18082019 -Anxiety over " Next Level" Ministers

By Sam Eyoboka &
Olayinka Latona
THE 2019 National
Convention of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God,
RCCG, themed ‘AND GOD SAID’,
has come to end but the
reverberations, including the
outstanding testimonies of healings
and deliverances, have continued.
Describing the 2019 convention as
a mighty and prophetic one, never
seen before, the General Overseer
of the Church, Pastor Enoch Adejare
Adeboye, had earlier promised
participants some of the first things
‘God said to man.’
God said to man “he is blessed; he
will be fruitful, multiply and have
dominion.” Adeboye said those, who
had challenges in those areas of life,
will be free of them.
Adeboye leads walk
The spiritual event, which was
flagged off on Monday, August 5 to
open the anniversary, was preceded
by Ministers Conference (August 1 –
4) to prepare ministers for the
programme during which the 77-
year old General Overseer led young
ministers on a spiritual and physical
walk for hours. Many of the
ministers, who couldn’t walk for one
hour on the first day or two hours on
the second day, didn’t attempt to join
the walk for three hours on the third
day.
Several of the more scientificallyinclined
ministers, who couldn’t find
empirical explanation for a
sebteranian walking with the same
pace for hours, are still in awe of
him, remembering his sermon titled:
67TH RCCG CONVENTION:
Pastor Adeboye stuns
youths, walks for 3 hours
•Pastor
Adeboye
‘Spirit, not flesh’.
In that sermon, Adeboye said: “To
break away from our limitations as
humans, we must move towards
becoming more of spirit by becoming
more like God. Man is a tripartite
being made up of spirit, soul and
body.
“All three components must be
developed in that order. Your spirit
must be given the greatest priority in
development, followed by your soul.
Your body should not be developed to
the detriment of your spirit and soul.
“If you are not born-again, your
spirit is dead, and the soul is heading
for hell. In the unsaved state, the flesh
is in charge of an individual’s life.”
ICU dedication
As part of the RCCG Corporate
Social Responsibility, Adeboye took
time off his pressing spiritual matters
to commission an Intensive Care
Unit, ICU, at the church’s Redeemer’s
Health Centre. The ICU is the third in
a series of ultra modern health projects
facilitated by His Love Foundation,
the benevolence arm of the church,
the first and second being the ICUs at
the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital and Plateau State Specialist
Hospital.
In his short remarks before Ogun
State governor, Mr. Dapo Abiodun,
cut the tape to declare the facility open
in the presence of some traditional
rulers from Lagos and Ogun states,
the General Overseer said he was
convinced that any attempt to
restructure the nation now must take
into account a special constitutional
role for traditional rulers.
109 babies
Giving a breakdown of the number
of children born during the
convention as of 8.00 a.m. on Sunday
(109-56 boys and 53 girls), an elated
All eyes on Ezenwankwo in Awka
•Ezenwankwo
SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 18 , 2019, PAGE 41
Adeboye assured the enthusiastic
crowd of worshippers at the closing
service that next year’s convention
would be more glorious.
Explaining modalities for childbirth
at the church’s maternity, the head of
the unit, Pastor Joshua Kayode,
disclosed that the mission bears all
the medical expenses for all the babies
delivered at the unit irrespective of
creed.
“There are herbalists and Muslims
among others living around the
Redemption Camp who take
advantage of the facility and they are
all treated free and given packs for
their new born babies,” Kayode stated.
Assistant General Overseer in
charge of Administration and
Personnel, Pastor Johnson Funsho
Odesola, gave the breakdown of those
ordained during the convention to beef
up the work force for the fast growing
church with footholds in 197
countries. According to him, the
number of pastors was 1,904, assistant
pastors 4,126 while deacons/
deaconesses rose to 16,100.
And according to the Special
Assistant to the General Overseer on
Makinde, Awolowo family, others to grace 60th anniversary of Saviour’s African Church
oday is the grand finale of
TSaviour’s African Church,
Ekotedo, Ibadan 60th
anniversary.
The anniversary started on
Sunday, April 14 with a rally,
unveiling of the anniversary
logo and launching of card.
Today’s event is expected to be
attended by Governor Seyi
Makinde of Oyo State and the
Awolowo family whose patriarch
laid the foundation of the church
in 1959.
Also to grace the occasion are
Primate-Elect of the African
Church, His Eminence, the Most
Rev’d Julius Abbe, the
Archbishop, Augustus Odufuwa
and the Bishop, Abiodun
Ademola.
By Nwabueze Okonkwo
or about eight years in his
Fsojourn at the Traders’ House,
Onitsha, Anambra State where he
was the President-General of the
defunct Association of Markets
Amalgamated Traders Anambra
State, AMATAS, now Anambra
State Markets Amalgamated
Traders Association, ASMATA, Hon.
Okwudili Christopher
Ezenwankwo, a native of Nanka in
Orunba North Local Government
Area of Anambra State and
lawmaker representing Orumba
North/South Federal Constituency
in the House of Representatives, had
canvassed the welfare of average
traders in the country.
Before then, traders under his
jurisdiction had suffered
harassment in the hands of law
L-R: Director, Office-360, John Adegbola; veteran Nollywood actor, Rauf Niyi; Producer,
Office-360, Elliot Ovadje and Head of production, Happenings Media, Michael Kolawole,
at the location of the production of maiden season of Office-360 in Lagos
*Dr(Mrs)
Annah Afolabi
*Rt Rev
Abiodun
Ademola
The Mother Church, Ebenezer
African Church, Ogunpa,
Ibadan (now Cathedral), was
established in 1914.
“The inspiration to establish
*Ven
Dairo
another church – St. Saviour’s
African Church (now Saviour’s
African Church Cathedral,
Ibadan) - was motivated by a
group of people led by Elders
enforcement agencies including
customs, policemen, NAFDAC and
NDLEA.
His promise to champion the
cause of traders if given the
mandate to go to the National
Assembly gave him a landslide
victory during the February 23 polls
As President of AMATAS and
SEAMATA, Ezenwankwo
established a cordial relationship
between the headship of law
enforcement agencies and traders
on one hand, and traders and
government on the other hand,
making Governor Willie Obiano to
give N10 million grant to each of
the market branches in the state
under Markets Choose Your Projects
Initiative of the state government.
He also set up a task force to
checkmate the activities of dubious
traders.
S.O. Fakorede, J.A. Sijuade and
E.O. Sowunmi”, according to a
statement.
“The maiden service of the
church took place on 27/12/59,
and an open-air service was held
in the evening of the same day.
“The first Baptismal and
Confirmation Services were held
on 31/1/60 and 29/5/60 by
Archdeacon Asabia and Bishop
A. Aboyade Cole respectively.
“We are happy to report that
after the establishment of
Saviour’s African Church,
Ekotedo, we have built a Primary
School which is adjacent to the
Church Building.
“It is also on record that
Saviour’s African Church rose to
the grade of an Archdeaconry
Ezenwankwo, who has the
chieftaincy title of Ewepudike
Nanka, also sensitized traders to
endorse Obiano for re-election on
November 18, 2017, a situation that
enabled the governor to win
majority votes in all the 21 local
government areas of the state, and
for which Obiano is nicknamed ‘21
over 21 governor’.
Born into the family of late Chief
Matthias and Mrs Lizzy
Ezenwankwo of Oka Agbiligba
Village, Nanka, Ezenwankwo
obtained his senior secondary
school certificate at the
prestigious community
secondary school, Igbakwu,
bagged his NCE certificate at
Nwafor Orizu College of
Education, Nsugbe, and
obtained his B.Ed. at Enugu
State University of Technology,
ESUT.
He was also conferred with a
Doctorate Degree in Business
Administration (Honoris Causa)
by the Commonwealth
University, Belize and another
Missions and Chairman of Central
Missions Board, Pastor Brown Oyitso,
it is obvious that RCCG has been
divinely positioned as an arrowhead
for global revival.
“The RCCG has grown from an
obscure church that was started in an
obscure neighbourhood of Lagos, 67
years ago, into a mission that will fulfil
the divinely covenants global
mandate of taking the gospel to the
whole world”, Oyitso said.
“From the founder, Rev. Josiah
Akindayomi, to Pastor Enoch
Adeboye, we’ve seen leaders who are
passionately and vigorously
committed to the divine mandate and
who are exhibiting exemplary
leadership”.
Oyitso, who is also the pastor-incharge
of RCCG Region 19, expressed
gratitude to God for all He has
enabled the church to accomplish thus
far, saying: “RCCG currently has
presence in 198 countries and
territories of the world.
“There are about 50 countries and
territories yet to be penetrated by the
RCCG. Most of these nations are in
territories that will need very creative
evangelistic strategies to penetrate.
Traditional missions and church
planting strategies will not work in
these nations”.
Commuters’ SOS
Commuters within the camp
decried the high cost of transport fare
they were made to pay from one point
to the other especially during national
programmes of the church.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that due
to the mammoth crowd that attends
the major programmes of the church,
the Transport Department allows
tricycles and other buses from outside
the camp to complement the efforts
of registered ones to convey the large
army of passengers within the camp.
Participants at the convention
lamented that operators
indiscriminately increased transport
fare between the Old and New Arena
by as much as 75 per cent depending
on the size of the crowd, thus making
it difficult for many participants,
who cannot afford such high fares,
to trek long distances to get to their
destinations.
One of such commuters, who
identified himself as Mr. Taiwo
Odushile, said: “I am surprised that
we are having a bad situation on
the campground in terms of
transportation. Imagine we are
charged N100 instead of N50 to the
Old Arena and N300-N400 to the
New Auditorium.
“It was even worse on Friday night
because of the crowd when these
guys charged N500 to the New
Arena.”
Council on 29th May, 1983
named Ibadan Archdeaconry
Council with the Venerable J.B.
Taiwo as the first Archdeacon
and later became Saviour
Archdeaconry on 5th April,
2001.
“The African Church split some
Dioceses for rapid expansion.
Ibadan North Diocese was
carved out of Ibadan Diocese on
January 27th 2018 by the
Primate. Consequently, the
church became a Diocesan
Headquarters of Ibadan North
Diocese and by so doing became
a Cathedral. The Bishop of the
Diocese is Rt. Rev’d Abiodun
Ebenezer Ademola, the Provost
and the People’s Warden, Ven.
Oluwajimi Dairo and Bro. ‘Dayo
Adekoya respectively”.
doctorate degree from Zoe Life
Theological College, Lagos.
Ezenwankwo, who is the
founder of Facomore Oil & Gas
Nigeria Limited; Henchris
International Nigeria Limited;
Ezenwankwo Group of
Companies Limited; among
others, is the leader of All
Progressives Grand Alliance,
APGA, in Orumba North/South
LGAs; Leader, Onitsha
Metropolitan Residents Forum;
BoT Member, Aluminium Dealers
Association, Onitsha; BoT
Chairman, Shoe Manufacturers/
Dealers and General Goods
Association, among others.
Ezenwankwo hosts a thanksgiving
ceremony today in Nanka with a
Holy Mass to be presided over
by Bishop Paulinus Ezeokafor of
Catholic Diocese of Awka at the
Holy Trinity Catholic Church,
Nkwoagu, Nanka, after which he
will host his political and
business associates, friends and
well wishers to a reception.