Reverend Stephen Baba Panya is the president of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) worldwide; he is also the chairman of New Life for All, an Inter -Denominational Evangelistic Outreach Group, chairman Nigeria Evangelical Fellowship and leader of Denominational Church Fathers on the Plateau. In this exclusive interview with BusinessDay’s NATHANIEL GBAORON in Jos, the national vice president of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) spoke, among other issues the level of insecurity in Nigeria; his surprise why successive regimes have come and gone and none have been able to make Ajaokuta Steel Company operational as well as advise Christians to make positive changes in their places of work. Excerpts:
As a religious leader in Nigeria, how do you assess the current state of insecurity, ranging from banditry, kidnapping, particularly in regions where ECWA has significance presence?
I will say very sad, very terrible, very devastating. We as a church denomination have lost quite a number of pastors and members because of the insurgency and the general insecurity that is taking place. But we know that under Boko Haram, I think the worst hit church in the northeast has been the Ekklisiya Yan’uwa Nigeria (EYN). But ECWA too has had its own terrible share of the consequences of the present insurgencies and insecurity. We’ve lost a lot of members and a lot of pastors.
But I think one of the most prominent daughters of ECWA that is well known all over the world, that is still in captivity of Boko Haram is Leah Sharibu. Leah Sharibu is one of our daughters that was kidnapped. And now she just recently spent her 21st birthday in captivity. This is really weighing us down. But apart from her, we have other daughters of ECWA that we’ve been praying for to be freed from captivity. We thank God that some others were able to escape. We give God the glory. But alongside Leah Sharibu, we are also concerned about Alice Longshangada and Grace Gyang. We are praying that with many other Nigerians that are in captivity of this evil group, that God will intervene and set them free in one way or the other.
Apart from the names you have mentioned, do you have an idea of the number of people the church has lost?
It’s very difficult because so many of these Killings and murders have happened intermittently and to keep a record or give you any figure right now will just be a wild guess. Don’t forget too, that apart from the killings and murders of members and pastors in the far northern area, even here in the middle belt, we’ve had real attacks by herdsmen, extremists too, that have killed so many people, destroyed so many properties of our members and pastors alike, not of ours only, but also of our sister churches. So, in fact, in terms of direct impact to our church, the attacks we have received here in the middle birth is worse than what we have experienced in the northwest and the northeast. And when I talk of in the middle belt I’m talking of the plateau.
Our members and pastors on the plateau have come under attack several times. You take for example, in Irigwe nation, Miango, so many villages were attacked and many of our members killed. This is a stronghold of ECWA. Also, if you go to places like southern Kaduna, for example, many of our members there have been attacked and many pastors of us killed in southern Kaduna. But also, we have other places that have come under attack of recent in Mangu and Bokos. Although our sister churches like Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) and Baptist have suffered most of the consequences there, nevertheless, many of our church members have been terribly affected. If you go to Benue, too, we’ve also had our terrible share of the attacks, again by Fulani herdsmen in those areas. So, in the middle belt, a lot of it has to do with attacks by these very murderous herdsmen terrorists.
What role do you see religious institutions like ECWA playing in contributing to the peace building efforts and addressing the root cause of insecurity in Nigeria?
ECWA has been contributing to the peace building effort in so many ways. I think, first and foremost, we have always mobilized our members to pray for divine intervention. And I tell you, if not for the prayers of ECWA members and of courses other Christians in Nigeria today, the terrible doomsday, apocalyptic prediction of CIA will have been fulfilled. Nigeria will have collapsed and scattered into pieces already. We’ve been part of the several peace forums that have been established either by government or private NGOs for example, in Plateau, we have the Plateau State Inter religious council that is headed by a Director General, Presently is Doctor Julie Sander. This has been a forum that God has used to either prevent crisis or to reduce the extent of the crisis that have taken place in the past on the plateau. Because it served as a forum for us leaders to quickly, very quickly come together and discuss when there is crisis and to find joint means of reaching out to members in order to calm tempers and stop the crisis from escalating. Take for example, even the case of one of our daughters Deborah, again, that was murdered in broad daylight in Sokoto. We played a very critical role to assuage our members not to take laws into their hands and to advise our leaders at the top as to how they should go about so that the matter does not go completely out of control.
In what ways has ECWA collaborated with government agencies; that is, the security agents, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to mitigate the impact of insecurity?
If you start from where the head office is located here in Jos, we have visited the top leaders of most of the security agencies, so we are in touch with them. Whether it’s the police commissioner, whether it is the DSS director and others, we have their contacts. And when we know of crisis, we just call them quickly in order to prevent the crisis from even starting or escalating. A common saying is true that prevention is better than cure. So, we concentrate more on preventive measures, giving early warning about crisis to all these heads of security agencies so that they can nip the crisis in the board.
Like I’ve said again at the national level, that one, we do that under the auspices of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and I know that as vice president of CAN we have visited the Defence Headquarters; we have visited other key security officers in other to discuss with them, pray with them about the present situations. So, we are doing our best in various ways and various capacities.
Now, as your tenure comes to an end, what would you consider to be your most significant achievement in terms of contributions to ECWA and the broader Nigerian society?
I think very easily my most significant achievement is invisible, and that is, it is spiritual. I believe repositioning ECWA spiritually is the most significant achievement that God has granted me the grace and the privilege and used me for. I came in with a hard cry for revival so that there would be genuine repentance, people will experience the reality of God in their lives, and so ECWA members will no longer worship God or do things in the church as mere religious formalities or rituals, but to experience the reality of God through encounter with God, through the holy spirit, so that they will be able to experience the supernatural reality of God; be able to actually worship God in spirit and in truth. They will be excited about this our God and worship him in spirit and in truth. I think by God’s grace, the Lord has used us to kindle fires all around the church that is gradually, spreading and being blown into flames of revival so that many more will come to the experience of the reality of God and be able to worship him in spirit and in truth.
Looking ahead, what priorities; what recommendations would you offer to the incoming ECWA leadership in addressing the ongoing security challenges and advancing the organisation’s mission?
Well, first about ECWA, I will advise him to continue in the path of progression, praying for and promoting revival, because it still remains the greatest need of the church today. We have seen glimpses of revival, but I believe that God will want ECWA to be engulfed in a greater revival fire and glory than what we have seen thus far. I will advise him to make revival in ECWA his greatest priority. Don’t forget that when the church is truly revived, evangelism and missions become easier, because it wouldn’t just be a case of some selected missionaries or even pastors doing evangelism mission. When you have a church that is set ablaze by the fire of the holy spirit, everybody becomes an evangelist and everybody becomes a missionary. So, it’s a very strategic way actually of reviving not just the spiritual lives of people, but also the core business of the church, which is salvation of souls through evangelism and missions. As to insecurity and interacting with the government, I would also advise him first to make praying and mobilising prayer for our leaders the topmost priority, as the scripture said, so that we can live at peace and the gospel of the Lord will be able to prosper in the entire land, but also to have the courage, thank God, that in this capacity he will have access to the leadership of this government, not just at state level, but at almost every level.
I will advise him to make use of his new privileged position to tell the leadership of the government the truth about what is happening and to advise them rightly as to what they should do. It is only when he has exhausted his private access to speaking to them and talking with them and maybe they refuse to heed to the advice that he can publicly call them to order. This has been our strategy. Talk to them person to person when there is need, tell them that look, People are suffering. Try and do as much as possible to alleviate the suffering of the masses. The security situation is not improving. The people are complaining that these are the problems. But of course, where there was need for us to make a public statement like we did in the past by holding a peace walk to the government house where there was need to do that, we did that.
Beyond addressing immediate security concerns, what long term strategies or initiatives does ECWA plan to implement to foster sustainable peace and development in Nigeria?
Well, in a sense, addressing security issues is not within our powers, we don’t really have the means and wisdom to restore security because the security agencies are not under our control. So, it’s really difficult. In Nigeria, the law does not allow private citizens to own sophisticated weapons to protect themselves and protect their lives and property. So, it’s really in terms of direct operational capability, we don’t have that. The only way we can continue playing our role is to pray and to keep talking to those who are charged with the responsibility of providing security for lives and property. These are those that are in government and also the security agencies under them. That’s just what we can do for now.
President Bola Tinubu has proposed so many policies ranging from increased electricity tariff; high bank charges and so many other policies; which areas do you think require rethink so as to alleviate the suffering of the people?
Very easily, I have said it over and over again. Number one, power. If you don’t have available and affordable power, your production base will not be able to function. That is the problem. Whether it is large scale production by gigantic producers and manufacturers or small scale. In fact, it’s the small-scale industries that are worst hit, but they form a significant part of our economy. When you can’t provide cheap power or affordable power for them, whatsoever they produce, they are unable to compete with what is imported to us. Take for example, a barber that barbs your hair using generator, you can imagine how high you will pay but if electricity was available and affordable it would have been cheaper. But then it’s even worse when it is small scale production of products like yogurt, whatsoever it is, you find that the cost of even producing maybe a bottle of yogurt would be so high that is even easier for supermarket to import from China. With all the transportation costs and so on, it will still reach here much cheaper than you producing yogurt in Nigeria using your own generator and purifying your own water because all these things are functions of electricity and power availability. So, you see, power is so fundamental. Then the second thing is that if Nigeria is to really experience revival in its economy, it will have to be able to produce heavy machineries right from here and Ajaokuta Steel company was established for that. That company was established when I was still in secondary school. Up to today it is unbelievable that successive regimes have come and gone and none has been able to make Ajaokuta steel company operational. But that is what will give this country a very, very strong productive base. Because once Ajaokuta Steel Company become operational, we will be able to produce heavy manufacturing machineries right here in this country. Apart from the direct jobs that the company will provide in thousands if not hundreds of thousands, the multiplier effect in terms of the products being further refined, heavy machineries being produced and they will also now be used to produce other products. The multiplier effect of making Ajaokuta Steel Company operational will be so much, it will be in millions of jobs. In fact, I wondered why all these successive regimes have not made the resuscitation and operation of Ajaokuta Steel their topmost priority, honestly, I just don’t understand. But if that can be made functional, it will provide hundreds of thousands of jobs directly, if not millions, and then many more millions of jobs as multiplier effect.
What else do you have to tell Nigerians and the people of Plateau State?
Let’s keep on praying. Nigeria has remained the miracle of God’s grace, because I’m sure when the CIA made that prediction, they really meant it from all indices available. But because we have been looking up to God, praying to God, I’m sure it’s difficult for them to explain why Nigeria should even still be existing as an entity today, that in a sense should give us much hope and encouragement for us to continue to pray for divine intervention. Christians that find themselves in various positions should do their best to really make a difference so that this country will be able to move forward.
The Bible says we cannot continue to sin so that grace may abound. We thank God for having kept this country together in his grace and mercy. But we should not continue to take the grace of God for granted. As we pray, let us sincerely repent as believers in Christ and then do what is right, make a difference in the various places of our callings and spheres of life. That is my call. To all Nigerians and for all others that are not Christians, let them fear God our creator and do what is right. Because ultimately, we are going to account to God our creator and he is the creator of everybody, whether Christians, Muslims, enemies or whatever. One day we will stand before him and face his judgment. So, everybody should do things with the fear of God. But Christians have this special privilege that they know him personally and therefore, rather than misusing their relationship with God, taking his grace for granted and abusing, let’s stop it, truly repent and do what is right, what will please God, especially when we meet
