Reverend Paul Tunde Tioluwani is the presiding pastor of the Bible Way Crusaders Church International and president of the Care People Foundation. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, he speaks on the role of the church and the government in the pressing needs of the nation, among other issues.
YOU have concentrated more on humanitarian service as a cleric. So, how has it been?
To the glory of God, it has been delightful, inspiring, and encouraging. This is because Christianity without charity is not complete. The very first mandate God gave Jesus is to preach the gospel to the poor and this can only be achieved by helping them. Therefore, we should borrow a leaf from that. Even the missionaries that brought Christianity to Nigerians came with free schools, and healthcare, among other things, until Africans hijacked it and started charging exorbitant fees. Many notable Nigerians benefited from the free missionary schools and free hospitals. This was how Christianity was propagated in Africa. So, why can’t that create such an opportunity for the present generation? As Christians, we should show mercy so that we can receive mercy as well. I am proud to say that most of the things God did for me till today are by the act of mercy and if I come back to life again I will still want to operate in the mercy and charity work.
How do you combine the two callings, charity and pastoral work without any clash?
When God calls you, He will tell you the area he wants you to focus on. I believe that God is a tripartite being – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and, therefore, in creating us in his image, he made us tripartite as well and that is why man is body, soul, and spirit. Thus, God the Father can call you, God the Son can call you, and God the Spirit can also call you. For example, Paul was called by the tripartite, while Moses was called by God the Father only.
When God the Father called me, he called me to be a global evangelist and told me that He would link me with the late Evangelist Reinhard Bonke, who laid his hands on me. Later in my journey, God the Son came and told me he wanted me to go into charity. I was led to establish an orphanage, and He raised people to help me. We have over 15 gigantic structures built by eminent Nigerians in the 10 acres of land at the centre for the underprivileged, and I can’t point to one that I built myself.
Even the land where our ministry was built in Ibadan was a deep gully and it took a raw miracle to get it built. After we acquired the land property they said we would need about N50 million then to sandfill it, but God told me not to worry that He stained the land specifically and that He would remove it. Not long former president Olusegun Obasanjo approved the channelisation of the Oguna River. A friend later informed me that it seemed the land had been hijacked from me by the government because he saw people working on the land with heavy caterpillars. On the verge of confirming the information, I realised that the construction company handling the Ogunpa River project chose our deep gully land to fill with the sands evacuated from the river. I later asked them to move, we did a fence, and we eventually built the church. Therefore, miracles happen, and no one can convince me otherwise. Even, I believe that if Baba Obadare didn’t see something in me, he wouldn’t have sent me to represent him in his churches abroad before he died.
What are the challenges like as a cleric and a humanitarian?
Of course, I face issues because you can’t please everyone, but what I’m doing is only aimed at pleasing God, not people. So, it is fine if not everybody agrees with me because God is my focus. Even Jesus agreed that men cannot be pleased. We have about 10 graduates from our orphanage from our free school, and students do not pay tuition. One of them is a soldier and a lecturer at Makuadi. We also have a lady whom we named Onaara, now an American citizen. We gave her Onaara because we picked her up by the railway side after she was dumped shortly after birth. She is now a Master’s holder and married with children. We have a lot of them who are now doing well in their various disciplines and we are not tired of nurturing more kids. Some people charge money for their church schools and all; people say they are defrauding their members. The challenging part was that rumours in some quarters stated that I was using peoples’ glory, but he that leads the orchestra must be ready to back the crowd.
Well, the main thing is that I am not a politician who is looking for votes, and I’m not doing it because of money. If I’d spent all this money on myself, I would be richer. But I’m doing this because of divine instruction, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely because I obeyed – not just me, but even my children. The 33-acre land we were recently given for free recently in Ondo State is part of the rewards in folds. I could not possibly afford it if I was to buy it. The land even came with a church, borehole, and other amenities. Most of these things I enjoy, I can’t buy them. I was an adviser to two governors in Oyo State, Colonel Ahmed Usman, and the late Lam Adesina. I didn’t lobby for it. Whenever I travel to Canada, the prime minister, mayor, police, etc invite me.
I currently have a van and 50 computers sent to me from Canada to give to people to help them learn. If I were to buy all these things, I would have spent a huge of money. Now, we are planning to expand. We want to establish a tuition-free university, and another orphanage home in Ondo State and we have people willing to help. We’re working on celebrating excellence because Nigeria does not celebrate excellence except mediocrity.
First-class graduates are given 10,000 naira, while people committing sins on national television are being given N100 million. It is uncalled for and this does not guarantee the future of Nigeria. This is why we’re working on celebrating every first-class graduate, regardless of where they are from, and helping them to travel out and have better opportunities through an initiative tagged ‘First Class Club’. I’m planning this with my daughter in England, who also has her organisation involved in charity and helping the youth. We have various packages to put smiles on the faces of Nigerians, and this is the only way we can ease the tension in the country currently. People are hungry in the land, and I feel the church should respond.
What is your take on the challenges in the country?
To be honest, when a man does not count the cost properly in terms of a particular project, there will be a crisis. I think the current leadership of Nigeria underestimated the problems the country is facing before dabbling in it and it is so clear that they are clueless and do not have the answer. I think the president had two plans, and he thought that by the time he played those two cards, everything would work. The first is the unification of the exchange window to one – he thought that would solve the problem, but it failed. The second one is the removal of fuel subsidy, which failed as well. Now, that those main two cards have failed, everything else he was doing is trial and error.
Now, they are bringing up the issue of an increase in electricity fees. They promised that once it is fixed electricity would be stable, and guess what? Yet it failed. I guess this development shows the incompetence of those in charge.
Things can only work in Nigeria except for divine intervention. This is the first time Nigeria is facing a worse crisis in the economic sector. If they feel religion is the answer to Nigeria why can’t the religion factor put in place through the election make things work now? Let us put religious sentiments apart. The main thing is to put proper people in position.
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