•Says: Our enemy is ignorance, not poverty
•I wept when people attacked me, stalled my aeronautic university project

Renowned international preacher, Rev. (Dr.) Uma Ukpai, in this interview speaks on the state of the nation and his forthcoming miracle convention arguing that prayers have kept Nigeria from disintegration among other issues.

The miracle convention

Rev. UMA UKPAI

We are bringing eight speakers who are anointed men of God. Remember we don’t have the same callings and measures of anointing. Solomon was anointed in wisdom, creativity and imagination. He was anointed to generate and create wealth. Elijah was anointed to bring down the power of God and do the seemingly impossible. He was a man who could compel God to cancel His programme in Heaven and come down to this world to do his bidding. Elisha could heal various sicknesses and also demonstrate the miracle of judgment.

Not everybody has such anointing. So, we are going to bring teachers with various anointing. There are people like Solomon who can help you know how to generate wealth, there are others who can confront any type of sickness and it will disappear. There are others who can show the limitless possibilities of God. Not everybody can do that. So, in this programme which we have been doing for over 10 years now, we are going to bring different preachers to demonstrate these various anointing of God upon them.

We are also bringing the best musicians in this country who will lift worship to a higher level. What people don’t know is that songs are invitation that God cannot refuse, they are higher than prayer. Paul and Silas prayed and nothing happened and they resorted to praises and then God came down and did the impossible. I am an Apostle of music, I brought musical instruments to the East in 1972.

I am happy that music is now accepted in all churches. When my first son became crippled, songs brought him back to good health. Musicians are considered to be gifted and talented. They raise worship to a level that God cannot work in His office until He has answered our prayers. It will start on a Sunday on Sunday, December 13 and end on December 20.

We are going to provide about 50 buses daily. So, it will be a programme where first class preachers and worshippers will be on the same platform. I am talking about those who can bring down the glory and anointing of God. Because I am based in Uyo, I desire that people should be able to walk into the presence of God and have their problems turn into promotions.

Challenge to pastors

A pastor’s conference has also been lined up as part of the programme. The only mountain in life is the mountain of ignorance. Pastors don’t need to be paid by any church. They should be a blessing to their members. At a meeting held recently in Port-Harcourt, I announced that the fibroid in 100 women will shrink without prayer and when we counted the number, we had 168. I announced that God will heal 1,000 people without prayers and when we counted, we had more than 1,200.

Pastors should know that they are sent by God to turn lamentations into laughter; turn disgrace to grace and turn disappointments to super natural appointments. If prayer and counsel can make a hopelessly wretched man one of the 10 richest Nigerians, then their stories will change. A man who was owing virtually everybody and after my prayers he became one of the richest Nigerians. He brought five SUVs to thank me for that exercise. He paid about N55 million to get one of the SUVs.

When I hear that pastors cry to their members to pay their salaries, I laugh. If they can make 40 barren women to get pregnant in one year, these women will come back with songs and dances. So, we want to tell other pastors that by saving others, God will not forsake them. There was a time we had 10 cripple walk in one day.

One of them incidentally was my sister-in-law’s child who had been crippled after multiple accidents. The bones were broken and after six surgeries, she did not walk. She came to that meeting and got the miracle. I was excited because, the miracle came from my in-law because you will always live to see the result of that miracle.

Impact of prayers on Nigeria

It is difficult to say in clear terms but suffice to say that except what the Christians are doing in form of prayers, there would have been no Nigeria. We are where we are because of the prayers being offered everyday. If not for God’s mercy, Boko Haram would have crushed this nation long time. Again, if not for these prayers, the level of poverty would have overwhelmed this nation.

How we survive economically remains a puzzle. There are states where workers have not been paid for nine months and for the fact that they are alive is a miracle. There are bad roads in the East but God has made it possible for the people to survive. Certainly, the hand of God is upon this country. We ought to have disappeared from this planet earth. That we are still here shows that God loves us so much.

Boko Haram, Biafra agitation

If our leaders can listen to the agitators and answer their question, there will be peace generally. The leaders of MASSOB were here, asking me to lead them. I said to them if you want me to lead you, you must drop your agitation, carry the Bible and become what the Bible wants you all to be. The Jews prosper everywhere they go without any government supporting them. The Jews are great in creativity and wisdom. They are not just rich in money, they are rich in imagination. They have turned a barren land into a fruitful land. So, hold on to God, He will turn our state of confusion into a state of fruitfulness.

N1billion polytechnic project

I have already completed the Administrative block of 92 rooms, e-library and laboratories for Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Statistics. I am presently completing two hostels for about 400 students. I have also completed a three-storey building for the Rector and the Bursar. I have brought in a dome from Canada and it will serve as Multi-purpose hall for 1500 students. Right now, we are tarring the road. We established a General Hospital about 15 years ago and now, we are tarring our second hospital.

Education is the greatest catalyst to success in life. The difference between Africans and Europeans is our lack of desire for knowledge. We don’t hunger for knowledge; we don’t even know what knowledge can do for us. For example, no African has any reason to be poor. The most fertile land under the sun is Equatorial Guinea followed by Cameroun. Nigeria is so greatly fertile and the number one oil producing nation in Africa and sixth in the whole world and yet we are hopelessly poor.

Ghana has been digging gold for more than 200 years and yet so poor. The best Uranium is found in Congo. While the white man is busy making good use of the uranium, the Africans there are busy killing one and other. The best copper in the world is found in Liberia and the Europeans who are processing this copper live like kings and our brothers live like servants.

You see poverty everywhere in the midst of plenty. Twenty-five per cent of diamond processed in history is done in Angola, yet you go there, you get angry. The best meat under the sun is found in Botswana, best coffee found in Uganda. Sudan is stupendously rich. So, Africa has no business with poverty but when you are led by people who don’t know what the question is, they can’t give you the right answers.

Wisdom brings you out of poverty to a place of honour. I had wanted to build an aeronautic university where aircrafts will be assembled and serviced. I really had about $1billion from one of my friends set aside for the project. I had already begun to pay for 15 miles square of land when people began to attack me that I was building to rule over them. I wept.

Poverty

I asked former prime minister of Cameroun why the people are poor in spite of the wealth with which they are naturally endowed. You see, Cameroun can produce 20 miles square plantain plantation but stupidly, they have signed everything to France. Missionaries in that country can’t pick their bills. I told one of them that i can raise n10 million equivalent in 30 minutes. But they can’t raise that money even in one month.

I raised that money in 30 minutes and i demanded for 40 per cent of that money as my reward. It is knowledge that made a white man to invent an aircraft. Nigerians do not know how to refine crude oil; we depend on knowledgeable people from other parts of the world. As a result, we don’t know how many barrels we produced a day. Can’t you see how ignorance is dancing with us and mocking us at the same time?