Our ordeal at the hands of land grabbers —Ven Babalola

The Venerable Collins Olufemi Babalola is the Archdeacon of St. Anne’s Anglican Church, the headquarters of Molete Archdeaconry, Ibadan Diocese. He speaks with RITA OKONOBOH on his 25-year experience in the Anglican ministry, St. Anne’s achievements over the past 56 years and the church’s experience in the past year with land grabbers. Excerpts:

BRIEF about background

I am a native of Ife and Modakeke. I had my primary and secondary education there and attended the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University where I read English Studies. Finished in 1986. I came into the Anglican ministry in 1992. However, I had worked with other ministries before that.

What makes up an archdeaconry?

An archdeaconry is an administrative unit of a diocese and Molete archdeaconry is one of the 10 administrative units of the Ibadan diocese. An archdeaconry is constituted of some churches. We have 13 churches under the Molete archdeaconry. I’ve been the archdeacon now for almost three years. I was transferred from the Ijokodo archdeaconry, where I had spent almost nine years.

How have you been able to efficiently manage these 13 churches?

We have a structure. We have a chief church, which is called the cathedral, then the administrative units, which are called archdeaconries. Of course, every church has a pastor, depending on the size of the church and each of them is responsible for the day-to-day running of the churches and they report to the archdeaconry, if there are problems. We have a way of meeting, and reports on happenings in the churches are given every month. I perform a supervisory role to ensure steady development of the churches.

How would you rate your 25-year experience in the Anglican ministry?

Well, it’s been very challenging. This is in the sense that we belong to a new generation of ministers and those who were before us, probably didn’t see things as we do now. It’s been challenging but interesting and we give God all the glory.

St. Anne’s Church would be 56 this year. With your experience at the church, how would you assess it so far?

Well, the growth of the church has been steady. It is one of the key churches in Ibadan diocese and in Ibadanland. It used to be referred to as ‘church on the hill’, but it is now referred to as ‘church on the move.’ We have had various challenges and God has been helping us overcome those challenges.

What are some of the challenges the church has experienced?

This church is the headquarters of Molete Archdeaconry and it used to be bigger than this, and some other archdeaconries have evolved from this church. So, there is the challenge of having to give birth to more churches, evolving more archdeaconries and regrouping to take the gospel of Christ forward.

We have also had the bothersome issue of land grabbing. We have a parcel of land of the church at Odeku, Idiroko in Ibadan; on a portion of it we have a church. The land was acquired by St. Anne’s Church but a part of it has been ceded to the church. Not too far from the church, we have St. Anne’s Comprehensive School, also owned by the church. So, we had been considering what to do with the portion of land left when suddenly, in June 2016, some people came up to say the land belonged to them, and even with documents to back up their claim. Fortunately, when the land was bought – the Odeku village is the Odeku family – majority of members of the family supported the purchase. However, they were able to trace the sudden claim to ownership to some distant relations who didn’t want to cooperate with them. We have a legal department in the diocese that caters to our legal challenges and they have taken it up. We had to involve the police at some point, and there were challenges with that. Although the court has served both sides a restraining order to stay action on the land, the new claimants have continued to make moves to build and sell the land.

Does the action of the new claimants not bother members of the church at Odeku during services?

I think initially it did because one time, they slapped one of our pastors – he was the pastor there before a new pastor was transferred to the church. We also had members leaving the church at some point because of the issue. That necessitated the change of guard, as the new pastor sent by the diocese knew the land better. Members also relaxed when we took the case to court.

Apart from court action, what other steps has the church taken on the issue of land grabbers?

We decided we were not going to engage in violence. Nobody is touching the church or the vicarage. We want the case to follow the due process of the law, knowing well that for those encroaching on the land, it will just be a matter of time before justice takes full course.

The issue of land encroachment has become a major headache for government and, in recent times, some states have taken bold steps to tackle the menace. What solutions would you recommend, with your church’s experience?

Lagos State has blazed the trail by passing into law that whoever takes a land forcefully will be jailed. Ogun and Oyo States have followed suit. Although for us, such minimum jail terms are not enough to dissuade such land grabbers, we want to commend the Governor Abiola Ajimobi government for taking the bold step. Still, we would appeal that such laws to address land encroachment are enforced, no matter whose ox is gored, and we believe, with time, the problem would be a thing of the past. Land grabbing is daylight robbery; it is wickedness, especially as such persons are ready to kill. It is a problem in Ibadanland. There are people who buy lands over and over again just to satisfy the whims of land encroachers. Something must be done to tackle the menace once and for all.

The church declared 2017 the Year of Greater Glory. When you consider Nigeria’s bleak economic situation, would you still subscribe to the fact that this is, indeed, a year of greater glory?

The Bible says the just shall live by faith. We believe Nigeria’s problems are as a result of the leaders and followers not doing things as they should be done. We believe, however, that for those who follow God, if institutions will do things right, things will change. On the individual level, for those who follow God, things can be got right.

How would you advise pastors to help their members cope with this recession?

Everybody must get things right and we must not be one-way-traffic people. We should learn to diversify and help members create opportunities, even with the present state of things. We should challenge our people to be creative and also be prudent. I’ve always believed that people who engage in productive ventures that meet needs will get blessings from it. We should also encourage members to find a way we can meet needs. That way we can be rewarded.

In three months, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would have spent two years in office. How would you assess them?

I am one of those who prayed very hard and mobilised the congregation to pray hard that God’s will come to pass with the 2015 elections. And without being biased religion-wise, we believe President Buhari’s coming to power was God’s will. One of the declarations of our president was that he would belong to nobody but to everybody but that is not obvious. We would like the government to walk the talk. People want to actually believe that the government is for nobody but for everybody. For some of us who are religious leaders, with the killings that have been taking place, we are beginning to think that this government may be pro- one religion and anti- another religion. The government is also not coming out to speak against such killings. A lot of us would want the government to be more proactive and act fast because time is going. They should put together a strong economic think-tank. The government has done well in the area of fighting Boko Haram as well as corruption, although there are some question marks. Government should ensure that they look inwards and ensure they are not witch-hunting, but is, rather, really fighting corruption. There should also be speedy action taken to alleviate the suffering of the masses.