I served a master for 10 years before God called me —Adejumo

Bishop Felix Adejumo is the visioner of the Agape Christian Ministry Worldwide. In this interview with Hakeem Gbadamosi, he speaks about life at 65, the church, state of the nation, among other issues.

 

You recently clocked 65, how has the journey been? 

I think for any person who has found favour in the sight of God to live up to this age, his heart should be filled with gratitude. I owe God my gratitude and I cannot pay my dues to God for these 65 wonderful years that He has kept me. Many of my age mates are not alive today. Many who are alive are not in my position. Some are alive but on the streets, either they are mentally deranged or are celebrating their birthdays in prison but that I am alive, hale and hearty, I feel so blessed, so fulfilled. The journey has been from grass to grace. I barely survived and I remember how my growing up was; I could hardly afford a pair of shoes. We walked barefoot and up to my primary school, I was just in the village and there was nothing too exciting: no electricity, no pipe-borne water. So we were drinking directly from the river and stream and I survived it. Not everybody had that privilege to survive, but by His grace, I survived it. So, it was like that till when I finished secondary school and I got a job in the Ministry of Lands and Housing in the old Western State. It has not been rosy, but God has made it worthwhile. However, it has been wonderful now, because I have seen the wonderful hands of God that lifted me to where I am today.

Our kidnappers were typical Fulani men and were on drugs, they were herdsmen, they told us themselves —Bauchi victim

What would you like to change about yourself at 65?

Honestly, I cannot think of anything to change because where I started from is not where I am now. I was not even looking for God, but God saved me in His message and I wouldn’t have wished for anything less than when God’s message reached me. I am also grateful that He called me at the time I was called, I thank God that He made me to go through the phases I went through, serving my master for 10 years before He called me. I don’t have a past that I am regretting about. My future is very enviable and my past has been great and wonderful.

 

What has been the motivation for your efforts in the vineyard? 

My purpose in life is to see everything God said to me to come to fulfillment. So, I live my life daily for three reasons: to please God, to be a mentor to many others and to fulfill the ultimate goal God has given me or set before me. I feel the journey is still very far, so I am reinventing myself because I know we have not got to where we are supposed to get to.

 

Why did you decide to site your ministry in Akure? 

Akure was not my choice; it was God’s choice for me. I call it divine location and when God calls you, He tells you the people He is sending you to and the location, so that’s why I am here. I didn’t choose it myself. Wherever God sent you to, He goes before you and makes sure the place is conducive for your operations. I discovered that Akure has been a good place for me, the people of Akure have accepted me and the land also accepted me. So that’s the reason we see the results we are seeing today and I am connected to all the people, in fact, I am an Akure man.

 

What should the Christian community expect from the re-elected leadership of CAN? 

I believe the president of CAN will consolidate on what he has begun, what he started and what he has done so far. We are people of peace, we want peace in the nation and that is what we preach and propagate. I think one of his focuses is to make sure that Nigeria remains one piece. Let there be peace among religious groups and we should not be fighting one another because of religion. God did not send anybody to kill another person because of religion, so I think the CAN president will live up to that by God’s grace. Looking at the policies, I think he will be in a position to advise the government on any policy that is anti-progress, that is not going to give Nigerians the desired expectations. As the leader of the body of Christ, he will represent us well and tell the government the pains that we go through.

 

What is your view about insecurity in the country and what do you think can be done to address the issue? 

We got to where we are because of the choices we made and the one we did not make. We got to where we are because of bad leadership but we cannot watch everything continue this way, we need a holistic approach to everything. Firstly, we need dialogue, because the security situation in this country has even gone beyond the hands of our president. Everybody is afraid. There are many forces that are actually threatening the security of this country and we need to discuss with our leaders and I think we are doing that as religious leaders. One of the things that we can do is to have the state police because if each state has its own police, we will have policemen who are indigenes of the state and would be able to understand the terrain and protect us because we know ourselves. But if that is not going to be done, then it means that they should transfer policemen to their states of origin. Ondo State should have policemen from Ondo State, so wherever they are, they can send them to us, because the policemen know the terrain and will be able to protect us better. We are also praying and we believe that God has heard our prayers and things will get better as far as the security of this nation is concerned.

 

What should Nigerians expect from President Muhammadu Buhari in his second term in the areas of the economy, power, road construction and others

Everybody knows what is good but the courage and political will to do it is not there. Government will be seen as doing nothing if it does not take care of the people it governs as far as infrastructure is concerned. Also, the economy should be a concern to any leader. Many of the people are not employed. These issues are there and government has the facts and figures but the political will to do it seems not to be there. It looks like we are chasing shadows in  this country. I believe leaders should sit down and lead well. The government should sit up and work on the  promises they made as regards the economy. The level of poverty in this nation is too much. In fact, instead of moving forward, we are moving backward. Nigeria can recover if we have those with the vision of what to do.