Ezekiel Adeleke Atayero, the Senior Pastor of The Cross Christian Centre (TCCC) Ojodu, Lagos, is Gods ordained servant with a clear apostolic mandate of enthroning righteousness and holiness in the 21st century, in this interview with CYRIACUS NNAJI, he spoke on the Nigeria’s Independence with a fervent prayer that the nation will not remain a fool @ 60. Excerpts:
You said something about the young ones ruling this country, really there must be something behind it, is that our youths are not owning up to come out to contest for elections?
We have brilliant youths in Nigeria but not buoyant youths. There is the difference between being buoyant and being brilliant, you know, any person that is in the place of power would want to remain in that place, and they don’t even want their children to move out of that terrain. So they will not give opportunity to anybody that does not belong to them to enter there. When we say we have brilliant youths and not buoyant youths, I am talking in terms of money. Politics in Nigeria is money. It is either by money or by violence, but if we see even the youth organization that can come together, you know, I first talk about disunity in the church, then there must be disunity in the country. The bible says that the government is put on the shoulder of God meaning that the church also have a lot of work to do when it comes to government.
Let me tell you something, the place of power, you know sometimes, is not by age, it is by grace, for now everybody ruling us in Nigeria they are over aged. They should retire, there is what is known as retirement for government employees, but in presidency, I have not seen retirement in that [place. There should be, the narrative of Nigeria, we have to revisit it to suit the youths. They will say can’t youth come, can’t youth come, we need the youth, but the people saying they need the youth are still the ones blocking the youths from entering. My prayer is, after this time God will recreate chances for our youths to come in that government.
Are you against Christians coming into political power like the president?
If anybody should talk about that it could be the ignorant people, people that do not know their right from their wrong, Isaiah 11 verse 1 and 2 says that ‘from the stump of Jesse a shoot will come forth; from his root a branch will grow and bear fruit. The spirit of God will rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge fear of God’. One of the things we need to know here, every of these spirit is been given to children of God, and I want to say to you that as far as I am concerned, a Christian is supposed to be in the place of leadership throughout the world, so if anybody say, the seat of government is a corrupt seat, it is because the person that will correct it has not come. So I am one of the people that want Christians to be in that place. We need people who love God, born again Christians to be there.
You said you heard some things from God on the matter of the nation could you let us know some of these things?
Sometime ago I said it that if Nigeria didn’t pray very well, the leaders will be running up and down, some of them will be running to their security house, let me stay with you tonight I will pay you, because the bad guys are no longer looking for, according to what God showed me, they are no longer looking for the poor, they are looking for the rich even with the support of their security personnel, when you see the noble running to the house of the one you tell, come here you stupid driver, and you are running to the house of the driver, that is to tell you there is something coming. But I pray the lord will avert it. Wisdom will be given to our leaders. As we clock 60 we will not be a fool forever.
What is your view on CAMA because some pastors are fighting against it?
It would have been a good thing if we have a body of government that care for his citizens. Now there are many churches that are more organized than the seat of power in Nigeria. Talking about palliatives during the Covid-19 outbreak, we as a church The Cross Christian Center we call all our members and street people, we have to give them palliatives, we did it three times in this pandemic, not that there was money somewhere, but we have the things of the people by heart. When you look at government what can they say they have done for the church that is making them to do this, the present situation of Nigeria, I can boldly say that the law cannot work.
Concerning covid-19 what has the church learnt from it, and what has it changed in the church?
I can say a lot, in most churches, one it is for us to prepare, it is also for us to let our members to be empowered. Some members, some Christians are lazy. I used to pray severally many years ago, I tell, mostly teachers in our church look for something you do after school, and when this thing happened all of them said Pastor used to say it. It made several churches that have not been online to be known. As a matter of fact since this covid-19 I have worked so seriously more than ever before in my ministry, because we have to keep the heart of people busy for their heart no to be derailed. We discovered that in so many churches the heart of some people were going away from the lord, even when they said churches should resume, few people want to resume, not because of corona virus but because they enjoy staying at home.
What did the lord tell you concerning Nigeria as it turn 60?
For October 1, I have not received anything from the lord. But what I have in my spirit mind that I have been praying we need to go back to that. When you look at the coat of arm you see the motto, which says Peace and Unity, we need to go back to that, because we had such 50 years ago, so in this country we need a symposium on peace and unity. The prayer I have been praying for Nigeria lately is let there be peace and unity.
What are you telling the youths, to change their mindset and for majority of Nigerians to actually vote right during elections?
Majority of Nigerians, about 75% of Nigerians are well informed when it comes to politics. But the problem is this; it is to find a way of eradicating the issue of money in politics, because they know that some percentage of Nigerians are poor. The only thing to win their heart is to give them money. When you send money to them they will submit to you no matter who they are. One of the things that can make a lot of people to deny even their father in politics is money, what a lot of people are looking for on this earth is money, but the issue is to give a particular lecture on how not to be bought over. It has been a serious issue.
The governorship election in Ondo is coming up in October, what are you telling the people of Ondo?
The only thing I will tell them is, you have to know who you are, many of the people you are dying for they don’t worth it. And also another thing I want everyone to know is this, very important, you don’t know who will die on election day, before election, after election, so you have to be very very careful not to be the scapegoat, when you die your children will suffer for it, if you are married, your wife will suffer for it, or your husband, you don’t need to kill yourself for something that does not worth it. As a matter of fact politics is not to kill people. It is not to waste your life for something that does not matter. Think of the future of your life, so don’t sell your vote, don’t kill yourself, don’t be violent and do not join the bad gangs because you need money, everything is just money, money, money, you should think rightly and you should vote wisely.
Your advice to the youth
There is what is called the youthful age, a lot of youth abuse it. There a lot of youth that are into fraudulent acts, otherwise known as yahoo, but I can tell you that there is no future a gangster or being a cultist, you have to look at yourself and think of a better life God has given to you. There is something you carry as an individual; nobody can be the best than you are.
