By Wale Akinola & Sam Eyoboka

The National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Rev (Dr) Felix Omobude, flew from his Benin-City base to Lagos, last week, in connection with the preparation for the Pentecostal leaders biennial conference scheduled to hold February 7-9 in Benin-City. Omobude, who is also the General Superintendent of Gospel Light International, used the occasion to speak on the state of the nation, including the controversial code of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria concerning religious organisations and the Southern Kaduna crisis.

On Pentecostal leaders gathering
The PFN will be hosting its 14th Biennial Conference in Benin-City from February 7-9. This is important because we are celebrating the goodness of God knowing fully well where we are coming from and where PFN is today. This conference will bring together all our leaders from across the nation and outside. You will recall that several years ago, the Pentecostal movement was looked down upon. Its members were described as mushroom churches.

They were called hand-clappers, band-beaters, barely educated bunch of people. A lot has changed as you can testify today. Most of the largest human gatherings in this country today have Pentecostal origin. The Pentecostal has influenced even the mainstream organizations that they now clap hands and they now beat drums in all cathedrals around the country.

We are very glad that to a large extent we re-indigenized the gospel, sing our native choruses, sing in our local languages and it has become the norm in all church organizations. We are using this conference to celebrate God’s grace upon our lives and all the leaders that paid great prices to bring us to where we are.

On the air strike that killed dozens in Borno
First and foremost, I would like on behalf of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria to sympathize with the victims of the air strike which was a mistake from our forces. We feel the pains of the bereaved families and we pray for speedy recovery for those who are injured. We would like to ask our people to show some understanding. Our forces have been fighting Boko Haram and they have put all their efforts to it. We should not use this one mistake to judge them.

Southern Kaduna killings
Of very great importance to PFN and great concern to us is the development in Southern Kaduna. You will recall that this problem has been on. It took very alarming dimensions recently.

PFN is worried that these killings have continued and we do know that it is the primary responsibility of every government to secure the lives of the people. We are at a loss as to who these killings have been allowed to continue. They say the perpetrators are criminals; well it is the duty of our law enforcement agents to bring criminals to book. The PFN is concerned and we ask pertinent questions: Where are these people from? Where do they get their arms? Why is it that not many of them have been brought to justice? Why are they so evasive and invincible?

The PFN views with great concern that the appropriate government agents have not acted as swiftly as we expected and we call on government to do everything humanly possible to ensure peace in Southern Kaduna. We will like to warn that those who fan the embers of disunity will not be able to stand it when the chips are down. It is in our own interest to live in harmony with one another. PFN calls on government to prosecute all those found culpable in the senseless killings that have been going on in Southern Kaduna.

Poverty in Nigeria
The other issue that PFN is worried about is the level of poverty and suffering of the average Nigerian. It is no longer news, it is seen all over, the average take home pay of the worker in Nigeria has been technically reduced to half or less than half. We call on government to do everything possible to assuage the pains of Nigerians.

Boko Harm and Chibok girls
PFN congratulates our forces. We do recognize that a very great land mark has been made in the fight against Boko Haram. We commend government for her efforts. But we do also call that all efforts should be made to ensure the safe release of the remaining Chibok girls. PFN calls on government to take more decisive steps in curbing criminality in the country, especially kidnapping. It’s now widespread all over the country.

Fulani herdsmen
The activities of herdsmen bastardizing our communities all across the nation, PFN is worried that it’s like the authorities have turned their faces to the other side and have not put the activities of these people to check. We call on government to take decisive actions to bring harmony among the various ethnic nationalities in the country.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) code has been suspended by government, apparently for further review. We are wondering what will be the PFN input?

I am not aware that it is for further review. The position of the PFN is that we are not stopping government from doing what they are constitutionally empowered to do. We only feel that it is none of government’s business to tell us who we employ, how we employ him and his length of service. That’s an internal affair of the church. The PFN has nothing to hide.

We submit ourselves to the laws of the land. And I do want to stress it, all our Pentecostal leaders are encouraged to obey the laws of the land and pay their taxes and rates as and when due. But to tell us how to run the church, how to preach and how long to preach, we don’t believe that is what government should be doing. Our expectation is that they will call the various interest groups to make inputs before they come up with the code.

I didn’t hear the details of what the G.O. said but I do not think it is because of the financial code that he asked his members to go into politics. That has been a standing instruction from the PFN. We are encouraging all our people to be interested; participate in the politics of the nation. We have drummed that loud and clear. The code, whatever it is, I don’t think that is the reason why G.O asked the members to go to politics, afterall the vice president is a member of the RCCG.

In any sense, this current issue about the code is also a wake up call for the Church. We at the PFN are putting measures in place for our churches to be accountable, at least keep their books safe. I think it is a wake up call and we will positively use it.

In those days, Christians fought wars. Is there anything wrong if Christians arm themselves weapons and go to Southern Kaduna to do a crusade and wait for attackers to come, and as they come, we also kill. Will such not serve as deterrent?

Our faith does not allow us to do things that way. This nation will be in chaos. You won’t even be able to do what you are doing now if we don’t exercise restraind. If you say as a Lagosian, this is your home, there are people from Lagos that are in Kano, so if you deal ruthlessly with non-Lagosians here, you also expose your own people that are outside here to insecurity. Let nobody count it as weakness on the part of the Church. No one actually has a monopoly of violence. We restrain our people.

If we want a developed society, if we want an atmosphere that will allow us to be progressive, we must work for peace. And those who use religion to fan embers of disunity must realize that it’s an ill-wind that will blow no one any good. I only will call on our government to take their full place. That’s why we have the police, the SSS, the military. If any group chooses to be criminally-minded, they should be brought to book; unless we say we don’t want any government, let’s have a jungle kind of life and that will set us back.

Often times we pray oh Lord give us David’. Recently, a respected father, in the person of Pastor Adeboye, urged members of his congregations to join political parties and be card carrying members. What is PFN’s position on this?
First and foremost, those who pray oh Lord give us David’ should also be ready for a David that will commit adultery with Uriah. I think that we have gone past that.

The position of the PFN is that we are encouraging the Pentecostal to be interested in the politics of their country. The days are gone when we say we are not of this world, we are going to heaven. And then we spend our time in the prayer room and allow those who don’t know God to play the politics the way they like. I believe that if we want to change this nation, Christians must be willing to be involved in politics. Good people must go into politics. That is the position of the PFN.

Having done a very good job thus far, are you running for a second term?
First let me thank you for your very kind comment. My disposition is that if you have done the best you can offer, the Bible says you should say to yourself that you are just an unprofitable servant. It has just been my privilege to serve the best way I can. The issue of running for a second term, I would want to skip it. I have made my opinion know to our leaders and it’s just left for them to take decision on that. Everyone, no matter his position in the Church, must be willing to pay the price for our unity. To me, it has been a privilege for the past four years to lead this organization, to try to harmonize our ideas, to mature the organization. And I believe there are several other good people in the fellowship who can do a better job. It’s left to our leaders to decide who should lead the group at the end of our tenure.

As much as the Church has continually said that this nation cannot be Islamized, not too long ago, some churches were burnt in Jigawa State and the trend continues unabated. Few days ago, we heard that there’s another uprising in Southern Kaduna. Should Christians continue to pray and do anything to counter their moves and believe that truly this country will not be

Islamized?

I appreciate the passion behind your question. What do you recommend for the Church to do? Will you recommend that we take up arms or we come up and say let us take up arms and fight? Let me also tell you, the Church is not scared. Go back to memory. Those who fought against the Church, some said let the Bible be completely amended; the Bible outlived them. When we take a position of peace, it does not mean weakness. The Church is not sleeping. We are called to pray, we are called to evangelize. So we are not going to raise an army with bows and arrows, and I do hope they don’t press this nation to that point. I’m as worried as you are but let me tell you, when it comes to a man’s faith, he can give his life for it. So we are peaceful. We are not weak. And I think this is just the best way I can say it for now.

When Christians come under attack, what do you advise them to do?

There is no law, whether in our law books or even in our faith, that forbids you from defending yourself. Of course if you have the capability to defend yourself, why won’t you? Especially when those who ought to defend you are not doing it. So those of our leaders that have called for those that are in the center of this problem to defend themselves, they are not out of place. We cannot watch and just allow these things to continue. If government cannot rise to their responsibilities, there are lots of communities in this country that have Civilian JTF. What are they doing? They are defending themselves.

What is the PFN doing about new generation pastors who are embarrassing the Church with all manner of prophecies, controversies, parading bishop titles, pastors selling healing water and organizing fake deliverance programs and so on?
I can also tell you that even among the Muslims, they have renegades. They are everywhere. The PFN is aware of them. If you go into details, some of these people don’t even identify with PFN. So far they have Pentecostal in the name of their church, then people say they are PFN (members).

In fact, we have started a process of registering our approved churches. It might take a while, but I am putting up the platform so that when some prophet defile a young lady and they say it’s PFN, we don’t accept that. Many of them have no relationship with us. But if any of our leaders has gone off guard, there are processes in our revised constitution to call such one to order. I can tell you one or two that I personally have had to invite. We are working on putting our house in proper shape. We are aware of these activities.

What is your advice generally to Christians?

When we portray the light, darkness has no place. We should live right. We should live our Christian life. Follow the teachings of the Bible. You cannot stop people from forwarding strange messages, it’s the world that we are in. information is the name of the game in this generation. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. We have emphasized what we believe our core values. We believe in peace. We will stand for peace. But nobody should mistake it for weakness.

We’ve called on the appropriate government agencies to defend the citizens of this country, whether they are Christians or Muslims and wherever they are located. They deserve to be protected. We have also said that we need to exercise restraint so that we don’t destroy ourselves. If you want a civilized society, we must build it. And I call on government at all levels to ensure they take an impartial stand so that they don’t seem to be protecting one religion against the other.

There’s suffering in the land, employment is on the increase and there is increase in the prices of food items. There is also an increase in kidnapping and the rape of minors. What’s your take on these?

The PFN is honestly concerned that the living standard of the average Nigerian has gone so low. I want to call on Nigerians to hold their elected officers accountable. If when you were coming to government price of bread was one naira for a loaf and you promised you will bring it down, and instead of it coming down, it’s going up, Nigerians should learn to ask appropriate questions. When this government came in, one dollar was about N180, now it’s almost N500. We were here when the campaigns were on. Some campaigned that they were even going to bring it at par. I’m not saying they are all at fault in everything but Nigerians should learn to ask and hold their elected officers accountable, whether at the local government level, at the state or federal.

Secondly, the level of insecurity is disheartening. Kidnapping some years back was known around the South-South and South-East but today it has national spread. I would have thought that in a world of technology our security men would have been equipped by now to deal with the situation. It’s going unabated. So the average Nigerian looks helpless. Again, it is the
responsibility of government to secure the people. We call on government to do so.

The issue of having a decent society is a responsibility for all; the press, the Church, the families, we all have a stake and we should do our work very well. We must go back to our values. That a 60-year old person can defile a 6-year old girl is a terrible. The Church will continue to propagate our values but where there are no sanctions, abuses are imminent. I think that the appropriate laws should take their place so a man will have no excuse for defiling a minor.