As Nigerians count down to the 2023 elections, popular cleric, Evangelist Chukwuebuka A. Obi, has stressed the need for prayers for the success of the polls. In a recent media parley with selected journalists in Lagos, the amiable preacher also talked vividly about himself and his activities, among other relevant issues. MC PATO anchored the event which was organized by CMC Founder, Mr. Cornel Udofia. Excerpts:

We want to know a bit about you and how your spiritual gift came about . . .

I am Evangelist Chukwuebuka A. Obi from Imo State, Nigeria. I was born into the family of Igwe Vincent Obi, a royal family. My mum started giving birth after 11 years of marriage. She gave birth to female children. She was crying to God to give her a male child. She made a vow to God: ‘Oh Lord, bless me with a male child and if you do it, l will sacrifice him to serve you like the case of Hannah and Samuel.’ You know Samuel was initiated in the womb by the mum; so that’s the same case with me. She said it was like a vision when she had two boys.

I was named while in the womb. That we are going to serve the lord all the days of our lives, l and my twin brother and we were born in a sanctuary. While I was growing up, even at the age of eight years, l had started seeing vision because if people come to me, l will tell them what will happen tomorrow and by that tomorrow, it will happen. In my village, all of them knew me. A that age, l can see a pregnant woman and l will tell her that she is carrying a baby boy or girl in her womb. At the age of 12, there was a priest they brought to my village then. He loved me so much and cherished the gift of God in my life. The priest is late now. He was the one that told me to never have sex with any woman till l get married, he told me that l will be ministering to multitudes but l should make sure it’s not a church and the third thing he told me is that ‘Ebuka, make sure you don’t marry wrongly. He said avoid this three things and God will use you greatly and whatever you say shall come to pass.

So, then l was sacred and it was even affecting my relationships with sisters. If they want to come to me, l will say no! no! In my school, people started coming to me for prayers, l joined Charismatics then. Anywhere the Rev. Father is going for breaking of curses, they will call me because l can detect something and they will bring it out. There is nowhere the Rev. Father goes for family liberation without going with me. So, it is a gift from the womb. I grew up with it, I never lived a life and said now, I am a born again.

Even when I came to Lagos and I was at St David’s Catholic Church, miracles flowed; the same thing happened at St. Michael’s, Obalende. I remembered the day one man came to our shop to buy something and he had a very bad wound, smelling one at that, and l laid my hands on what l sold to him and the next day, the wound dried off and that was the end of the wound he had carried for years.

So, my life has been with God, l make sure I keep to the priest’s warnings, especially not have sex until I get married. This place is bigger than most of the churches in Nigeria but it is not a church and it remains a prayer ministry. People come here to pray because that was how God want it and, honestly, God has been faithful.

As a clergy who has spiritual discernment, what can you say about the 2023 general elections in Nigeria?

As for Nigeria, I will always encourage my congregation to pray fervently the country because right now, things are not the way they are supposed to be. There are many issues threatening the sovereignty of the country, so the state of the nation is honestly not the best. This is the first time the youths are coming out to fight for their rights, before you will see the youths storming beer parlours or playing football on the streets but this is the first time people are pushing to get their PVCs. That shows that everybody is ready for change because nobody is enjoying the situation anymore, everybody is affected in one way or the other. People are not even safe in their homes and in the bush; you are not safe even in the church. Bad roads, no electricity, the economy is collapsing, getting worse every day. So, that is the situation right now.

We are experiencing the hardest time in the history of this country; so my fatherly advice to everybody is that we should vote for the right candidate and not prayer alone. As we pray, we go out to vote. We should vote for a radical change in Nigeria because this is the only country where you will see children jumping and shouting up NEPA, just for two minutes’ light. In other African countries, electricity is a normal thing, people are used to it but here people will be shouting and in the next few minutes, darkness is back again. This is the only country you will see bad roads everywhere and for past years now, our leaders, politicians have been promising us, l will do roads, l will fix roads but all to no avail. The worst of it today is that many of our youthful girls are into prostitution because there is no job. To come out from university, parents will suffer, parents will even sell their lands to train their children in the university and at the end, there will be no job for them. That is why you see most of our students, graduates are Okada riders and that is terrible. A nation that doesn’t have plan for the youths is like a nation without a future. We are crying no job, everywhere. l can bet with you that Nigerian youths are very intelligent people but they graduated and don’t have any work to do! What do you want them to do? That’s why you see high rate of prostitution, high level of kidnapping and all manner of crimes. So, this coming election is an election which we all must go out to vote for change and l pray that God will do something different this time around; because if things continues like this, it will finally get to a brickwall. So, this is my fatherly advice.

How do you cope with maintenance of your Paryer Ministry in the face of challenges?

Let me answer that question by saying that till today, like the Pentecostal Pastors, some of them will say Catholics worship Mary and stop praying to Mary, she is a human being like you. You pray to the Holy Spirit to intervene for you. I listen to them but you see most of them speaking, you see big calmness in their hearts. In John chapter 2, Jesus was invited to an occasion and Mary was also invited and suddenly the wine finished and Mary went to Jesus and said, ‘my son, their wine is finished and Jesus said go woman, my hour of miracle has not come.’ She left Jesus and went to the steward and passed the message and she said whatever he asks you to do, do it.

Now, Jesus hour of miracle has not come, but Jesus did that miracle because the mother persevered and Jesus didn’t have to get angry. So, Jesus broke his own agreement with heaven because his mother has asked him. If you read the book of Luke, Chapter 1, the angel appeared to Mary and hailed her, saying, the Lord is with you. The rosary that Catholics pray with is in the bible, the angel says hail Mary, the Lord is with you and Mary was surprised on what sort of salutation is this. The angel said you are going to conceive and have a son and Mary answered, how can that be? I don’t know any man; and the angel said don’t worry, the power of the Most High will over shadow you, and Mary said so be it according to your word. And the angel said even your sister Elizabeth that they thought cannot have a child is now six months pregnant.

Mary went to see Elizabeth and Elizabeth shouted ‘how happy I am that my Lord has come to visit me, immediately I heard your voice, the baby in my womb started jumping up for joy.’ So, even the baby in her womb recognized the importance of Mary. Holy Mary is a blessing to all women and this is why it is written ‘for this reason, all generations shall call me blessed.

So, if you are not calling her blessed, that means you don’t know your Bible. These pastors are just misconstruing the whole thing. Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus Christ is our Lord.

Can you elaborate more on your Ministry?

Like l said earlier, it is not a church, rather a Praying Ministry. People will come even in the night to look for me for prayers, some are helplessly sick. When l was living in Surulere, my Landlord will be asking me, Ebuka, why are people trooping in here to look for you? They will be threatening me but l thank God that today, the ministry has come to stay. There is no plan to make it a church, I am not called to baptize, rather I am called to be an ordinary servant of God, in missionary field, field of salvation, in a prophetic field, field of working in miracles and teaching salvation. Muslim brother come here to pray and I am just a prophet of God.

What are your plans for the Nigerian youth?

Well, if you come around here, you will see what we have been doing. Honestly, since last year till date, I have transformed about 800 prostitutes and, by the special grace of God, we are helping them to get jobs. Even some of them have kids. We have a foundation that caters for these issues, like now, we are starting the project from Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebony, Abia, Delta, and Rivers States. We are starting with these seven states before we also move on to Lagos, Plateau, Kaduna and all over the federation. We want to have a psychiatric home in the whole Nigeria because some of the causes of this issue is frustration. So Ebuka’s psychiatric foundation is starting with project in Anambra. We will build a psychiatric home and will have a bus that will cover the entire state, the same thing in Imo, Rivers and other four states. So, we have a lot for the youths to make sure they are happy.

If you have the opportunity of meeting our political leaders, what will you tell them?

The thing is for the 2023 election; Nigerians should pray very well. So, if I have a chance of meeting the leaders, of which I am meeting some of them, I used to tell them the simple truth but they are adamant people. In South Africa, leaders are much respected because of their integrity. I went to a mall in Johannesburg, I saw people kissing the statues of Nelson Mandela. So, whatever you do is what you would be remembered for.

I always tell them to do something and leave a legacy. The best way to be happy is to do something that when you leave office, your name will be remembered positively; and I whatever you do, no evil will ever go without being punished. If you come to me, l pray for you but that doesn’t stop me from telling you the truth because you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

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