My Father’s Steward Has Served for 55 Years ...
did not think it ended well. The second was a robbery trial. I saw that one of the accused was executed which I did not like. He was executed because he had no one to help him. After that day, I made up my mind that I was going to live my life defending the less privileged. I went into Law hoping to be the lawyer to anybody that did not have anybody to defend them or did not have money to hire a Lawyer. So that was my dream.
First Job and Receiving the Calling...
My first job was with British Gas in Sole Hill and because I am an adventurous person, I was working in the IT department and became part of a team that wrote the programming language. I almost had a career change. I was an hourly paid staff. But I cannot remember how much I was paid. Then I moved to British Inland Revenue. From there, I moved on to College of Law to do my professional studies full time. Unfortunately, my son was diagnosed with autism. I gave up Law to care for him and at the same time I received the call of God upon my life which I believed was always there. I believe the seed was sown in Benin when within two weeks of arriving at Idia College, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour at the then Church of God Mission under the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa. But at that time, he was a pastor in September 1973. That was the time the seed of the ministry was sowed not just the seed of faith.
In 2004, I planted a church, Resurrection Life Assembly Birmingham. It was a vibrant multicultural church and it still exists. In terms of United Kingdom where I received my call and training in ministry, I am a pastor and I became part of the National Intercessory Prayers Leaders Forum and I am also part of the UK Prophet Round Table, Executive Member of Christian Broadcasting Council, CBC, of UK and I have been part of the Apostolic Forum in the UK. I started engaging with Nigeria in 2006. That was my first proper conference. I came to speak. I still shuttle from 2006 till now because I came with a 10-year assignment to Nigeria.
The message about alerting the church that there is a 10 years period of favour that was upon the church and needed to be grassed, to work with others, preparing the church for revival and to be part of all the ministries organisations raising reformers of the society and pioneering the church’s place in the market place. That is my third and most important assignment. To raise reformers in the society and to pioneer the church, connecting with the market place and taking her place of dominance in the market place. So that is the apostolic work I have been doing here.
The Values I Cherish...
I value honesty, transparency. I can deal with the truth no matter how bitter it is. What I cannot deal with is having to figure you out. I believe that friendship is not all about James Bond or that we have to be a prophet to figure out our friends. I feel that the greatest display of love is truth. Only someone that truly loves you can tell you that thing you do not want to hear. And that is why I celebrate my friend, Mrs Obioma Liyel-Imoke, the former First Lady of Cross River State. She is someone that I expect to tell me the truth while I do same to her. I also have another friend, Mrs Kate Isa, and many others. I have been blessed with wonderful friends. Being a pastor, I have my value system. I have a husband that being his wife and he being my husband is full time ministry. It does not give time for too many things. I have a friendship in him and I have a daughter who is very much my friend. My family commitments, ministry commitment, the people that I lead are my best friends. But these are friends that I grew up with. I have found out that being in ministry, being a Pastor in Nigeria, truth is far from you. People have been brought up not to honour but to fear. A person who fears you may not be able to take the risk of telling you the truth. But who honours you could. These friends I mentioned honour me and I expect the truth from them. But those who have been taught to fear which is really sad and the culture of fear masked as respect means that the truth is far from you. That is something I value more than anything else.
Meeting My Husband and my Achievements...
I met my husband at a friend’s house after seven days of asking God to lead my path and that of whoever I would marry to cross. After my degree exams, seven days later, I was in Nigeria and I met the man that I married.
My home front and the Ministry have been blessing for me. In the ministry, what I will regard as my most remarkable achievement is raising men who have come to prominence. For instance, my personal assistant was invited to a United Kingdom Prophet Round Table. If you call yourself a prophet and you are able to raise a prophet who is also honoured at a national level as you were, is an achievement in my level. Another thing I will consider is this United Kingdom achievement in pioneering a magazine called the Voice Magazine; which was acquired by the Christian Broadcasting Council of United Kingdom. That is an achievement and do not forget that I am a Nigerian and this is my magazine that was bought over by the Christian Broadcasting of the United Kingdom and it became their very first magazine. So that is an achievement for me. Another thing I will consider as an achievement is writing a book on the Prophetic Ministry that won an award six weeks after publication.
My Nehemiah Centre in the UK...
The Nehemiah Apostolic Resource Centre is a vision of mine that supports the work that I do in Nigeria. It was set up as a training centre to equip and to empower and to release transformation agents who you also call change agents or reformers. We are in the apostolic age; we are in the time of reformation because to have transformation you must first have reformation. I believe that God is helping us to reshape things after His original pattern so that he can come to put His glory on it; to bring the brightness that becomes real transformation. I believe that for society to be transformed, the reformers have to undergo personal reformation. My work in Nehemiah Company as a ministry, my work, interest, passion, my vision is to be a small part of a critical mass that is working towards preparing the change agent. But to do that kind of work, you need a centre where you model all these things. Nehemiah Apostolic Centre is set as an equipping centre. When I came as an apostolic agent, the Lord gave me an indication that there was going to be revival in Nigeria and to come and be part of preparing the people to bring the change. That is my mission in Nigeria and my mandate is also to be a support system to the church, to train individual change agent, to help them discover purpose, to help them find their way to fulfilling purpose. At Nehemiah Apostolic Centre, we also have a Resources Room which is set up like an epicentre that you can listen to messages from speakers, trainers, teachers from all over the world. You can borrow books to read and listen to CDs. From there we hope to bring understanding and we are working with other international agents and also working with Pastors, leaders in Nigeria and partnering with people from abroad who have the same mind.
My Life Desires...
As a Christian leader, I would love to see the church take her place in society as a lighthouse, as a solution centre, as an equipping house, as a sending house. As a woman, I would like to see the dignity of womanhood celebrated and restored. I would like to see women truly emancipated. As a Christian woman leader, I will like to see more women honoured and also will like to see women participate in all aspects of the society; be it in government, politics and the church. As a mother, I would like to see my own biological children achieve more than myself and my spiritual children.