By Sam Eyoboka

THE Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement (the evangelical wing of Voice of the Last Days Ministry Incorporated) recently announced that it has received divine mandate to bring Enugu State and her people on the hill top proper.

This, according to a statement from the Movement, will be actualised through a 4-day gospel crusade scheduled for the Michael Okpara Square, Independence Layout, Enugu from April 12-15, this year.

To those who are not familiar with the geography of the country,  the word Enugu is deri-ved from two Igbo words, Enu Ugwu meaning ‘Hill Top’ denot-ing the city’s hilly geography. Enugu’s hills at the extreme may reach an elevation of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).

It’s still well known for the once famous and very lucrative coalmines that gave it the name, Coal City.

Despite its name, Enugu, the first capital of Eastern Nigeria and  now the capital of present day Enugu State lies at the foot of an escarpment and not a hill which is located in the Cross River basin and has a popula-tion of about 722,664 according to the 2006 Nigerian population census.

Articulating the Movement’s vision for the crusade at the Festac parish of the church, chairman of the Central Working Committee for the Enugu Cru-sade, Pastor Chris Ebo and the chairman of the Publicity Sub-Committee, Pastor Mike Ihean-acho on behalf of the General Superintendent, Pastor Alloy-sius Chukuemeka Ohanebo described the proposed cru-sade as “a colossus of a divine visitation.”

According to Pastor Ebo, the divine project of “Bringing Enu-gu State on the Hilltop Proper” was communicated to the Gen-eral Superintendent of Voice of the Last Days Ministry (whose evangelical arm is the Watch-man Catholic Charismatic Ren-ewal Movement, in 1998 and he wasted no time in announcing it to his congregation.

“Since then, the chirch has been waiting and preparing until God by His Spirit indicated recently that the time for the execution of the project is now—-24 years after,” he said.

The church has, therefore, ri-sen to the occasion to ensure that no stone is left unturned for the execution of the said project, stressing that it is “mo-bilising 20,000 able-bodied, proven Christian men and women who are to come into Enugu and its environs, plus the communities in the local gov-ernment areas to sensitize and publicise the divine visit-ation.

“The sensitization aspect of the project by these 20,000 men and women drawn from different branches of the church across the nation will commence on April 4 and con-tinue till the end of the program-me. This is to ensure that no-body is left out in this program-me of bringing people to what Pastor Ohanebo describes as ‘their hilltop in various areas of life’ and turning their ‘obnox-ious circumstances….180 de-grees’ due to lack of adequate information,” the chairman of the publicity subcommittee explained.

According to him, adequate arrangement have been per-fected for buses to convey par-ticipants from strategic loca-tions in the metropolis and nearby communities to and from the Michael Okpara Square on the stipulated days.

He pointed out that as the crusade proper kicks off on April 12, the pastor is inviting all to come and “experience the impartation of the Spirit of God and His Christ—the greatest asset mankind can ever acquire or possess…the healing virtue from Christ Jesus which radiate from Heaven and permeate the human system of those ailing and hurting.”