Church leaders need to take support for mission work more seriously – Rev. Ajiboye

Rev. Dare Ajiboye took over the mantle of leadership as the eighth general secretary and chief executive officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) in 2014. In this interview with Seyi John Salau, Ajiboye speaks on the journey so far, the need for church leaders to do more in supporting mission work, and the state of affairs in the polity.

How has the journey been for you so far as the general secretary and chief executive officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria?

If I say it has been smooth, then it is a great deceit. I came on board as the CEO specifically on 20th August, 2013 when the economy of this country was good, but you would agree with me that within the last two years the economy of Nigeria has nosedived. Of course, that does not mean that the economy started nose-diving in the last two years. The negative impact that we see in our economy started long ago.

Being a leader at a time as this is not an easy task: you are struggling with how to get fund to pay the salaries of staff; you are struggling with how to even bring in the Bible, which is the core activity that we do. It simply means that to translate the Bible to different languages is becoming very difficult. But the economy is affecting the donors and by extension affecting us because we are not getting enough funds again. Besides that, we are finding it difficult to get dollar to bring in published translated Bibles because in Nigeria today, for me, there is no printing press that can handle the quantity and quality of the Bibles we bring in. And if we have to rely on dollar, how do we go about getting these dollars?

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Again, our roads are in a bad shape adding to the cost of leadership. If you come in through Western Avenue to our office here in Apapa, you can see how bad the roads are and we have to bring in our vehicles every day. And some of these vehicles are heavily loaded. We spend the little money we get to fix the vehicles with which the Bibles are delivered.

Leadership has to do with leading people. I must say that I used to think I understood leadership, having led at various departmental levels in school as the president of the fellowship and leading in the various arms of the church. Within the last four years I want to tell you that I now know what leadership is all about. Leadership is a difficult thing. You even blame leaders for not taking your suggestions but looking at it holistically, I know why some decisions are not taken. Again, it is not an easy task to be able to bring people to your life to see and run with the vision and probably still run with that vision when you leave. I have also seen that leadership involves relying on God, I have seen challenges within these four years and if God had not called me to BSN, I would have felt like going back and just leaving the job. Sometimes I tell God, ‘But I prayed to you before applying for this job and accepting it. You gave me this job, I did not lobby for it and I did not want to apply even after you told me to apply for it.’ With the help of God I have been given solutions to them by God, though it has not been easy, especially in a time of economic recession. To be candid, God has been faithful.

What can you tell us about the projects being executed by BSN?

BSN has translated the Bible into 24 Nigerian languages and we also have two that have been completed. We are only waiting for funding that God would provide to publish Okrika and Kalabari Bible. The two languages are spoken in Rivers State. We are trusting God for funding. Currently we have 10 translations ongoing; one of them is my own language, Okun. It is a language spoken in about five local government areas in Kogi and Kwara States and some local government areas in Ekiti State. So it is a vast language. Though it is not spoken the same way in these places, we understand ourselves. We are also working on Epie and Ogbia languages which are spoken in Bayelsa State, and we also have other languages. But in total we have 10 Nigerian languages that we are working on. It costs about a minimum of N44 million to translate the Bible into a language, that is why we ask for funds from Christians who are willing to support us.

Earlier you spoke about funding for your activities. How has the support been like since you came onboard?

I must say this is one of the major challenges that we are facing. Some churches feel we are competing with them. Some do not see BSN as adding any value to Christendom and this has been a major concern. They use the Bible, have branches in the rural area where they use the Bible in indigenous translations – Efik, Tiv, etc – yet they do not see us as relevant. We even try to educate them but they are more concerned about doing their own things. Yes, it is a good thing to have structures, mammoth crowd following us, but without the Bible there would be no church in the first place. And if there is no church there would be no pastors, and that is why I expect church leaders to take support for BSN with seriousness. We thank God for the few that are supporting us, whereas some do not even want to see us.

I must say that The Apostolic Church, even when we go there and they sight us, they would announce our presence. They have been helpful. Christ Apostolic Church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles, The Baptist Church and ECWA are great supporters of BSN. Even some with all formality still do not want to see us because they think we are coming to beg from them. But I keep saying this to everybody that cares to listen: God has called me and I do not need to be a beggar to do this job. I do not need money for myself. Even if I have any personal challenge, I talk to God about it and thank God he has been taking care of my personal challenges. I have never begged. But the BSN needs the support of these leaders and they should know that without the Bible there would be no church and without church there would be no pastor. They use the word of God to preach, teach and grow their members. Then they should begin to think about how to support Bible translations.

Away from the BSN now. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration seems to have fallen short of its campaign promises to Nigerians, which has resulted in calls for resignation in some quarters. Are the electorate right to have made such call?

I do not know about what they mean by incompetence. To me competence is a combination of skills that leaders need to influence others to get positive result. So competence is a component of the type of knowledge, skill and attitude. When people voted for him, I think they believed he had the competence to lead. I agree that Nigerians ought to have got something better even from the present government, but people should not also forget that leadership is sequential. Somebody stayed 100 years and people who come after build on what they met. When the colonial masters handed power to us, things were not like this; those who took over after them were not selfish, but gradually things started changing, even Jonathan must have inherited challenges as well as Buhari and these challenges may be overwhelming, and people looking at it want quick fixes. If we want Nigeria to be better, then we cannot have quick fixes; it would take time, though what we want to see is not talking about the past again.

As far as I am concerned, a leader should be less concerned about the negative things the predecessor did but know that he or she has been brought to leadership to do well. So they should stop talking about the past. Managers do not change situations but maintain status quo, but leaders influence changes, make things better no matter how bad the situation is; they do not make things static.

Another thing is that you might have competency but may not have the right people around you. He might be handicapped in making some laws because it has to go through the lower and higher chamber which at the end of the day might take three years and he is handicapped and cannot do anything. If the judiciary and legislature arms do not have the competent people to help the executive, then we are wasting time. At this time we cannot ask him to resign because we voted him there and we would be disappointed if he resigns because we thought he could do it; so we are praying for him for good health and competencies to carry on. It is only by him succeeding that we would succeed. I encourage people to stop castigating, especially from a narrow perspective.