Congregational Pastor, United Evangelical Church (Founded as Qua Iboe Church), Surulere, Lagos and host of ‘Seven Great Sundays 2022’, Idy James, recently spoke on the theme of the programme; ‘You Will See His Glory’, which started January 2nd and ended Sunday, 13 February. According to him, the theme was extracted from John 11 verse 40, stating that the programme was to further bring to manifestation the efficacy of God’s power in turning the tide for good, stressing that the place of God’s glory in individual lives, Church and the nation cannot be over emphasised. SEYI JOHN SALAU brings excerpts:
Congratulations on your second term; now what are the expectations for the ministry?
By the grace of God we are grateful unto God who has made it possible that we are able to come in again for the second tenure, in the first term God really helped us that a lot of things came on board and we are believing that God will do more for us and that is why as we are beginning the second term God has given us a theme which is moving from glory to glory and no matter what we were able to achieve in the first term we are moving from glory to glory again.
So we are looking forward to seeing our church moving with divine speed from glory to glory and touching lives more and more and by the grace of God when we sit back and begin to reflect what God has done in the first tenure we look forward to seeing him do more things even in the second tenure. So, that is our hope that our church will not be where she is even in this second term.
Nigeria’s economy is dwindling and you know in the days of the apostles, when there were issues in the nation; the leaders went to the ministers of God for solutions, but we do not see any of these things happening these days. So, as a servant of God, do you foresee any solution?
By the grace of God as a servant of God all hope is not lost, God is still in control as he spoke to us in the service and even now we believe that no matter the ugly situation in the nation God has the power to turn things around for our good.
That’s why we need to be praying and with the prayers of the believers God will surely have mercy on us as a nation; in the days of Ezekiel there were issues in the land and God was looking for just one person that would stand in the gap and unfortunately he found nobody but in this generation many people are there who are standing in the gap as believers in the Lord so we have that hope that as we pray unto God, he knows how to open the floodgates of heaven; he knows what to do to take us to another level by the grace of God: so to me all hope is not lost because God is truly in charge of this situation.
Okay, are you impressed with the present administration and the situation of the country?
Yes by the grace of God, I still believe that there is room for improvement and they can still do better, no matter what they have been able to do thus far.
As far as our nation is concerned we need more of that impactful leadership so that the leaders that God has brought to us will have that vision to ensure that by the grace of God they lead us aright and they should have the love of the people at heart and above all they should have the fear of God.
On the electoral bill; he has sent it back to the national assembly and he has made his observation and by today the national assembly from what we have heard, have looked at those things again and they have sent back the corrected copy of the electoral act to the President and what he told us is that once what he read has been taken care of he will sign; so I am hopeful he will sign this time around as they send it back to him.
What if he does not sign now that the 2023 general election is fast approaching; what will be the situation?
I want to believe that he will not refuse to give his consent in view of the fact that he has promised this country that he would improve on democratic development in the country so I am believing that he would sign it but if he does not sign; Nigeria has to plead with him that as our President he should keep to his word and ensure that he signs the electoral bill.
We have also noticed that there is a continuous recycling of political office holders in Nigeria; is this healthy for the growth of the nation’s democracy?
It is very unfortunate that from my childhood days I do hear that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow but we now see that the old people that have been there in the system have refused to give the youth the platform for them to become the leaders of tomorrow because that tomorrow they have been shouting all these while in the past is now today so the issue of recycling political leaders/office holders I think they should put a stop to it and give fresh hands the opportunity to also come into leadership and also display what they have by the grace of God and I believe that when that is done Nigeria and Nigerians will be taken to greater heights.
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Do you see that happening ahead 2023?
I want to believe that they will give that opportunity since they have signed into law the issue of ‘not too young to run’ and in view of that they should allow these young people to come in and let us be hopeful that with our prayers they will create such platform that it can be possible that even now it can be possible for these young ones to come to the platform of leadership.
We seem to be limited in choices between the APC and PDP; in your position as a leader in the church, what will be advice?
Well as far as I am concerned it does not matter the party, it has to do with the people themselves because it is the same group of people from this party to the other but if these people have the fear of God then the word of God will come into play that when the righteous is on the throne the people rejoice.
So we are looking forward to whoever will come up with the fear of God and the love of the people in his or her heart. Such a person should be able to do well as he or she comes into leadership.
What should be the place of the church in times like these?
The place of the church in times like these is to be praying because God has given us the responsibility to be praying for our leaders; if you do not pray for them whatever decision that they make will also affect the church.
So we have to pray for them and also encourage even our members to show interest in politics because if they are not there it will not all go well for us even the incident that has to do with the death of Jesus, by the time he died there were people who were in government who played one role or the other such as Joseph of Arimathea who handed over his tomb for Jesus to be buried, he was in government also.
So when Christians are in government they will affect the life of the church positively and I believe with that governance will now have a new face completely that the people will rejoice that God fearing people are in the position of authority.
