Pastor Gbade Ojo is the visioner of the Sanctuary of Christ Evangelical Church in Ibadan, Oyo State. In this interview, the cleric who is also a professor of Political Science, speaks with SEYI SOKOYA, on the challenges facing the country and roles of the church.
NIGERIANS have been facing a lot of challenges ranging from hikes in food, fuel prices, and other economic issues. What is your take as a cleric?
It is so uncalled for that we are facing all these challenges as a country. We are in a country of more than 200 million people and going by the number of universities in the nation, we are not supposed to be in this mess: the mess of lack of electricity and lack of cash. Nigerians now buy money with money. We are also in a mess of lack of fuel supply, despite Nigeria being an oil-producing country. It is a pity that our leaders have demonstrated gross incompetence. We have been emphasising corruption, but one of my children called my attention to the situation that it is not about corruption, hence, that it is a matter of incompetence. I feel the young lad is right.
I wonder why a country should surrender its fuel supply to a monopoly, Dangote. The Federal Government calculated that by now he should have been refining petroleum products, which was why they didn’t import enough, and this has led to a serious crisis in the country. Is this not incompetence? They are having their way because Nigerians are resilient; we endure a lot. This can’t happen in a developed country without any serious reaction. We would rather be praying to God for what we can do for ourselves in Nigeria and this is a serious problem we are facing as a country.
What are the church leaders and the church as a whole doing to bring about solutions to all these problems?
We as pastors and churches are praying for our leaders as well as praying that beautiful ones should be born and be born very soon as a matter of fact. Until the beautiful ones are born, we may continue like this. Take a look at the power shortage issue. Put an angel there as a minister, nothing can happen. Since 1960, it is very sad that we have not been able to provide a stable electricity supply for at least two decades. Nigeria is an overcentralised country. There is no country as highly populated as Nigeria that is distributing electricity centrally. It is not done. We need to restructure the country. Let each zone of the country generate its electricity and distribute it. Is electricity generated by a single company in America? No. This country is so large and it shows that our leaders lack the intellectual capacity to run a country that is as diverse and as large as this. We can’t do it through overcentralisation. The system will not move until we decentralise; let each state be on its own. Let the local government operate to the fullest.
Do you think prayer is enough to solve all the problems facing the country?
The role of the church is basically to pray for our leaders. This is what Paul the Apostle taught us in his epistle to the Romans. This was why I said that earlier the beautiful ones should be born very soon. We indeed need to pray for them because they have already emerged as our leaders and their level of intellectual capacity will determine our comfort and security. If they cannot secure us or provide our basic needs as well as basic health care, what can we do other than pray to God to touch their hearts? The level of corruption is too high because we have bad leaders.
For instance, our democracy is far from being inclusive. If you need to cough up as much as N100 million to buy a nomination form and N50 million to go to the Senate, it means a professor like me can never aspire, even as a political scientist, to go into the parliament.
When we have a country where we have a large chunk of the society, most especially the intellectuals, who have been excluded from democracy, then what happens? Those that are in the know cannot partake in the system of the country then what kind of democracy is that and we can now see the result that those that are in the government are mercantile. They are there to be richer, which is not right. It should be a service to society, but the story is the other way round.
This is why we need to pray and also increase the tempo of prayer for God’s intervention. If we get tired in our prayers we will wallow more in our problems. Sadly, the system in the country is not rewarding. Professors are paid a pittance and it does not worth it. We are in a country that does not reward hard work or motivate people. So, we need to pray fervently for our country and thank God. Sanctuary Church is a praying ministry and we have been praying for God’s intervention over the country.
How is the church feeling the heat of the current challenges of the country?
There is no church that does not feel the heat of the current state of the nation. For instance, every week, we pay as much as N55,000 to N60,000 for diesel consumption. We have reduced the number of hours for our Sunday services as well as that of our prayer programmes. We depend on the megaphone for mid-week programmes. The tithes and offerings are no longer sufficient to cover the runnings of the church and at our church, we don’t collect money by trick because it is not scriptural. I am also not getting a salary from the church. I am a public servant and the church is a charity organisation. Even we have only a few clerics who are full-time pastors and they are paid. Aside the fuel consumption, the church also takes care of some indigent members of the church through the welfare committees and the numbers are increasing by the day because of the situation of the country. There is no improvement in any sector aside from propaganda.
You served in government for five years as a Special Adviser and Chief of Staff to the late former governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Your life must have changed better than being a professor. Do you agree?
I made up my mind while I was going into government that as a Christian and as a pastor, I must be an ambassador of Jesus Christ in that government. How could you imagine a pastor being chased around for stealing a biro or pen after the government? Aside from that, I am a don teaching Political Science. Why should I go against the things philosophers taught us while I was in government and what will I be teaching now that I am back in the classroom? I could have been super comfortable while in government, but I chose to be disciplined. Interestingly, what I earn today as a professor is far more than what I earned as a Chief of Staff, but because of the culture of corruption that has eaten deep into our marrow as Africans and as Nigerians, the societal expectation is that you cannot go into government and be poorer.
The greatest problem I had when I returned to the university was with some colleagues. Some went to check my car, observed my dressing and a number of them approached me to lend them money. Some professors frowned at me that I didn’t build faculty for them when I was in government. There was an anniversary in my church and the guests were surprised to see us worshiping under the shed. The expectation was that I would have converted it to a big auditorium as a Chief of Staff and they called for support. I told them that we are praying to God to bless His ministry.
So, people should not go into government with the ultimate aim of making money, but to serve. God will judge the corrupt people one day and may do it through revolution and we will be shocked. I am one of the people who is expecting political catastrophe because when people are pushed to the wall, they will turn back. The economic pain today has nothing to do with ethnicity because everyone is feeling the pain of the problems in the country.
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