Boko Haram: Christians must know they are at war —C&S Primate Ademisokun-Turton

Primate (Dr) Ade Ademisokun-Turton, popularly known as Onibode, is the President of Ondo State Unification of Leaders of Cherubim and Seraphim Church and founder of Success Gate C&S Christ’s Church International. He speaks of insecurity and leadership challenges in the country, as well as the church’s convention. HAKEEM GBADAMOSI provides excerpts.

What are some of the church’s achievements?

The church will be 34 this year and much has so far been achieved in terms of spread and this can be attributed to the efficacy of prayers and this is manifesting in the church. The impact of the prayer is reflected in the lives of people coming to Christ and accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. That is our main calling and since then, we’ve been able to establish schools, hospitals and run television programmes. We are currently in the United States of America, United Kingdom, across Europe, as well as in South Africa, and we are spreading across Nigeria.

There is this perception about the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, which points to fetish practices. How would you react to this?

Yes, I have heard about it. However, the truth of the matter is that people may pretend not to know the truth. People know that the Cherubim and Seraphim Church is from and of God. When the church started, hardly would you find members of any family in the South-West that have not attended the C&S church at one time or the other. But because there was no central control, every Tom, Dick and Harry started founding churches. That’s where we missed it. But the spirit of God is still in the church .One of the reasons why we have the issue of over proliferation is the fulfilment of the Bible itself. If the C&S church is not a genuine church, it will not spread across the globe; it is because people recognise it as a genuine way to really seek the face of God, and get solutions to their problems, because we are gifted to see tomorrow today. We are genuine Christians, because we are very original.  The church is the first pentecostal church in the whole of Africa. So, you will only counterfeit what is worthwhile.

What are you doing as the president of the unification of the church to streamline the activities of impostors?

We have started working on that and it is even yielding results now. Not too long ago, it was in the news that we closed down about four churches, because we didn’t want them to keep tarnishing the image of the C&S. In one incident, we had a public burning of such fetish items in the presence of the perpetrator. Presently, the fear of our unification is the beginning of wisdom in the C&S church. In fact, they too are fighting back by trying to blackmail us and spreading all sorts of negative comments. However, we are not bothered. We have an assignment that must be accomplished and the good Lord has been supporting us. Another thing we are doing now is to take a census of the church. We want to know the number of churches, and we are investigating the origin of their founders, because we discovered that some people who have previously never been members of the C&S church now claim to be founders. We called them Cherubim and Seraphim Boko Haram. However, we don’t want to go to war with them; repentance is what is required. We are talking to them, making them understand the repercussions of extorting, exploiting and deceiving people in the name of church. A lot of them are embracing repentance, but some of them are still adamant. We’ve warned them that if they continue tarnishing the image of the church, we will have no option than to hand them over for prosecution according to our law and statutes. Now we’ve been able to address our dressing style; in the past, some people dressed like masquerades. Also, the time of our service is now refined. We don’t want to disown them and that is why we opened a special Bible class for them. There are a lot of vacancies in the house of God, but they need to be trained.

You said the church is gifted to ‘see tomorrow today.’ What do you foresee for Nigeria?

Nigeria’s problems are not insurmountable. Even, those who are doing the abnormal know the right thing. However, when the centre cannot hold, the inevitable will happen. A time is coming when revolution will be inevitable; it is coming so close. If Jesus tarries, Nigeria will soon be sanitised.

Will this happen during this administration?

I don’t want to talk about any administration because whether you are talking about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (APC), they are still the same party. APC won the last general election because people migrated from PDP to APC, so, what is the difference between the two? There is no progressive party in this country for now. Only those that are suffering know that they are the progressives now. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider every day. I personally voted for President Muhammadu Buhari, because he is tested and trusted. If somebody can be in charge of petroleum and be a head of state without having an oil block, we should respect him. But he seems to be too old and the power has been hijacked from him. He is in power but not in control of the government. An average Nigerian should know that Buhari was used only to win election and that is what they will do again, because if they lose the election, they will become hungry and they don’t want to be hungry; they will still put him there. Even if Buhari says he would not contest, they would force him. It is the duty of everybody to now hold their future in their own hands by voting wisely so that we can bring about genuine change in the country. Don’t forget, you can’t win election here if you are not rich. Jesus was very popular but he lost election before Pilate. The election was between Jesus and Barabas and Pilate represented INEC at the time. Barabas won and Jesus lost that election. Where were the 5000 he fed? Where were the 10 lepers? Where were the lame, and all those he healed? Where was the family of Lazarus and that of Jarius? That is the problem. The right people will not win election by using this method we are using.

• Asking Nigerians to defend themselves insult to security agencies ―Abiara

There were reports of a Christian girl held back by Boko Haram for her refusal to convert. What is your take on insecurity in the country, especially the activities of Boko Haram?

What we are experiencing is a glaring religious war; those involved are not hiding it. I pity the government because no government will agree that it is a religious war. It is only the Christians that are supposed to know that they are at war in Nigeria and in some parts of the world. Boko Haram will kill Muslims only when they do not support them; they are not after their Muslim brothers. The war is targeted at Christians. Attacking government agencies is just meant to shake the government, so that they can know that they have taken over. And they are not hiding it. They don’t want Christians; they don’t want western education. But, the government itself is playing politics with religion; that is not good enough. Let them wash their hands off religious matters. Let Christians know that they are at war. Instead of being at war with one another, let them know that they have a common enemy now. If Christians speak and pray with one voice, this will become a simple matter. Christians are not speaking with one voice now. Also, we have political pastors parading themselves as representatives of the Christian community; those who do not merit what is written in the first book of Timothy Chapter 3 – the qualification and the quality of becoming head of the church – and they are the people representing Christians. They keep on telling them that there is no problem. During the last election, they were there, assuring the former president that he would win. Unfortunately, they are still doing the work. They ought to have run away having been disgraced and read their own spiritual obituary, but shamefully they are still there. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is almost a failure. If CAN does not know what to do now, that is not good enough. CAN needs to see how they can foster unity. Let them bring everybody on board instead of discriminating. If we pray the way we are instructed, there will be confusion in the enemies’ camp and they will use their arms to destroy themselves and their sponsors. Now, some political pastors will even go and pray at the Government House. No responsible cleric will lobby to see a politician. It is the duty of politicians to seek out genuine clerics. Where are the genuine pastors in the land?

Truly, there is insecurity in the land. You cannot even sleep in your house with your two eyes closed. If you wake up in the morning in peace, you have to be grateful to God for sparing your life. I prefer to talk about the solution. Let government address the issue of poverty and hopelessness in the land. If people have hope, they wouldn’t go into crime, even if they are poor. Let there be hope for the people. We still have some policemen who are corrupt; ask commuters they will tell you that they collect bribe now in broad daylight. Look at the Transparency Report, that report is very correct. Bail is not free in many instances. In some immigration offices, they will collect bribes before you even get your passport at the prescribed rate. That is the reason for insecurity. People have lost confidence in the security agencies in the country and that is why church is thriving. Some rich people will not come to church because they can solve their problems themselves. That is why fake prophets are feeding fat. Before we were told that Boko Haram had been decimated; they said the war has been won. But they are still strongly there. Even if the kidnapped of Chibok girls was a mistake, what about the Dapchi issue? The issue of insecurity should concern everyone. What we all know is that it is not the jobless people that are giving us this problem. Who are the people arming herdsmen? We were told that these cows belong to some people. We have been busy recycling mediocres. If we are going to solve the issue, we must change the cabals. If we do this, everything will change and we will have peace in our land.

What is your view on the fight against corruption by this administration?

The president is the only one who wants to fight corruption among his cabinet. Tell me how his party is fighting corruption. Not even their primary elections are free or fair. Did they organise free and fair primaries in Ondo? Who is fighting corruption now? You see, politicians will have something to say to make them popular. Even when Abacha was in government and lost all goodwill, he still used sports to project himself. What are those people that have been indicted still doing in government? Why is it only Senator Bukola Saraki they are prosecuting because he became Senate President using his own political skill? Why is it that when you are in opposition, you are corrupt? Why are you not corrupt when you are with the ruling party? We are not fools. They need to answer these questions.

As the 2019 general election approaches, what’s your advice to Nigerians?

The will of people will definitely prevail. If we pray as we are supposed to do, these politicians will chase themselves out very soon and greed will not allow them to have peace Though, we don’t have power of our own but the good Lord will fight for us. At a time, they said change starts with us; I didn’t promise change, so how can it start with me? Let it start from the people that promised change. They will do it themselves and it has started happening. I don’t see them reconciling. People should pray the more and self destruction is what is going to happen if they continue like that. They don’t even pity the poor. In this government, one needs to know somebody in power before the roads leading to your house are constructed. What kind of governance is that? You have to be related to somebody before you can do anything. There is no water, light, good roads and they are bringing heavy taxes. Imagine the minimum wage, compared to what you pay as the WAEC fee for one child. It doesn’t make sense. The same excuse they gave to us when we were buying fuel at a lower rate is still the same excuse they are giving now and the problem has refused to go away. When we pray very well, God will take care of the situation and He is already taking care of that, anyway. People should be ready to vote.  It is very important. Very soon, they will start to field wrong candidates; on their own, they will work against themselves. Although, we will continue to pray for them to change, because if they change, it will be better for us than starting all over.

The church is planning a special annual convention. What is the essence of the convention?

The convention is in fulfilment of what can be described as the Passover because convention started in Egypt when the Israelites moved from Egypt to Israel.  It was an ordinance and it was suppose to be an annual festival. For years, we’ve been having that convention and God has continued to show His power and faithfulness.