CAMA: Government can’t regulate the church, but if they persist, we’ll fight back —Bishop Wale Oke

The President and Founder of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries International, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, is the new president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). SEYI SOKOYA brings excerpts of his dialogue with newsmen at his first meeting with journalists as PFN president.

You recently emerged the seventh president of the PFN. How do you feel about this?

I see my tenure as the newly-elected president of PFN as that of great significance. I am not taking this opportunity for granted; instead, it is a great platform to leverage on and complement the great works of our forefathers. This is a seat formerly occupied by Reverend J.O Boyejo, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Archbishop Benson Idahosa of blessed memory; Bishop Michael Okonkwo and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who are still alive and well and most recently, Reverend Dr. Felix Omobude, who handed over to me. And by the grace of God, I am taking the mantle as the seventh president, which is extremely significant. Permit me to say this; the founding fathers of PFN and the past presidents laboured gallantly and very hard to have brought PFN to its enviable position today as a spiritual house to be reckoned with in Nigeria and we intend to take it further.

What do you consider your greatest mission as you assume this prestigious office?

My slogan is ‘Making a great legacy glorious’. I am conscious that we are inheriting a great platform and a great legacy and our determination, with the help of God and the cooperation of all of us, will make the legacy glorious. This time in our national life is so important because our nation is at a crossroads, with so much insecurity. The crisis of the Fulani herdsmen is there; kidnapping, raping, killings, and Boko Haram, among other challenges facing the country. The youths are restless; most of them do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. They want to be listened to, but it is like nobody is listening to them and they are bottled up.

We are face-to-face with a very loud cry for the restructuring of the nation, and the cry is from every part of the nation. We are also faced with a make or break election which is coming up in 2023 and the politicians are already playing their games. At this time, we see our election as a call to duty; to do all we can to rescue a great nation that has been faced with many challenges. It is a call to pull Nigeria back from the brink.

It is a call to do all we can to prevent Nigeria from becoming a failed State, which America predicted was going to happen in 2015. But through the mercy of God, it did not happen. Now, the sign that they saw that time is growing worse and the noise is getting louder. Except God intervenes, Nigeria might become a failed State. It is such a time as this that God has brought us up. I want us to know that God has a plan for Nigeria; He has an agenda for Nigeria, and if not for God, Nigeria would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah and collapsed a long time ago.

When COVID-19 broke out, the world predicted that Nigerians and Africans would be dying in millions daily; they mocked us that we didn’t have the technology or any good medical system, and then the people of God prayed and cried unto God. We all are witnesses today that we haven’t died like they predicted we would. We haven’t died as they died in America because God has been good to us. We are mobilising the church and all Pentecostals to pray to God concerning our nation. This is a call to duty.

How do you intend to achieve this transparency?

The PFN is not a political party, neither is it a pressure group, and we have no plans to turn it to either of these. The PFN is primarily a spiritual house that is concerned with praying for the nation, fasting, discipline for the nation, preaching, and teaching our people to be Godly and righteous. We have mapped out a seven-fold agenda for our tenure in the next four years. We plan to mobilise all Pentecostals in this nation for kingdom advancement and nation-building.

There are several denominations with millions of members; we have not come together as we should, though in unity there is strength. We want to mobilize and empower the youth of the nation. The youth in the nation is the solution, but they are discouraged. They are yearning for a better Nigeria. We want to empower them through regular and spiritual education. We also want to lay emphasis on the female youths: to stop child marriage and child slavery. We want to empower them economically, spiritually and politically, and to create awareness in them that the future of the nation belongs to them.

We also want to promote a North-South partnership. The nation is made up of the North and the South. We want to turn that into strength. We want to bring the North and the South together beginning from the church. To help ourselves, we want to do this through spiritual education, economic enlightenment, and especially to see ourselves as brothers and sisters. The nation has been drifting apart and that is dangerous for us. I have spiritual brethren all around the country, from every tribe, and we love ourselves. We want to translate that to the whole church and the nation for national strength and unity. The others are core spiritual matters.

The church in Nigeria has become a strong institution that influences policies and government. How do you intend to separate spirituality from politics?

I mentioned earlier that PFN is not a political group and neither is it a pressure group. Our agenda is spiritual. Jesus asked us to preach to the world; so we will focus on our mission. We know that when we are spiritually vibrant, we influence society. The people we lead are humans; there is politics inside everybody. We will not go near partisan politics. But it is part of our duty to educate people politically so that they will know that their position in politics will determine what will happen to them. We intend to do that without being partisan. But we are not going to shy away from that responsibility. If for example, a bad president emerges, everyone will suffer, irrespective of religion.

People in the North are predominantly Muslim, and there seems to be a very huge task to bring them in on the idea. How do you intend to bring them in, so that this plan is not just for Christians only?

Yes, the North is predominantly Muslim and that is why I said this partnership will start from the church. Three things will guide us. The sincerity of purpose; we will be very sincere, we won’t play politics with it. We will walk in love, genuinely, as Christ loves. Not everybody will understand us, but it doesn’t matter. Then finally, we will back it up with prayer. We are not saying there won’t be challenges; we will not be deterred from our commitment. We will influence the country, one person at a time.

How realistic is youth empowerment?

They are divided into two – the elite and educated; they are diligent, informed, and they are doing well. They are an engine room to the economy of this nation. We will bring the partnership to that level and use them to partner the other side – the hoodlums and not well educated. It is not first about money. A wise man said ‘you make someone poorer when you give him money.’ Real empowerment begins with re-orientation. There will be regular and spiritual education, and rehabilitation, funding, help for SMEs. We are setting up a body that will do that.

The popular feedback on the street is that people are tired of the entity called Nigeria. How will you react to this?

Nigerians have come to this point and it has never been as bad as it is today. When darkness is thickest, a small flash of light will catch attention. All we need is a little spark of hope; we are not going to do it on our own and we will trust God and pray. We dare not give up; if we do, we are finished. It is not in our best interest to go our separate ways; the labour of our heroes past must not be in vain. We are stronger together. It is the human factor that is the problem. We are not going to get there in one day, but let us not give up. We are going to achieve this with prayer.

What is the current position of the Christian body on CAMA? 

The CAMA law has been signed by the president, so it is extant; but we are working very hard on it. It cannot stand. We have approached the presidency, and the National Assembly. We have assembled a team of legal luminaries to take the matter up and they are working hard on it. The government cannot regulate the church. They are trying to copy the United Kingdom. Over there, government supports the church in every way. They do not meddle in the affairs of the church. They do not bother with leadership. What qualifies you to choose a leader? We do not want to appeal to our last resort, which is why we are approaching the presidency. No one ever fights against God and wins. If they are persistent in their stubbornness, we will show them where power lies.

There has been a mix-up between PFN and CAN; can you elucidate on the one that has the bigger weight?

PFN is a semi-block, while CAN is made up of five blocks. PFN is half of a block. God has blessed us with great churches and several millions of faithful believers. We are a vibrant and integral part of CAN. On any matter, the position of CAN is our position. Before CAN come out to make a stand, they have consulted all the leadership that formed CAN. Whatever CAN says about any national or religious issue is exactly the position of PFN.

There are claims that the Federal Government oftentimes disregards the views of the Christian body. Could this be as a result of the disunity and internal problems in the Christian body?

It depends; from time to time there are genuine voices of concern and there are also noisemakers who just want attention. If I have access to someone in power, I don’t have to go to the media to advise them or lend a word or two to them. But you understand the mentality of the politician; the moment you speak against them through the media, you are their enemy. You can call the person, meet with them and talk without the media.  Our position is to counsel. For example, I am not the president of Nigeria; you didn’t vote me in. If I have the privilege, I am only a counsel, a spiritual advisor. By the time I start to force a president to buy my view, I become irrelevant. You don’t direct an executive, you only counsel. I don’t criticise the government through the media; I only counsel them, pray for them and then leave them to decide.

Pentecostal churches are one of the fast-growing denominations and as a result of this, the section of the church has witnessed some ungodly and non-biblical doctrines through the claims of revelations and spiritual induction. As the new leader of this fold, how do you intend to checkmate and instill the right doctrines in them?

We are going to embark on rigorous spiritual teachings; to make them know the right from the wrong. Then we have a disciplinary committee that we are going to strengthen, and give power for offenders to be disrobed if necessary. We will not solve all the problems in four years, but we will do all we can. But don’t forget, it is not everyone that calls themselves Pentecostals that are truly Pentecostals. Some are using juju and witchcraft. But when you talk of real Pentecostals, we believe in the name of Jesus, the word of God, prayer, fasting; no juju or syncretism is permitted. We will do our best to distinguish between true genuine Pentecostals and those that are not genuine.

You must have checked the books of your predecessors; the authorities PFN is yet to give its position on the embattled leader of COZA Church, Pastor Abiodun Fatoyinbo. What do you have to say to this?

It is not my place to call out a person on the pages of a newspaper. I can do that face-to-face. No matter how much the son is in the wrong, the father does not go to the pages of newspapers to disown the son. That is why I cannot mention anybody’s name. But we will distinguish between those who are genuine Pentecostals and we will teach them the word of God.

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