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The Kingdom Summit Promotes Godly Principles In Marketplace, By Akabueze (1)

By CHUKS NWANNE
11 October 2015   |   2:03 am
FIRST of all, the whole idea of the summit is to provide a platform to promote godly principles in the marketplace. There’s a broad definition of the marketplace, as it includes business, the professions, government and education. What we find is that a lot of people tend to be different persons in church and the marketplace.

Pastor-Ben-AkabuezeThe Kingdom Summit is a yearly non-denominational international marketplace economics and leadership conference, which seeks to promote the understanding of God’s principles in the larger society. An initiative of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), The King’s Court, Victoria Island, Lagos, the project, which debuted last year, featured international Christian business leaders from various countries, including the United States of America, Australia, India, South Africa and Nigeria. In this interview with CHUKS NWANNE, Pastor Ben Akabueze of the King’s Court Parish, spoke on this year’s summit, which holds between October 23 and 25, and the motive behind the initiative.
What’s the idea behind the summit?
FIRST of all, the whole idea of the summit is to provide a platform to promote godly principles in the marketplace. There’s a broad definition of the marketplace, as it includes business, the professions, government and education. What we find is that a lot of people tend to be different persons in church and the marketplace. Some people tend to live what I call a dichotomised lives and that’s not how God wants it. Our faith in Christianity is supposed to be the way of life; it’s supposed to be who we are and who we are shouldn’t change, whether it’s at home, at work or in church.

But of course, the marketplace does present a lot of challenges to the person of faith to live their faith and stand by those principles. Very often, the marketplace runs on principles that are opposed to godly principles. A godly principle embodies ethics, fairness, equity, justice and morality.

How come a lot of Christians go contrary to these principles?
Some people really do this out of ignorance because they don’t understand these principles. For instance, there are many Christians, who don’t understand that punctuality is a godly principle. The summit provides the platform to teach some of those principles. However, it’s one thing to know these principles and it’s another thing to understand the practical application. So, it’s not just about sharing these principles, but we will have people sharing practical experiences of how they live these principles in the marketplace.

The event is also about them establishing accountability platform, where people collectively and individually subscribe to upholding these principles in the market place. That way, we will have less of the phenomenon of having so many believers and yet our society is the way it is.

What exactly is expected of a Christian in a country like Nigeria?
When we begin to live converted Christian lives, our very lives become the Bible that the people read. The Bible said that the followers of Christ were first called Christians at a place called Antioch. They were called Christians not because they labeled themselves Christians, but because people saw how they lived; they perceived that these ones had been with Christ. So, when we say we are Christians, when people encounter us in the marketplace, they must leave with the perception that these ones are for Christ; every of our engagement must reflect Christ. We will all agree that that is currently not generally the case. So, this is the platform for pushing that agenda.

What’s responsible for the change in attitude among Christians?
Broadly speaking, three things are responsible. Number one is ignorance. There are people who think it’s okay giving to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. They need to understand that that’s not the correct bidding of the faith. The second is that corruption is so pervasive in our own particular environment. There are so many abuses around and not giving people value for money. So, it has almost become the norm and a lot of people get swept off in that. The third reason is about personal responsible. A lot of people are drawn into it by their lust for power, money or flesh. At the summit, we will address all these.

Do you agree that failure in the system brought about corruption?
Well, that fits into the second category, where I talked about our environment and all that. It’s totally abnormal that somebody worked and at the end of the month, s/he is not paid. When I watch TV and some governors say, ‘we are not owing as much as people are say…’ I feel like, ‘is this person normal?’ It’s totally abnormal that somebody worked and at the end of the day he’s not paid. It’s reprehensible to God. If on account of that a person is drawn into sin, you are a partaker in it.

God has laid down only one set of principles and He doesn’t have one for Nigeria and another one for other countries. And He’s not going to judge Nigeria based on different principles. We ought to understand that the core of our faith is resisting evil, even to the point of dying. So, I have not been paid, but it’s not a justification to set up a tollgate and start doing whatever. You need to find some legitimate means to generate income.

What will be the highpoint of the summit?
This year, we are looking to create a greater impact in the marketplace. We will be launching the Nigerian chapter of Unashamedly Ethical (UE). This is a global movement of Christians in the marketplace, mostly business people and professionals, who sign on to operate their businesses in an ethical code that derives from godly principles.

The code goes beyond the usual ethical codes you see in the world, where, for instance, people can hide behind certain structures to do some unethical things. For instance, you got somebody to give a bribe on your behalf, and you go home feeling ethical? With God, that’s not acceptable.

In what ways would the EU change current trend?
After launching the platform, we will get people to subscribe. When you subscribe and you sign on, at your place of business, you will have the signage of UE in your workplace. That way, you are holding yourself out to the general public and anybody that comes there should expect that every engagement with you would reflect those principles.

In the situation where those expectations are not met, what happens?
Where that’s not the case, people can file a report back to UE and we take it up. Of course, there’s no legal angle to it; we can’t charge the person or close down the business. But we can reach out to the person to find out why such thing happened. Sometimes, the owner may not be personally responsible. You lay out those operational guidelines, but your people can do otherwise in your absence. But when you get the feedback, you can now conduct investigations to know who was responsible and deal with the situation.
What’s the theme of the summit and who are the speakers?
The theme of this year’s event is Purposeful Capital: Impact and Leadership Responsibility. It’s quite an impressive cast of speakers from all over the world. We are expecting about 28 speakers this year. It will be hard to find another conference that offers such an array of speakers with such depth of knowledge and experience that is for free.

What’s your advice to the youths?
One of the sessions in the summit is about raising capital for young entrepreneurs. One of the things that are in short supply among youths of this country is hope. A lot of young people are losing hope in Nigeria, which is leading to all these desperate acts to survive. You see young people crossing the Sahara and Mediterranean into other countries. These same people watch TV and they see what happened to other people, yet they embark on the same journey. That tells you the level of desperation; people have given up on the system.

My message to young people is not to give up on the system; though it’s tough, but there’s hope. Even in this system, if they work hard, they can make it. There’s also a shortage of proper role models for the young ones. Some of the people they emulate are people that have made it the wrong way. But there are alternative role models they can emulate. I want young people to understand that their lives are worth more than money; never accept anybody defining your worth in terms of naira.

Even with this system, Nigeria still remains a land of opportunity. Isn’t it funny that an average Nigerian youth wants to run out of the country, yet you see Indians, Chinese and others struggling to come to Nigeria? They are not here to count bridges. It’s for you to discover those opportunities and take advantage of them. With hardwork and belief in God, you will make it. People that choose to live on the fast lane will one day come to understand that there are lots of accidents on that road. Don’t get carried away with the fact that everybody is doing it; never follow the crowd.

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