Nigeria’s problem is not knowing what to do, says Rev Ize-Iyamu

General Overseer of Jesus Evangelical Assembly, member of State Advisory Council (SAC) of the Lagos Chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Presidential Candidate of Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Rev. Dr. David Esosa Ize-Iyamu, speaks with CHINYERE ABIAZIEM on how the church is in no small measure impacting the society, the lack of courageous leaders in dealing with the nation’s situation among other issue

Recently, PFN had a change in leadership, which did not go well with some people, what do you think about this?
Sometimes, in the process of a transition in leadership, there could be some opposing interests because certain people may have one or two candidates in mind, and at the end of the day, one person emerges as a leader and others into the other positions. While acknowledging that we had a few things happen to get to the point we are now, what gladdens everyone is that we have a new executive(committee) that has a team of God-fearing ministers of God who have a reputation and a track record of providing good leadership.
First, in their local congregations and ministries where they serve, and then in the various platforms that they have had the privilege to also serve over the years. Like the new chairman (Pastor Yemi Davids) has clearly indicated, his first goal in this first year in office is to ensure that there is complete and total reconciliation. That includes, reaching out to everyone that is supposed to be in the Pentecostal community in the state. Some, not necessarily about issues surrounding the elections preceding the emergence of the new leadership, but maybe about other issues.
Reconciliation is not just about people who are not too happy with the process of their making. Some have issues over other things. They have resentment over other issues. So his plan, along with the team, is to reach out to everyone and plead with everyone to please put a lot of these things behind us and let us build this fellowship to the next level. I strongly believe that, yes, the new team should be given all the support that we could offer.
This is because they have the potential and they have a track record of integrity and good leadership, at least so far, at the different platforms they have had the opportunity to serve in. Combining our respective areas of strength with them will certainly take PFN to a better level and greater impact to the larger society in the next four years

During the inauguration, the body also emphasised impact, what exactly is being looked at?
The church has indeed made a lot of impacts. First, for those of us who are very spiritual, we look at the area of salvation of souls, transformation of converts to becoming disciples who are now also running with God’s agenda and gospel. But beyond that, and that is where the larger society is more sensitive to know the impact of the church, transformation of lives. Nigeria has been subjected to so much for the past 40 years. What most people do not realize is that the church has done a great work in preventing the Nigerian populace from getting so discouraged and frustrated.
Only God could imagine what would have happened if not for the impact of the church. Unfortunately, most Christians come to church every week, at least once every week. As they come to church, they are ministered to and they go out every Monday, every Sunday with a new sense of hope, a new sense of encouragement.
Give or take, they are also encouraged not to begin to express their misgivings with what is going on in the wrong way. That has greatly helped and a lot of lives, a lot of people, and a lot of Nigerians that could have been involved in all sorts of things are not in that direction because of the transformation of the church.
Evidently the church has helped a lot in transforming the character, the morals and the values of millions of Nigerians. There is still a big room for improvement and greater impact, but there is no way anyone who is sincere can underrate the impact of the church. You know, in transforming the lives of a very reasonable percentage of the people of this nation.
On the other hand, one challenge the church has had is that even in deference to one of our scriptural demands, that seems to say your acts of mercy and charity be done as discreetly as possible. Unfortunately, so much of the welfare services and gestures of the church are not communicated and you will be shocked to see the statistics of what the church is doing and has done in terms of interventions in the lives of millions of Nigerians. At least especially from within the various ministries and even in the realm of community support and community projects. Sometimes the focus is on widows, sometimes the focus is on orphans, sometimes the focus is on some of those in the society that have drifted into vices.
There are ministries that focus on prostitutes, there are ministries that focus on drug addicts. They have done great, great work. But all of these things, you know, these ministries never bother to put out information about their works and their impacts in the media space.
But like our new chairman has pointed out, this time around, it is time for the church to also begin to let the public know what they are doing. That way it will help, you know, for the public and even members of the Christian community to appreciate the magnitude, you know, of what the church is actually doing. To empower people, to help reduce the level of hardship that a lot of people are exposed to.
The church has actually been playing and the church also has been offering a lot of programs. Not necessarily the spiritual kind of programs like deliverance, healings, salvation. No, all the different kinds of, you know, programs like in the area of world creation, entrepreneurship, you know, all different kinds of programmes. Many of these programs are offered freely to the general public, not just church members.
These things are going on and so many people have been empowered through those initiatives. Some of them have to do with skill acquisition in different areas. A lot has happened and if we are to put all of these things together, a lot of people will be surprised at the statistics over the last number of years.

Some still tag leaders and members of the denomination as ‘penterascals’ because they perceive them as lacking hierarchical orderliness, running ‘one-man show’ and other things. Also days ago NAFDAC put up disclaimer regarding a said Prophet’s registered water, soap, etc, which added to the concern of regulation. What is your view?
I must begin by saying that a lot of people are claiming to be pastors and they are not pastors. A lot of people have come into ministry to use ministry as a cover for their own intentions. If you check properly, the way it is done, anybody can become a pastor overnight and just claim, ‘I had a revelation, I had a vision, I had a call, I had an encounter’, and that’s it. You know, nothing stops a person from claiming now to be a pastor or any of the church offices, apostle, prophet, evangelist, and all that.
Then many of them also could start a ministry or a church. That shows you that, a lot of some of the things that are happening, a lot of these excesses and some even outright abominable things, are actually being perpetuated by questionable characters who have intentionally chosen to use the front and the office of a pastor and the covering of a church ministry, to perpetuate their personal intentions and aspirations. That has a lot to do with what you see happening. And for ministries, for pastors like that, it is very, very difficult to correct them because they are not ignorantly acting in error. That is what they are actually fulfilling. It is deliberate.
Yes, deliberate. That is, they have now chosen to take the appearance of a pastor, you know, and they are packaging themselves as pastors, packaging themselves as churches, and they pretend to also do what the authentic ministries are doing. You know, whereas, they have different motives.
They have a different agenda, you know, so such people, they actually even avoid certain authentic ministries that are very strong in morals or discipline. They stay away from such ministries and pastors. These are the ones that majority of them are responsible for some of the very embarrassing stories that you read about a church or a pastor or a clergy.
Concerning regulation, it is quite tricky and sensitive in the sense that you have to also look at the motives. You know, some of the people that may be calling for these regulations are against the body of Christ. If somebody is already against the body of Christ, such persons are constantly looking for anything publicly used to discredit the body of Christ.

Everyone is aware of what is going on in the nation at the moment with the insecurity and economy. What is your take on the situation in the nation?
The bad, the very poor leadership and governance provided by the immediate past president of the nation. The Buhari regime is one of the worst in the history of this nation. Unfortunately we had a president who was more obsessed with an agenda that was primarily promoting the interest of people that were non-Nigerians, but of his ethnic background.
We have never had that before, and in many of the critical areas like security, I’m personally aware of some very critical points where our military and security agencies had successfully surrounded some of these insurgents, bandits, terrorists, and their leaders, their key commanders and leaders, and instructions from the presidency of Buhari, stopped them at that point of victory.
His regime compromised the security of this nation in favour of the interest of some of these bandits, terrorists, and insurgents. That is part of what also allowed it to blossom to get to the level it is today. It is really bad.
In terms of the economy too, it is the same thing. We have a situation where in this past regime, unknown to most Nigerians, crude oil for instance, had already been sold in large, large quantities ahead of time. You know, so a lot of the income that we should be getting from the current sales of crude oil has already been mortgaged and traded away by the Buhari regime.
Then of course, a lot, there was so much done in the realm of printing, raw printing of the national currency. All they just did for a while was to continue to keep the naira dollar exchange rate at a particular level. They did that intentionally to keep it so until they are out, until he is out of power.

The fact is that things are real and it is already at a breaking point for most Nigerians. At times like these, what usually happens is that you won’t allow market forces to dictate everything. That is why you see in every country, some things are subsidized. Some things are just sustained at a particular level in order not to increase the hardship or the pains of the populace. In such instances, the leadership of the day has to do the needful. Nigeria’s problem has never been a problem of knowing what to do. Yes. It has never been a problem of vision.

It has never been a problem of a manifesto, a good manifesto. It has never been a problem of a good strategy. I can tell you that for sure. You know, our problem has always been the lack of sincere leadership, courageous leadership, political will, taking some very tough decisions. Not decisions that will be maybe difficult for the populace to swallow, no. Tough decisions that will be unfavorable to the cabals, the cartels, the syndicates, the mafias and the magicians.