A Legacy of Love
Solomon Elusoji writes that the Christian Broadcasting Network should not just be remembered for its massive media network, but also for the manner in which it has, and continues to touch individual lives and communities…
Solomon Elusoji writes that the Christian Broadcasting Network should not just be remembered for its massive media network, but also for the manner in which it has, and continues to touch individual lives and communities, leaving in its wake, Christianity’s most important legacy; love
In Bakin Riga, a rocky, remote village in Nassarawa state, death hung in the clouds, circling like the sword of Damocles. The village had no potable water. Since the nearest source of potable water was in Andaha, over an hour’s hike on foot, the villagers resorted to drawing from contaminated pools of water, which they shared with other domestic and wild animals, to meet their daily needs. Of course, this led to a spate of diseases and deaths. One of the community leaders, Mallam Adamu, lost eight children (out of 13) and his wife, due to diseases related to the bad water.
Sakiya Madaki, a woman in her eighties, used to climb up a hill, towards a stagnant pond, to fetch water herself. However, as she grew older, it got increasingly difficult for her to make the tortuous trip. Still, since she needed water to cook, as well as feed her livestock of pigs and goats (which was her source of livelihood), she endured the daily agony.
However, the water crisis ended when the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Africa, via its 700 Club, decided to dig a fresh water-well for the impoverished community. A wave of joy swept through Bakin Riga when this happened. At long last, many sighed, they would have access to potable water.
The people of Bakin Riga are not alone in benefitting from the humanitarian efforts of CBN Africa. The organisation, largely recognised for its media programming, has been a soothing balm to millions of people across the continent.
“Most people know us for media, but they do not know we are involved in humanitarian activities,” the regional director for CBN Anglophone West Africa, Felix Oisamoje, said, during an interview with this reporter at CBN’s Lagos office. “And we don’t just help Christians. We help all those who are in need of our support.”
In a way, the organisation’s religious and humanitarian objectives are intertwined and symbiotic. The religious objective is to preach and propagate the Christian gospel, while the humanitarian aspect is pretty clear-cut. The latter is simply being used to achieve the former, along with other tools, such as its media arm and prayer network.
The humanitarian efforts are spearheaded by Operation Blessing, which is the arm dedicated to demonstrating God’s love, by alleviating human need and suffering across the world.
Felix Oisamoje, who chairs CBN across the four Anglophone West African countries (The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone), while talking to this reporter, shared some sharp insights on the organisation’s humanitarian efforts, particularly in Nigeria.
Like the one in Bakin-Riga, the nonprofit organisation has dug several water-wells across the country. To save cost, the wells are hand-dug, guarded with concrete rims, and fitted with India Mark 11 pumps, which ensure durability. And, usually, the waterwells built by the CBN become the central access to water for most communities they are put up in.
The organisation is also involved in empowering women, especially widows who have no source of sustainable livelihood. Oisamoje told the story of Hajara, a woman who lost virtually her entire family to religious riots in the north. The rioters butchered her husband, four children, a daughter-in-law, and two grand-daughters. She, together with two of her children, was rescued by some good Samaritans.
The trauma of the event haunted her, but the determination not to truncate her children’s futures kept her going. She picked up a job with a monthly wage of 5,000naira, despite incurring monthly transportation costs of 3,000naira. Poverty slept and woke with her.
After learning of her predicament, according to Oisamoje, CBN paid her a visit and gave her a grant to start a provision store, and a poultry. Before long, with both businesses flourishing, she started to make an average
The organisation also offers free medical services in remote parts of the country and has started to establish rural clinics in villages where there is no existing health infrastructure
monthly income of 30,000naira. “Now I can eat well, I can think well, and once again I’m a happy woman,” Hajara said.
Another aspect of CBN’s humanitarian aid is the cleft lip and cleft palette surgery it performs for children. Four month old Zainab Ibrahim was a beautiful baby girl who was born to indigent parents in Plateau state. Her birth was a herald of joy, but her upturned upper lip worried her parents. They wanted their child to live a normal life, but had barely recovered from the debts incurred during childbirth.
As fate would have it, a neighbour told them about CBN, and they got in touch with CBN Africa’s office. The girl was promptly scheduled for the corrective surgery that would make her smiles round and complete. Today, Zainab has left the stigma attached to cleft-lipped children, embracing a glorious future. Till date, over 600 cleft-lip surgeries have been performed by CBN in Nigeria.
The organisation also offers free medical services in remote parts of the country and has started to establish rural clinics in villages where there is no existing health infrastructure.
“The reason for that was simple,” Oisamoje said. “It is true that we offer medical services to these people, but after we go, what happens in these communities? Are they not going to fall sick again?”
The structure for the rural clinics is very flexible. The medicine cabinets, stocked with basic, over-the-counter drugs, is usually located at the village chief’s house, and selected villagers are trained and equipped by the CBN medical team to deal with primary cases, and refer the complex ones. The trained and equipped villagers are also assigned to households, with a mandate to ensure that they keep to simple hygiene, which would obviously reduce the rate of diseases in the community.
“We don’t just talk the talk,” Oisamoje said, “we go out there, to the most remote of places, and do what we can to spread the love of God through providing the basic necessities of life to those who need it.”
The Media Story
After having existed for over 50 years, CBN is arguably the largest and most extensive Christian television network on earth. The network was founded on January 11, 1960, by Pat Robertson, and its first program went on the air on October 1, 1961, on WYAH-TV (from Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God), a UHF television station in Portsmouth, Virginia.
With a modest income from a few local supporters, CBN began broadcasting live half-hour programs from 7pm to 10pm every night, and because Robertson refused to accept commercial advertisements, paying for programming was out of the question. A few free travelogue films were used to fill in the blank spots.
Gradually, the audience for the station grew and expanded. The ‘700 Club’ Telethon, especially, was an important turning point for CBN. It generated more contributions for the station and, in the final minutes of the broadcast, generated a remarkable outpouring of spiritual revival among the audience. The vision was taking roots.
Today, CBN is a multifaceted non-profit organisation that provides programming by cable, broadcast and satellite to approximately 200 countries, with a 24-hour telephone prayer line. The 700 Club continues to be one of the network’s key broadcasting components. Having being on the air perpetually since 1966, the 700 Club is one of the longest-running programs in broadcast history. It is seen in 97 percent of the television markets across the United States and aired in, approximately, 218 countries and territories across the globe.
In Nigeria, CBN’s programming, a popular source for Christian broadcast delivery in the country, is starting to take a more localised slant after decades of airing syndicated content. For example, two new programs, produced locally, will hit the airwaves early next year. Heart to Heart will be looking at the changed lives of Christian artists, while Living the Life, the Nigerian edition, is a 30-minute magazine style show for women.
“We will provide the programming at no cost to Television stations in the country,” Oisamoje noted. The first episode of Heart to heart will feature a lady painter who shares inspiring details of her life story, and work.
One Cubed Naija, the Nigerian version of the famous One Cubed, is also growing stronger, featuring more local Christian artists and celebrities talking about how they manage their faith and passion. In 2014, the show crossed the 100th episode milestone, and the production crew, deservedly, rolled out the drums to celebrate “God’s favour and faithfulness.”
The most significant reason for CBN’s meteoric rise might be its ability to balance its religious and humanitarian objectives. In Nigeria alone, thousands of northern Muslims have benefited from the organisation’s goodwill and charity initiatives. During riots in Kaduna, massive flooding in Plateau, CBN has been a constant presence in helping the helpless back on their feet, without regard to religious affiliations or prejudice of any sort. “If Jesus Christ was on earth, he would have done the same,” was Oisamoje’s succinct comment, summing up the organisation’s philosophy.
A more astounding fact might be that the organisation, from its inception, has been funded by voluntary donations. Considering the network’s size, its continued existence is a testimony to the impact it has and continues to have on donors. They (the donors) might not receive physical gifts in return for their contributions, but many have confessed that partnering with the network has changed their lives, for good.
In the end, however, CBN should not just be remembered for its massive media network, but also for the manner in which it has, and continues to touch individual lives and communities, leaving in their wake, Christianity’s most important legacy: love.
The organisation is also involved in empowering women, especially widows who have no source of sustainable livelihood... And we don’t just help Christians. We help all those who are in need of our support