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By Vera Wisdom-Bassey
Dr James Akanbi is the General Overseer of God’s Mercy Revival Ministry (GOMERM) located at Ikotun in Lagos.
In this interview, he called on ECOWAS countries to retrace their step from going into war with Niger Republic, saying that this is a terrain people do not not understand.
He said that “we may know the beginning of a war, but the ending may not be known, and the effect of the war, but rather they should draw their timetable to know how fit they are and the effect of these”.
The clergy recently convened the 24th Annual Power Conference of his church in a new edifice at Alake-Lakoko Street, Ikotun, Lagos.
GOMERM started with just 12 persons in 1999, but today has over 500,000 worshippers across the globe with 100 branches in Nigeria, UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Benin Republic, and The Gambia.
Akanbi, a Pentecostal revivalist, studied under the turtulage of Pastor W. F. Kumuyi at the International Bible Training Centre (IBTC) of the Deeper Life Bible Church at Ayobo, Lagos.
The ECOWAS Standby Force is ready to take the battle to Niger Republic, what is your take?
My take on this is that something that nobody will want to be going on in West Africa is going to bring the whole of West Africa under the leadership of the military, and you know the military is a place of no accountability, they are not accountable to anybody, they steal whenever they want to, they do it to the worst level. So, how will you challenge a person that has been holding a gun? So, it’s not the best type of government. Having said that war is never a good wind that will blow to anybody any good, if we want to go into war, we should better go and do our timetable very well. Because you can only know the beginning of a war, but you can never tell the end of the war. So, going in there, I am saying that we have only 14 tanks, while Niger has six tanks that are functional. We can mobilise them to Gorilla war, when they are hiding in the street, which we do not know, it is a terrain we don’t know, nor understand is a terrible thing. These guys, some of them are terrorists, and some of them are Jihadists, they will now go and duplicate themselves into jihadists in Nigeria and when they come into the North, six states around Niger will be infiltrated. The rest of the country will not be at peace. So, we need to actually look at it well before we go into it.
With the rate at which poverty is ravaging the nation, as Christians what is our stand?
There is no doubt of the fact that we all need God. I have said it before that the world is not going to be better, and will not get better, so for us to be saying that the government of the world will make things better is a wild goose chase. What is important is for everybody to connect God, so whoever now comes on the thrown God will then use the person to save us. Democracy is a game of number, there is nothing we can do about that, if you don’t have the number, you will not get the vote that will get you in. Now that we have it in the way it is, the Bible says, you Cyprus through you, even though you do not know me, I will use you, the way I want. Through you the bondage of my people will be broken, through you, my people will go to their land, before you go to sign some decrees that is somebody who doesn’t know God at all. So, anybody that is there, God can use the person that is there as an individual, don’t forget when Jesus was leaving he told us that things will be getting worse and worse, nations will rise, famine will come, troubles will come, He told us all that. He said there is going to be tribulations. Tribulations before the great tribulations, first tribulation is what we are in now, so it cannot get better. The tribulations continues, if we say it will get better, Jesus will not come. He said it, immediately after the tribulations of those days the son of man will appear, so, it will keep getting worse so that the son of God will actually come around. So, that is the situation, but if you know God you will do exploit, no matter the situation. The Bible says, I have a respect for covenant, the earth is in trouble. The Bible says, they that do know their God shall do exploit, it doesn’t matter who is on the throne, l know that for sure, I have always lived by the economy of heaven and have always lived my destiny with the destiny of heaven. The blueprint of God, the agenda of the most high, what God has written concerning my life there is nothing the devil can do about that. Let him be Satan or Nebuchadnezzar, that is the president of the nation he will do me good that is what I know. But for the generality of the people. the first thing in any nation is the leadership. when the leader is wrong, everything will be wrong. If the leadership is in shambles, the people will be in trouble that is sure, that has nothing to do with who is there. That is what those people are able to find out.
Talking about leadership, what is the role of the religious leaders in the leadership of the church?
Your are talking about a very delicate point, because we have lost it, we have missed it. There is a particular trouble until we are able to get our house in order, under normal circumstances we should be able to speak the truth, speak the truth to power, that is what God has given us, but we have not been able to get our house in order. PFN, the CAN, they have not been able to get their house in order. There is rift, turmoil, rancour and the rest, just like that. We have not been able to put the right people on the leadership. I love this association, that is the reason. The government and the political class are talking us for a ride. We should be able to stand on our feet and tell the government what we want.
The government is the one detecting to us because some weak people are not ready to speak. That is the problem. During the week of this annual conference, someone suggested that, this programme should be made a regular one. Can’t you discuss with the PFN president on this?
After the building, some PFN leadership that l have spoken to… in fact, some PFN members and I will be having meeting on Tuesday; they want me on the upper side of the PFN, they want me to be part of the people handling their affairs, but l have been trying to run away from all these things before, but the way, on this building, the builders, they really were surprised how it came up. They want me to actually network with the PFN, and will have it on a very sound note, I will be meeting them soon, and we will be able to take it up from there.
What has been your distraction, since you were called into the ministry?
Distraction is bound to happen, but you will have to make yourself un-distractable. The Bible says, if the eye be single, the eye will be whole. It is a matter of focus, I have had all manners of distractions. For example, I want the building to be ready, if this building is not in place, where do I put all the people. When a ministry is a moving ministry you will have challenges. There is one thing or the other you need to do one way or the other. The children too, if this place is not ready, where do we put them. There are bound to be challenges, but one thing l have realised in life, it will take you out of the confines of spirituality, and focus on God and I want to get to heaven, meaning sin won’t take that away from me.
How has it been this 24 years?
I thank God.
