Reverend Yomi Kasali, founder/overseer of Foundation of Truth Ministry, while unveiling plans for the last Easter celebration, in an interview with Olasunkanmi Akoni, spoke on a number of national and religious issues. He was in Foursquare Gospel Church before founding the Foundation of Truth Ministry 11 years ago. Excerpts:

Building Godly people

Revd. Yomi Kasali

The reason why churches exist is to combat moral issues. The Church is not expected to be a business centre. This is because the word of God is primarily moral in nature. But secondary is the spiritual aspect. If you are spiritual, you will be a moral person. Morality is not about sexual morality alone. There is moral decadence across the country. We have churches everywhere indicating that we are religious in nature.

We are probably the most praying people on earth but corruption, prostitution and alcoholism are still high. The doctors no longer care for their patients. Rather than people look at the issue, what we often say is that we should thank God that we have several churches; that who knows what the level of decadence would have been if these were not available.

I oppose that argument and the reason is; why would there be several churches in the country and there would be high cases of corruption, prostitution and alcoholism?

In the early 1960s when we had fewer churches, these were relatively low. It is indicative of the fact that there is something wrong with our churches. It is pathetic that churches have been turned into business centres and people are not bold to say it. I may not be loved by my colleagues but I rather be loved by God than seek the love of my colleagues.

Role of churches in curbing moral decadence

I totally believe that the Church is not only doing enough but has not done any. The Church had been a magnet for grudge. The reason is that, we encourage looters of public funds. We celebrate criminals without knowing it. All in the name of they (criminals) are saved. But we all know that they are not saved. We reach out to those that are wealthy because we serve mammon and not God. We should ask the wealthy churches where they got their money from. They come from the oil and gas, government (public offices) and the banking sector.

The banking sector is broke. Teachers do not have the money. So where do they get the billions they spend on their cathedrals? This money comes from politicians and probably those that had collected subsidies. They are the ones close to the Church and the Church turn blind eyes to what they are doing. Sometimes, few of us use our political connections in government to protect them. These days, we are protecting the criminals because they know that the pastor knows the President, governors and others. So they hide in the church by donating huge sums of money in the construction of the church. And when the president and governors set up committees to probe them, the pastor will assure them of speaking to Mr. President on their behalf.

We are a gang of mafia. We should not be seen as speaking to those in power to support looters of the economy.

Gov. Fayose on Islamization of Nigeria

It is nonsense. Don’t mind Fayose, when the former President Good-luck Jonathan visited Israel, did anyone claim that he wanted to Christianize Nigeria? Every man has right to his own faith. Buhari has never hidden that he is a Muslim. When the Vice President goes to church, is he trying to Christianize the country?

Every man has right to practice his own faith. No one should stop anyone from practicing his faith. I think that we should ignore Fayose.

Cancellation of holy pilgrims’ sponsorship by Ambode

I do not support that. I think the Lagos State governor, Mr. Akin-wunmi Ambode is ill-advised. I think it is important for him to venture into something that is dear to the heart of the citizens. Rather than stop the sponsorship, he should cut down the budget of those to be sponsored. For instance, if they formally sponsor 1,000 pilgrims, they could reduce the number. We should never stop supporting what is right because we don’t have funds; rather we can reduce the expenses. If the money is judiciously spent, I don’t see any reason to stop it. We must not fail to realize that we are a very strong religious nation and until we mature out of our religiosity, we should continue to support religious activities in whatever capacity.

Rev king’s death sentence

That is a moral issue. There are two approaches to it. I do not believe in capital punishment. The Bible tells us that God was the first that instituted capital punishment. I belong to the school of thought that argued that people should be jailed for life. I do not like to play a role in the death of anyone.

I condemn what the General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, popularly called Rev. King did to his church members. That is very brutal, barbaric and primitive. However, due to my position on capital punishment, I do not believe that the government should kill him. They should rather commute his sentence to life imprisonment and let him rot in jail.

Advice to King’s followers

I think they should wake up from their slumber. How can one follow a man to the point of killing his own people. Those followers are naïve and ignorant. If they do not know the scriptures, they should look for another church to attend.