Drama. Oriki and gospel rap. Fuji and other genres of gospel music all graced the 2022 Extravagant Praise concert organised by Catholic Praise Concert (CPC) at Catholic Church of the Resurrection (CCoR), Magodo Estate, Lagos State.

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Princess Abiola and Evelyn Igboka-Michael (popularly known as Jesus Baby) came to the show with their invocation and worship of the Almighty with Oriki (Yoruba praise poetry). Their highly emotional performance brought tears down the cheeks of some members of the audience.

Before the event anchored by Benneth Ogbeiwi of Project Fame West Africa and television presenter, Stephanie Vincent-Otiono (known as SVO), there was the usual holy Mass celebrated by the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Paul Bastos.

The event also featured gospel rap served by Moses Audu, backed up by his producer, Ladi Abraham. Other gospel rap artistes that featured include Majemu, who rapped in Yoruba, and Kellar Thrillz, who rapped in English and Igbo.

Kellar Thrillz also came with their signature power and acrobatic dance.

Voice of Angels Choir, St. Jude Catholic Church, Mafoluku, led by Blessing Odoh had opened the floor with choral music before St. Cecilia Choir of St. Thomas More Chaplaincy, University of Lagos (UNILAG) led by Richmond Chilaka presented praise medley and other soul-lifting songs.

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De Fix Crew spiced the show with a dance drama depicting the power of Christ against evil forces. In the drama, the individual efforts of two pastors did not make much impact until a Catholic priest appeared at the scene, rosary in hand, and joined forces with the two pastors to defeat the evil forces. Energetic dance followed the drama.

Rev. Fr. Lawrence Adelana, a.k.a Fada Fuji, who had been a regular feature at CPC events, also gave good account of himself with his gospel fuji, after Desmond (Man of Praise) Unaegbu had performed old school gospel tunes.

Gift Christopher (alias Minister GUC), who was the star act, later hit the stage with praise, worship and prophetic prayers. The ‘Obinigwe’ exponent brought the stage back to life, forcing the participants to encroach into the time for the movie night organised as part of the CCoR’s harvest thanksgiving.

The Rivers State-born singer used his popular songs, ‘All That Matters’, ‘God of Vengeance’, ‘Obinigwe’ and ‘Sound of Revival’ to keep the audience on the feet for about an hour, giving them value for their time.

At the sideline of the event, the Executive Producer/Project Director at CPC, Peter Egbumokei, said that this year’s concert turned out a huge success because of the goodwill he received from artistes, volunteers and equipment suppliers.

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He noted that the concert took a new name to carry all Christians along and realise its original aim.

“The Church has always advocated a name that will be unlimited. We are trying to evangelise Christ, so we don’t want people to think it is solely a Catholic thing. We often had to explain that to people.

“CPC is meant to be an adaptive evangelising instrument, learning from what is happening in contemporary society and ensuring inclusiveness in the evangelisation of God’s children. So, we thought of what expresses how we feel,” he stated.

The engineer described himself as God’s toolbox, being used for his praise.

His words: “I call myself God’s toolbox because he can pick anybody to do the same thing. In essence, the show is a huge success, even as we didn’t have enough time to advertise and campaign. We had a slow start, probably because of the sun, but people came eventually. You could see that the last three ours were packed. We achieved our aim of praising God.”

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Fr. Bastos told The Guardian that everything about the event was awesome, from the Mass to the movie night, which was part of the parish’s Harvest of Divine Intervention.

“This year, we are combining it with our Harvest of Intervention, to pray for God’s intervention because we need it in all we do in our country today,” he said.

According to him, the concert will make the harvest memorable. “The memory will continue to linger that the 2022 harvest witnessed a praise concert.”

He urged those who missed this year’s edition to wait for next for another special edition.

For next year, Egbumokei promised that more big artistes in the mould of Minister GUC should be expected.

Egbumokei started CPC on Saturday, November 1, 2014 at the Church of Ascension, Airport Road, Lagos. It has been held at different locations in Lagos, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 2015, St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja in 2017 and Supreme Education Foundation, Magodo GRA, in 2019.

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