Your church is currently holding its annual vacation bible school for children. What is the purpose of this programme?
Yes, we know children come to church on Sunday with their parents, we also have Sunday school for them, as well as worship, but if we look at it, Sunday school is just an hour and the worship is maximum two hours, so that is three hours a week. If we multiply three hours by 52 weeks, and you divide it by the number of Sundays they come to church, then you will know that probably we have not taught them for more than four or five weeks. But during the vacation bible school programme they come for a whole week, so we have more time to teach them. Not only that, this programme also affords us the opportunity to minister to children who are not members of the church. Currently the total number of children in our church is not more than 230/250, but we have over 700 children attending the programme. Children come from the neigbourhoods, from other churches. So for us it is an opportunity to minister to them more than what we can ordinarily do on Sunday.
Why did you pick ‘Restore us, oh Lord’ as the theme for this year’s programme?
First, our church has a theme and this year is ‘The Year of Divine Restoration’. So we feel that the children also need to have a better understanding of that theme, that is why this has given us the opportunity to come down to their level. But when you also look at what is happening around us, there is problem in the country, we are in recession, things are not working well in our nation, and with nostalgia some older people will still remember how things used to be in the early 1970s. Comparing the situation of the country then and what is happening now, you will also agree with me that we need such a prayer, “Lord, restore us, turn our situation around, come down and help us.” We also believe that as individuals, as family, church and nation we need restoration and the only person that can restore us is God. We believe that the theme is also timely because we need restoration as a people.
What is your opinion on the youth ministry generally?
The bible talks extensively about children. In Proverbs 22:6, it says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he grows up he will not depart from it.” When God was talking to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:17, he said, “Hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one God, and thou shalt teach your children diligently.” So, we believe that the continued existence of the church depends on these children and the church must not fail to teach the children to know the Lord, to lay a foundation for faith from their tender age, and that is why I believe that churches should be serious about their children ministry. If the foundation is faulty, if the children are not introduced to the faith at their tender age, by the time they grow up, we will just discover that they will go off from the faith. Again, by the time they leave children department into teenagers, there should be another department to monitor their growth – physical, mental and spiritual development – because at that age they are no longer children. All these stages are very important because if there is any problem with any stage, then the next stage that follows will suffer, and if there is a problem with these three stages, then the future of the church will be affected. If the children from their tender age do not know God or do not have enough knowledge about God, when they become teenagers or adolescents, peer pressure will affect them and they will no longer work in the path of faith, then they cannot continue to grow to be adults that will continue to know the Lord and live for the Lord.
A popular Christian hymn talks about ‘faith of our fathers’. Is the older generation of the church doing enough to pass the baton of faith unto the youths?
I would say yes and no. We have some churches that are really doing well. In Baptist, I know we have some good children ministry and we are doing well now, unlike before, with the teenage and youth ministry. But I also know that there are some churches that are probably not just thinking about the youth ministry. For them, it is like, “Let’s just gather the children together and put them in one not-properly-ventilated classroom with no trained teachers.” But now there are churches with fulltime ministers in charge of children ministry because they know how important it is to the church. For me, to the glory of God I am in charge of the children ministry. I am a pastor, I went to the theological school. But also in terms of secular education, I studied early childhood education. Now churches are coming up and there is awareness in many of the churches that this ministry must be focused on.
Talking politics, in your candid opinion, do we need a constitutional amendment or a brand new constitution?
Well, I am not sure we need a brand new constitution because if we have a new constitution today, it is still human beings that will run and operate that constitution. Yes, some aspects of the constitution need to be amended but it does not mean that we need an entirely new constitution, and rather than just amending the constitution, I think our political leaders and politicians need to amend their mindset since they are the ones that mostly operate the constitution. When people with genuine heart operate a constitution that is bad, they can still operate it in a way that people will be favoured and something good will come out of it. However, even if we adopt the best of constitution, say, of any of the developed countries, if those who operate it do not have a renewed mind, we will still have problems. I would rather suggest that some aspects can be amended but those who operate it, especially politicians and the citizens, in their little ways should not break the constitution. But most times the citizens do not obey the constitution because the political elite also violate the constitution. So, by and large, I think the politicians and the citizens are the ones that need to amend our character and the constitution will work.
The president has been away from the country for over 80 days. What is the implication on the polity?
That is why I said earlier that we are the ones to amend our character/mindset. In a civilized society, even when the president is sick, he owes the nation, the citizens, that responsibility to come forth with his medical situation. And if the president could not talkto the citizens as at when he left because maybe he had to go out in a hurry or because of the nature of the sickness, those who work with him also owe the nation the honour of disclosing even the actual ailment or the health status of the president. Unfortunately, the government has not done that. But interestingly, few years back when President Umaru Yar’Adua was also sick, the current Minister of Information was in the forefront telling PDP, the ruling party then, that they must disclose the true state of the president’s health. If you were the one calling for such then, now that you are at the receiving end, what stops you from disclosing to the nation exactly what is happening? When the president came in 2015, he said the idea of government officials traveling out on medical trips will be banned. Unfortunately, he as the president is not setting a good example, he has been away for medical treatment more than twice since he became the president. Thank God that he is recuperating now. For the governors to now travel to London to see him, you can imagine what it cost to have the governors and their aides in London. If you look at what they must have spent, you will think something is really wrong with us, and that is why I say we need to change our mindset. Unfortunately, those around the president are praising him and are even campaigning for him to come back in 2019, somebody we are praying that God will heal, because nobody can decide otherwise, because nobody can predict tomorrow.
