*Reverend Solomon Julius Ojigiri, General Overseer of Ever Winning Faith Ministries, Ikeja, Lagos is a University of Ibadan-trained law, determined to ensure that people make giant strides in life. The motivational speaker in this interview with SAM EYOBOKA, talks on why Africa is not progressing, among others.

How easy is it to combine law practice with ministry?
It has been God. Law was my life. I really suffered to go through school and chose to be a lawyer so that I can fight for common people. I wanted to be like late Chief Gani Fawehinmi who fought for the masses. But I am glad I am now an activist for Christ, fighting against poverty and lack of progress among God’s people.

Do you miss practising law?
Of course I do. I miss becoming an activist, but I have given everything all for Christ.  We have been busy with the Master’s business. As a church, we are committed to raising disciples and causing progress among the people of God. To underscore the importance we attach to this assignment, we have the NO MORE LIMIT Conference with a theme ‘GO FORWARD’ from Wednesday with Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel. We are concerned there is lack of progress among the people of God. We believe this trend must be reversed. So, the conference is meant for business men and women, people in ministry—ministers of the gospel, politicians, professionals and everyone who desires to go forward or make progress in what they are doing.

Why is it difficult to make progress these days?
There are many reasons for this. It could be spiritual. In Africa, there are many witches and wizards contending with progress of individuals and communities. You find many people doing so much and having nothing to show for it. They are under spiritual bondage that must be broken. During this conference, the anointing will be strong to break such bondages. We must destroy everything that has limited people in time past.

Also, lack of progress could be due to lack of requisite information. There is so much ignorance and illiteracy among us. That is why we have invited someone like Bishop Oyedepo to share with us. He will show us relevant information to make constant progress despite the seemingly impregnable difficulties in our nation. The impact of the programme on people’s lives will be tremendous as people will be exposed to what they need to do to experience the change they desire and move to the next level. It will be an eye opener and a great empowerment programme that will make people to overcome all the limitations of life, be it spiritual, financial, family and what have you. To really progress, the yoke must be broken and you must be equipped with the right information.

You have ministered many times in America. What can the body of Christ learn from them and vice-versa?

My greatest concern is how we will allow all we are learning and hearing in the church to metamorphose into visible development in our nation. It is so disheartening that our nation is still where it is in this age. We still live in jungles, no light, no good roads, no security of lives and property. There is gross embezzlement of public funds by our so called leaders yet they go to church and some of them even hold positions in the church.

The Church in America holds government responsible and contributes to development projects. There are many things they are doing for people’s welfare without government’s contributions. I think we need to learn to do much of that in Nigeria. I discovered that they value lives in the US. Even in the church they always anticipate and do things that can make people live better, they make people feel comfortable.

On what they can learn from us, they need vibrancy and more commitment to God. The Nigerian Church is alive and evangelical but many of them are spiritually cold.

What is the state of work at your permanent site?

Bishop Oyedepo says there is nothing like permanent site. We have various projects going on in our various centres now. The work is still in progress.

As a lawyer, what is your contribution to the on-going tenure term controversy?
I believe it is not about term but impact. If you have the heart of leading people, it won’t matter how long you have. Jesus affected the whole world in just three years of ministry works.

Till date, we have not recovered from His works. What we need are good leaders and not term. We really need leaders with vision and love for the people and the nation. It does not make sense to say we should have a single term of six years. This means if leaders are not performing, we will leave them for six years. After then, they go away and enjoy their loot. But if it is renewable, we can vote them out.