Fiji Sun

RKS OLD SCHOLARS

organise Lotu Vanua meet in Nadi

- FONUA TALEI & MERELEKI NAI Edited by Kara Waqanidrol­a Feedback: fonua.talei@fijisun.com.fj

The Ratu Kadavulevu Old Boys Associatio­n yesterday facilitate­d the first Nadi meeting for the controvers­ial First Nation Spiritual Revival Movement led by Timoci Nacola.

The meeting which took place in Votualevu, Nadi, saw the attendance of about 100 followers who converged to hear the teachings imparted.

It was also streamed live on Mr Nacola’s personal Facebook page for more than 41 minutes and within two hours of posting, it attracted more that 9000 views and 141 shares.

About Mr Nacola

The 47-year-old is originally from Bucalevu Village in Ra and lives there with his wife and seven children.

He attended Ratu Kadavulevu School before enrolling at the then Fiji Institute of Technology for his Diploma in Business Studies. Mr Nacola previously worked as a Bank Officer with the then Colonial National Bank, Ministry of Economy, Public Works Department and Fulton Hogan.

He resigned in 2014 and decided to return to his village to tend to his farm after which he decided to begin the movement.

Speaking to the Fiji Sun yesterday, he said he was inspired by God to start the movement.

“Our Godly nature that we inherited from our forefather­s was a life of respect and love that we shared with each other. Our love was not based on greed for money,” he said. During the years that he has served as a leader for the movement, Mr Nacola said he had seen that the religious beliefs taught in the churches were different to that practised by forefather­s.

“We are unique in our own ways of life as an iTaukei,” he said.

Mr Nacola claims the purpose of his movement was to set people free from foreign spiritual ideologies.

Fijian Broadcasti­ng Corporatio­n

Meanwhile, state broadcaste­r, Fijian Broadcasti­ng Corporatio­n had done a pre-recorded interview with Mr Nacola which was supposed to be aired last night on TV.

However, chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the decision to take the interview with Mr Nacola off air was made well before the Prime Minister made his statements about it on Friday.

A snippet of the pre-recorded interview on FBC’s iTaukei show Cucurui was previewed on television where Mr Nacola claimed that

Jesus was born in Fiji and his name was Mosese Dukumoi.

During a talanoa session in Wainibuka, Tailevu, PM Voreqe Bainimaram­a questioned Mr Nacola’s claims and warned villagers to beware of false teachings.

After viewing the preview on FBC TV, Mr Bainimaram­a said he requested FBC not to air the show because it would fuel confusion among people.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said they had already decided not to broadcast it because of controvers­ial material.

“We did an interview earlier in the week and they made a promo about it too. Every show that we record goes through review and after we reviewed it they saw some material that may be a bit sensitive and may offend some people so that is why they decided to take it down,” he said.

“We are aware of the fact that as the national broadcaste­r we must be careful about airing programmes that do not help the sentiments of other people.”

Although a lot of people had been looking forward to watching the interview on Cucurui, he said it was unfortunat­e that it had to be taken down and sometimes content that was recorded does not make it on air. He added the discretion to air programmes lies solely with the broadcaste­r.

 ?? Photo: Mereleki Nai ?? From left: Eliki Rawalui, Timoci Nacola, Wakenia Koitaci and Bose Ravoka at Votualevu in Nadi.
Photo: Mereleki Nai From left: Eliki Rawalui, Timoci Nacola, Wakenia Koitaci and Bose Ravoka at Votualevu in Nadi.

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