IN this interview with Ben Agande in Abuja, founder and General Overseer of the Day Spring Christian Ministries International, Pastor Charles Olowojoba, speaks on a wide range of issues, saying contrary to the fears being expressed in certain circles, Nigeria will continue to remain one indivisible country and that the 2015 election will not only be free and fair, but it will not be bloody. Excerpts…

How did the whole vision start?

I WAS born some 60 years ago in Igara in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State. I attended the University of Ibadan to study Biochemistry but transferred to the University of Benin where I studied medicine and graduated in 1979.

I practiced medicine for about 23 years before I was called into full time ministry. Before then I had pastored nine years part time while still practicing medicine. I had my hospital in Kano where I was practicing which we had to eventually shut down because of the demands of ministry. We moved to Abuja in the year 2000 to start the DaySpringBibleChurch, which is registered in Nigeria under Day Spring Christian Ministries International.

When I graduated like every other young man, I wanted a job and I wanted to actually build my carrier in medicine and I would say that I was already succeeding in it but I still found myself being drawn to church. My encounters with God and the various confirmations that I received through people that I never knew before, some that I saw for the first time and never saw them again, how that God actually wanted me in ministry so I now thought I could hold on to the practice of medicine and at the same time, be a preacher so that was why I ended up as a part time pastor for nine years in another ministry in far away Kano before the Lord gave me the marching order towards the end of 1999 to move to Abuja. On January 13, 2000, we started with a small congregation but in 13 years we are grateful to God that so much has happened and now we are able to really touch many more lives.

You are 60 but you don’t look it?

A lot of people tell me that and I am grateful to God. Actually, it is the grace of God and I also believe that we have a great responsibility to take care of our bodies because a lot of people really don’t know how to take care of the human body: your diet, your prayer life, a heart that is free of offences, of anxiety, just learning to hand over things to God and not allow much to bother you and when something bothers you, you take it back to God so when you sleep you sleep well and when you eat you can digest the food and you eat right so I will say God’s grace has been tremendous.

There has been a lot of negativity in the country as we approached the year 2015. As a man of God, what does the future hold for the country?

The country is not going to break, God told me that a long time ago. Nigeria will not break, we have survived worst things before and we will survive 2015. And you know 2015 is not going to be as bloody as most people are actually expecting. I know that it’s not going to be as bloody because no matter what is going on now, God is in control. I believe one thing, the Bible says ‘if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways’, if we humble ourselves and pray and we have been praying. If not for the prayers of the saints, this country will not be the same now.

Of course there will be reactions and counter-reactions from winners and losers which will always happen, but as for the country breaking up, it is not going to happen. I want to say to Nigerians, we should not worry. God is in control we will survive 2015 elections and we actually believe God that it is going to be a free and fair election. We are praying for wisdom for the umpires, we are praying for the players or the actors on the field. That is our job: to  ask God to really direct them. Violence doesn’t pay; you can’t develop a nation or a family in the atmosphere of disunity, in an atmosphere of mistrust, in an atmosphere of bitterness.

We need peace, we need unity to be able to move this country forward and we are praying for that and I believe for one that God answers my prayer as well as the prayers of my brethren who are also praying for this country.