– No Gang-Up Can Stop Jonathan in 2015 if he contests
– EFCC Must Investigate Church Accounts
Prophet Duromola Adedayo Samuel is the founder and general overseer of Christ Worshippers Church in Osubi, Warri, Delta State. The Ondo state-born pastor who hails from Owo is reputed for fighting and exposing evil and evil doers which accounts for the various attacks on his person and church by those who are uncomfortable with his firebrand ministry. Prophet D. A . Samuel had made several predictions in the past. He predicted the ascension of a black man to the White house in USA as far back as 2004 amongst numerous predictions. He also told President Jonathan of his political destiny in 2005. in 2008, he predicted that former Bayelsa governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha will bounce back, when he was asked about it again in 2012, he said the president will grant the former governor presidential pardon before the expiration of the president’s first term. Today, he speaks audaciously on the state of the nation and the future of the Nigerian State.
What is the latest with your ministry concerning its growth?
Well, we thank God Almighty because we are growing and by His grace, we shall get there. We have an administrator who is running the church especially when I am not in Warri. We have infused new ideas in our drive to win souls for Christ as well as to free the oppressed.
Our church, though a spiritual and healing ministry, is now tilting more towards evangelical. We are building an outreach because Christ enjoined us in the Bible when He said in Mark 16 verse 15, ‘Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’ That is where we stand now, to preach the gospel and get people to accept Christ. So propagating the message of Christ through serious preaching of the Word is now more of our charge. People have known our church as a miracle centre where people come for miracle. There will still be miracles by the grace of God because truly, it is not by our power but then the people need more of the Word for their personal edification. So you will see more of preaching of the gospel of Christ, how to get people saved than miracle. When people know the word, their faith can build and be built; that way, they can be properly tuned to receive miracles.
Hitherto, people just come for miracle without adequately knowing the message of God. Now, we will preach it to them and ensure that they, by their understanding of the word, become a part of the body of Christ. Now, there will be over seventy percent preaching of the gospel and doing outreach work and less than thirty percent of miracles. The people have to understand that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It’s in Romans 10 verse 17. When the people understand this and know that salvation of their souls is more important and that is what the church as the body of Christ represents, they will get more miracles. People have to first seek the kingdom of God. Matthew 6 verse 33 says and it was Jesus speaking, ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.’ That is why I always tell people that the best thing that can happen to a man is if he has obeyed this simple admonishment. In a nutshell, our church cardinal focus is more on preaching the gospel and spreading it.
We have also begun an all-inclusive pastoral school, a school of theology where pastors will be adequately trained in the Word. We just had our first matriculation few weeks ago and it was quite impressive because though we expected mainly pastors to apply for the programmes, we were quite surprised, and pleasantly so, that ordinary church members enrolled just to be enriched in the Word. We have renowned teachers of theology in the school, some come from outside to teach and we will certificate them upon graduation.
What kind of certificates will the school issue?
It depends. We have various programmes. We have a one year certificate programme and we will be issuing ordinary certificates. There is the two-year diploma programme. We are also looking at degrees, higher diplomas and so on. As we grow, more things will come into place.
Is the school for members for Christ Worshippers Church?
No, it’s open to everybody. It is interdenominational. People from other churches and even others faiths are admitted. The word of God is the word of God and it remains the same everywhere and it is for everybody. The school is not for only our members or our pastors. We shall be training anybody be it a pastor, deacon, elder, church members from any church or even non-Christian who want to learn about Christian theology are welcomed.
Nigeria is a growing nation with lots of prospect. Sir, what is your take on the present state of the nation?
What is happening in Nigeria today is unfortunate because corruption has continued to bedevil this country. It is not to say that corruption is new in Nigeria. Corruption has always been in Nigeria from the first republic. The only difference is that those politicians of old did not make a show of stolen money but they were stockpiling their loots and their children today are the ones enjoying the ill-gotten money. Look at those who have held political offices in the past; where are their children today? They are enjoying because their fathers have stolen so much and that is why everybody wants to get into public office and it is for the sole reason of self-aggrandizement. Today’s politicians have little shame, they make a show of what they have stolen and everybody is seeing and unfortunately, nobody is asking questions, rather people are celebrating them. You see why corruption has taken centre-stage?
The only fight against corruption in this country is the ones done with lip service and until corruption is tackled headlong, we will remain in his quagmire of retrogression, with meaningful advancement eluding us as a people and as a nation.
It is not only politicians that are corrupt. There is corruption in the church. The church is supposed to be the body of Christ where moral values are taught but that is not the case today. I have said it many times that the EFCC should take a bold step and investigate church accounts. Many churches keep money in their accounts for corrupt public office holders and politicians. If you are looking for stolen funds, look into church accounts and you will find the money there. Churches have provided themselves as covers to corrupt individuals. That is the reason you see a governor kneeling before a pastor. And I ask myself, why is it so? As governor, you are the governor of everybody in your state including the pastors, so why should you kneel down for your subject? I think governors and presidents must stop such act because it is God that has put them in such offices of authority, so why should they bow before a pastor? They say they need prayers. I think as elected office holder, all you need to do is to deliver to the people, make their lives better, give them their basic needs and advance their aspirations, the people will pray for you and God hears such prayers. Not when you go to kneel down to pastors and some pastors will tell you not to worry, they will even tell you that they will do fasting for you and it is not for free.
And that is a major problem with Nigerian leaders, rather than do the right thing; they prefer to go to pastors for prayers, spend money on them and still will not do the right thing of taking care of the people that elected them. They use the churches as a cover to hide stolen wealth and that is why the EFCC, if it is serious about fighting corruption, must investigate accounts of churches.
How do you see the president’s style of handling challenges the nation is facing?
Well, the truth is Jonathan is too gentle to rule this country. He does not have the granite quality one who should lead Nigeria ought to have. Nigeria needs a tough leader because the challenge with Nigeria is enormous and it requires sheer tenacity to deal with. Jonathan is supposed to be a pastor not a politician. Nigeria needs a tough leader with military background to move it forward. I am not saying a leader who will abuse the rights of people but one who will be able to tackle the problems decisively without minding whose ox is gored. Nigeria is a very difficult country to rule and it is also the easiest country to rule if the leader understands the situations in the country and has the quality to tackle issues. A tough leader who can take the bull by the horn is what Nigeria needs at this stage. But then Jonathan is there because it is God’s favour on him. I personally told Jonathan when he was a deputy governor that he would be governor before the end of that year. In 2008, I also predicted that Jonathan would go higher, then he was the vice-president. It was what God had for him. And I think with such immense divine favour, Jonathan should have used his mandate to better the lives of Nigerians but he is surrounded by people who do not want him to succeed, people who are giving him wrong advice and people who are working for their own pockets.
The president needs to make changes. His current cabinet cannot help him to succeed.
2015 is around the corner and there are speculations that the president will contest the elections. Do you think he will contest?
Jonathan has already answered the question. When the president was asked if he would contest the 2015 elections, he said that was not his priority for now. What does that mean? If you ask a man whether he will eat food and he says no, that means he will not eat but if he says let me see first or I don’t know yet, that means he will eat but does not want to come out straight to say he would eat. So the fact that Jonathan did not come out straight to say no, I am not contesting in 2015, means he is contesting. He has answered the question.
He will contest but if I were to advise him, I will tell him not to contest; that he had had enough. But he will contest and when he contests, he will win no matter the gang up against him. If those who don’t want him to win try to stop him, they will fail. Even if PDP denies him the ticket and he goes to another party or forms a new party, he will win. That is it!
There are fears that Nigeria may break up in 2015. As a prophet of God, what is your take on this issue?
People are speculating that 2015 elections will split Nigeria. Well, let me say it here that Nigeria will not break no matter the efforts to split it. Nigeria will remain one nation. But I see lots of agitation and restiveness but Nigeria will not break. Anybody who predicts or says Nigeria will break is a liar. Look, Nigeria is a country that will come out of its travails to be a great nation. There will be a kind of revolution in my lifetime that will redefine this country and that is why I will call on rich people like Dangote, Adenuga and the rest to begin to invest in the poor people of this country because that is the only way they will not be consumed by the wrath of the people when the time comes. Nigeria will be great, mark my words.
You really think there will be a revolution in Nigeria?
I am telling you there will be a revolution in Nigeria and it will happen in my lifetime. People who have stolen from this country by whatever means will have to answer to the people. In 2019, a new leader will emerge, a young leader. He will have military or police background and he will give Nigeria the right leadership.
Nigeria will rise and be great. There is a lot of hope for Nigeria. I believe in Nigeria.
Boko Haram called for a ceasefire and wants to dialogue with government. What do you have to say about it?
The sect is calling for dialogue because they want a ceasefire. The government must not listen to them; it will amount to suicide on the part of government to listen to Boko Haram. What do you want to dialogue with them for? This people came up with a decision to kill innocent people. They have taken many innocent lives, now they want to dialogue. The government must not listen to them. They are terrorists and criminals and they must face justice.
Where in advanced countries do you see the government dialoguing with terrorists? The people in Boko Haram are illiterates, what are you going to talk to illiterates about? They don’t even understand what dialogue means. They are probably overwhelmed by the superior might of the armed forces and police that they now know that the game is closing up on them and they are calling for ceasefire. These are murderers who have bombed churches and killed innocent people in their hundreds. When you dialogue with them, you have only glorified them and by implication saying their action was right and the consequence of it all is that any group of people can start such a devilish act, bomb churches or mosques, kill innocent people and then call for ceasefire or dialogue. That is not acceptable and I urge the federal government to ensure that Boko Haram pays for its atrocities. He who lives by the sword must die by the sword.
Calling for dialogue is also a way for the sect to re-strategise. As they are calling for ceasefire, they are training. JTF killed some Boko Haram members in one of their training camps. What are they training for? They are just buying time to recruit members, train them and attack again. Now, see, the recent satanic attacks in Kano and Maiduguri. Do they look like people who truly want to dialogue?
Boko Haram is sponsored by people and the government knows the sponsors but they are afraid to touch them. Jonathan knows them but he cannot touch them. He is afraid. If he wants someone to help him touch them since he cannot, let him call me and I will touch them. And that is why I said this country needs a tough man with military background that can tackle such problems without fear. Jonathan is not that kind of man. He is too gentle; he ought to be a pastor. The first time I saw him; that was the first thing that I recognized in him. He would make a good pastor and I would have made him one of my pastors but then God had His own plans for him. Otherwise, the president ought to have arrested and prosecuted all those who had said they would make the country ungovernable for him.
You predicted that ex-Bayelsa governor, Alamieyeseigha would bounce back, again you said he would be granted presidential pardon. How do you feel now that he has been pardoned?
This is to tell you that I don’t just open my mouth to talk for the sake of talking. I feel very glad. God revealed that the man will bounce back because the man has sinned, been punished, he is repentant and very sober, what ought to be next? Is it not forgiveness? People have been condemning the president for granting pardon to Alamieyeseigha and these people do not understand what meaning of forgiveness. All the people talking now, how many of them can come out to say he or she had never done anything wrong before or had never desired to be forgiven before? The book of Isaiah 1 verse 18 says ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ That means God forgives sin and cleanses us of our sins. Why did he send Christ to die for us? Is it not for our redemption through forgiveness? Can you be redeemed without being forgiven? Yet self-righteous people who have not removed the rocks in their own eyes are talking. Is pardon not better than plea bargain? Someone who stole billions of naira and returns a couple of millions and goes free, is that not worse? So why are we condemning Alamieyeseigha’s pardon? This is a man that was removed from office as a sitting governor, disgraced, jailed, his properties seized. He is repentant and there is nothing wrong in Jonathan granting him pardon. God has forgiven Alamieyeseigha and that is why you see that he is still relevant in Bayelsa because nobody had done better than him in terms of developing the state. He is a respected leader in Bayelsa.
I have met Alamieyeseigha once or twice in Yenagoa. He is now a pauper, he has nothing, you know all his properties were taken from him. But you will be able to see the deep sobriety in him. He is now like a pastor. When a man sins and he is sorry for what he has done, he deserves to be forgiven and I can tell you that people can say all they want, even if heaven falls, Alamieyeseigha has been pardoned and nothing can change it because God has forgiven him and He is redeeming him. Jonathan has begun to show some quality of success by his action of granting Alamieyeseigha pardon, though, if he had not done it, someone else would do it because it was what God wanted. I had put forward three things for the president to do. The first is that he must develop the Niger-Delta. If the late President Yar’Adua can do a good thing as bringing amnesty to Niger-Delta, how much less he that is from the region. He must develop that area. The second thing is that he must grant state pardon to Alamieyeseigha, which he had done and I am very glad about that. Don’t forget I predicted that General Diya too will be granted state pardon. The third thing is that Jonathan must go and praise God in the place where he was given the prophesy of his rise to greatness. It is very important he does all these and I pray God will help him achieve it.
As a pastor, what is your relationship with Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN?
I am not a member of CAN and I cannot be part of it. CAN is now a parastatal of government. What CAN officials are doing is patronising government and this shouldn’t be the case. Yes, as spiritual leaders, they ought to be praying for the good and progress of the nation but all they do is go to Abuja and other state capitals, visiting government. They are making money and living large at the expense of Christians that they lead. They now want to live like politicians and businessmen. They own private jets. Do you know what it cost to buy a private jet? How much it will cost to maintain it? Even where it is parked, do you know what the parking cost is? And Nigerians will say they are men of God, they should not be judged. That is not judging, it is what you are seeing with your eyes. Where do they get the money from?
Are you referring to CAN President Pastor Oritsejafor?
I am not referring to Oritsejafor because he is not the only pastor who has a private jet. Some even have more than one and you can just imagine whereas their members are suffering, they can’t feed well, they can’t pay their children’s school fees, they can’t pay their house rents, they are suffering yet the pastors are living large. All I know is that God is watching and on Judgement day, He will judge everyone.
Imagine a pastor who built a university and said the money did not come from the church. Where then did the money come? Is it from the books that he writes? Do you know what it is like to build a university with campuses in other states? Who is being deceived?
That is why I will still reiterate that church bank accounts must not be considered sacred, anti-corruption officers must be bold enough to go into those accounts and probe, ask questions and dig out truths. You will be shocked at what you will discover.
You have always talked about building a true missionary university. What is this all about?
We, as a church, that is, Christ Worshippers Church intend to build a university where people can attend free of charge. It will be a true missionary university like you said because it will be an intervention to make education accessible to bright students who can’t go to the tertiary institution because they can’t afford to pay for such education. It will be tuition-free but the students must be very bright. We have even begun acquiring lands in Owo in Ondo State. Though it’s a project of the church, I decided to site the university in Owo because it is my hometown. I want to help bring fast development to Owo and we all know that a university town grows very fast. That is the vision but as I am talking to you now, we have a problem. If I was doing this project in Warri, Bayelsa or elsewhere, the people will even give me free land. In Otomewo near Warri, the people gave me land to use for my church and house but in my hometown Owo, I bought the lands for the project. I also intended to build a church camp. After buying land, people are fighting me over the land.
At Ikare junction along Benin-Akure road, I bought both sides of the road to use as take-off site since our foreign partners have said that we should get things on ground. I fenced the lands only for me to get there one morning and meet thugs led by one Korede Aruwajoye destroying the fence. Aruwajoye claimed that the land belonged to his fore-fathers and that he must be settled the sum of five million naira before I can do anything on the land. I bought the land from one Arch. Gbenga Ojomo. I did my enquiries well before buying the land. I met with the family that owned the land and they told me that they had sold the land to Gbenga Ojomo. So when this issue came, I was surprised. I did not know that the issue of Omo onile existed in Owo because I have never heard of it in Owo before. I went to the family, they said Aruwajoye was truly their son but that he has no land there. I said okay, for peace to reign, I will give him three hundred thousand naira but he said no, that it is five million naira that he wants. So, I went to court. His family members are standing as my witnesses. The judge had told him to go and apologize to me. His family wrote an apology letter but which he refused to sign. He’s been threatening to deal with me. He is even fighting his family members over the issue. He said he will sell an extension of the land to me but I said no. his wife verbally assaulted me and said I was a criminal and a ritualist, that Warri people had chased me away from Warri and I have come to hide in Owo. I am still in Warri, my church is there. I preach every Sunday and Wednesday in Warri. For that defamation, we are in court. She has to explain what she means. It’s not because I am a pastor then, I should be rubbished or taken for granted. On March 5 and 6, his lawyers led by Barrister Kola Olawoye withdrew from the cases and that is because they know the truth and they have the fear of God.
I am not happy that this is happening and I must say I am very discouraged to establish the university in Owo now. How can my own people attempt to frustrate me simply because someone wants to be illegally settled? The way things are, I may have to take the university elsewhere and it is Owo people that will lose. I have not asked for free land or anything, we are buying the lands yet we are encountering such problems. But everything is in the hands of God.
Thank you sir for your time.
God bless you!