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■ Says ‘I just went to Foursquare with my heart committed to serving God’
By Vera Wisdom-Bassey
BEFORE going into full time
Christian ministry, Rev Sam
Aboyeji worked in Shell Petro-
leum Development Company.
As a member of the Foursquare
Gospel Church, he held various
ministerial service positions
before assuming the mantle of
leadership as General Overseer.
In the face of the challenges
confronting the country, and
the frustration making many
citizens to lose hope in a better
tomorrow, Rev. Aboyeji is urg-
ing Nigerians not to stop pray-
ing, stressing that God will turn
things around in the country,
just like He did for the nation
of Israel in 1947, resulting in
the birth of the new nation in
1948.
In the run up to the 68th An-
nual Convention of the church
which will hold in Ogun State,
he addressed journalists and
mentioned that the annual
public lecture that precedes the
convention hold in Yaba, Lagos
on October 17, with the theme
“Paradigm Shift: Panacea for a
New Nigeria.”
In this interview, he asserted
that God is looking for a true
vessel of honour, who will be
used by Him to bring about the
turnaround the country needs.
When you joined the
Foursquare Gospel,
did you ever imagine
becoming the General
Overseer some day?
No, no, it never crossed my
mind for one day. It was after I
became the General Overseer
that I then reflected on some
of the paths God took me through. I realised that God
was preparing me, but I did
not know. You see, I came into
the ministry for the first time
back then as an undergraduate.
There was a small fellowship
and the leader then used to take
us to the camp anytime we
had a break. That was my first
introduction to the ministry
through the campus fellow-
ship. We also attended retreat
from time to time. So, when
I was to go for the national
youth service, which I did with
Winners Church, I had been in
the church, but never thought
of becoming the GO one day.
I just went to Foursquare with
my heart committed to serving
God.
People are getting
tired of praying, they
just want solutions.
How do you feel about
this?
God said, ‘put me in remem-
brance.’ So, we must keep re-
minding God of things we want
Him to do. I believe it that a
day will come when things will
turn around in Nigeria. Once
he starts there is nothing that
will stop it. In Israel, some
people bound themselves and
they prayed between 1917 and
1945 that the country will turn
around and come together. And
their effort is what we are see-
ing today. The nation of Israel
we are seeing today, was turned
around. Don’t stop praying
because the one we are praying
to is never tired of hearing us.
Can born again
Christians take tra-
ditional chieftaincy
titles, even when it is believed that some
fetish practices are in-
volved in the process?
When I was in one of the
kingdoms in Warri, I was a
Christian, there is nowhere
in the place that I have not
worked. Those things are just
make-belief, we just put the
wood down and say he is my
“god”. The Bible says those
who worship them are like
them, so if you say the light of
God is in you, the more you
worship God, the more you
look like Him. So, all those
fetish things, do not have effect
on those people who do not
believe in it.
Taking an overview
of the country and
the Church, what are
the good quality lead-
ership traits youths
should imbide?
I have been saying this,
and that is one thing which is
the most important and that is
character, godliness, truthful-
ness and then be prayerful.
What was your grow-
ing up like and what
are those qualities
that made you?
Well, I grew up like every
other child. The qualities that
made me include: I was so
close to one of our leaders.
He used to tell me of what
happened everyday, he talked
about what went wrong and
what went right. In fact, I was
close to three, two of our lead-
ers. One of them in particu-
lar was one of the founding
fathers. I studied what they did,
both right and wrong ones; and
why they were right. I gained both the old experience and
modern experience, in order to
advance the work.
What is your advice to our youths?
Once again, I want to say
to the young people, be godly,
have good character and be
prayerful.
