By Toby Chuks
As part of measures to give effective response to the myriad of challenges facing Africans, Nigerians and Ndigbo at the moment, Onitsha based journalist, author and gospel mover, Evangelist Theo Rays Ejikeme who is the founder/overseer of Super Christian Fellowship, has lent his voice on how to give effective response to the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria mostly insecurity and economic hardship by calling on Africans, Nigerians and Ndigbo to seek better understanding of Government roles as well as Religious roles. Speaking to journalists in Onitsha during the presentation of his Agenda to mobilise 5000 people mostly the Youth in each of the 5 States of the Southeast geopolitical zone totalling 25,000 as “solution providers” in the zone, under what he called Youth Rendezvous For Greater Igbo Advancement, Ejikeme traced the source of challenges facing the black nations to wrong understanding of the roles of Government and Religious organisations in the sense that people wrongly believe that government and religious organisations are separate blocs with separate roles.
Ejikeme who is also the Convener of Greater Igbo Advancement Program (GIAP) and Skill Up Africa & Nigeria Initiative (SUANI) explained that Government and Religion are like twins and a dual carriage way that leads to same destination, thus the duo shouldn’t be separated from each other as according him, two of them have the same purpose of controlling and utilising people and money well enough to ensure security, food availability, shelter, jobs, roads, power and everything needed to yield for overall welfare of the people with Religion taking up more wider roles as the father, the background, the foundation, the builder, the head master saddled with disciplinary services, watch dog services, guiding supporter, enhancer, enabler and nourisher of Government roles in particular and the entire system in general.
He asked “What is Government and what is Religion? Are they not packs of human beings that need security, food, shelter, jobs, roads, power and welfare, so why separate their roles? And if you look at it from the Biblical angle, you will find out that Religion is to take up the role of the father because God is the foundation that covers all human services and all needs. What I am saying is that the major cause of the problems we have in Nigeria is that we separate Government roles from Religious roles. Consequently we misplace the benefits of Religion to the detriment of Government and the people in general. Take the Christian fold as a case in point. Christian Churches separate theirs roles from Government and consequently deny the system the benefits of Religion to the point that people as Christians cannot muster religious virtues. Christians of various Church denominations are at the centre of corruption in Nigeria because they limit their religious roles to going to Church and contributing money to the Church with a view to receive miracles, healing and blessing of material things”
He continued “It is expected that Religion is saddled with the responsibility to muster what it takes to build people onward to Government but instead of playing the role as a builder, Churches are facing different roles such as gathering people, building worship centres, praying for miracles, healing and blessing of material things for themselves, holding ceremonies like thanksgiving, wedding, burial/funeral, anniversary celebrations, travelling on pilgrimage and then expecting Government to provide security, food availability, shelter, jobs, roads, power and overall welfare of the people. This is absolutely wrong”
He went further “It is wrong on the side of Churches to understand their work as gathering people for God and building worship centres because the coming of Jesus Christ moved God from the temple to human body and then to the field. Check it out, none of the works of Jesus Christ such as turning water to wine, healing the sick, the blind, the crippled, feeding people with fish and bread, walking on water, calming the weather storm among others took place in the temple, they all happened in the field. And again the coming of Jesus Christ also moved people from the hands of the priests in the temple to the Holy Spirit and the Truth. In John 4:23-24 the Bible says that this is the time when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, so why waste money on building gigantic cathedrals”
He lamented “the worst part of it is that these religious denominations are consuming a lot of cash and time resources without producing results. In Onitsha, some people spend more money and time working in their Church than working at home. The irony is that, instead of using the Churches to build individuals, families, villages and towns, they are using individuals, families, the villages and towns to build Churches. Instead of using the Churches to build Ndigbo they are using Ndigbo to build the Churches. As rich as Ndigbo might be they don’t have food. The point is that, Christians have failed to offer anything differently and better. All the attributes of good life and human greatness associated with religion are missing among us yet we are spending on religious activities. We do not see righteousness, bravery, brilliance, creativity and productivity as obtainable from people who follow God, yet we are spending money. If the amount of money we spend as Christians every week in our Churches are channeled at food production, nobody will experience hunger in Nigeria
“Let me say this to Africans, Nigerians in general and to Ndigbo in particular, in Ecclesiast 10:19 the Bible says that money answers everything, so money is leadership, money is Government, money is authority and power, so if you are spending your money wrongly and expecting leadership or government to take care of you, you are wasting your time. I am observing that Nigerians and Ndigbo are spending money wrongly on wrong religious activities and that is the major cause of the challenges facing us. In a nutshell, we are suffering from poor religious roles that lack the capacity to deal with negative factors that naturally militate against human system such as wickedness, hatred, laziness, greed, corruption, immoral, division, discrimination, intolerance lack of creative and productive instinct and lack of interest to make sacrifice for the good of others. Everybody can observe with me that the negative factors listed above are very rampant among Nigerians and that’s why we have failed to muster what it takes to build a nation where things are working for the good of the inhabitants
The Onitsha based cleric called on citizens of Africa, Nigeria and Igboland to rather unleash their strength on means of solution by spending money in right direction and avoid spending money wrongly and end up expecting solution where it cannot come arguing that the only possible means to give effective response to the challenges facing Africa, Nigeria and Igboland is for the people to change religious activities and so doing bring religious virtues to bear in the system. He contends that ” Let me inform African leaders, President Tinubu of Nigeria and Southeast States Governors in particular that the cause of our problmes is majorly stemmed from wrong spending of money on religion and we can never find solution to the challenges we are facing without bringing in religious virtues such as love, truth, law, order, principle, hand working, vigilance, bravery, brilliance, creativity, productivity and more importantly being spiritual driven and selfless enough to make sacrifice for the good of others”
At this point he called on Church leaders in particular to position themselves to give better religious service to their country, their tribes, regions, States, towns and villages and not just standing to receive offering, thanksgiving, tithe and donation. “What I am saying is that Church leaders should unleash their members as well as money at spiritual and physical works to develop business via agriculture, sport, technology among others and also organise prayer against evil forces asking for violent criminals, ordinary thieves, corrupt politicians and corrupt civil servants and people in general to repent and be of good character and behaviour, be truthful, law abiding, orderly, principled, creative, productive and selfless for the purpose of nation building
He insisted that a situation where Church leaders are building Churches everywhere and acquiring material things including private jets while people are suffering from insecurity, poverty, joblessness, laziness, hunger, diseases and death is not a sign of good religious practice insisting that Church leaders must change the kind of activities they engage their followers to venture into development of businesses via agriculture, sport, technology, media, medicine, textile, garment, milling, designing, packaging, construction and branding among others for the sake of nation building.
He cited Onitsha as a case in point, observing that there are gigantic Churches everywhere in and around Onitsha but Onitsha even as the biggest commercial city in the Southeast is in lack of many businesses such as sport business, media business, technology, textile and garment business among others. He noted with dismay that there is no football club in Onitsha, no newspaper house in Onitsha, no television house in Onitsha, no technology development and acquisition centre in Onitsha and no textile and garment industry among others.
The journalist turned evangelist said that he has set an agenda to mobilise 25,000 people mostly the Youth to get them prepared to serve as agents of solution with spiritual and physical works adding that he initiated varieties of programs to engage the Youth part of which include public intellectual work to augment the poor standard of education, public spiritual work to augment the poor activities of the religious organisation, a new social order to deal with poor social order of corruption and get rich at all cost syndrome and lastly to expand business structure with agriculture, media work, football work among others.
Infroning that the initiative to mobilize 5000 people in each State of the Southeast will be extended to other States all over Nigeria, he called on Church leaders to reverse the trend of using individual, families, villages and towns to build Churches and use their Churches to build families, villages and towns informing that he has initiated prayer scheme involving prayer for individuals, families, kindred, villages, towns and the entire Igbo to get better more wisdom, more, knowledgeable, be selfless, lovely, friendly, truthful, creative, hardworking, productive and more committed to the cause of building businesses and building Government than building Churches.
