By Magnus Eze, Abuja
The General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi was recently in Abuja for crusades organisz̄ed by his church in some cities in the North Central and in this interview, he spoke on the state of the nation on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
The APC before coming to power in 2015 assured that change was going to be their watch word both in actions and methods and that they were going to be fair to everybody. But appointments by the federal government have been lopsided, biased, and unfair to the citizens of the country. In your capacity as a leader of a popular church like Deeper Life, what do you have to say to the people on the driver’s seat?
I think in a country like ours, we should respect each person’s opinion and what you have voiced out everybody should respect. There should be freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of making conclusions but it doesn’t mean that whatever conclusion each person reaches is indeed the final say. When we talk of change, change takes place in different ways and it depends on the condition; so depending on the level of deterioration before you see the actual change.
When the new government was campaigning; they said change was our policy, it is our watchword, our vision and because we all wanted change we voted them in but now as they came in, we cannot just begin to block this, pull this, drive this and all that; we have to understudy how long it takes to understudy what changes they will make. That depends on them because I am not there and after they have done that, they now have to say we need change in these different areas; what direction do we go, who are the people to make this change and so you have the appointments coming. We have thousands, perhaps millions of people in this country that can fit into these positions and the people who are going to make the selection will have to judge; they will have to say the change we want to make; this person will assist me in making this change, this thing that this other person will do but he is the one that will want to work with this person and so he makes this change. The way we look at it, to say this is lopsided, we have five people from the East, we have two people from the North, we have only one person from the South, what is happening here? Let’s sit together, let’s talk together, let’s see why did he make this change; why did he put this person there and is that because of where he is going or because of any other thing. I think if we talk together like that, it will help us not to misjudge, it will help us to assist, then if we have to advise, we will advise and say do it this way, do it this way and if he sees that we are having a good intention, we are supporting the change; maybe these people will listen to us. I want to say that whatever time it takes them, let them eventually give us the change and I believe that with prayer and understanding and coordination as well as unity, we are going to see the change.
Recently, a Christian was murdered in Kano over alleged blasphemy of Prophet Mohammed; in Kaduna, a Christian was almost killed because he allegedly ate during the Ramadan fasting and there have been lots of speculations going round that there have been plans to Islamise the country. This is what we are seeing in Osun State, are you comfortable with all these and what do you think must be responsible?
Nobody is comfortable when there is discomfort; the other side, people are insinuating, imagining or thinking; all that is personal opinion. You see something happens here and without knowing the source of that thing happening or the state of the person that committed that crime and we go ahead and make a conclusion that this must be why this happened. I think I will not like to get to such conclusion. I think that is what we have to think about and those who committed bad things, the law, the judiciary is there so the law will go after them, investigate them and find out what actually happened and then we will see how to arrest the situation. I think the major part of it is this; bad thing has happened; how do we prevent worse things happening? I think that will be the attitude I will have.
What of use of Hijab in Osun State?
I am a Christian, I am a preacher, the other person is a person from the other side, and he has his own way of reasoning. I will have to sit back and listen to him, listen to the other person and people like me to sit down instead of just fighting one other. I want to get out of the fight and sit back and say let the other person talk, let’s put everything on the table, let’s dialogue together and let’s see how to link together in harmony. There is no point standing here and throwing stones at Osun State and they will throw stones back. We don’t solve the problem; let’s see how to respect each other, understand each other’s point of view and bring the best solution in every problem that we have.
There has been calls for restructuring of Nigeria, what’s your take?
It is a sensitive area but when we have national problems like this, we think and we feel that if we go this way, that will be the best; others will feel that if we go this way that will be the best but I think that at this time now, we should listen to everybody. There are people up for restructuring; let’s listen and there are other people that feel the federal things; for them the present state of things is what we should stay with. Let’s listen to everybody, put everything on the table and without any selfish interest or ulterior motive, we consider everything and then as a whole nation, we might have a kind of panel or whatever but when we put everything on the table, we will make a choice on what will move the nation forward and what will keep the nation as an entity. Restructuring should not lead us to a kind of division into fragments where a southerner will have to get a visa before he can go to the North and Northerners have to get visa before they can come to the South. I don’t think we should come that way but as we put everything on the table and we dialogue, I believe we will reach the best solution.
Do you see Nigeria remaining as one nation with the current agitations across the country?
When we say many people have lost hope, sometimes even when there is no problem at all, with the rainfall, the little sunshine or little harvest going down, it is like there are some people that are easy at losing hope but I don’t think we should lose hope. There is a God in heaven who answers prayers, there is Jesus Christ our Lord and saviour who wants the best for every one of us and there are some of us who are praying and we believe that God answers prayers and so we are not going to lose hope in our country, things are going to turn around and that is one of the reasons why we are here that the wonder is not just for a local person; that yes God loves the rich person but we are coming to bring national renewal, restoration and revival, something good is going to happen to our nation.
What is your vision for the country this time that we have agitations here and there?
Mission is something that is very broad, when you have the mission, the mission leads to the procurement of the vision and also you have the plan of action; so you start from the little corner that is the action and you come to the vision. The vision should be a message to the country and every individual. When you touch lives, you will transform a life and you top it with the right vision not just the individual because of the network of a people and so the vision is to see that our desire, goal and aspirations in this country that they are actually fulfilled but in the course of our actions, we do different things and after we have done that, you are a blessing to individuals and a blessing to the whole country.
Why is it that with churches springing up everywhere, yet there is still hardship in the land?
Sometimes when we talk in generalities, it is easy to arrive at a wrong conclusion; we will need to analyse who the churches are reaching and who are the people going to the churches. In your own community alone you have about 10, 20 churches, the question is which one do you go because if you don’t go, the people who are going there may not have the voice, they may not be decision makers, they may not be people that can speak and the country will listen. So, if the churches are there, yes we are doing a good job but people that are going, the poor people that are going there, the people that have low voice; they are going there, the people that cannot make a change in their community directly they are going there but you are not going there. Journalists are going there, other people in the country they are going there, these are the people and now you talk about corruption. The man on the street does not know about corruption and the one in the market may not know about corruption, the people that practice the corruption are they in those churches? We have to be very sincere and then when they go to those churches, do they listen to what we are saying or are they like people that were here; they just came for religion. I think we have to turn it around, I don’t see it that the churches are too many but the churches are there, let the people that we are making the churches for, let them get in the churches, let them listen to us and journalists get the message out, put it in the papers, radio, on the TV, internet and everywhere so that we can influence the people that influence the country. So, the churches are okay; we need to make a step towards what we are approaching but all the same, let the people that matter, let them come to us in the churches and God will touch their lives and they will transform our country.