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For Bishop Lawrence Osagie and the entire members of Powerline Bible Church, Lagos, last week was a season of double celebration for the church as the presiding bishop marked 30 years in the ministry and 60 years on earth. SEYI JOHN SALAU was there as Bishop Osagie bared his mind on some key national issues. Excerpts:
You have been in the ministry for 30 years; how has it been and what is your plan for the future?
Thirty years in ministry has been a good journey. Like a whirlwind; rough, tough, but I have absolutely nothing to regret. Every day we hear people’s testimonies and those testimonies are the things that make us go on; that there is a God who answers prayers. That God is real, that his word is real, and that God is who he says he is – that is all that make us continue in ministry. We have had it for 30 years and he has given us the opportunity of life and health, and we will spend it serving him and serving the people – that is the joy. It’s been beautiful and there is absolutely nothing to regret in the past 30 years of the ministry. God has blessed me.
Do you have any succession plan for the ministry?
That is a very simple thing because I do not own the church and have on several occasions disowned the church openly, and that is still the same situation. God is the one who raises people and puts them in authority and God is the one who brings people down from authority. I believe that God is grooming somebody to replace me; as far as I am concerned, when I started 30 years ago, my plan was that when I hit 55, I would step out from pastoral office and probably do teaching and ministry across the country. But, unfortunately, I came to 55 and found that ok, I had not even scratched the surface yet, and now I am 60. But as far as I am concerned, I will continue to serve God and serve the people for as long as he gives me the opportunity. And, when he tells me and names the person to me, I will call the person and hand over to him. For my children, none of them has told me personally that they are interested. In fact, they don’t show interest and I am not that type of person who dresses a David in the armour of Saul and says, ‘Go in this might’. No, I do not have time for that. I did not pick a career for any of my children, but I am just curious to know what direction their lives are going and what God wants to do with them, but to tell any human being, ‘You look like a pastor’, I am not part of those who do such things.
Nigeria is supposed to be a country flowing with milk and honey, but looking at the economic situation in the country, the reverse is the case. What is your thought on this?
Few days ago, I got a text message from an elderly man, a retired person I have never met in my life before. How he got my phone number I do not know. He said since he retired from service he has not been paid his pension and his family is depressed, hungry and suffering. And then he opened up to me: ‘I am a Muslim; I am begging you to help me because of the God you serve, don’t look at my religion’. That is what we were saying then, and the thing is still on till tomorrow. Kogi State where they are looking for Melaye, people are spending billions on political security and for months you cannot pay your workers; people are dying, families are packing up, somebody will faint all because he works for government and the government can’t pay him; and you still see the people running such government living callously. That is the mother whose breast is dried up and can’t feed her children; that is what Nigeria is, and that kind of a situation can only create crisis. This country is blessed enough to be able to create the environment; I am not even saying distribute money to your citizens, but create the environment for these people to be able to help themselves.
In line with the socio-economic challenges bedeviling Nigeria, some persons have argued that there might not be election in 2019 if the killings across the country continue unabated. What is your position on this?
Well, there has to be an election in 2019; they can’t use the herdsmen situation to hold the entire nation hostage, except they want to break up this country. We are in the 21st century; therefore, people should stop living in the Stone Age or in darkness. People have moved forward, Nigeria should not continue to move backward. It’s time enough for someone to unmask the Fulani herdsmen and tell us who they are, where they came from and what their mission is. But, as for the election, it should hold and must hold come 2019; nobody can unleash mayhem on the nation all because they want to frustrate the elections to elongate their stay in power forever. There will be more chaos when they try that, because even the sand, sun and the earth will cry out. There came a time when Pharaoh and his people tormented Israel enough, and God began to use everything to fight them. Don’t push God to that level, because God will arise and what will be the outcome will be a sorry state.
What is your message for Nigerians?
My message for Nigerians is for every one of us as individuals to imbibe the fear of God as a way of life. It is lack of fear of God that is making the situation like this. Anywhere you push God aside, God will leave you to yourself, and anything that is left to itself will grow weed. A place where nobody cares for with nobody in control, it is weed that carries it – that is how Nigeria is. We have a government, but that government is not sincere; the result of their insincerity is what is going on in the country now. Buhari told Trump that herdsmen don’t carry gun. If a president of a nation can lie from both sides of his mouth, and then feel comfortable to fly in the aircraft of the nation, what do you except? It will be chaos, anarchy and the likes. So, how do you say you are fighting corruption when the head of the government is lying to the nation? All of this is happening because God Almighty has been put in a situation where he is not fully in charge of this nation. The people in government need to demonstrate their fear of God – it is not even for them to be born-again Christians; but their acts and actions must demonstrate some level of reverence and fear for the God of heaven. You do not own the earth nor Nigeria, and so when you push God out, he pushes you to yourself, and crisis is what you get, which is what is going on here in Nigeria.
