Tele-evangelist and Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre, KICC, Rev. Matthew Abiodun Ashimolowo, is not known for sensational prophecies. However, in this encounter with Sunday Vanguard in his hometown Ode-Omu, Osun State, during his New Year party for widows, the cleric, besides speaking on his younger days in the army barracks, 34-year-old marriage and private university under-way, spoke on the February general elections and the need for the Presidency to fish out fifth columns fuelling terrorism in the country.

By Josephine Agbonkhese

The much anticipated 2015 has come but men of God seem to differ on what it holds for this nation; what has God told you?

Globally, there will be a shaking; there will be earthquakes in some places, famine in places that never knew famine and flooding in places where they were least expected.

For Nigeria, it’s a very crucial year. The Lord showed me who will win the presidential election but I will not mention it because I have to be politically neutral. But when the president is announced, 20 percent of a certain part of the nation will not agree. But, after negotiation, there will be submission.

There will be no war except riots from people who don’t like the result. But, eventually, because this nation has a prophetic mandate that says we are one, they will submit. In fact, people think Lord Lugard made a mistake, but I tell you, if he hadn’t come, there’s no way we would have had over a thousand ‘tribes’ together. We’re really not tribes but nations because that word ‘tribe’ is a racist word. Wales is only about a million people and yet they call them a nation. And then they call Yoruba who are 27 million a tribe; Igbo, 18 million, a tribe. For us to have many nations that made up Nigeria, it was God that made it happen. That prophetic mandate remains. Anyone who is going to incite people to divide this nation will lose his chance because Nigeria will remain one after all the noise. Also, some politicians will be shocked that nobody is ready to die for them. There will be peace in Nigeria.

I see a man who would one day rise, between now and ten years. He will turn the fortunes of Nigeria round and Nigeria will look like one of these advancing nations, like the United Arab Emirates, the current breakthrough in India and China.

Does that foreseen peace also mean there will be an end to Boko Haram?
Boko Haram is a hydra, a snake with many heads. We’re cutting one head and that’s why the other heads show up. If you know the hydra in the story of Achilles, you’ll notice every time the head of that snake was cut, two others grow.

Boko Haram will still be around because there is need for a robust approach. There is need to deal with the fifth column in the system empowering it.

I’m 62-year-old and I was born in the barracks. I know when Nigeria fought the civil war and my father fought there. In fact, he died in Biafra, by the Asaba bridge. But I can tell you Nigerians, there were only five battalions when Nigeria fought a three-year war and yet the war came to an end. It was massive. How can you fight a bunch of riff-raffs, with the number of soldiers you have, and then they hold you to ransom? There is a fifth column selling Nigeria to them, giving them petrol, money and continuous ammunition. My mother used to say that when a child keeps throwing stones and he is not exhausted, there is a supplier in the corner.

Our prayer will be that our government will be bold enough to accuse and bring evidence that shows who the fifth column is, either inside or outside the system.

You do not suspect foreign aids; maybe other countries?
The only foreign aid to Boko Haram, in my opinion, are the weapons that escaped Libya during the revolution and came down South. Other than that, it will be people who believe in the advancement of the religion of Islam but do not realise that, in the process, they are funding the wrong people.

You’ve been married for 34 years now and these days we have a high rate of divorce, even amongst famous men of God; what’s the secret of your successful marriage?
Well, the greatest secret of success in my marriage is the fact that my wife and I have chosen to love one another in spite of everything, to accept each other, to stay together and to accept that we are one. Marriage is ‘giving’ and ‘forgiving’. I believe God sent me to the right person, so, she knows how to work with my imperfections while I also work with hers. She’s brought me a lot of joy and has become the greatest asset in my life. I sometimes wonder if I would have been able to live with anyone else.

What’s your advice to intending couples?
Please don’t focus on just the physical. That’s what magazines and entertainment media focus on and it can be very misleading. Everyone of them is talking about body and body shape but a guy may be a six pack and still be an empty package. You need someone who has something upstairs and knows where he is going to.

Was there a time you felt like backing out in the early years of your marriage?
If anybody will be honest with you, they will tell you that usually, the first five years of any marriage can be ‘stupid’. That’s the basic word. You behave stupid because you’re so selfish. Every now and then you’re covering your terrain until after five years when you realise you really have no terrain to cover. The greatest thing is to marry somebody you love and ‘like’ because love only is not enough.

You grew up in the barracks, were you a stubborn chap in your childhood?
On the contrary, I wasn’t a stubborn person. I was extremely brilliant. I had a teacher back then in primary five who felt I was too brilliant for my age and began to introduce me to libraries, televisions and radios because she recognised the anointing for media I had even as a primary school pupil. I located her recently and began to celebrate her; bought her a car and more.

You’ve just joined the list of private university owners. Tell us more about that university?
The King’s University is based in Ode-Omu, Osun State, and has been through so much. We are awaiting our license and are among the last nine that have just been approved by the National University Commission. Presently, we are on the table of the Federal Executive Council, awaiting final approval to take-off.