By Augustine Ehikioya
With Nigeria celebrating 63rd year of Independence, Pastor Chukwuma Nwokocha of the Chukwuma Nwokocha Ministry has highlighted what the leaders from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu downwards need to do to salvage the nation.
According to him, there is urgent need to go back to God and ask for His forgiveness and mercies for all the bloodshed and wrongdoings that have taken place in the nation.
He spoke with Security Watch Africa (SWA) during the 6th year anniversary of his ministry and his birthday celebration in Abuja on Saturday.
The Pastor’s Birthday / Chukwuma Nwokocha Ministry Thanksgiving Service, which was themed “Obedience and Sacrifice”, offered prayers for the nation, security agencies and specially for peace in Nigeria.
Urging Nigerians to pray ceaselessly for the nation, he declared that Almighty God will not allow any doom prophecy to come to pass in the country because of the prayers of the less privilege, destitute, the blind and others.
He said “All our nation needs today is a comeback. If you look at the message that the Lord told us, that we should come back to Him and ask for forgiveness of sins. There’s a lot of bloodshed, a lot of killing, we have gone through so many things.
“All we need to do from the President to the last person, please I beg and I urge them. This is the message, let’s come back. Let’s come back to God and ask Him for forgiveness. We have done so many bad things. We have lied. We have done so many many things that are terrible.
“I beg them, from the President, the Governors, the Local Government Chairmen, the House of Representatives, the Senate. Please, it’s time to just, this house should stop for a minute. Let’s come back to wherever we’re coming from. Go back to God and ask God to help us.
“I believe with coming back to God, God looks at us with mercy. He will say He will forgive and this country will be alright. That’s all we need.
“But if we keep on without obeying the word of God, and we decide to do what we’re doing, no matter the policies you keep, no matter the policies you bring into this nation. I don’t see anything changing until we go back to God and ask Him for forgiveness of sins and ask Him to help us.
“He’s the only one that can help us. Policies come from God, not from man. Wisdom come from God, not from man. I believe at the end of the day, if we do all these things, God will change this nation,” he added.
Noting that Nigeria and Nigerians have witnessed so many bad situations, he said there was still need for celebration at Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Anniversary.
He stated “Above all, we have a lot to celebrate because we are together. This reason for us to be together is what God is looking at. And I believe for God to have kept us together, we should be celebrating and hoping that our 63rd anniversary will bring manifestation of God’s dream in this nation. That’s what I believe. And I’m hopeful that this country will be better. That’s why we’re praying.”
Stressing that doom prophesies of other people will never come to pass in Nigeria, he said “Well, I think what I have to tell them is that they need to desist from saying that. There’s not going to be doom here. We have heard so many messages, prophecies that are not coming to pass in this nation.
“God will not allow it. We don’t want doom here. That’s why we’re praying. If you watch the programme today, you find out that we have Christians among us, we have Muslims among us. We have all kinds of people coming together. There is no how God will not answer.
“We have children praying for the peace of this nation. So if you’re seeing doom, I pray and I ask for you to come out of it. Because of us, there will not be doom in this nation. Because of the children that are praying, because of the sick people, because of the blind people, because of destitute, because of those in the IDPs, crying day and night. Because of those sacrificing their life for this nation.
“I don’t think God will allow this doom they’re prophesying. It will not work and I pray that they will change. Our prayers is for them to change. I believe it is part of the stress they are going through, that’s why they’re seeing these. They need to come back,” he said.
Speaking on the programme, he said, “It is a reflection of what the Lord has done for us as a Ministry. And as the founder of this Ministry we deemed it feat that we all come together to celebrate. People keep saying that there is nothing to celebrate. I keep telling them that in every situation, we should thank God, keeping us for this six years and also celebrating my birthday.
It’s a Thanksgiving Service. That’s why we’re here. And we keep celebrating, and we keep thanking God for that.
“We are grateful, He has done a lot for us, prayers answered, keeping us alive, we have not had any death. God has been sustaining us in this situation we are. So we are grateful. So so grateful.
Shedding light on what motivates the Ministry to keep holding such programmes to pray for the nation, he said “The idea behind that is that you first of all love your nation. That is the most important thing. We love our country as Nigeria. And we are proud to be Nigerians. I am proud to be a Nigerian and praying for our nation.
“That’s the most important thing because charity begins at home. If you don’t pray for Nigeria, which country are you going to pray for? This is the most important country, I was born here and I grew here. I think the only way I can add value to our nation is to pray as a man of God.
“So we keep praying. That’s part of it. We keep praying for the unity and peace of this nation, which is more important. If there is peace in this country, we all gather together to do what is needful. But if there is no peace, then there’s nothing we can do. So, we believe in praying, asking God to help us to bring this country back as one and bring peace to our nation.”
Among those who attended the programme included people from the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, and widows associations.
The function was also graced by Christians, Muslims alike and well wishers.
Highlight of the event was the cutting of cake for the Ministry’s 6th Year Anniversary and the Pastor’s birthday.
