The Road towards Africa’s Renaissance: Bishop Oyedepo

Bishop Oyedepo (pictured here with his wife, Faith), Pastor of the largest church auditorium in the world, recently concluded a highly successful seminar dubbed Maximum Impact Summit. Before leaving the country for Nigeria, he was kind enough to give a press conference to the local media at a local hotel. Below is a verbatim report of what he had to say.

"Once again its my pleasure to welcome the gentlemen of the press in Nairobi here. I’m happy that you took time out to be here. We are all after the same goal – enlightening the public on what next, in order to improve our lot as a people. When I say this I’m not talking about Kenyans only. I’m talking about Africa as a whole.

The reason why we came to Kenya this time round is to carry out a crusade of change. Because without change within there cannot be change without. Maximum Impact Summit is the initiative of Maximum Impact Concept, an organization that’s put in place to carry out an enlightenment drive all across the continent of Africa so that one can through information set into motion a new way of looking at things that will help to improve the lot of our continent, the lot of our people, by making them become practically responsible so that we can become a people with respect.

I believe its Africa’s turn to play our own part, make our own contribution to develop the civilizations of the world by first improving our own lot, knowing what to do, and getting to do what to do, to keep going. That’s why we left Zambia to be here. We were in Zambia Monday all through Wednesday. We arrived in Kenya Wednesday night and the response has been very exciting. We are looking forward to positive results from this effort. It’s purely taking our destiny in our hands and making the best of it. That is the whole concept of the Maximum Impact Summit. Its bringing out what we consider the principles of life and integrating them with the real life of our people. Letting them know that no nation develops by wishing to develop. A nation develops by working at development. The overall goal of this campaign is to see how we can effect change of perspective, which will ultimately result in change in our thoughts and actions, and that will bring about the results we are looking for. I believe the real asset of any nation is its human resources. Natural resources have no value without human resources to match. Nothing has value, until there’s a human input into it. If, for instance,  a nation has a lot of crude oil deposits and has no technology to refine it, it gives it free to those who refine it, and they sell it back to that country at their own advantage. So we have nothing to gain. But when human resources match the natural resources, we have a lot of natural resources in Africa, it would be possible to maximize the value of those resources to the benefit of our people. Our idea is to make these people to become industrious. To be industrious doesn’t mean that we have industries and factories, no, it’s to be creative, resourceful. Let us become industrious and if we become industrious, there will be a drive to improve on what we have on the ground and we will be able to go on.

Places don’t make people, people make places. America did not make Americans, its Americans who made America. Korea used to be one of the poorest nations about 40 years ago. It’s now the thirteenth industrialized nation in the world. Its not Korea that developed Koreans. It is the Koreans that developed Korea. So, its time for Africans to get up and stop waiting for someone to come and do it for us because nobody is going to come and do it for us.

We have enough human resources that need to be mobilized towards a well defined objective, so that together we can see a changed continent, a changed people. And we can become proud to be Africans. Not get enslaved again in colonial entanglement. I believe that there cannot be any transformation without transmission of information. Every action is traceable to the information available to that individual. So what we should do overtly or covertly, is that we should be informed, such that if we are positively informed, we will start doing positive things. I believe all participants at the summit have a clearer understanding  that its time for us to wake up as a people and get things going. That’s why we have come, and I’m glad I have had the privilege of letting the media within the nation know that this crusade is meant for the overall good of our continent and of our own individual nations. I see us carrying out these crusades for the next 14 years so as to influence positively the perspectives of our people for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What you can’t see, you can’t possess. It’s the imagination that sets the pace for our destination. So we are out to see how we can remodel the imagination of the people which will help to inform positive actions that will lead to overall development of our lives and of our people. I think its Africa’s turn to become a continent of value to the world. I believe we have a part to play. To play the part, we need to have the right information that will set us into motion".

To what can you attribute the success of your Ministry?
There’s no assignment that does not call for commitment. It is commitment that determines the attainment of anyone in any career. Like Jesus said, except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies then it brings forth much fruit. So if you are truly dedicated to a course, you have first to be distinguished in it. I learnt dedication back in 1976, that the only way to be profitable as a follower of Christ, is to be genuinely, truly dedicated. Dedication is at the root of the privileged results we are able to see.

What do you think God is saying to Kenya at a time like this?
I think our people are generally not politically developed. The objective of politicians in most cases is not directed to the overall interest of the land. My idea is that any expansion should be able to be accommodated within our resources. Otherwise any enlargement or expansion of our economy will result in, rendering more people into suffering. If the aim of expansion is to bring the government closer to the people, and there are enough resources to cater for this expansion, then go ahead and expand. Nigeria, for instance, was once divided into four regions. Later, this was reviewed to 12 regions. Today Nigeria is divided into 36 regions. But I think the church should be more involved in praying so that the people in authority will make the right decisions in leading us.

What do you think God wants Africans to do to go into the next level and how long do you think this will take?
(Laughs) He is the God of time and seasons. It took the Japanese a hundred years to come out of the woods. Everything begins with a process. So we need to set the process in motion. The truth is that the average African man is largely uninformed. He doesn’t know why he is living. Everybody seems to live for themselves. So who will live for the land?

There has to be a change in orientation. In 1400, it was the crusade of Martin Luther that brought about the development and technological revolution in Europe. People became committed to serving mankind. Each one began to think creatively. This is where we are. How do we go forward? You will discover that the whole world was at the same level of civilization as at 1400. The problem is we go to school to get a job, not to contribute to life. We have to review our education system altogether to make it more applicable to life so that people come out of school to add value to the system. They are full of dreams: What role can I play? How do I play that role? It’s not just going to school so that you can get papers, to help you get a job. We should go to school so as to become part of the on-going change. We have to set in motion what I consider the new orientation that will move us from our current place of frustration to a place of celebration. I think its quite a process. But we have to start. We have always waited for things to happen on their own. Things never happen on their own. Rome was not built in a day but Rome started in a day. Our problem is that we are bothered by how long it will take. Don’t do nothing just because you can only do a little because the little you can do makes a big difference in the end. We should just get started so that people can see what exactly we are doing. Africans are generally victims of what I call cultural bankruptcy. Anything can be free as long as you are within the culture. You can eat in anyone’s house forever. This doesn’t happen in the developed nations. You have to work! That’s what needs to be reviewed. If we refuse to change these dead cultural systems, we will not change our position forever. The best way to do that is to educate the people. You don’t owe opposition explanation. You owe opposition education. It’s time to teach Africans to become responsible. People see government money and think its free money. You don’t need to do anything to earn it. Just steal it if you can. But then, at the end of the day you find the whole country is suffering because everyone in the country becomes so greedy. We should therefore not be so bothered about how long this will take. Our children will take over from where we stop. So let’s get started first.

What about poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic  in Africa. How can these twin vices be checked?
For a long time, Malaria kept on killing people in Africa and it’s still happening in some places. Where you refuse to move forward, everything begins to climb on you. In a place where people are moving, and you don’t move, you fall down and people will trample on you. This is how AIDS has managed to spread so fast in Africa. Someone has AIDS and he doesn’t know. He thinks he has fever and keeps contaminating everyone else around him. None of them is close to any diagnostic centre. Within a short time, one man affects 40 people who in turn affect 4 people each. Anyone knows what is happening, the whole village is taken over. It is our backwardness that is responsible for the uncontrollable spread of this disease. We must bring medicare closer to the people. The larger population of Africans reside in the countryside. You find that AIDS buffets more people in the countryside than in the cities.

Our poverty, which is largely a problem of inefficient planning, wrong priorities, lack of value for human life, has been responsible for the spread of this plague.

In America, for instance, AIDS and other diseases have been brought under control due to the availability of medicare to all citizens. There’s still no structure in place to put an effective scientific check on AIDS. Our governments have a lot to do, not just campaigning on the television. The people affected do not have television.

I think our backwardness and poor planning are responsible for the spread of this plague in Africa. How do we come out of it? We need to appeal to our governments to be more sensitive to priority issues in their policies.

Give us a little bit of your background?
I was born in 1954. Got saved in 1969, trained in architecture. I got called to ministry in 1981. We started the first church in 1983. Since then, we have started a Bible School called Word of Faith Bible Institute, which started in 1986. We have just started the Covenant University, which is opening in September this year. We have hospitals called Gilead Medical Centers. Already we have four of them in Nigeria. Our aim is that in the shortest future, we will start spreading these Para ministry institutions across Africa that is education, Medicare and social welfare. Presently we support orphanages, homes for the aged and widows. We are integrating the gospel into the social lives of the people. When Jesus was on earth, He made himself relevant to the lives of the people. We are not the light of the church but the light of the world. We are not the salt of the church but the salt of the earth. We are applying scripture into the real life of people so that we can enhance their future.

How many churches do you have in Africa?
We have 30 churches in Africa outside Nigeria. In Nigeria we have between 248-250 churches.

What’s the mission of Covenant University?
Covenant University is set up to establish change. The philosophy will be a departure from knowledge to skill. That is, we give people a practical orientation to influencing their world. We teach them to be men and women of value. We have a programme called ‘Total man’s concept. Every discipline anchors on it. Our idea is, instead of raising job seekers let us raise job creators. We are living in a land of unlimited opportunities. We are not backward because we are black. We are backward because we are blind. Through intensive research we will be able to expose people into the diverse opportunities in their environment. When they graduate they will become job creators, thereby solving the massive unemployment problem that we have. That’s our aim.

What’s the role of the Media & IT?
There’s no doubt in my mind that without information technology we are limited in transmission of information. The media and information technology have a lot to do in propagating the Gospel and enlightening the masses, and I’m glad I’m talking to media men here. If we keep on promoting the negative aspects of our nation, we will be scaring the interests of those who have run away among us. It is important for us, in spite of the philosophies of the media, to promote the virtues. Don’t tell me there are no crimes in America and Britain. However, the media in these countries keep on projecting the positive aspects of their society. But African media only projects what is evil to the extent that our own fellow Africans abroad are scared of coming home. Foreign investors are scared. It’s time for the media to play their positive role in helping us. But without any doubt, information technology has boosted the Gospel in no small measure. We are on the internet for instance, and we have mails coming in from all across the world on the impact of what we are saying back in Lagos. We have our own Visat and so we generate our own system and we are able to reach people 24 hours a day. There’s no cheaper measure for transmitting information than by employing the electronic media and particularly the information technology.

Is it true that your church is the biggest in the world?
If you saw Charisma Magazine May 2002 edition, it is clearly stated that we have the largest church auditorium on the earth. It sits 50,000 and was built in 365 days. Charisma correspondents were in Lagos for two weeks. Measurements, counting everything was done. It is not propaganda.

What can you say about Middle East crisis?
The Middle East is a prophetic stumbling block to world History. Let us just open our eyes and watch. It’s more prophetic than political. It is prophecy being fulfilled. The best thing is to watch and see as events unfold.     

By Innocent Mwangi, July 2002

© Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Kenya, 2002, 2003
ssm@swordofthespiritministries.net
www.swordofthespiritministries.net
P.O. Box 12147-00400 Tom Mboya, Nairobi 
Tel. 254-722704355
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