Delta and how spreading the gospel of Christ has assisted in stabilising the polity generally against the challenges of youth restiveness over the years in the oil-bearing region.
The beginning
From time immemorial, the Niger Delta nay Nigeria, has been host to Christianity through the expedition of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) in 1841. History has it that two men from Sierra Leone accompanied an expedition team set up by the British Government on the Society’s behalf to explore West Africa, particular Niger over trade prospects. The Rev. J. F. Schon, a German missionary and an able linguist, “was engaged to accompany the expedition with a view of ascertaining for the CMS what facilities there might be for the introduction of the Gospel among the nations of the interior of Africa” and “to report on the disposition of the (African) chiefs to receive missionaries.” Reverend Schon was accompanied on the expedition by an ex-slave and catchist of Yoruba roots, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who later became the first African Anglican bishop and prior to this time, there had been a direct connection between the mission in Sierra Leone and the mission to the Niger.
Beyond the Niger expedition team of 1841 by the British Government which was to negotiate with important local chiefs’ treaties for the abolition of the slave trade and entrench “a friendly commercial intercourse between Her Majesty’s subjects and the natives of Africa,” leaders of the expedition were equally instructed to tell the rulers of Africa “that the Queen and the people of England profess the Christian religion; and that by this religion they are commanded to assist in profiting goodwill, peace, and brotherly love, among all nations and men; and that in endeavouring to commence a further intercourse with the African nations, Her Majesty’s Government are actuated and guided by these (Christian) principles.”
Fast-forward to post independence Nigeria, many orthodox missions and their pentecostal brothers had sprung up and taken roots. A discreet study of the proliferation of churches, especially the latter group, could reveal a higher number of churches in the oil-rich Niger Delta more than any other parts of the country. Thus, people of the region are predominantly Christians and as if being guided by the ideology of the earliest team of missionaries, most of the denominations are propagating the gospel of peace, brotherly love interspersed with humanitarian activities.
Spread of churches
Besides the earlier orthodox denominations such as the Anglican Communion, Catholicism and the White Garment, Pentecostal ones have taken a far more centre-stage in the lives of the people in the region. The list is endless, but it suffices to mention The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Church of God Mission, Assemblies of God Church, Living Faith (aka) Winners Chapel, Word of Life Bible Church, Christ Embassy, Salvation Ministries, The Master’s Place Int’l amid other well-populated denominations.
It is instructive to note that most of these churches have their tentacles across the length and breadth of the Niger Delta, including creeks where the menace of oil theft and illegal refineries is rife. Bizarrely though, it is not uncommon to sight colourful stickers of faces of a few self-acclaimed founders and general overseers of some big and mushroom churches displayed on sites of illegal refinery camps in the region as a means of protection and fortune! In spite of this, evidences abound to justify the existence and spread of these churches in respect of evangelism across the region. As ‘notorious’ as the Niger Delta is bandied across the globe as the presumed headquarters of crimes and criminality, it is widely believed that without their active presence and selfless involvement, what would probably subsist today would be a multiple fold of violent crimes and criminality. In order words, the church has, immeasurably, regulated and still regulating the spiritual ambience, as well as the moral sanctity of the people through evangelism, welfarism and other social and spiritual means.
Spiritual impacts
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is basically, spiritually tailored toward the redemption of the lost human soul. So, various efforts and methods ranging from open crusades, personal or group evangelism and medical outreaches, among others, are applied by churches to achieving this Great Commission. In Cathedral Church of St. Andrew (Anglican Communion), Warri Diocese, it is a target of at least one man, one soul from 2018 to 2020. Every parishioner is expected to bring to Christ and the Anglican Communion, at least, a soul before the expiration of that timeline. Speaking on behalf of the Vicar of the cathedral, Venerable Paul Whiskel, Mr Christian Chibuzor Chukwu, who’s the accountant, disclosed that the Bishop of Warri Diocese has a Mission and Evangelism Team – a vision which the Vicar, as chairman, coordinates and runs with. With speedboats purchased for this assignment, about eight women groups, evangelists and teachers periodically, with the help of pastors manning already established parishes, visit creeks to win souls, as well as establish more parishes where the souls converted are nurtured to stand in their new-found faith. Mr Chukwu disclosed further that the results had been tremendous as souls won find inner strength to turn a new leaf from vices such as kidnapping, addiction to hard drugs, prostitution, armed robbery, illegal oil bunkering, idolatry and indolence.
The Salvation Ministries’ model
With vibrant branches across states of the region, the ministry’s impacts are felt in all the nooks and crannies: among youths, the aged, children, the rich, the poor, working class, the non-working class, among others. The church, with the appellation of Home of Success, was founded by a well-bred cleric, Pastor David Ibiyeomie. His salvation messages are devoid of obscurantism, yet deep, pragmatic and powerful. Besides uprooting demonic altars with the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, his numerous crusades in Rivers State and other parts of the region have ushered in great hope for the indigent and the weak as he continuously lavishes his God-given grace and wealth to transform lives for the Kingdom.
As gleaned from the ministry’s Facebook timeline, in the last 12 months, besides 295 children that benefitted from the church’s scholarship, 300 ex-cultists were converted to Christ, surrendered their weapons and enrolled in the Word of Life Bible Institute (WOLBI) of the Salvation Ministries. The reformed souls recently completed their three weeks spiritual nourishment at the school after which they were imparted by Pastor Ibiyeomie, popularly referred to as Papa, to commence a new life in Christ.
Physically, the servant of God gave out his personal clothing to them, as well as other members of the church who also donated clothes and gift packages to the new converts after which a free one-week Personal Development and Leadership workshop, which started on July 20, 2018 for them to remain relevant in their generation. This is also followed by a free skill acquisition training in different areas of specializations organised by David Ibiyeomie Foundation, which commences on August 6, 2018. In fact, the occasion attracted the attention of the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed, who commended the effort of Pastor Ibiyeomie for contributing and supporting the fight against crime in the state.Pastor Oye Allen, pastor in charge of the Marine Base Satellite Church, who represented Pastor Ibiyeomie, thanked the Marine Base Community, Commissioner of Police and the Rivers State Police Command for their support in actualizing the success of the great move of welfarism in Christ.
Similarly, to further deepen the faith of new converts, a total of 45 persons were sponsored by the church in July 2018 to Bible School. The sponsorship covered their fees, textbooks, clothes for those who didn’t have and their feeding all through the programme.
Recently too, in continuation of its destiny-re-engineering vision, Salvation Ministries graduated 73 caterers who were freely trained for three weeks to create jobs for others. Salvation Ministries, under David Ibiyeomie Foundation (DIF) from January 2018 till date, has trained and empowered more than 1,000 youths in different skills acquisition. In July, another batch of beneficiaries of DIF got free haircut skills acquisition and empowerment and were armed with starter packs such as Supper Tapper Plus clippers, haircut cloth, neck tissue, face brush, hand brush, After shave, Clipper oil and powder after their successful training.
Word of Life offers good life
Word of Life Bible Church, founded by the immediate past irrepressible national president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has traversed the entire Niger Delta, the northern region and other parts of the country, as well as other parts of the world with the gospel of reconciliation and hope in Christ.With branches across the world, the 31-year-old Pentecostal denomination has affected the low, high and the mighty in the Niger Delta region. Sunday Tribune gathered that Oritsejafor personally visited the creeks to appease militants to sheathe their swords in the wake of militancy in the region. So many souls were converted to Christ and empowered to live a new life. The fiery cleric often called the Lion of Africa is reputed to have combed the length and breadth of the creeks in the region to quell the infamous Ijaw/Itsekiri inter communal war armed with prayers and over N6.5 million spent on relief materials for displaced persons from the two ethnic groups.
Speaking with Pastor Bayo Adewoye, Personal Assistance to Oritsejafor, he disclosed that “some of the militants personally came to surrender their weapons at Papa’s feet. He helped to rehabilitate and empowered many of them irrespective of their ethnic affiliations.”Through the church, the so-called dregs of the society had received light and hope such that even people from the northern part of the country are not left out of the work of salvation and destiny revivification as Papa Oritsejafor and his wife, Mama Helen, see to their spiritual and physical wellbeing. In what has become an obligation, Pastor Adewoye revealed that in spite of his tight daily schedule, the cleric makes it a point of duty to lead the church’s Evangelism and Follow-Up Team to harvest souls for Christ on Saturdays except he’s out of the country.
If there’s any Christian denomination obsessed, as it were, with welfarism, Oritsejafor’s Word of Life is guilty of this. For instance, in the last five years or so, no less than 1, 318 students from different ethnic nationalities across various colleges of education, polytechnics and universities have benefitted from scholarship scheme, courtesy of the septuagenarian and his dutiful wife under the church’s Poverty Alleviation Scheme.
It was gathered that 800 pupils from both primary and secondary schools had enjoyed from the scheme. In line with the church’s annual end-of-year empowerment programme which usually holds in November, several members and non-members alike, after undergoing training, have benefitted in the last five years from 325 motorcycles, 123 tricycles, 1, 245 grinding machines, 652 sewing machines, 42 new cars for transportation, 58 hair salon driers and 39 sets of commercial haircut clippers and generating sets to power them.
Sunday Tribune sought the views of God’s Kingdom Society (GKS) with its headquarters in Warri on its contributions to the Niger Delta region since its inception in February, 1933. Founded by Brother Gideon Meriodere Urhobo, the church with the appellation, ‘Church of the Living God,’ according to Brother Benedict Hart, who’s the publicity secretary, was mandated in a vision “to go and proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom (or “Gospel of Peace”) to all nations as the only remedy for all human sufferings and woes; to expose all the false doctrines which Satan had used to deceive the people and to keep them in ignorance of God’s Kingdom and purpose of creation; and to pronounce God’s written judgment against all wickedness.”
The GKS, Hart noted, had impacted tremendously on the people such that many people now have a deep knowledge of God.
He said the church played a major role during the inter-ethnic crisis that rocked Warri in 1998 and 2003 through separate statements which were issued on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 and August 19, 2003 to douse the brotherly war and bloodshed.”We stated that the use of violence to fight a cause is gone. Violence results in unpleasant consequences. There can be no peace and progress in a community or country where justice is trampled upon and the people take pleasure in litigation and in creating confusion,” he affirmed.“The inter-ethnic crisis in Warri has continued to escalate leading to the burning of houses, kidnappings, hostage taking, killings and so on. Several persons have been killed in attacks by armed youths in the vicious struggle for economic and political power,” he noted adding that the church worked very hard to quell the pogrom through advocacy.
Challenges confronting evangelism
Propagating the Gospel of Christ surely comes with its own numerous challenges. Spiritual warfare is lethal for the non-initiate and experienced. Rooting up altars and strongholds of satanic machinations requires deep spiritual consecration and fortification. Truth is that the wider the church spreads the Good News, the fiercer the spiritual wickedness waxes. But in the end, the Lord of Hosts triumphs.Most riverine communities still languish in the captivity of evil power as they keep resisting change, resisting the Light of God from penetrating their domains. As such, idol and ancestral worships and syncretism still find expression among some of the folks.
The challenge of navigating communities in the creeks to propagate the gospel is herculean, the funding of logistics and government’s insensitivity in the provision of basic social amenities. Mr Chukwu of the Anglican Communion, Warri Diocese, complained of the terrain of riverine communities, hostility and idol worshipping as factors militating against evangelism in the region.
“There are some of us who don’t know how to swim and at times, we don’t have live jackets on boats overlooking the risk involved.The issue of idol worshipping in some villages makes them impenetrable for us to evangelise. The natives will not want us to say anything against their traditional beliefs. In some cases during our crusades, folks in such communities would refuse to come out until we embark on serious fasting and prayer before souls could be won for God. And some, out of frustration maybe because of unemployment and poverty, harass and chase us away,” he noted.
Sourcing enough financial muscle to finance needs of new converts, take care of the sick as well as other social empowerments rank among challenges confronting evangelism in the region. This challenge is common to all churches. But for a few but blessed covenant partners, who are somewhat sold out to sponsor such needs, so-called tithes and offerings fall short of footing the bills. Bro Hart of GKS, like Mr Chukwu, decried the situation. To mitigate hardship, the former stated that food and clothes bank exists where converts in need are given respite when the need arises.
Pastor Adewoye, the aide to Oritsejafor, said whatever challenge the church was confronted with in the course of evangelisation of the region were not those uncommon to the calling or not envisaged by Jesus Christ in the scriptures and therefore must be accepted as part of the mandate.
“Paucity of funds has also been a limiting factor in that evangelism costs money and the Church does not have sponsors or financial assistance from outside the country but depends on the contributions of members for all her activities. But we have been maximising the use of the resources the Lord has been providing by His grace,” Bro Hart of GKS noted.
No doubt, several other leading church denominations have, through their interventions, assisted in the process regulating and stabilising the polity against the challenge of youth restiveness over the years in the oil-bearing region.
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