don’t you know you are Arojah? That is your name. That is what they call you.’

    I kept the name in my mind because that was around 2002. Whenever I am in a secluded place and God needs to speak to me, that is what he calls me.

    What does it mean?

    It is a spiritual name. It is a combination of Aro and Jah but I don’t want to go too deeply into the meaning because when you say such, there are people who will begin to criticise you. It is so complicated and many things are involved in the name.

    No human flesh is qualified to hear that name but when God does, it means He likes you and wants to use you for a particular thing.

    How did St. Peters Cherubim and Seraphim band come to be?

    The church was founded by my late father who died in 1978 when I was ten years and I became the primate of the church at 19. We had elders in the church then, but based on prophecies, I was chosen. I didn’t want it because what I cherished most in life is education.

    I wanted to study, be a lecturer and a doctor. I just wanted to be so many things. I didn’t even know where I was going. I just cherished knowledge and loved education so much. But since I became primate, I couldn’t again. My mum practically forced me into the ministry.

    She kept saying I must serve God because it has been ordained by God. It had been prophesied that the first born of my dad was going to work for God. She was pleading and crying up to the point I said ‘even if I would be a pastor, it wouldn’t be in an Aladura church located in the village.’

    It started in a village?

    Yes, it started at Iwopin at Ogun waterside. The man ordained me and he forced me that I must come to their church. By the time I went to the church, I was already late but some miracles happened in their training. They spent six months in training but I didn’t resume until three weeks to the end.

    The last day they conducted the general examinations, I came first. I was the only one ordained as an Apostle then. I was just 19.When I came back, I said since I am going to do this work, I must do it. I started from Iwopin waterside.

    So how did you take the church from that little corner to where it is in Lagos?

    While I was there, I was just there because there was no electricity. We didn’t even have a radio. In fact our house was the worst in the village. You could see how wretched we were but I just comported myself.

    I was going to churches to minister when invited. But I could preach well. I could also sing and play any instrument…

    …were you taught how to sing and play instruments?

    I never had that opportunity, even for theological school. I could have done it but I just didn’t have the opportunity. Up till now I have not got any formal training. Even on the keyboard I play, I have never gotten any formal knowledge anywhere.

    Could it be hereditary then?

    I wouldn’t say, because I am a product of old age. My father was around 70 when he had me as his first child. I was ten years when he died.

    I loved him so much but I couldn’t say so much about him. It was only my mum I could say she was talented. My mum can recite 75 percent of the whole Psalms off hand. She sang hymns a lot but immediately I was ordained, she withdrew from every activity and handed over to me.

    So the headquarters of the church is still in Iwopin?

    Yes.

    And you have a camp ground there?

    Yes.

    On how many acres?

    It is on over an acre.

    Why are you still keeping your roots in Iwopin?

    That is the source of the church. In spiritual matters, source is very important. No matter what God does in Lagos, no matter how big we are, we can’t forget the place; it is still the headquarters.

    How many members do you have now and how many branches do you have across the world?

    Some people claim to be members of St. Peter C&S band but I am not really adopting them because I have seen so many challenges in the church. We had a church at Benin sometime ago but I have not been conversant with them and we have a prayer gathering in UK, even US. They are inviting me. You know when your loyal members travel abroad and they like your doctrine, they would like to have a part of your spirit with them.

    I do pray for them but I have not been going there. Even my wife has been there before to gather some people, preaching and counselling them overseas but I have not been there.

    Why?

    I don’t do things without asking God. I don’t think the chance is there for me to travel. I have never been permitted spiritually to travel out.

    But you have churches there?

    Yes, in U.K.

    You have in U.S?

    I can’t call it church because they are not registered. They just gather to pray.

    You have composed 412 hymns. How did the journey to composition of hymns start?

    I didn’t even believe I could sing. I had a lady friend around 1988. After the ordination, she kept pestering me to sing. I told her I didn’t have a good voice. But she liked it when I sang. She gave me the impression I could sing but the inspiration came when I was on a way at Ojuelegba.

    I was going to Barracks around 12 am and I was just singing. I recorded it and I said this is a hymn but I didn’t take cognisance of it. By the time I began to reason with it, I realised it was something. I have sung so many hymns. I have lost many manuscripts.

    You sing the hymns in the church?

    That is what we are really singing. If anybody sees any of my church members with wonders happening in their lives, it is the hymns they sing. They don’t even know how to pray but there is nothing they want that is not happening. They just sing hymns and go away. I don’t want people to call me some names.

    Like what?

    Like he is our Lord. You know when people want to flatter you, they want to praise a man of God. Some people can even call you Jesus and I don’t want such things. That is why I have been so sceptical, very reserved about some things. And some churches around us in Iwopin sing the hymns too.

    You have written two volumes of hymns. Are you planning another volume?

    Yes, because one of my church members browsed and said he has not seen anybody that composed as much as I have done. The best person we saw has about 87 compositions and he is the legendary Charles Wesley.

    How do you compose these hymns?

    If I want to compose songs, I will dedicate time for it. If I am alone, the inspiration comes and I will be the one to stop it because I don’t want it to be too much on me. I will be tensed somehow and I may be aggressive.

    I may not like to see anybody if I am in that mood and anybody that wants to come around me must have a lot of patience and must understand me. In three months time, I am packaging another volume. I have the tunes on my phone.

    As an Aladura preacher, when are you going to modernise some primitive practices and doctrines of the sect?

    There is a lot to do on people in our character, beliefs and conducts. There is little to be done about the doctrines because those doctrines are spiritual.

    They have sources and their sources are spiritual and genuine. I can’t say we can go contemporary. I can’t change those doctrines but there are things that God has changed.

    As a prophet, how much do people have to pay before seeing you?

    You don’t need to pay anything. Even if they need candles or have spiritual baths, I have bought those things there.

    No consultation fee?

    No, not even money to buy bathing soaps. I bought candles that I change every week. The perfume we are using, though we don’t use coloured candle, I pray on them myself. I don’t even have prayer warriors. I have sent them to school because they may not understand what I am doing and can misconstrue it in the nearest future.

    Some people in the church’s neighbourhood said you are in the habit of feasting, suspecting it might be a ploy to attract people. They won’t be wrong, right?

    Heavens know there is nothing they have that I want to tap from. With due respect to every human being, I don’t think anybody has anything to offer me unless God sends you to me.

    You can’t see our church posters anywhere, you can’t see sign boards anywhere, not even at Iwopin.

    Why?

    It is because I don’t just want to make noise about myself. We don’t need bait to attract or entice people. I don’t even encourage anybody to join us, but if God says you are a member, you will definitely be.

  • Group chides critics of NDDC board’s composition

    Group chides critics of NDDC board’s composition

    The Ilaje National Development Initiative (INDI) has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for selecting credible individuals into the governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The move is a step in the right direction, the group said.

    A statement by its President Thomas Mogbomerun berated critics of the nominations as self-serving opportunists.

    The group said such people spoke for themselves and not residents of the oil producing states.

    President Buhari, last week, forwarded a 17-man list to the Senate for confirmation as members of the interventionist agency’s board.

    Former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma Egba is proposed as Chairman and Mr Nsima Ekere as Managing Director-designate. Nine other nominees are to represent the oil producing states.

    But Nkere’s nomination has come under criticism, even as the Ondo representative and son of first civilian governor, Tokunbo Ajasin, has been rejected by a cross section of Ilaje youths and leaders on the ground that he was not from an oil producing area, being an Owo indigene.

    But INDI flawed the position of the critics, accusing them of an ego trip.

    It said: “This is another ego trip that cannot stand the test of time. To say the least, the orchestrated opposition against the nomination of Ajasin is only the handiwork of self-serving opportunists who are living a warped order that has always worked for them.

    “By this singular nomination, President Buhari has completed the circle of equity, fairness and justice by evenly distributing the ministerial nomination for South, membership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) board for Central and that of the NDDC for the Northern senatorial districts.

  • Politics of exco composition in Benue

    Politics of exco composition in Benue

    Correspondent  UJA EMMANUEL writes on the intense lobby for executive council positions in Benue State by politicians and other stakeholders.

     

    Since Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam sacked the Secretary to the government and 11 commissioners, there have been intense lobbying for cabinet positions by many politicians. Anxiety has also gripped the remaining five commissioners who were no were not affected by the sack, following feelers that they may be re-assigned to new portfolios.

    It was the first major cabinet shake-up since 2007 when the governor assumed office. Suswam issued a stern warning that nobody should lobby him or his deputy ,Chief Lawani, for appointment. He said the sacked commissioners had served the state and should come to terms with the reality that they cannot be in the cabinet for ever.

    Many believe that the dissolution was long overdue. However, the criteria for the sack and retention of four commissioners was strange to them.

    There is also disquiet in the various political camps over the fate of the affected commissioners because they were very close to the governor. Some influential political leaders are already mounting pressures on Suswan to re-appoint them. Some of the commissioners involved in the intense lobby to bounce back are Hon. John Ngbede( Water resources and Environment), Hon. John Tondo( Lands and survey) and Hon. Benjamin Ashaver(Works and Transport).

    Those mounting pressures on the governor on their behalf are of the opinion that, apart from performance, they are tested and trusted.

    There is also the feeling that Governor Suswam is very unfair to the trio of Ngbede, Ashaver and Tondo, who worked hard to ensure that he was re-elected for a second term and remained loyal when he was defending his mandate at the tribunal and court.

    Besides, the three of them command large followers, especially among the youths who are the strength of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the state. Others have reasoned that their premature departure from the cabinet may likely affect the chances of the party in the future electoral contests. Some party leaders felt that the former commissioners may team up with the opposition to wreck havoc on the PDP.

    “John Ngbede is forced to reckon with in his Apa/ Agatu area and the entire Zone C,while Bejamin Ashaver is the only man from Sankera in the PDP who could check Professor Daniel Saror, his uncle, who contested the election against Suswam on the ticket of All Nigeria Peoples party (ANPP. John Tondo is the toast of the PDP youths as he has empowered many of them”, said a PDP chieftain in Makurdi.

    A youth leader in Gboko local government, Comrade Terwase Akure, told The Nation that those sacked from cabinet are incidentally the ones supporting Suswam to build the PDP and those retained have not added much value to the party. “The end of the PDP may be near becaue those sacked from the cabinet are popular and they may team up with the APC”, he added. But those retained disagreed with this view, saying that they are loyal to the party and the administration.

    To avoid any political calamity, Akure appealed to Governor Suswam to reappoit Asahver, Ngbede and Tondo in the interest of the party.

    It is not clear whether the governor will yield to these appeals. Lask week, he read a riot act to the PDP chieftains. He said that any political appointee who engages in 2015 campaigns would be sanctioned. They grumbled at this threat.

    For now, the ruling party and other stakeholders are waiting for the new list of commissioners. Many believe that the composition may shape the political calculations ahead of 2015 in the state.

     

  • Coalition faults composition of Ondo PDP committee

    Coalition faults composition of Ondo PDP committee

    Is Vice-President Namadi Sambo is expected to begin the mega rallies of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State tomorrow, a group in the party, the PDP Coalition for Positive Change, yesterday sought the inclusion of some people in the National Campaign Committee of the party.

    The group said the list released by the National Working Committee (NWC), headed by Sambo, did not reflect the interests of the party in the state.

    The group, through its central and southern district coordinators, Dele Akinnawo and Chief Steven Ogbaro, said the campaign committee was a welcome development, but the absence of some members was unfair.

    They said the omission of the names of the former Chairman of the party, Dr. Tayo Dairo, former Minister of Defence, Prince Tokunbo Kayode (SAN) and the Director-General of the Olusola Oke Campaign Committee, Dr. Dare Bada was not good.

    According to the group, the lopsidedness in the composition of the campaign committee was a justification of its allegation that some leaders of the party were not being carried along in the affairs of the party.

    Akinnawo said the inclusion of some people who are known sympathisers of the opposition parties in the committee showed that PDP was not ready to reward commitment and hard work.

    His words: “What are the criteria for the composition? We believe that leaders of the party that are committed should have been considered for membership.

    “One wonders why leaders such as Prince Kayode, a financial member of the party with unquestionable loyalty should be left out of the membership. Only last week, Oke lauded this leader for his commitment to the party’s success.

    “Dr. Dairo is also one person whose name is missing on the list. This was a man who paid the political sacrifice by resigning his position as the state chairman of the party to end the crisis that rocked the party. Why should his name be left out?”

    The group said Bada should have been co-opted into the committee so that there would be a synergy between the national and state campaign committees.

    It added that names of some members who were being persuaded to participate in the campaigns should be removed so that committed members who were ready to work would be given the opportunity.