Leonard Umunna is the bishop and founder of the Bible Life Church. In this interview with Zebulon Agomuo, he spoke about the state of the Church in Nigeria; why prophecies fail and the need for the new administration in Nigeria to move fast to restore people’s confidence. Excerpts:
There seems to be high level of indifference on the part of the masses to the presence of a new administration in the country and trust deficit is also growing. What do you think is happening?
It is as a result of disappointment of many years. People are not happy and they believe they are not out of the woods yet. Unfulfilled promises of government over the years have made the people to almost lose interest in anything government. It is said that hope deferred makes the heart sick. In Nigeria hope has continued to be deferred. This time around, if hope is deferred, the heart will not only become very sick, the bones will rotten. Trust has been lost. Not that it is about to be lost, but totally lost on major aspects of governance in our nation. If those at the helm of affairs in the country do not do something to restore the peace and confidence, whatever plan they have for other things may not work. The current administration must learn a lesson from the failures of the immediate past administration. Nobody should make the mistake of repeating bad history because it will always shame the fellow in the end. Things have moved from bad to worse. I am also urging the new administration to urgently look into the real cause of the killings and put an end to the ugly trend.
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The elections are over, but the wounds created during the polls are yet to heal. Take for instance, Nasir El- Rufai’s comment that Muslims will rule Nigeria for 20 years and Mudashiru Obasa’s comment on reversing all the reversible, and wants to ensure that things that belong to Lagos will be for Lagosians. As a cleric that has people of different ethnic groups as members, how do you feel about these rhetoric?
Look at Pharaoh, God asked him to take care of foreigners, that was not the first time. God had told Israelites that they should take care of strangers. This made us realise that we are strangers in this world. Therefore, we should take others also as co-travellers and not to treat them as strangers or non-indigenes. It could be anybody’s turn tomorrow. We have our programmes we hold every year, December, come this year God willing, you will see pastors and imams in that programme. Lagos state has triumphed because of their policies of being nice to non-indigenes. El- Rufai and others should not be making such statements because Christians have holy patience. They came up with Muslim- Muslim tickets again following the Abiola step. Nobody should dare call them fools by making it look as if they do not know what to do. Christians are obeying the law, that doesn’t mean they are fools. Let everybody think very well before he says anything because a good leader unites his people. It is only a bad leader that talks emotionally and has self-interest. A good leader has the interest of the people at heart and does things for the good of the people. These kinds of statements may not end now, someone might pick it in the future and use it against you when you want to be president of Nigeria or when you want to go for a position in the United Nations. You do good, you do for yourself and you do bad you do for yourself. What you sow is what you reap.
When the winner of the last presidential election was announced, it began to look like the church was divided and that prophecies about the election failed because many of the prophecies about the election didn’t come to pass; do prophecies fail?
The Church is united. Find out who is on the Lord’s side, the Church is united. I have made many national prophecies, international prophecies and none has failed. Why God does not confirm the prophecies of the other people is because of their lies and unfaithfulness. God will never let a man stand for him. Since I have been prophesying none of God’s word has fallen to the ground. The question is, has any word from Bishop Umunna failed? Since 1963 October 6 I was converted. I have been on the altar since age seven. So when somebody is saying church is divided I say no, Church is not divided, it is under Jesus, he prayed for it. If you are looking at them and feel the Church has failed you, the church has not failed. I have no reason and no right to judge another man’s servant. I have read some of those prophecies before the election took place, people kept asking me what I said about them, I said nothing because the Book of Psalm says, “With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” But as for the Church of Jesus, he said I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Let those who like to talk like Sanballat and Tobiah talk. And those who want to pretend like Ananias and Saphira pretend. The question is how many prophecies from Bishop Umunna has failed? None.
Do you see this 10th Assembly performing very well with the new president?
It depends on who is the overall leader there. Nigeria’s greatest challenge is leadership. If the head of a fish is rotten what will be the state of the body? If they can get it right at the headship, so that they will allow him to do what is right then we should get it better but if not, they will not achieve the purpose for which they elected him. If the purpose is good then it will be good but if the purpose is bad it will be bad. The ones Emefiele did, did they hold him and others responsible? Does it surprise you that 46 senators voted for someone else out of 109? He was trying to prove to the people that there was no equity. I am not referring to the new president but the body that is operating these things, the people that are surrounding him; will they allow him to do the work? If they will allow him, who won’t want to perform and get the honour. But if they encourage him to do evil he will end like the others.
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