By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Four years have passed since Pastor Iheanyi Ejiogu became the General Overseer/Lead Pastor of Evangel Pentecostal Church (Worldwide). In the run up to the national convention of the ministry, which will also mark the commencement of his second term as Lead Pastor, he sat down to an extensive interview with Sunday Sun on national issues that pertain to the Church in Nigeria and youths as the nation looks forward to the coming year and beyond. Read on…
We are almost at the end of the year. Looking back at what God told you at the beginning of the year what thoughts come to your mind?
At the beginning of the year we had a word from God for us as a people concerning advancement, where God said we will run through troops and leap over walls. Now that we are in November, I look back and see that from January till date, we have run through troops and leaped over walls. For me as a person, I have seen the practical fulfilment of the word God gave us at the beginning of the year. Practically, as a church, we have made astronomical progress in our relationship with God. It has been advancement in all fronts, both in personal life and ministry.
Please give me an overview of the last 4 years you have been in office.
On November 25, 2017, we took over leadership of the ministry. In the past four years I would say that I have understood people interactions better and how God deals with people at various levels. I have understood that how God deals with a man when it is only him is different from when he is responsible for different types of people – like in the diverse community of members that I am leading. Again, for us as a ministry, technology came to the forefront in the past four years. Ironically, just a day before the COVID-19 lockdown we acquired a television camera on Monday for the headquarters branch of our church. Then the next day, Tuesday, the government imposed the lockdown. For the eight the months of the lockdown we were able to hold virtual services at the Okota headquarters branch; none of our midweek and Sunday services was stopped. The lockdown did not dissuade us, rather allowed our creative juices to flow. During the lockdown, I counselled a lot of churches which were not in that technology space and therefore had to shut down because they were not prepared for the way the world changed so rapidly. For me, it was a call to conscious education and evolution. I remembered one of my teachers per se, Dimgba Igwe, our late first Deputy General Overseer, who once said that one of the most powerful tools of the future is to unlearn and relearn. It will require humility for a person who was a powerhouse in the old order but now an infant in the new order to learn about how things work now. There are about 8 billion people on earth, and over 5 billion are connected on social media. What that simply means is that the internet is a resource that can no longer be overlooked, no matter what your faith or religious background. You have 2.9 billion people on Facebook – that is like 2 continents in the palm of your hand.
When you became the General Overseer, it was reported in the media that your emergence was an epochal event that marked the end of an era for the ministry. What exactly was meant by that assertion?
I don›t know what it means but what I think is that it was time to open up to the world. In EPC, we pride ourselves in how we have been helped by God in our own space and cocoon. Beautiful as that is, there is a call to take the same quality of the gospel to the nations of the world. Any organisation that is not strong on social media will go into extinction like the dinosaur. I guess in hindsight it was a call to put this brand of expressions of faith in God in the visual sight of more people. A lot more people know that it is possible to live righteously and victoriously in our times.
Given the theme of the convention which says, Upward & Forward, what should Nigeria as a nation and Nigerians look forward to in 2022?
Well, the reason God put that theme in our heart is that He has recently been speaking to us in terms of aligning with the word and saying that we are prophecy fulfilled. Everything that God said is being fulfilled in the lives of them that agree with it, not just those who heard it. One the things about the theme is spiritually and strategically aligning with the prophetic word of God that anywhere God is there is an upward and forward movement. So as a Christian ministry led by the Holy Spirit, we are aligning with the word of God and we speak prophetically and strategically over Nigeria that in the seasons we are in and in the seasons to come there will be an upward and forward movement. It would entail a lot of things: there will be falling away of many, there will be new associations n formed along the line but God is saying that the aftermath of the seasons we are in will be an upward and forward movement for Nigerians spiritually, academically, intellectually and for the country there will be evolution and growth in our economy and governance as well as the outcomes of what we want to see happen with our international relations.
What must Nigeria and Nigerians do in line with the theme?
The Bible says that when the wicked are in power the people perish but when the righteous are in authority there are shouts of joy. Righteousness has never really meant holiness as a lot of people seem to believe. Righteousness is being in right standing with God. There are countries that don’t know Jehovah but have solid socio-economic structures. They don’t steal or destroy assets and they obey traffic rules. Now one of the things that should become part of our national conversation, even in the Christian church, is the establishment of think tanks that are integrated into the policy formulation, legislation and implementation structure of the Federal and state governments. People with like minds should get together, to rub minds on an issue and then create frontburner conversations around such issue for national development purposes. This means that more Christians need to sit down and think about issues, come up with policy and execution strategies. This is something the church has not given attention. The more people sit down to evaluate issues they can come up with execution strategies that advance national development. Policy is what changes economic behaviour, not prayer or prayer meetings. If a policy can be turned into law it can be enforced. If Christians are not in the conversations where policies are discussed and agreed upon, our opinions do not fit into the narrative of execution of such policies because it will be regarded as secondary conversation. For instance, all the groups popping up around the world, like the LGBTQ community and Same Sex Marriage, have strong legal backing because their conversations are not only on social media pages but they are also in the corridors of policy formulation and implementation. The reason church decisions are not a global issue is because they are not in the corridors of policy and cannot be used to stand for a cause. For instance, church premises are used only on Sundays. Therefore, can a church hall become a youth development centre during the week? If you are advocating for youth development how are you going to do it? Churches have some infrastructure such as church hall and admin block; therefore we can recommend that the church is a citadel for the reformation of young adults. Again, education is synonymous with advancement. Churches just set up schools with no real agenda as to what the schools are supposed to achieve. Is the church focused on achieving entrepreneurship or developing leadership skills? Therefore, in addition to teaching Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, it must also teach leadership and core values to the children.
With you, Pastor Jerry Eze and several of your pastoral peers as the nucleus of this new movement for church think tanks, when can we begin to see practical expression of this thought?
There has been a lot of grassroot engagement by the leaders of the younger Pentecostal denominations. This is the thinking of the majority but I am not speaking for them. Rather I am speaking along the line of our reasoning that there is a need for better strategic engagement of Pentecostal Christians on national development issues. After we have fasted, prayed and preached, we must begin to get into implementation of these things that can change the national development narratives. Many more people must be less antagonistic and more inclusive in our conversation on national development. When the church is developed but operates in an undeveloped country it will still be affected by the consequences of underdevelopment.
What is your charge to Nigerian youths today with 2022 around the corner?
As we get ready to end the year and get into next year, one of the things that youths need to do is to get their entitlement mentality. Young people should show their sense of responsibility. Don’t dress like a suspect and still expect to be treated as a prospect. Secondly, there’s always time for gratification. This is a time of war. A time of war is not the time for gratification. Rather, it is a time of responsibility, sacrifice and dedication. I think the next five to 10 years in Nigeria’s history lies on the backs of the youths. Therefore, it is our time to make sacrifices and dedicate ourselves to honing our craft. God told me that the decade I am in is my decade of mastery and multiplication. And that applies to all our youths. Strive for mastery and multiplication.
Would you say that our youths are effectively utilising technology for beneficial purpose?
Well, yes, but not on the scope of tilting the needle in terms of our national development. I think a lot of young Nigerians have not been given due credit for engagement with technology. Granted that there are some negative heads among them but technology is the front-burner conversation that cannot be overlooked. People are working to spend their hard-earned money on data, to engage technology rather than to eat. What that means is that we need to have them see how they can turn the ‘thing’ they stare at into a business or an enterprise. We have 210 million people in Nigeria, which is the largest single population in Africa. It is the next economic hub. The larger global economies know this. About 20 years ago, digital cinemas became a gold mine. In the 70s and 80s, the cinemas vanished but came back in 2000, bigger and better and caught fire. Today in the remotest parts of Agege, like Fagba, you will find digital cinemas. If technology is harnessed, we can create stupendous impact. For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria launched the e-Naira it was not on the front burner because youths were not headlines of the launch. It was as if the government acted as if it didn’t need the youths. We all know how it all ended. The youths which the government treated as inconsequential rated the new app poorly and stepped aside. The global community took notice of the poor rating of the app by Nigeria’s huge youth population on the internet. For this reason it did not fly or sell. It was removed from the app stores for iOS and Android. Clearly, the youths which the government believes is inconsequential have more importance than imagined. Today, you find 27 to 30-year old Nigerian entrepreneurs selling shares in their startup businesses for US$15 to 20 million and above, to foreign equity investors. These 30-year-old Nigerian entrepreneurs, living in Nigeria are closing multi-million dollar deals while governors are running all over Europe, America and other countries ostensibly to look for foreign investors. But foreign investors come to Nigeria to look new technology-driven startup ventures established by youths. Yet some government officials act as if our youths can be ignored. It is unfortunate.