REVEREND Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle, the new General Secretary and chief executive officer of Nigerian Baptist Convention looks boyish but his curriculum vitae is intimidating and one is left in no doubt why, after an excruciating payerful search, the Search Committee for a new General Secretary appointed by the outgoing CEO, Rev. Solomon Isola came up with a man acceptable to all and sundry. He was born on January 25, 1957. In 1983 he bagged his first degree, a B.Sc. in Sociology from the University of Ibadan. He was to follow that up with a postgraduate diploma in education, three masters degrees in theology, education in guidance & counselling, theology and religious studies and a Ph.D in theology with specialisation in liturgical studies. When he granted audience to our own SAM EYOBOKA recently in his Ibadan office, he told Sunday Worship that his cardinal objective will be evangelism and church planting. He spoke on several national issues. Excerpts….

Vision for Nigerian Baptist Convention
I want to work hard to make sure that the present growth of the convention is sustained and go beyond that through Holy Ghost-enabled creativity to move the convention forward. The areas which I want to focus on include church planting, at least there should be a Baptist cathedral in every state capital of the federation so that any member that is posted to such state can easily locate and worship.

From there we will move to major cities to plant cathedrals; may not be too big but it will provide worship environment for the people. I will also locate worship centres in the western world where our members who travel abroad can worship. I studied abroad and I discovered that most of our members who travel abroad just worship in any church that they come across and this is because the Baptist Union in Europe and other western nations do not provide for the spiritual yearning of our people.

The cultural content is very different and that also affects the theology and doctrinal beliefs. In some of churches abroad homosexuals worship with others and you must not preach on such topics. It is as if you are limited in term of expression of your Christian faith. Our people need their own type of church which is Bible based, without compromising.

Worship has to do with self-realisation of fulfillment. As a worshipper you must be able to find fulfillment in the place where you are worshipping. I have discovered that if we are going continue to sustain our people in faith at Baptist, we must go there and plant churches.

It is also my vision to make sure that in some of the university towns in Nigeria where there is shortage of accommodation we acquire land and build befitting hostels for students. I have already started work on this and immediately money is available and all logistics put in place, people will begin to see such hostels here and there. I also plan to develop a standard city that will be laid out where property developers can develop and will sell to Baptist members where they can leave in a community of faith just as it will reduce the problem of our people.

Is Baptist Convention planning to move its headquarters to either Lagos or Abuja just like other churches?

Ibadan is not a village but a city. The headquarters of Nigerian Baptist Convention is in Ibadan and that has to do with history. The Yoruba Baptist Association was formed here in Ibadan in 1914 at First Baptist Church, Idi-Ikan. It will interest you to know that that church was not established by the missionaries but by indigenous Baptists. It was after a quarrel between the Baptist missionaries over the issue of tithing by one of the vocal pastors that was working with them at First Baptist Church in Lagos that the conflict lead to the breaking away from that Baptist Church.

It was the Ibadan people that sent people to Benin City to plant Central Baptist Church there. We have a large concentration of Baptists working here in Ibadan and because it began here in Ibadan as an association which later transformed into the Nigerian Baptist Convention in 1919. The major bulk of work of Baptist then was here and today’s technology there is no place you are that your voice will not be heard. We have properties and a convention centre in Abuja but there is no immediate plan to move the church headquarters to Abuja.

What is the position of the Baptist Convention on homosexuality and gay marriages?
Gay marriage and homosexuality are totally repugnant to the messages that we preach.

It is against the scriptures. The book of Romans tells us the way of the people that abuse the use of their bodies. Especially men and men, doing what is not convenient. The Nigerian Baptist Convention is totally opposed to either gay marriage or homosexuality because we do not see an example of any gay marriage in the bible.

What is your take on the state of the Nigerian nation and the debate over Islamic Banking?

It is unfortunate that we have not had many committed leaders in this country. I was in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia recently and I saw that nation which got independence almost the same time with Nigeria has witnessed tremendous progress. We were bleeding and crying in our hearts when we saw the city of Kuala Lumpar which can invariably compete with any modern city in the world. Malaysia that came to Nigeria to take palm nuts from here, has become the largest farm produce country in the world while we have not been able to do anything with our natural endowments.

There are so many millions that are unemployed and these are able bodied young men and women and we do not care for them. I think a time is coming when there will be spontaneous protests against the nation’s leaders. People will drive them out of their offices and and get people that will be relevant to them. Corruption is not only happening among politicians, it is also with the civil servants. The civil service today is almost much more corrupt than the politicians. Go to any government office and request for an assistance, you will see what the civil servants will be requesting from you. They will not want us to say it out but we experience it on a daily basis. Corruption is everywhere and if people are not prepared to be disciplined there cannot be any development.

Our roads cannot be maintained when those who are to repair the roads line their pockets with the money. Drivers get driving licences from back doors and hence you see carnage on our roads because murderers are licenced to go and murder through their vehicles. That is the type of nation we are. When you are not prepared to pay the price for development you will remain in the same spot. We must eschew corruption if we want development in this nation. I am not pleased that we have people in power who have no regard for the generality of the people of this country.

Why is the government promising electricity every time and we don’t see the impact? Its because the people who will execute such projects have other interests. Are we saying that those who import generators are more powerful than government? Why is the government ridiculing itself by campaigning and making promises year after year without anything to show for such promises? They should be ashamed of themselves. We are saying that enough is enough.

I think there is a ray of hope in the sense that the last election was a total departure from the elections we have been having in this nation and I know if Mr. President displays enough courage, he can turn the situation around. But if he wants to please politicians around him, he will not be able to do much.

Mr. President should be courageous, bold and eschew every form of corruption and stand for what is just and right because what Nigerians will remember him for is what he has done for the nation. Out of many millions in the country, God has given him that singular privilege to serve at this time, it is not that he is the most brilliant among us, but he is the one that God has given the grace to. Therefore he should not misuse the grace; he should do everything within his power not only to fight corruption but also to ensure that we have an appreciable level of development in this nation.

On Islamic banking I will ask; why Islamic banking and not simply interest-free banking? Why do we want to put Islamic there? Is this an Islamic nation? Why will a bank that is going to be sponsored by the government be for Muslims alone? It is totally against the spirit of the Nigerian constitution and this is the time for Mr. President to speak out otherwise Christians will not sit akinbo and see all this injustice being done in our land.

People accuse relgious leaders too for the level of corruption in Nigeria. They argue for instance, that religious leaders keep quiet over these things and even thrives when good people are silent…. They say Nigeria needs Prophet Elijahs who will come forth to tell the Ahabs in this country smome home truths.

We have them. They may not be many. Do you know that in the time of Elijah, he cried to the extent that they drove him out of the city and they still continued in that evil? Both Ahab and Jezebel, his wife, the Bible said, decided to sow themselves to do evil. You can force a horse to go to the river but you cannot force it to drink water. I think that is the situation. We cry against the evil but it takes God to soften the hearts of the people to do what is right. Number two, many of the people in government are not committed Christians nor Muslims. They come to church once in a blue moon.

They carry Christian names as an identity, but don’t carry Christian attitudes. This is the problem, because the Church will play its role and we are telling everybody in the society to change, because without the passion to do what is right the nation cannot move forward. I am still using this opportunity to call on the president to create jobs for the teaming youths that are unemployed.

It will boomerang one day and become an unmanageable problem. I don’t know how a group of people, Boko Haram, will be more powerful than the government. Why can’t government train the armed forces and make them available to curb this menace? Why should somebody carry ammunition in the town and there will be no police to check him before he perpetrates the evil?