How did you become born again and then a minister of the gospel?

I was called into ministry work in 1983 from my banking job. Although that was the year the Lord called me, I got to hear from my parents that the call had been on me right from childhood. When my mother was pregnant with me they told her that the child inside of her would be a prophet of the most high God. But along the line everybody forgot, so when the time came, the Lord started sounding the call to me. When there was no way for me to dodge again, I had to resign my appointment with First Bank in 1985 and went for training before the Lord asked me to come to Lagos to start the ministry.

Was there any dramatic event that really turned you around to heed the call, or was it just a gradual process till you found yourself working fulltime for God?

Initially I did not want to come into the ministry; I preferred sponsoring ministers, because I had minister friends who were evangelists and pastors. My house used to be a resort for them all, because whatever they needed they would tell me, and I would try my best to provide them. But God said no, ‘that is not what I want from you, I want you in the ministry’.

But when the Lord warned me in a vision that if I refused, he would deal with me terribly, I had to put in my resignation letter. My bosses in the office were stunned at my decision wondering how I could leave a secured bank job to go into the ministry work. I told them this is what God wanted for me.

You’ve been in the ministry work for close to tree decades now, how has it been?

It has been very tough. There’s no time I remember how I started that it doesn’t come with mixed feelings. It was very challenging; there were times I almost went back to my bank job. But encouragement came from the Lord; He showed me that the future will be okay.

And the challenges?

As a minister of God there are always a lot of challenges. When you think of how you’re going to take care of the members, especially for a ministry that is just starting out, you have to pray and pray before members will come. I’m not talking of people who use other means to get members; they can even consult with juju priests just to make sure their church is packed full of people.

But for somebody who is genuinely called, ordained and sent by God, you have to focus and depend on God. You have to pray, run vigil sometimes, do different types of fasting; dry fasting, marathon fasting and others. I prayed to a point that some people saw me and asked if I was the only person doing the work of God. But I thank God, today the story has changed.

What do you have to say about the situation of the church in Nigeria?

The situation of the church in Nigeria today it is not encouraging because people look for miracles more than they look for God. You see them trooping to different places of worship, not for the love of God, but for what they want to get from such places. And the moment they get it, they run to another place as soon as they hear that miracles are happening there.

Do you think this has anything to do with the rating that Nigerians are very religious people?

I think this has to do partly with the ministers around who want to get something from people by all means. So, they hoodwink people, blind them to make them come so that they can get what they want.

There are so many religious bodies in the country, but the level of corruption and decadence is still very high, how do you see this?

If we have to go by the scriptures, that should not be news to us. Because Jesus said that in the end, sin will multiple, and a lot of people, especially the chosen ones, their love will grow cold. So, that is in the scriptures, and the scriptures can never be broken. You see people today rushing here and there with a mind to prove that they are religious, whereas, at the back of their mind, it’s not God that they are going to the churches for.

But do you think the church is playing its role in the efforts to rid the society of corruption?

The church is really trying its best. When you take the work of so many ministers into consideration. Like Prophet T.O Obadare, for a very long time, he has been harping on the need for decent and good society. But it’s a pity, our people are so stubborn. All they do is go to church to get something. The moment they get it they forget about God.

I was reading in the papers recently where the Senate president said the clerics corrupt the leaders. I wondered why he should say such a thing. What experiences could have led him to say such.

Can he name those clerics? It is actually the politicians that corrupt the clerics by taking bags of money and envelopes to them. They go to the ministers for prayers even when they know that what they are doing is bad.

But the clerics can refuse to pray for them, or caution them when they know that what they politicians are doing is wrong, must they collect such money?

But you know sometimes money is tempting. For a minister who has not eaten for some time and is not well grounded in the word of the Lord, and somebody offers money, he’ll be ready to take it, and pray for them. It only takes a stubborn minister, people like Elijah and Samuel in the Bible, who can boost of not collecting anybody’s money to refuse all these.

Do we have such clerics in our midst in Nigeria?

Yes we do, and by the grace of God they will soon come to the fore.

Do you think the message of prosperity being preached in most churches in the country today has any relationship with the level of corruption?

I don’t think so. By the grace of God, I am a prophet of the most high God. But being a minister does not say you should not preach on prosperity. Like two years ago, the Lord came to me in a revelation in the night, and told me that from that moment I should change my ministration and message to prosperity, that He wants to start blessing and prospering people through me and my ministry. I even authored a book on the topic.

It’s not a crime for a child of God to be prosperous. Saying people should live a decent and godly kind of lives does not mean they should not prosper. They can prosper and as well live a godly life. If you live a holy life and you’re not prosperous, you might be tempted into doing what God does not like, and they might go to hell fire because of this.

What should be the role of the church in nation building?

Authority goes out from the church. If you take what happens in the Old Testament for instance; it’s the prophets that dictate what happens in the society and nation. It’s a pity today things have changed, and people like me are praying that God will revisit us again. If you go to other countries like America, they don’t sidetrack ministers of God there. They don’t dismiss their role with a wave of the hand like is happening in our country.

The role God has given us is to teach, according to Jesus instruction. To teach every man and woman so that when they go to the secular world, to their jobs and offices, they can be decent people that God has ordained them to be, and the society will become decent through the same people.

How would you assess the present government?

If I’m to assess this government I would give them a zero mark, because a lot of rubbish is happening in this country. We need God’s visitation. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was there, he came up with a number of anti-corruption bodies, like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent and other Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC. But what have they done. What good have they offered us or the nation. All the moneys collected from former politicians, that were stolen, where are they? They cannot account for it.

Now Yar’Adua has been there for two years. This man has the mind of doing something good for our nation but what about the people around him. What about the Senators and the House of Representatives members. They’re just there sharing money all the time; not ready to offer the country and the citizenry any good. All they care about is their pockets, and bank accounts which are swelling all the time, all they care about is going on overseas trip.

Apart from the corruption, you cannot move around freely as you like in the county. Imagine street urchins everywhere; they can harass and embarrass you. They beat people at random, and we say this is a nation with leadership?

Some people also contend that the follower ship has a part of the blame too

I agree the followership has a role to play but everything starts from the head. If the head is good, the whole body will be good, but if the head is bad, the whole body will be bad and corrupt. That is the problem we are having in Nigeria.

For instance the period between December 1983 and December 1984, no sane person will forget that period in the history of the country when we had Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and late Tunde Idiagbon in government. They are the type of people Nigeria needs for change. If we had such people in government Nigeria would have developed greatly by now. But imagine those who have ruled us after those people, imagine what they have come up with. When you see a person’s character or what he/she is doing, you’ll know what they are capable of. That is to show that the present crop of leaders is so wicked.

So what are you expecting from the Yar’Adua government in the remaining two years?

He needs our prayers. Like I said earlier, the man means well for Nigeria, but for the powers around him that will not allow him to work. Obasanjo was able to achieve a little because he was stubborn. But Yar’Adua is meek. If he wants to do something and the Senate says no, he folds his hands. That’s where the problem is. But if we can support him in prayers, I think he should be able to do something; like giving us regular electric power supply, which should be the most important thing.

And I think this issue of regular power supply is the main problem of Nigeria. We need power supply uninterrupted. If he can do this and our road network, I think he would have done well.

Message to Nigerians

Everybody should come closer to God and we should pray for our country because if the present trend should continue unaddressed, I think what is happening in the Niger Delta will be a small thing compared to what may happen in Nigeria, because it is getting to a situation whereby everybody seems to be pushed to the wall. People are angry because they are hungry. And a person that is angry can do a lot of things; can even burn down a house. So if our leadership does not address the problems and see to it that people’s lives are better, that the effect of the hardship is cushioned, a time is coming when the keg of gunpowder will explode, and its not going to be a child’s play.