BY GODWIN OBI
After 35 years of being in Christian ministry and active evangelism, General Overseer and Presiding Bishop of Wordbase Assembly, Dr. Humphrey Erumaka, has been ‘walking the talk’ in terms of expressing the other dimension of evangelism – the ministry of help, which entails providing for the sustainable welfare of believers, beyond equipping them with the gospel.
Two years ago in 2021, the church established the Business Triangle Forum, BTF, a non-denominational platform to teach Christians how to apply godly principles, to create wealth and to fulfill the Great Commission. Last year, it empowered several young graduates with capital to start small businesses and those that were already running enterprises got seed money, to enable them to expand their businesses. One of such beneficiaries got mentorship worth over N5 million from the global accounting and consultancy firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers, to develop a drone-based “Eye In The Sky” service that monitors construction projects for individuals and business organisations. Head of BTF, Honourable Lawrence Odoemelem dubbed the service, Monitoring Spirit.
In the run up to the second year of the BTF Seed Capital Pitching Session, to mark his birthday held on Friday, July 7, 2023, he sat down for an interview with our correspondent.
I learnt from your profile on Wikipedia.com that you went into full time ministry in 1988. What has it been like in the past 35 years?
For me, the last 35 years of being in ministry have been like climbing a ladder, from the lowest rung to where I am today. One key thing I would say is that revelation knowledge and working with God has been progressive. I have never stayed too long on one rung. The grace of God has always helped me to move up from inch to inch, from level to level.
When I first started, somebody donated an office to me in Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos. I was not sure of myself at the time. But I had prayed and said, “Lord God, if you are the one asking me to do this, I need a place where I can stay and coordinate the take off the ministry. About that time, I anchored a programme at the National Theatre, Lagos, I was the compere at an event organised by the Light Bearers, a Christian group. After finishing a wonderful session, a man walked up to me and said, ‘I heard that you are looking for an office.’ I said yes and told him that I did not have money to pay. He told me that he had an office which he had furnished but had not raised the capital to start the business. He said that he did not want the rent already paid to just waste, and asked if I could take over the place, use it and then renew the tenancy after the rent expires. That was where I took off from. Now when I pass that place, I recall memories of that conversion and that period.
For six years, operating from that office, I travelled extensively as an evangelist all over Nigeria to hold crusades, ministrations and wrote books till 1994. After the Abiola Crisis, I started Wordbase Assembly, on Fredrick Faseun Drive, Okota, in a small piece of rented land where I built a small hall. Across the road was a swampy, sizeable piece of land. Back then we had challenges parking cars. Our cars would line up from the church to Century Hotel, which was at the beginning of the street. Then one day, a certain man came to look for me at my house. He said that he owned the undeveloped land opposite our church. His fear then was that the Omonile (the indigenes) who sold the land to him might take it back. He asked if we could clear it, level it and park our cars there. Of course, we accepted and that was how we got entry into the place. In essence, we helped preserve the land for him. Eventually, he sold the land to us and that is where we built the structure that serves as the headquarters of the church and main auditorium. After building the church auditorium, the owner of an expanse of land close to us built her personal house. On the day she held a house opening party, I attended, though she did not invite me. I felicitated with her and then casually mentioned that if she ever thought of selling the undeveloped plot beside our church auditorium, she should let us be the first people to make an offer. She said, “No, no, no.” But in due season, we got the place and built another structure that houses our Children’s Auditorium, offices and seminar rooms.
The ministry has grown over time. We have branches in Lagos, Aba, Owerri, Lekki, Warri and other towns. I have travelled widely and taken the gospel to the United States, Europe, Asia and several African countries. I have written 16 books. The Almighty God has kept my family, sustained my marriage and my children have done well academically (both those in Nigeria and outside the country).
In the early years of ministry, I ran a special crusade initiative called Campus Operations, to evangelise students. Most people today who went through the universities then knew me as I ran school of ministry in their campuses.
I have done quite a lot of leadership development programmes, seeking to educate Christians on godly leadership (my book, Accurate Leadership is a result of such efforts).
Now, about two years ago, I noticed that a lot of Christians think that the way to solve financial problems is to pray. Yes, prayer is very important, but it will only give you ideas as the Bible says in the Book of Jeremiah. “Call upon me and I will show you great and mighty things you do not know.”
God will show you an idea, but you have to go and work it out. Most of the time the major challenge is start up capital. No matter the greatness of your idea, if you do not have a little money to start, the thinker and the non-thinker will be equalised. This realisation led to establishment of the Business Triangle Forum (BTF), where people are encouraged with business ideas and from time to time given seed capital to start from the minutest point of the business which I call the pencil point. BTF was set up two years ago but last year we had the first seed capital event.
Today, as a minister of the gospel and a motivator, how do you feel?
I feel fulfilled, because the whole essence of life and leadership is to take people from where they are to where they ought to be. That is why a leader is a ladder. People should climb on you, climb on your experience, climb on you largesse and get to the next level.
Now that we are talking about leadership, how do feel about the political leadership of the country since independence?
When you look at many other countries in Africa like Ghana, Rwanda, Egypt, Morocco as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, etc, and you see clear evidence that we have been plagued with more of scorpion rulers rather than visionary leaders. That is my very strong belief and it is a view I believe many other Nigerians share. The leadership recruitment process has been the major albatross because it is deeply corrupted and has been sustained by the same corrupt people. The mechanism for people to emerge as leaders is fouled.
It is painful that some countries, which borrowed money from Nigeria to build their national economies have become great nations and economic powers and left us behind. Our nation needs just one visionary leader devoid of personal greed, to take a frog leap forward. We are endowed with human and material resources and the potential to become a great nation. If we have a leader who is devoid of kleptomaniac tendencies, his lifestyle will model what other government officials will do. But we are yet to have that kind of leader. There is so much stealing going on in the civil service. It is more injurious when a civil servant steals money.
Government policies generally impact the welfare of the citizenry. Recently, the Federal Government announced that vehicle owners would henceforth pay an annual levy of N1000 to obtain Car Ownership Certificate, which is separate from the annual vehicle licence. What is your view on this?
The announced policy is another facet of the multi-taxation that Nigerians have been complaining about, and has continued hold down individuals and businesses and suck up funds that could be better deployed, and more efficiently, to sustain operations. It is annoying that the government finds various ways to take money from the people, all to sustain the profligacy displayed by the civil service in the management of resources. It is also the kind of things seen in the way the banks deal with funds of customers.
They use various ways to take little amounts of money under different names such as SMS alert charges, ATM card maintenance fees, VAT, commission on transfer (COT), account management fee, credit management fee and several others. When you add up these sums, the amount becomes huge. You find that the banks declare huge turnovers and profits without doing anything concrete to support businesses, to grow the economy.
Now talking about the N1000 levy for cars, imagine the number of vehicles in Lagos State alone. When you take N1000 for each vehicle, the cumulative sum will be humongous. That is after the same owners have paid the annual vehicle licence renewal fee, road worthiness fee. And if it is a branded company car, the organisation pays a fee for putting its name on the vehicle. Different local governments charge different amounts, especially if the vehicle passes through different states. If it carries goods of the company, the drivers are harassed by poorly enlightened local government revenue operatives to pay instant amounts that ought not to be charged. So, the N1000 levy is clearly another case of duplication of taxation, which impacts the economy in a negative way as it affects the operations of businesses by siphoning funds that could be better used for other purposes that help the businesses and individuals. Every N1000 taken from people is money they won’t spend on the purchase of other goods and services that keep the economy going. Multi-taxation runs counter to the Ease of Doing Business Initiative of the Federal Government, championed by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo under the Muhammadu Buhari administration to make Nigeria attractive for foreign direct investment, which would create new jobs. Multiple taxation is not helping the economy at all. The federal and state governments need to find a way to reduce multiple taxation to encourage individuals and businesses to invest more in this economy. Countries with more favourable taxation regimes attract more investors than countries with multiple taxations.
ADVERTISEMENTS
