Lawrence Oji, a minister with the New Covenant Church, London and coordinator of Saving Hands for Alcoholic and Drug End-Users (SHADE) has called on Nigerian Christians to rekindle their primary ministry of looking out for people in bondage and ensuring their release.
“Clerics must begin to prioritise preaching on the theme of salvation and minimise that of prosperity because many people have not received salvation and are confronted with serious challenges that cannot be compared to material possession.
“Many are in the ministry for self-interest. Pastors should begin to teach people the word of God in line with salvation so that they can have personal encounters with God,” Oji stated during a recent press conference in Lagos.
Oji, who is popularly known as ‘Pastor Solution’ urged other clerics to focus on the gospel of salvation rather than prosperity. According to him, many clerics preach prosperity, neglecting the challenges people were confronted with.
Speaking on his journey to salvation, Oji disclosed that he wasted over 30 years of his life engaging in hard drugs and later got into depression while seeking solutions to his addiction. “I was always giving out drugs to people who desired to have them but were not financially buoyant to get. That made me acquire the nickname ‘Mr. Solution’ then.”
According to him, while being addicted to drugs in Italy, he was imprisoned countless times. However, his addiction took him to evangelism and the desire to help those currently suffering from drug abuse and depression on the right path of God.
“Peer group influence led me into hard drugs. I also led many people to drugs in Nigeria. My addiction was so bad that I tried going to the hospital to be rescued, but to no avail.
“My mother went to different places to take me out of drugs and she was told my destiny was spiritually tied to drugs.
“I am sharing my story so that people in similar situations can be hopeful. Through this, I got depressed and, at a point, stabbed myself so as to die,” he stated.
He disclosed further that God intervened in his case on March 21, 2001, after being prayed for by one of the prison ministers at the highest prison in Italy. “At this point, the authorities were already tired of me; my name was among those to be deported after serving my sentence.
“But, somehow, God intervened and I was not deported as planned. People should not give up on their loved ones. They should rather pray for them and preach to them to be free from every bondage.
“Now, I go to prisons across the world to preach salvation. I also go to places that are abodes of drug addicts. I make sure they are delivered. So, clerics should do more,” Oji stated.
