By Henry Umahi

Dr Success Ibeakanma, Lead Pastor, Royal Choice Ministries, Ketu, Lagos has urged Nigerians not to give up on their country despite the challenges. According to him, with innovation and determination, the insecurity problem will be defeated. He said that 2023 election is an opportunity for Nigerians to decide their future, adding that prayer should be matched with action by people coming out to vote. Ibeakanma identified three kinds of pastors – those called by God, those who called themselves and those who called God. He said that by their fruit you shall know them.

What’s your take on the state of the country in terms of insecurity, inflation and bitterness?

The state of insecurity in the country is very high; we cannot paint it. We know that the government is trying. But they are not doing enough. We are supposed to pray for them for God to give them new ideas because if they continue to use the wrong idea or strategy, they can’t conquer the challenge. I believe that they need new ideas or better still, the security architecture needs to be re-jigged. There should be innovation in the security apparatus. It will be unfair to say they are not doing anything. But they are not doing enough. They are using the wrong method, so what we need to do is to pray for them for God to reveal the secret through which the insecurity challenge can be neutralised. The truth is that Nigerians are suffering now perhaps like never before. The hardship in the country now is too much. We should pray for them to get fresh ideas to pilot the affairs of the country. As it is said, ideas rule the world. The difference between one leader and another is the ideas they operate. One business may succeed with ideas and another may fail because of the type of ideas employed. Having said that, I’m convinced that there’s hope for Nigeria.

Do you have any fears about the 2023 elections?

I am confident that God will choose the best candidate for Nigeria in 2023. All we need to do is to pray and come out and vote for the right candidates. In 2015, there was serious fear everywhere. But God still had His way. So, I have so much confidence that God will still do it. Everyone with PVC should come out and vote without making trouble.

Do you think churches and pastors are doing enough considering the level of crime in the country?

Pastors and churches are doing more than enough. On my own side, we have helped so many people. We have created employment, skill acquisition programmes, financial empowerment and so many others. One of my empowerment programmes is called SOW project – strangers, orphans and widows. It focuses on helping strangers, orphans and widows. Through this project, we have provided accommodation, feeding, health care services and financial empowerment.  So, pastors are doing so much to reduce crime in the society. If pastors are not involved, it would have been worse than this. Though there are detergents everywhere, you still see dirty people.

In what ways are you different from other pastors? In other words, what is your cutting edge?

I believe that every pastor is different in their own way. Every pastor is unique in their own way, having different callings and visions. God called me to give hope. He called me to make his people retain their wealth and give hope to the hopeless, and I’m focused on that. I’m not allowing any kind of distraction. One of the visions God gave me is making people rich and that has been the core of my ministry and I’m focused on it. I’m not a prosperity preacher. I am a prophet sent for supernatural prosperity and I’m focused on what God has called me to do. I give hope to people at all levels and at the end we will make heaven. We will be happy here on earth and serve God. I’m not saying that I’m better than other pastors but what makes me different is that I’m focused on my own vision. If all pastors focus on the areas that God called them, they would be unique in their own way.

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What lessons has life taught you?

Life has taught me not to pay attention to noise negatives; that when men criticise you they advertise you. So, what life has taught me is that if you must be great, learn how to celebrate criticism because criticism will help to advertise you and you learn more from it. If God has called you, don’t give up. I’ve learnt not to give up. There are places you may not be known but when men begin to criticise you, they won’t know they are doing publicity for you. Nobody can close your chapter because they didn’t call you. It’s God who called you that has power to close your chapter. Some people have dropped their Bibles because of criticism. It could be constructive or destructive; the way it came is the way it will go as long as your hands are clean. At the end of the day, you are the one that will benefit. When Jesus Christ was in the world, he was not on Internet. But his name was everywhere through criticism. There was no television. There was no radio but his name was all over the world. People were saying all manner of things about him. So, what life has taught me is that when men criticise you, they advertise you and you will learn a lot from that.

As you celebrate your birthday this month, what are you going to do differently?

I celebrate my birthday every year and one of the things I do on such occasions is to help and empower people. We have been doing that over the years and for the past couple of weeks to my birthday, which is October 15, I have been doing that. We have done so many things for people. Over the years, I have built houses for people, among other things. But this year’s celebration is totally different. We are taking it to a different dimension because I see it as a very unique one. Let’s wait and see.

Who do you think will be the next president of Nigeria?

God will choose the next President of Nigeria. My duty is to come out and vote. As I said before, I’m confident that there will be peace in this country but we all need to come out and vote. Let’s pray and vote for the right candidate. I don’t want to mention any name now but before the election I will release my vision, which I do every year. When I’m preaching, I speak more of what God tells me. For now, I’m encouraging everyone to come out and vote for the right candidate. This is not the time to sit on the fence or collect money to vote for any candidate. Nigerians must get it right this time.

What would be your reaction to the assumption in some quarters that some pastors exploit members of their church?

I will not say it is not true. There are three kinds of pastors. There are pastors that God called. There are pastors that called themselves. And there are pastors that called God. If you called yourself, you will be doing what you want to do. If you called God, you will not obey Him because you are the person that called Him. But if God called you, you will listen to Him. These three sets of people are called pastors. If you say that some pastors are exploiting people, think about those that are using what they have to bless people. I’m a man who gives out almost everything God gives to me, at least 90 per cent. Everybody around me knows this. That is the life I live. I’m involved in so many things that everybody knows that I’m sold out to God. Think about pastors changing lives positively. There are many pastors that are blessing people. At my own level, we give out. I have given out over 123 cars as gifts. There are pastors also who will park all the cars in their compound. But that does not mean they are not pastors. It depends on the vision they have. The vision I have is to bless people. I said that I will not build my house until I built God’s house and that was exactly what I did. So, everything depends on the agreement you have with God. When I was in school, some people would run away whenever they saw my mother, thinking she had come to borrow money from them. But over 515 people had gone through my scholarship scheme within Nigeria and outside. So you don’t just talk about those exploiting people, you should also talk about those blessing people. It depends on where everyone falls into. We bless people here.

What would be your advice to Nigerians at this point in time?

Let’s not give up on Nigeria. We should keep praying for Nigeria and those in authority until we get the Nigeria we all desire. And we will get it in 2023. People should not restrict themselves to prayers alone; they should match it with action by coming out to vote. Prayer will clear the road to success but you should come out to vote. It’s with your PVC that you will get answer to your prayer. If you believe in prosperity and you don’t give, you will not prosper. For God so love the world that He gave… So, you can’t say you love God without giving. You cannot say you want a particular candidate to win without voting.