‘Nigeria needs heaven-sent revival to get back on course’

The country is at crossroads, grappling with lots of challenges. A leading and critical cleric in Calabar, Rev. Theodore Effiong of Assembly of God Church, Prayer City in this interview with ANIETIE AKPAN, spoke on some of these issues such as the fears of Boko Haram metamorphosing into Fulani herdsmen, an economic jihad, islamisation of Nigeria and the church, among others.
The churches in Nigeria are passing through a tough time. What is really happening to the church?
I would say the Assemblies of God is going through a lot of spiritual challenges and I see this as the best opportunity for heaven sent revival. I see also that God can also be an orchestrator of an event. Revival means bringing back to life what has died, a great awaken of what is dead. Revival means something that is totally rotten and you’ve given up hope on it, but suddenly you see it resuscitated and coming to a place of great glory you never expected. So, what is happening in the Assembly of God means that God wants to use the Assembly of God to bring that revival because in the history of revival, no great revival has ever taken place except out of great God.

What is the relationship between what is happening in the church today and the state of the nation?
On the issues of Nigeria, I believe the nation is now at crossroads, and except the heavens come down to intervene, there will be no deliverance for this nation. Nigeria is presently in the most critical condition in the nation’s history. In the days of John Wesley, 80 percent of the ministers were not born again or had a living encounter with Christ. The clergy was dead and in deep immorality, high level of freemasonry and drunkenness in the clergy was very high. John Wesley himself was a clergyman in the Church of England (Anglican Church). He was on his way to America to preach to the Red Indians.

But while on that ship to convert the Red Indians, he realised that he himself was not converted. The ship came under a life-threatening storm with the mast broken into two and there was another group of Christians, the Monrovians from Germany and they experienced real revival. It was a missionary group already visited by God and they were in that ship with their wives and children. Wesley realised that they were in great calm and peace. He saw them worshipping God, praising Him and singing with smiles on their faces without a care in the world. Meanwhile, he was wondering whether he would go to heaven or hell, if he should die, as he wasn’t sure of his position with God. He said to himself: “I am going to convert others, but I am not converted. These people have something that I don’t have.”

When he returned to England, he attended a Monrovian church meeting and got converted. Then he started praying for revival. By that time, the moral standard in Britain was said to be at the lowest ever and the common slogan was, “drunk for a penny and dead drunk for two pennies”. Prostitution was so high, just like gambling. They used to have public execution and human beings would pay to go and watch public execution. That was when the revival fire hit. In all this, there was a group of people that prayed for God’s intervention.

The church is already dead. So many things have gotten out of hand. Cultism, witchcraft and whatever have invaded the church and the state of the nation is as dark as dark can be. It is always at such times that there must be a group of praying people, who are ready to lay down their lives and say God except you intervene, we are finished.

I want to say that whatever is happening in the Assembly of God, I see God’s Hand there because I perceive that revival is about to hit. I also see it as not just an Assembly of God thing, I see it as a Nigerian project because the nation is sick. Nigeria is currently in the worst economic situation we have ever been. When I came to Nigeria, the naira was more powerful than the dollar and pound. Here we are today talking of over N300 to a dollar and even N450 to a pound. It has never gotten so low as this.

We have crude oil, but we don’t have petrol and there is no electricity. How can the nation be the giant of Africa? There are no roads, and practically every area of the nation is paralysed. Right now, we are getting to a point, where if God does not intervene, the agenda of islamisation of Nigeria is very glaring and the stark reality of what is knocking at our door is obvious.

Do you really think there is an Islamisation process going on in the country?
When I talk about the islamisation of Nigeria, we are aware that Boko Haram wants to metamorphose into Fulani herdsmen. We are aware that this is an agenda. We are aware that ever before the APC came on ground as a political party, they said it is not just a political party, but an Islamic movement and what is unfolding in the nation is telling us that is what they are.

I am in Calabar and we are aware of truckloads of people from the North coming in by night. We know that ever before the election between Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari as the main party contenders, there was a letter that came out everywhere and was being circulated. People got knowledge of it to the effect that if power were not surrendered to Buhari, Nigeria would become the biggest blood bath and the biggest refugee camp in Africa.

But even as it went the way it did, we are seeing that there is a strong movement. There is what is called the economic jihad. Jihad has many faces and phases. One of the phases is economic jihad, when you make a people to become so dry up and frustrated. Why is it that within one month of one man being at the helms of affairs, key positions in the land have been handed over to Northerners and our people have been sidelined? Is this not an agenda?

I am a theologian and I have studied Islamic religion and it is clearly stated in Islam that you must take over and must islamise, as well as undertake jihad. It is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith required to go to heaven. When I observe all these things that are happening, I concluded that we are going through economic jihad right now, where all the key positions have been handed over to them and our people are sidelined.

Whosoever controls crude oil controls the nation and that is why globally through the Islamic agenda, they have taken over Libya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. And all these places are oil-controlling nations. Saudi Arabia is already Islamic. Once Islam controls the world’s oil, it’s over and they will become the world’s next super power.

So, in Nigeria and with what we are facing, you will know that we are in a very grave situation, where everything is drying up. Lecturers have not been paid and monies are being held up everywhere. There is no money flowing in the state, there is no money flowing anywhere and people are finding it hard to eat, but we are also aware that there are different groups of people who are ready to give N15, 000 each to our young men, who are ready to join their religion. They say, ‘come and eat we will give you money and food.’ That is economic jihad, when you impoverish a place and then you offer them what to eat, as if saying, ‘if you want to eat, you can come over and join us.’

What is your view on the proposed Federal Government bill for grazing centres nationwide?
It is very clear and evident that the so-called grazing is all part of the agenda because if they are genuine herdsmen being sent, it is a different thing, but these are no herdsmen. They are men that are well-equipped with sophisticated weapons. Who gave them these weapons and where did they get them? Who is sponsoring them? They are Fulanis, just like Buhari. Who are the real owners of those cattle? I am aware that Buhari is one of the leading livestock owners in the nation.

How can they sit in the House and be pursuing a bill proposing that all the 36 states should give them grazing reserve so quickly? Yet these people, within these few months that the current president assumed office, have been unleashing such mayhem— slaughter and genocide on different villages and communities in the South and South East and everywhere. It is very alarming. What I see from all this is that they are an upgraded version of Boko Haram.

I have heard the government saying it has succeeded in dislodging Boko Haram except for just a few pockets here and there. Yes, it is not difficult to do this, when they have metamorphosed into Fulani herdsmen. That is what I am seeing and anybody with seeing eyes should see and know that this is what is happening in our nation today. What I am saying is that the state of the nation is so bad, but if God does not give heaven-sent revival, there will be hell-sent war and Islamic sent Jihad in the next one year or so because they are moving so fast.

How come a proposed Bill is going for the first and second sittings in the House in such a fast manner? Already, we are hearing that they have even shared nine states for these livestock, so the issue has already been concluded. You need to know what is on the mind of the people and you don’t just force things on them, take their land and say those places would be paid for through one’s personal business. It is not done so anywhere, but of course it can be done in Nigeria, where there is another movement behind everything. However, it is not that we are fools, as we know what is going on. And this is why I talk of revival in the church. We have great men of God in this nation; we have men God has raised to the highest levels, who are in charge of churches with millions of followers. People will readily listen to these men of God, whenever they raise their voices.

I am so disturbed that our great men of God have not voiced out, have not shouted and made noise, when things are getting so out of hand. Why are they silent, why are they quiet? God said to Esther through Modachai, ‘if you fail to act now, for God brought you to that place for such a time like this, then deliverance will still come to these people, but you and your father’s house will be wiped out. ’

I want to plead to our fathers out there to shout and make noise because if you don’t shout today, let me prophesy what will happen: The Lord will do what He did in Act. 9, when He arrested Paul of Tasius while he was on the way to Damascus to wipe out the churches and Christians in Damascus. While he was on his way, God arrested him and that man, who was to be the greatest destroyer of the church, became the greatest builder of the church and the voice of the church and you don’t hear of Apostle Peter so much again after Acts 9. He faded away and became the voice of the Apostle Paul.

So, if our fathers don’t shout now, God will silence them. Don’t be surprised tomorrow, when God starts to raise Fulanis, Hausas, and northern people that will become the leading voice with great prophetic unction and anointing such as has never been witnessed to fulfill God’s purposes for Nigeria because the country is a covenant nation and God has vested interest in it. That is why I said that whatsoever is going on, I believe it is not just in the Assembly of God. I just use the Assembly of God as an example. There are lots of problems in so many other churches. We are at the point of death and we need heaven-sent revival.