By Vera Wisdom-Bassey
Emeritus Prelate Chukwuemeka Uche was full of joy and praises to God for a successful tenure as the head of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, as he bade farewell to the congregation. His tenure came to an end in November 2022 and the church decided to hold a sendoff party for him.
The party, which was at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, saw dignitaries from all walks of life present to celebrate with the prelate and his family.
At the event was Emeritus Prelate Sunday Makinde, who handed over to Uche. He described him as one who sustained the legacy that he left behind. “He is peaceful, faithful and hardworking and I score him pass mark. I am happy he did not leave a failure,” he said.
He remarked that pastors should not be conservative in handling the affairs of the church when it comes to leading of the youths.
“The youths are still there and the way of worship must meet their needs. Sometimes, we are too conservative, and when this is there the youth will leave. The service should meet their needs, at times they want to dance, want to jump so the leaders should do everything possible to meet that need in their lives,” he said.
Wife of the lay president of Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dame Ngozi Okechukwu, described Prelate Uche as one whose tenure impacted positively on the church and the nation at large. She described him as a transformational leader, one who has the people at heart, and has been an example of a servant leader.
She said: “He showed the church to imbibe the virtues of holiness and righteousness and has exemplified this in his life. He brought revival into the Methodist Church and revived every sector of the church.
“He will reap what he has sown because he has sowed selfless service to mankind in his tenure”.
While praying for him to reap his fruits even at his ripe age, she called on him to know that the church would rely on him greatly, even now he has retired.
Prelate Uche described his journey of crisis and said it has ended with a crown because it was not easy, “The toughest thing to manage is human beings but by the Grace of God and help of the Holy Spirit they were able to pull me through.
“They not only worked for the church but the nation, because the outmost thing in their mind was the peace of the nation, and they were praying for the president, both himself and my wife.”
He said he would have wanted to give the Methodist Church a media but the price they gave them was high, but the person coming would get it done. Although he wanted to do more, he could not, but he changed the church. He called on his wife to speak because she also did a lot for the women what no other woman had done.
The prelate said the insecurity in the nation was caused by bad leadership and poverty. “If there is food in the country, many people will not go into such vices,” he said.
His wife, Dame Nneoma, brought development among the women through the skill acquisition programme they organised for young people daily.