By Chioma Gabriel

Ifeadigo, Ifeomachukwu Ekweani, is a lady pastor from Enugu state . She uses her ministry to impact on people around her and the society at large. In this interaction with Saturday Vanguard , she reveals how she got her calling earlier in life to preach faith and the kingdom of Christ and how through her, many lives have changed for the better.

She believes that if women are given equal opportunities like men in leadership, they would perform well like  their contemporaries in other parts of the world where women are allowed to lead and achieve a lot. She said Nigeria’s problem is corruption  which has eaten deep into our system.

How did you become a  pastor?
I had a calling when I was very young, at the age of six, but my parents did not understand the nature of this calling and so didn’t pursue it. But I knew I had a calling while I was growing up. However, in 1994, while I was in the university, I heard it clearly in a trance that I have to go and begin to preach faith and the Kingdom of Christ. After that experience, I went to Benin to meet the late Papa Idahosa to explain to him my encounter with God. As a father in the Lord, he guided me to understand the vision and how to handle it.

How do you combine your ministry and family management as a pastor?
I have extended families and I have a lot of people close to me and God has been providing their needs through my ministry. I don’t see them as a burden even though I don’t  have a child of my own because I’m single. I have trained a lot of people to the university level and I know they are all my children and I tell you, some of them cannot forget because we have an awesome relationship. I treat them as mine.

Do you think if women are given the privilege to rule Nigeria, things will change for better?
I really do not know but in other countries where women are leaders, they are not doing badly. They have wised up to their contemporaries. So women can equally make it here. If you take a look at the positions they have managed in this country, you can now say if they can perform better. Although the position of president is not an easy thing, but all the same, if the mantle falls on a woman, there may be a change.

Pastor Ifeadigo

One thing with Nigeria is that the issue of corruption has eaten up the system with the same people always getting into positions of power. Even when they agree to step down, they  make sure they position their relations or loyalists. So, you discover that it’s the same chain and the same process. It’s not about the gender, it’s about a total clean-up of the system. Integrity is a virtue. Any sex can have it and wisdom is the principal thing. Poverty has taken a toll in the brain of an average Nigerian. So, 90% of the country either rich or poor talk from that side of the brain.

As a woman of God and a counselor, what is your position on women who sacrifice their homes  at the expense of their career?

Multi-tasking has always been a woman’s thing. God made it possible and therefore, a woman should keep the home and still work. Career wise, it’s possible. They only need support and encouragement of their spouses, but they must know and understand their God given duty and have it as their prerogative.

It is first and foremost their job and they must see their homes as their first priority. Even if they become president, it does not mean they will keep flaunting their families while they hold public offices. It is at that juncture that they show discretion and still have the best of both worlds.

As a lady pastor that understands womanhood to some extent, who is a virtuous woman and how should it reflect our homes and society?

I cannot get into it now because it has different perspectives. A virtuous woman from the scriptural point of view is about the church or the body of Christ but from the general standpoint, a woman should keep her home and be the who she is meant to be. No one woman can be the  virtuous woman.

How can you describe womanhood?
Well, womanhood is beautiful. The qualities of women should never be underestimated. They build societies, and train children. They are the main crux of the society. They are the essential and the juicy part, they move things and they remove the puzzle from the work and remove the burden from the labour. Womanhood is the embellishment of the society.

Some Church denominations don’t welcome a woman being an overseer, what is your take on this?
I don’t believe that there is any office in this world a woman cannot handle. The bottom-line should be the qualification and the experience. If a woman has the prowess to get things moving, in fact there shouldn’t be any hold up at all. I am not preaching liberation but let the cap be worn on who it fits, be it a woman or man.

What is your advice to women generally and how they become achievers to impact not only their homes but the society so that they can be recognised?

To become an achiever, it’s not what anyone can go to school for or sit for an exam before you become an achiever. It is in the mind. We must change our orientation and have our minds pick up the the right attitude to life, understand the world and find your position. A woman should get a firm grip of herself, and then begin to affect her area from the position she finds it.

No matter how little  you think it is, keep moving on. The most important thing is that you have found your position and you are stable and not shaking. Even though you may face trials any time,  you are stable and standing and before you know it, you are really affecting lives and you have become an achiever.