The church should provide more role models —Pastor Omole

Pastor (Dr) Charles Omole is also a councillor in London, lawyer, businessman, entrepreneur, best-selling author, inspirational speaker, among others. In this interview by NEWTON-RAY UKWUOMA, the chief host of the Wisdom for Winning Seminars, an empowering outreach, teaching believers how to win by faith and righteousness, speaks on why business insight is the fuel of his ministry, his experience in politics, among other issues. Excerpts:

 

AT what point did you embrace your calling as a pastor?

I was in business at that time but what I didn’t know was that God was going to purely use me in business; being in the ministry never occurred to me. That came much later. It is because the market place is a spiritual entity and it always starts from the temple before it goes into the market place. When Apostle Paul entered the city and found that the city was given to idolatry, he went into the synagogue to discuss it and thereafter went into the market place to discuss with as many that were there. We tend to do everything in the temple. We declare a 30-day fast, not understanding that we need to take it out of the temple into the market place. I wouldn’t have had the level of understanding I have now if had not gone into pastoring. I was doing pastoring activities while in the market place. That creates a level of balance. You can see the business side but you’re also appreciative of the spiritual part.

 

At what stage in your life did you realise your purpose in the market place?

Early enough in life, I knew what God wanted me to do. In the early 80’s, while I was still a student at the University of Lagos, I was going to the library one day towards the end of my education when the Holy Spirit told me to give everything in my pocket to the door man at the entrance. Without counting, I gave everything in my pocket to that man and he just looked at me and wept. I think he must have been believing God for something. He was blown away by how a stranger could give him all that money. As I left, the Lord said, “As you have emptied yourself today, I will feed you afresh and give you a ministry of financial dominion.” From that moment on, I knew that God had called me into the ministry of prosperity revival in the kingdom.

 

You are also a lawyer?

I am somebody that loves knowledge. I love studying with revelation. I understand that when you study, the world’s system tries to shape your mind and thinking. So, I study to know what the enemy thinks so I can counter it, because anytime you study, you’re being indoctrinated. You come out believing XYZ but those things are not necessarily godly.

 

Education

I studied Economics at the University of Lagos. I did my youth service in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. While I was in school, I was a consultant for Total when they were changing the face of all their filling stations from predominantly red to red and blue. I was in charge of that project nationwide. Then, I dabbled in political management. A good friend of mine, Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole, was running for president and myself, Stanley Macebuh, and a few others were managing the campaign for him. After then, the late MKO Abiola made Ambassador Dele Cole his head of strategy and he took all of us along to work on his campaign plan.

 

Role in politics

My role was basically behind the scenes. You won’t find me on any stage. All we were doing was to produce the strategy on a state-by-state basis. We did the demographics, dividing voters into different categories. I wasn’t in front of any microphone. Given the alternative, I thought MKO was better because I was brought into the campaign by people I also believe that even MKO didn’t know me until I got there. The point I am making is this, God knew I was going to be an apostle in the market place. Therefore, I was exposed from the beginning to the market place from all ramifications – politics, business, media, education – and it was later on that I understood that God was letting me cut my teeth, as it were, in all these areas.

 

Politics in England

Of course, I am involved in politics in England. I am an elected councillor there. In the church today, we have a crisis of models. There are very few models people can point to as examples to follow and because of this, God is making me and other people to not only teach these things, but also begin to embody it so that people know we are also confronting this on a daily basis and that modelling inspires people more. That’s the stage the church is getting into now; the stage where people embody the ambition of young people.

 

Experience in the ministry

God took me through a process. There was a period where I had strange attacks. There was a period when I won most of the contracts I bid for, and another period in which God took me through a period of five years during which I won no contacts at all. I tried all I could but nothing worked. I became depressed. It got to a point that we were almost living on the streets. During that period, God was getting rid of my arrogance, pride, ego and all the things the enemy was using against me.

 

Down moments

There was a time when I couldn’t pay house rent. During that time, I was still going from church to church, ministering but my life was not in the same shape. So, one day, a friend of mine advised me to go to the state government and apply for benefits (this was in London). When I got there, I met this Nigerian man, who recognised me from my visit to his church some time back. He testified about how my prosperity message changed his life and that of his family. When he asked what he could do for me, I told him I had missed my way and ran out. The Holy Spirit told me to go back inside if I truly needed help, so I went back in and I was given a number and when it was my turn, I felt ashamed because I had to relate my present circumstances and this man was going to be in charge of that. The man, who had told me his testimony of how my teaching blessed him, was now sitting across the table listening to all my woes. I learnt humility by force. People were getting rich and blessed while I was poor. That’s why I don’t look down on people who have nothing now because I’ve been there. I know what it means to have nothing.

 

Your sojourn into UK politics

My sojourn into politics was quite interesting. It started indirectly. I was a school governor in the UK. You have the system of people being elected by parents of the school to represent them on the management board of the school. I was one of the people elected by the parents of the children of the school. The London board had very bad education management. The council managing education treated education very badly that the government took control of education away from the council and appointed a private company to manage education. There was uproar because that was the first time ever that, that was going to be done. So, the government decided to have a local member to represent the local parents so that the parents of the children living in the Borough would feel their voices were heard. I was elected and became a council member without the normal political election and I was in charge of education and libraries. That was my first taste of frontline politics. I’ve never joined any of the political parties. I live in a county called Buckinghamshire. The part I live in is a largely white community and there are so many things I complained about and the Lord said, ‘You will be the solution.’ I decided to contest, but then, again, I didn’t want to do it on the platform of any of the political parties because they give preference to people who have been their members longer and I was going to be joining those two months to the election. I decided to do it as an independent candidate. On the election day, we voted and I won. I now sit on the council making decisions ranging from planning budget spending and interacting with politicians, who are from different political parties.

 

Your take on education in Nigeria?

The problem with education in Nigeria is lack of rigour. There is a lot of theoretical teaching. Students can cram a full textbook and pass exams, but that doesn’t mean they know it. Students are not being taught life skills and they don’t have basic relational skills. My challenge with the education in Nigeria is that the system is not balanced.

 

Where are you from?

I am from Ilesa in Osun State. I grew up in a polygamous home. My father had five wives. I went to Ilesa Grammar School and then moved to Ibadan, where I attended International School, Ibadan (ISI). My father was quite rich, but he didn’t spend the money on us. I had to walk 10 miles to school because my father instructed the drivers not to take us to school. When I gained admission into the University of Lagos, I had to find creative ways to make money because my dad said he wasn’t giving me a penny so I went into business. A lot of the things I learned were out of necessity. I grew up in an environment where my father never said ‘well done’ for anything I did. I learned to be content with anything I did whether people said, ‘well done’ or not. It made me not to rely on anyone except God.