Right Reverend Rufus Okeremi is a retired Bishop of Ife-East Anglican Diocese. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, he speaks about life and ministry as well as national issues.
You underscored in your book that Nigeria has really failed, especially in its responsibilities and the way things are in the politics arena. Are you saying you have given up on the nation?
The decay I have seen so far has made me conclude that the nation has failed. When I was in the university, every student had his instruments, we had laboratories and each had his own kit, so you can perform your experiment either in the chemistry lab or the zoology lab. These days, maybe there is only one slide for demonstration by the teacher. What do the students see? Whereas in our own time, we make our own slides ourselves, but now there is only one slide for all students to see. How many of them will even see it? During my time, I remember the first admission list at the University of Lagos in 1967 was 230 students in the whole university. Later, many others came. But these days, we have students in their thousands. During our days, we had our meal tickets; even those who could not pay will have their first course at the dining hall. The first course includes cereal, milk and you can take as many cups of tea as you want. You may not be able to take the second meal, but you can have the first course, even without money. I feel sorry for students these days because I don’t even know how they survive. Where students have to cook their meals, when will they have the time to study? And even at that time, those who launder will come and pick our clothes for laundry for free as part of the accommodation fees.
The decadence in the educational sector is now worrisome. There are no machines for Engineering students, it is only what they read in textbooks. I remember my son studied in one of the universities in Nigeria, even though he made a first class, he had to work extra hard to make sure he was suitable for the Master’s course in Manchester. He had to double up because he did not want to expose himself, because some of the machines he now saw, he had never seen before. So, he had to put in extra effort to be able to meet up so that he was not embarrassed.
These are some of the things I believe are not right and the government has failed in those areas. Talk about even health, when I was chaplain to the Government House, Ibadan, it was when Sani Abacha died, they said the governor would want us to have a service to mark his death. I was not ready to conduct that service, but as the chaplain, I agreed, but I asked the governor then that ‘what about the strange nature of Abacha’s death?’ Other people are dying, what is the importance? What was surprising was that the elevators in University College Hospital (UCH) were not working and water was not running too. These are the things that are strange to me. And that made me conclude that this is not how things should be.
This is not how the government institution should be run. It is a failure on the part of the government, and you can go on and on. My wife and I were talking recently about one of our children who got admitted to Ekpoma University in Edo State, I left home at 5.00 a.m., Ibadan-Ife was not yet dualised at that time. Not up to Ilesha and with my Beetle, I got to Ekpoma before 9.00 a.m. and got back to Ibadan before 1.30 p.m. I remember a day when it took me almost two hours from my house to Egbeda in Lagos. Decadence and bad changes are happening. It was a single road, no pothole, no fear of robbers. I wonder if anyone can make a day trip to Ekpoma now. We are the same people, so what stories are we telling? These are the things that made me conclude that government is failing. We should be improving and not retrogressing. Then, it took one hour from Ibadan to Lagos, but these days, you will think twice before making such trip. These are proofs to tell you that my conclusion is right.
What do you think is the way forward?
The first thing is that our government must be faithful. They don’t have to pay us mere lip service and it is time government stopped only earmarking, it is time for them to start eye-marking. Let us see what they say they want to do. That is when they are faithful and that is when things can change for the better. Then alone can the situation improve.
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What do you think should be the role of the Church in nation building? Do you it is doing the needful?
I wrote in one of my books, ‘Christian Conduct in the Contemporary World’ that the Church has abdicated its responsibility to the government. When you look at the history of the Church and Nigeria, there is no developmental programme you talk about in Nigeria which has not been brought by the Church. Education, trade and commerce, communication; the first road in Abeokuta was built by the Church; hospitals were built by the Church. Children of the Church started pilot newspaper and the media. But there came a time government felt it can do everything and that the church should step aside. Even in education, the Church had a board of education and most of the schools were set up by the missionaries; they collaborated with the government. The government used to give them grant; we called them grant-aided schools. The Church without giving any conditionality, gave up these schools and they shut the mouth of the Church. And unfortunately, when we look at it, those who shone brightest were trained by the Church. I don’t want to mention names, judges, lawyers, big men were the products of the Church. And they were the greatest antagonists of the Church. And the Church in its nature, looking for peace would not want to contend with anybody, that is why I said they resigned their responsibility to the government. And to worsen it, most of these things I said were brought by the orthodox churches.
You enjoyed divine grace, you were able to rise to the peak of your career and at the same time became a Bishop even in old age. How come?
It is an uncommon grace of God. I never knew I was going to have any education apart from primary school education and when I was in primary school, I deliberately did not write entrance examination into any secondary school because I knew the financial condition of my parents. It was a deliberate action on my part. And as grace would have it, 10 days after I finished my primary school, December 14, 1954, I was appointed a teacher to teach in a primary school and through divine grace, I continued my education and eventually got a job as a fishery officer grade 2. I rose through the ranks and even to level 12, and as grace would also have it, I was acting level 13 when my boss was not around. I retired at the age of 50, not waiting till 60, because I joined my teaching career with my civil service to make 35 years.
I did not want to go into full time ministry, even though my father had always wanted me to be a priest, but I was somebody who always feels shy. My second son used to dramatise as a priest, he would dress like a priest. I took him to my parish priest because of the traits, if God wanted him to be a pastor, I release him, but I wanted him to be a graduate before going into ministry. Then the pastor said, why not you first? I never had it in mind to be a minister, so, I discussed with my wife and she said, it is fine if it is God’s will. I went back to him to ask for directions and he told me to write a letter to the bishop. I was surprised because that was not the procedure, you have to go through screening, be recommended to the archdeaconry for screening, and if you are capable, the archdeaconry will send the list to the bishop. But mine was different, I was working free for the church, as I was still a civil servant. I never thought of going into full time ministry. I abandoned my consultancy work and faced the work of God.
After 12 years, I was made the Canon. I had worked in Saint Anne’s Molete for eight years at that time, before I was posted to Oluyole. So there was a vacancy in Saint Anne’s and the people wished I would come back as their archdeacon even when I was working as a junior priest. So, when there was vacancy, I was selected to be the archdeacon and I served there for 10 years. I was doing developmental projects there, investments, enhancing the finances of the church, I was enjoying my work there, we were successful. We built the female hostel at UI, we built the nursery and primary, secondary, and the hospital. I was never at any time idle, until I was appointed as the provost at the cathedral. That was a little bit controversial but, I didn’t know anything about it. I told them at the cathedral that I was going to retire here. I was 65 years old then. I studied them for a whole year to know the nature of the place. God was helping us until I was elected Bishop. I was elected as Bishop of Ife East Modakeke and we had blood relations with Modakeke; it was my mother’s place, so it was like going back home. That was where I retired. They didn’t want me to go, but it was the constitution. In all things, God was opening doors for us, without any struggle. That was how we ended, almost 11 years ago, and God has been with us since then, we never lacked anything. I will be 81 on August 1. It is all the grace of God.
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