Pastor Tope Ilesanmi is the Lead Pastor of Revival Summit Ministries and Chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of
Nigeria (PFN) Ikeja Province. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, he speaks on the security situation of the nation.
The Southern states governors recently met in Lagos and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should come from the South. What is your position on this resolution?
As traditional politicians, they may be correct because Nigerians view themselves by ethnicity. Of course, it may be because of the complexity, but I know there are countries that have more ethnic groups than we have in Nigeria. What Nigeria actually needs now is to search for the best materials. In management, we call them level five leaders, that is, leaders who have the knowledge to know who and who are needed in any department of the organisation. So, that should be the proper thing. On the other hand, because of the way Nigeria is structured, they (Southern governors) may be correct in their own way.
Having a look at insecurity in the country, what do you think security operatives can do differently to salvage the situation?
Yes. Kaduna is having the lion share of kidnapping at the moment, but down South too, we are having our own. There is no place in Nigeria that is safe. When I went on a spirituality index a few weeks ago, only Lagos State seems to be working – some are in red zone, some are in amber zone, while Lagos and one other state are in green zone. It is so bad that when you have 90 per cent of all the states faced with insecurity, I feel the best thing for the president is to step aside. Ibrahim Babangida did it; so, let the president step aside for someone else to lead, because there is nothing you can suggest to the president that he will use. State policing that many states are trying to resort to may, to some extent, help them. Amotekun Corps will somehow help them, but when that thing will turn against us as a nation… because the governors that have put them together are immature in leadership. So, they will use it against the system in years to come. The best thing Buhari can do now is to be proactive and fish out those tormenting the nation. But since the leadership of the nation is not sincere, there is nothing they can do but step aside and allow people who want Nigeria to succeed.
With just two years left for the administration, will it not create some political imbalance for the country should the president step aside?
Is the nation balanced as we talk? Everything is on disequilibrium, and for that reason, you will agree with me that for the next six months to one year, there will be changes. Let me not take you too far; when Yemi Osinbajo stood in the gap for Buhari when he went on a medical break in 2017, did you know the level of fairness; the level of economic changes that happened within those few months? So, if the person who knows what to do should take over now -give him between three to six months, there will be calmness; the security of the nation will be restored and then we can breathe some air of relief. Imagine exchange rate of N500 plus to a dollar; who would have imagined that such a thing will happen in Nigeria and nobody will respond? So, the best thing is for this man to step aside. There are people he can hand over to.
He can hand over to Osinbajo; he can also choose to hand over to somebody else, after all Tunde Bakare said he wants to be the 16th president and he understands Hausa – so he should hand over to him. Nothing good can ever come out of this system again because it has been programmed to fail. A deliberate programme, as we are not suffering from external forces, we are suffering from internal forces, of which the Federal Government is complicit.
Every security challenge of the country rises and falls on leadership. The people who said they do not want the Western education’s leaders have become multibillionaires through the same Western education. Is it not Western education that enlightened them and made them to compete a little with the Southerners? If they say they do not want it, it is a deception just to mislead the Southerners. The truth of the matter is that the leadership of the North wants only a few elite to remain in power – go and check, all of them sending their children to the best schools abroad. Are you saying they don’t want Western education? Sending their children to the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) to study – they want it, but they are not making provision to protect the interest of the poor who should also go to school because they know that when the people are enlightened and educated, they can free themselves from the indirect slavery that the Northern elite are keeping the people. It is not as if Boko Haram is an impossible task, but it is because it is also feeding the ego of the Northern elite.
PFN recently launched a N200 million fund for its state secretariat. Why build a state secretariat when there is a national secretariat in Lagos?
My own province being an investment secretariat and that is exactly what the Lagos State PFN is trying to do. It is an investment secretariat, not just secretariat of a few offices – only a few part will be reserved for offices, the rest are going to be commercialised so that it can generate fund for the state. It will reduce the financial burden on the members if that is done.
In other words, you are saying PFN wants to be sustainable for the future?
Yes. It will be self sustainable financially as the years go by.
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PFN is a strong organisation in Lagos and members pay dues; are the dues not enough for the day-to-day running of the secretariat?
We call it subscription. It is grossly insufficient to meet the running of PFN because there are lots of challenges the members are going through. When I say members, there are some big ones that have made it, but the upcoming ones need some leverage. Without that, there are lots of such challenges that keep coming that PFN might not be able to handle and even the subscription that is being contributed yearly is grossly inefficient. As a province chairman, if I tell you how much I have to spend personally from my own purse, it is much. It is more for welfare because when founders are just starting ministry, there will be test and trial of faith. At that time they need some measures of help from those that have made it. Personally, I have to be responsible for their well-being – the subscription is too low compared to the challenges.
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