Reverend Dr. Stephen Panya Baba, who is also the Vice Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), will retire in a couple of weeks as Evangelical Church Wining All (ECWA) president, having served for six years. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, the clergyman speaks on his experience and challenges of being the president of ECWA, the hardships in the country, food scarcity, and insecurity, among other issues. Excerpts:
Sir, in the next couple of weeks, you are going to complete your tenure as ECWA president. What were the major challenges you faced in the past six years?
Let me begin by saying that one big lesson that I’ve learned throughout this entire six years, and which, in fact, came out much more clearly or very recently when I was doing my personal devotion, is that the very fact that God called you for an assignment and that you are working within His will does immune you from suffering, from persecution, and from all kinds of challenges. And you see that in so many testimonies, both in the scriptures and even in the post-scriptural era. A very prominent example is that of Paul and Silas, who had the famous Macedonian call. God gave them a vision of a man from Macedonia telling them to come over and help. So they went there, really, in the perfect will of God.
But when they arrived there, they started preaching and they got converts. But along the way came persecution to the extent that when they cast out the fortune-telling spirit from that slave girl that the master was using to make money for himself, the people rose against them to the extent that they were thrown into jail. But it tells you that even when you are within the perfect will of God, don’t think you will be immune from opposition, from persecution, from suffering, and from stress for the sake of advancing the kingdom.
Looking at this from a wider perspective, especially in governance, what are the challenges of leadership?
The first challenge of leadership that is universal to humanity is the falling, sinful nature of man that predisposes everybody to be self-centred, to be selfish, to live, to want to live a sinful life, even a wicked life. The scripture says all have fallen; all have sinned or have fallen short of the glory of God. Look, every human being in his natural state has the seed of unimaginable wickedness and evil. It just needs a conducive atmosphere for it to manifest. If you think of someone committing a terrible, heinous crime, maybe killing someone or decapitating someone, I don’t think it is something unusual that is making him do that. You too, in your fallen sinful state, have the capacity not just to do that evil but to do even worse. So, the greatest challenge of leadership is how leaders will manage human beings that are in this very sinful state. It’s a big problem. And that is why the strength and power for leadership has to come beyond your natural strength. It must be from God; you can go to God and say, Lord, I’m powerless. I want you to take over. I want you to move. I want you to touch people’s hearts. I want you to bring about goodness through my leadership by moving and doing things in their lives.
At the moment, there is hardship in the country, and this can be attributed to so many factors. How can Nigeria get out of this terrible situation?
In this country, I know people have reached the point where they say prayer is no longer working and that we must do something else. But I say we must begin with prayer honestly because, unless God takes charge, intervenes, and begins to work in the hearts of people to enable us to do the right thing, we will not be able to do it in the present state in which we find ourselves. Number two is that my second challenge will be to Christians in government, that they should take it as a challenge to do the right thing. If they are budgeting for infrastructure, for heaven’s sake, let them make sure that these infrastructures are developed, whether they are hospitals, roads, or industries. Whatever it is, let them make sure that these things are done. They should be the light of this world.
There is no profit in saying that they are Christians by word of mouth or by going to hold services in church when, in fact, they are not doing the right thing in the offices that God has called them to. They should do the right thing. Let them show the way. Let them truly be the light of the world by showing practically, by doing things that are right practically, and by doing these things rightly.
So that is what my challenge will be, first and foremost, to those who call themselves believers and are in government. But then, of course, I will appeal to the moral consciousness of others who may not be Christians, that God in His mercy and grace has also given them the positions of authority to do the right things by putting in place infrastructure, development, and other things that are needed to improve the generality of the populace.
But another thing that I will also encourage, and one thing, there are some critical issues, for example, that need to be strategically put in place if we want things to change. Another thing I want to mention is that our industries are dying; there are no more manufacturing companies in the true sense of the word in this country. You hardly find any serious manufacturing going on. And many light manufacturing industries that were established before are now moving to even neighbouring countries like Ghana, Togo, and the rest. You ask yourself why? Unless the federal government gives the power sector adequate attention, the country might not achieve anything because this is key to industrialization. We’ve been talking about power for years in this country, and we have invested billions of dollars in the power sector. And yet, up till today, there is no power. If we want Nigeria to have a strong manufacturing base, which is needed for the economy of any country to attain stability, we have to put power in place and make sure that there is power being generated so that even small industries, artisans, and so on, can do their small-scale production at relatively affordable costs. But when you don’t have stable power, you find that both the big industries … well, some of them may manage to generate power, but again, their production cost would be much higher than if there was general power available.
But the small-scale industries and producers you discover will be wiped out because they can’t generate power themselves. And a lot of other things that they could have done if power was available, you discover, have collapsed.
If not for solar power, which is coming now, artisans like even barbers and hairdressers would have long closed shop. But thank God that some of them are now using solar-powered barbing equipment that is helping them. Whether there is no general power supply or not, they can just put it in the sun and then move on. But you can imagine that if solar power had not been developed to this extent, what would have happened is that many of these people would have been thrown into the labour market. And there are others too, that the solar power has come to rescue.
But then there is some manufacturing work that cannot be done unless there is heavy power. So then, once we can get the power right, the second thing that we need to do in this country for it to come up again is to make the Ajaokuta Steel industry functional.
Look, since I was in secondary school, this industry has been established up until today, and they are still saying they want to complete it. A lot of infrastructure that was developed is left there now, rotting away. One time I had the opportunity to pass through Ajaokuta from Lokoja, going to the East.
When I saw the infrastructure that we had just left dilapidated, I wept for this country; it was just left to rot. Now AjaoKuta industry is what we need for production of heavy manufacturing equipment in this nation.
So, if the right people are given their assignments, they can revive this industry, and a lot of this equipment can still be put to use. If the government can be sincere and bring Ajaokuta back to life, it will generate employment and propel a lot of other industries back to life. At the moment, Innoson, which is in the production of vehicles, will have sufficient materials. Therefore, our government should focus on the right thing; those in government should be disciplined and more patriotic in running the affairs of this country. Power is germane to the development of this country. We have quite a lot of steel rolling mills in this country that are lying prostrate or dead completely. If Ajaokuta is resuscitated, these rolling mills will be brought back to life.
Part of the reason why there is such a food shortage in the country presently is that most of the communities that are food baskets in this country, especially in the North, have been sacked by bandits, and farmers can no longer assess their farms for fear of being killed. What is the way out of this?
Honestly, that is the very sad reality that we are into in Nigeria. Prior to now, especially during the last administration, there was a strong feeling and perception that these bandits had the sympathy and cover of many people at the helm of affairs in government. And that is why they were being emboldened. Because when you have these very strong perceptions and people are always citing evidence to assert their perception that they have the sympathy of people at the topmost level of the government, you just feel hopeless and you just want to give up.
I want to say that this mindset has to change, and the present government and the security agencies have to act decisively so that people can really believe that nobody is behind these continual raids, killings, and senseless murders that are taking place.
So far, we have heard of reported victories over these bandits, but the proliferation, you know, has continued. So I don’t know. I want to say that the security agencies just have to show up and make sure that the war is taken to the enclaves of these bandits, wherever they are.
The problem, and the problem people are having, including myself, is that you see videos, you see pictures of these bandits in places in the forest that can be identified, and you hear so-called middlemen who are trying to negotiate with them, going to these places and meeting them there in established settlements.
The question is this: if people can get videos of them in their locations, if so-called negotiators and peacemakers can go and meet with them and know where they are, why is the security intelligence not able to know where they are?
Is it really that they don’t know where they are? And if they know where they are, why are they leaving them? Why should they leave them there? Until, as they are usually doing, they come to town to wreak havoc and so on before they respond.
There is a common saying that the best defense in some cases is attack. They should take the war to them in their enclaves.They should not wait. They should not wait until people come and start crying to them that bandits have come out and they are attacking them to kidnap them.
Since they know how to locate them, they should take the war to them. That is the way to solve this problem. They should take the war to them wherever they are, flush them out, destabilize them, dismantle their bandit network, and destroy their bandit network in all those places. That is what we expect the security people to do.
The last kidnapping of schoolchildren in Kaduna was a big surprise to many Nigerians. People are of the opinion that the sequence of the kidnapping and the way they were rescued call for questioning…(cuts in).
Honestly, I cannot rule that out because the whole insecurity thing has become a business for many people today. For politicians too, it has become a business. When you pay ransom money, you don’t account for it. If the government says it is giving or paying N500 million for ransom, who knows? The money given might just be N200 million, but in the record, it would be N500 million. Truly speaking, there are corrupt elements in the government, even in the security agencies, that are catching on to this to make money. But do you know that this kidnapping has become so lucrative that even some pastors are getting themselves kidnapped to get money out of their members? That is how lucrative the issue has become.
ALSO READ: APC calls for cancellation of LG poll in Oyo
Source: