A renowned US-trained African Medical Missionary, water therapist and natural healer, Samuel Timothy Amukele, who threw his doctorate degree in law and his law practice away to return to Nigeria in answer to a tormenting voice in him, has opened up at last and revealed his source of knowledge. In this exclusive interview with IGNATIUS CHUKWU, the father of three US-based medical doctors, said over 200,000 patients have so far passed through his centre. Excerpts:
Tell us about your law training and practice?
I had a BSC degree in Business Administration from a school in Maryland called Columbia Union College. After that, I went to New York and did my MBA (Masters of Business Administration) at Saint John’s University. Thereafter, I went to the University of Toledo in Ohio where I studied Law at the doctorate level (Doctor of Jurisprudence). This was my line of academic pursuit.
And you were qualified to practice?
Yes! Nigeria required that you must attend the Nigerian Law School for one year. It didn’t matter where you had your law degree. This I did in the Nigerian Law School and I practised in Port Harcourt in those days. I was with Nwoka’s Chamber on Aba Road. After a number of years, I had my own chambers also at Aba Road in same Port Harcourt and another one at Hospital Road at Ahoada. After another number of years, I decided to return to the US. I took the US Bar exams in New York State and established a law practice there, particularly in New York City. My chambers address used to be 277 Broadway. It used to be just two blocks away from the then World Trade Centre.
At what point did you veer into healthcare practice?
My wife (Zazeni) is a nurse; my first son is a medical doctor (Urologist). My second son is a pathologist (MB, PhD), and was a professor at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he coordinated their research in Africa. He was moving round African countries in charge of their laboratories in East Africa and virtually the whole world. My daughter is a hospital administrator there at the John Hopkins. So, all around me is nothing but medical profession.
But what actually brought me into medicine is my religious upbringing. I am a Seventh Day Adventist and we have a very strong healthcare practice. When in 1999, we attended a programme at Virginia (US), thereafter, we had an opportunity of a course on what we call Medical Missionary Work (MMW). My wife and I took advantage of this at Heartland University in Virginia.
It was an eye-opener and a mind-blowing one. Something happened to me immediately after it. For the first time, I was exposed to Natural Remedies, common natural remedies, remedies you can use to cure diseases without the use of drugs.
What was mind-blowing about the programme?
At the completion of that course, and by the way, one of the reasons that motivated me into it was the realisation that the health practice back home in Nigeria was not what it should be. I decided to take the course so that if I was travelling back home and came to a situation of any incident, I would know what to do to assist the persons. This exposed me to charcoal and the wonderful cures it carries.
It also exposed me to raw food and vegetables. I was very happy at the end of that course.
SPIRITUAL SIDE: I heard the Voice of God
Then, there is spiritual aspect of this. After the course, we returned to New York and I got a leading, a persuasion. To me, I felt I heard a voice. I call it the Voice of God, but you can call it the Supreme Being. It urged me to return to Nigeria and help to teach people how to be in good health. Of course, I shunned it. I rejected the idea of returning to Nigeria, but the voice kept coming, urging me to return to Nigeria. I kept putting it off. I am a Christian, in fact, I have risen to the point of Elder in my Church for a number of years, both here in Nigeria and Overseas. So, I am acquainted to the call of God. I was very sure that God was calling me into this new field though I really didn’t have any previous experience. I gave excuses upon excuses why I would not do it, why I would not leave the US and come back to Nigeria, but He kept persuading that I must go.
There was some strange angle to what was happening. My wife used to be a better driver than me, but she began to record frequent motor accidents, all of a sudden. In one of such accidents, the vehicle was a total wreck, but she came out of it unscathed. So, it became very clear to me that they were not mere accidents; that something was behind it. With my religious upbringing, I interpreted that God was behind the accidents. I had a very strong feeling that if I didn’t take time, one of these accidents might take my wife’s life; and if any such thing happened, I would hold myself responsible. So, I had to start taking it very seriously.
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I then began to ponder over it; how would I return to Nigeria to do this? I gave series of excuses, but each excuse I came up with, God knocked it off. Then, there was what I saw as a cruncher; the excuse I believed there was no way God would knock it off. One of the things I was supposed to do upon return to Nigeria was to set up a vegetarian restaurant. After the course in the US, we and some friends there had set up a vegetarian restaurant in upstate New York. So, we were to set up a vegetarian restaurant in Nigeria.
How I challenged God
So, I said to God, I am certain and it is amazing that you do not know the people you are supposed to know; there is no Nigerian vegetarian, not in Port Harcourt, not in Rivers State. I told God, forget it, there cannot be a vegetarian in Rivers State. So, how can I set up a vegetarian restaurant? This happened on a Wednesday. The next day, a Thursday, a girl that lived in New York that I had helped, called me. She said, eh, Uncle, my mother is visiting from home (Nigeria), and we want to come and greet you. I said, oh, wonderful, come. The next Sunday, she and her mother came to my home in Middle-Town. As we were discussing, I don’t know what happened, this woman I had never seen in my life before told me she was a vegetarian, that her pastor was a vegetarian, her church practised and taught vegetarianism and the members were vegetarians. She was not a member of my own Church, no. In the mean time I heard a knock in my heart saying, listen, listen, listen. I was dumbfounded, defeated, confused. This woman didn’t know what I was wrestling with in my heart and who I was and what I was passing through.
I lost the battle
After they left, it was clear that I had lost the battle. There was nothing else I could say. Then, I visited a friend in the state of Maine, and I opened up to the US friend about my real fear; that this project would not succeed, period. Ok? I told him I didn’t understand how God hated me, why me? Why did the Lord hate me? I was afraid that one of the days, I might not wake up in the morning.
Today, people see me and say, look at the sacrifice I made for God, but they do not understand it. I told my US friend all this. He pulled out a book called Spirit of Prophecy written by a woman we considered a prophet. In this book, my friend opened a page from where I read where she wrote that it was a sin to consider failure when God is leading. Now, I was going from frying pan to fire. Not only was I refusing to go back to Africa, now, I just found I was committing sin.
Final decision
It was at this friend’s home that I made the decision to go. If this was the only way I was going to live and be free and my wife would not have all these numerous accidents, if the only thing I had to do was to go home, I decided I would do it. The moment I took that decision, it was like somebody poured cold water all over me, and for the very first time in a number of months, I had peace of mind. Oh, I had peace in my mind!
ESCAPE FROM 9/11 DISASTER(Caira trip and World Trade Centre)
Soon after that moment, an opportunity came for me to follow a number of friends to help our Egyptian friend. We were to follow him to his hometown in Cairo where he was also returning home to begin a medical missionary work. So, I and two other friends went with him.
On one of those days, we went for sightseeing in Alexandria. As we just came back, this man’s house help beckoned on us to come fast. We jumped down and ran into the house, looked at the television and we were shocked. I saw the World Trade Centre (WTC, my office location) come down and was destroyed in the 9/11 incident. The day was September 11. The WTC that I knew very well just came down and disappeared from the globe. Then I asked about the exact time, and I was given the exact time in New York, and the moment I realised what the time there was, I tell you, tears began to flow. Why? My way to work was through train from my home (Middle Town) through New Jersey to WTC Subway (underneath the building) and I would come into the building and walk my way two blocks to my office. That was my route and my routine. When they told me what the time was, I realised that if I was back in New York, that would be when my train would have just arrived. I would have been making my way to the Subway heading to the WTC. That was the very moment that the WTC was destroyed. It became very clear that if I was back home in New York, I would have been one of the thousands of casualties of the WTC. Tears flowed freely.
Now, for the very first time, I realised that it is not that God hated me, but that God loved me so much. He knew what was coming and He would not take no for an answer. If He had accepted my no and left me alone, I would have perished in the WTC disaster. He kept insisting until finally I accepted and then the incident happened that took me away from New York. And here I was, looking at my death. And I tell you, I made a vow there in Cairo, that if I had to use a donkey, I would take it from Cairo through the desert down to Nigeria and begin the work that God wanted me to do. THIS IS MY STORY OH!
A lot of people do not understand. They keep saying, how could you leave your law practice in the US and come back to Nigeria, to the village. They do not know I was avoiding death. Yes, I went back to New York, arranged myself, my shipping, and came back to Nigeria.
Since I took up this work, it has been a different world all together for me for which I am very grateful to God.
Is there further evidence to show you made the right decision?
Yes, too many miracles all the way. I have seen nothing but miracles, miracles, miracles. It’s been 20 years down the line and if the only miracle you know about is what you read in the bible; you should reconsider because I see miracles on daily basis. One of the outstanding miracles that I had was in December of the year I returned (2000) and my container arrived at Onne and I went to clear it. The first time I went there, it was raining and the last day I went was the last working day before Christmas. I had to get my container that day but to get it done, no way. When I returned home at Odiokwu in Ahoada, I was moody. I told God, see, I tried to clear my goods without success. I told God that after Christmas there would be a long stretch being holidays and weekend. I said, I am sorry that I was going to pay demurrage which was avoidable if it was released on the proper day. I apologised to God that I was sorry for such failure and went to bed. By 3am, I was woken up by noises and as I came out, there was this gentleman. He said, are you Dr.Amukele? I said yes. Are you expecting a container at Onne? I said, yes. He said, your container is at your gate. I said, what did you say? He said your container is at your gate? I took torchlight and went to the gate. I screamed; that is my container! How did it get here? The story is more than this. I had prayed and complained to God about my failure. It seems to me that God sent an Angel to Onne. To this day, I do not know how he got my container, loaded it on the truck and sent it to my home in the village that same night. I asked the man, have you been to Odiokwu before? He had never been to this area before, but how did he know? He was asking people along the way till my home.
People do not understand and I am thankful for this privilege to open up to what has happened in my wife. In fact, when I was leaving the US, my children were sure I had lost it, that I had gone mental, for me to leave the US and return to Nigeria. They knew that any person in Nigeria that got an opportunity of going to the US would never think of coming back. So, why would their father do this? It was not something I decided on my own, it was either take it or you are gone.
Am not a hero but a coward
So, nobody should look at me as a hero. No, I am not a hero. I am rather a coward, but I am happy that God did not take no for an answer.
Second miracle: 200,000 persons so far treated
I have taken care of (treated) over 200,000 sick persons in this practice. On healing, one of the early healing miracles is the boy, Noble. The mother brought him and he was not standing. I tried to get him to stand but no way. No standing, no sitting; he could not raise his hand, nor leg. He was paralysed from the neck. It was not usual. Yours truly didn’t know what to do. I cleverly left the boy lying on the floor and left the vicinity and went to my room. Inside, I was angry. I mean anger, anger, angry. Angry with who? God! Why would He allow this to come to me, and what was I supposed to do? Paralysis? As I was on the ground ranting, I heard a voice. Yes, I heard a voice. I am not crazy. The voice said, get off there from the ground and go soak the boy in hot water. Go and soak him in hot water! So, I got up, got something like plastic bucket, and filled it with hot water. We soaked this boy inside it from the neck down, doing hydrotherapy, three times a day. After four days of doing this, that little boy, Noble, began to run round the whole place. Who did it, me? I had no idea what to do. I got instruction of what to do, applied it and Noble was running around the whole place. That was one of our earliest miracles.
People do read the Bible but such things still appear like fairy tales to them. People prayed and it happened, miracles! My dear brother, this is my TRUE STORY. People that have been given up for death are brought here and we use water to cure them. The name of our place here is Water Cure Centre.
There are no many diseases water cannot cure
To an African, this shouldn’t be a big thing because when we were small, babies and toddlers, there was no hospital around our villages, no clinics. What happened was, you got sick, your mother boiled water, use towel and by the time they were through pressing you, whatever it was would be gone. Why do people think it cannot happen now? It is happening.
DIABETES; incurable disease does not exist
They will say diabetes is incurable. For us here, there is nothing like incurable disease. The patient may be incurable because he does not want to listen and follow instructions, or the disease has eaten up this person for the longest time. You may not have enough time to fight it. Our God says we are to combat diseases. You fight diseases. In other to fight and win, you need enough time. If the time is short, you may not be able to win. Apart from this, there is no incurable disease. It does not exist.
Diabetes treatment is two weeks, even if the person had it for 10 years. Longest is one month, and the diabetes is gone. Disease is question of lifestyle. Why do I have catarrh, or headache and the other person does not have? It is lifestyle, ok? Disease is mostly a matter of lifestyle. So, what we practise is LIFESTYLE MEDICINE.
We change people’s lifestyle and the disease that goes with that lifestyle goes.
Do you get scared of Covid-19, HIV, etc?
No, they do not scare us and I will tell you why. Right now, we are sending to friends and former patients a remedy for flu generally and for Covid-19 particularly.
Food for flu
This is the remedy for flu and Covid: It’s still food. This is what I use; 3 Grape fruits, 2 lemon, 2 onions, 3 garlic. Wash the grapes, cut it up into pieces with the skin and seed and put into a pot. Do same with the two lemons. Do not peel them. Two big onions: clean them, cut them up into small pieces into the same pot. The three garlic: again, clean them up and cut into pieces into same pot. Add 9 cups of water or two litres to the pot. Put the pot on fire. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Bring it down, drink half tea cup every 30 minutes or 4 ounces. Add cayenne pepper (one spoon) after boiling. You can take up to 10 times and if it remains, warm the next day and finish up. Add one hour in the sun for immunity. The energy from the sun will help. You need that energy and Vitamin D. If you are deficient of Vitamin D, you have problem, especially with Covid-19. It is very powerful and no infection it will not knock off. Covid-19 is no exception. Pregnant women can take it because it is food.
This is the kind of information the people need to have. We urge people to continue to be cautious, wear mask, stay away from crowded places, do all protocol, but they know that they have something to fall back on.
For HIV, we use heavy doses of Vitamin C to knock it off. For ulcer, just do separate juices from Irish potato and cabbage. Mix and drink for four days. It will simply go. Ulcer is absence of blood to the sore. Get blood to it this way, and it flees.
Parting message to people?
My parting word is, we have charcoal. It is a potent medicine in our hands that people do not know about. To me, charcoal is the greatest medicine today on earth. It is free, it is in the kitchen of every African or Nigerian. You need to know how to use it. It will detoxify your body. It will remove poison in your body. If you discover you have taken poison, or overdose of medication, take charcoal and it will remove it. You are bitten by snake; charcoal will remove the venom. Charcoal, charcoal, charcoal!
If our people know the benefits and start taking it, I believe that about 70 percent of their health challenges will go. In case somebody thinks I am exaggerating, check it up.
God is the God of the African. He has given us the most potent medicine. It is available to every African. We do not have to buy it, ok. It is that thing we throw away as being useless. It becomes the most important medicine on earth. Somebody out there may not believe, fine, why don’t you google ‘activated charcoal’? Hello? Go on the net and just type benefits of activated charcoal and see what comes out.
