The Biafra Of My Dream – Rev Uma Ukpai

Rev. Dr. Uma Ukpai is a renowned evangelist and preacher in Nigeria. He is known for his fearless and straight response to any subject. Aside his preaching prowess, he’s also done a lot to better his community. He is currently building a polytechnic worth one billion naira with administrative blocks of 92 rooms and an internet eye hospital in his home town in Ohafia. The cleric spoke with Sunday Sun in his office at Uyo, in Akwa Ibom recently.

You were close to the last president, Good luck Ebele Jonathan, what is your relation­ship with him now?

Yes. He is still my brother. The best school is the school of failure. No man is a successful man who has never failed. Those who avoid failure are the people who are causing problems in Nigeria. A man who is willing to fail and also willing to pick some­thing before rising up shall be a good leader, but a man who says I cannot fail is telling a lie. All of us can fail. The only man who has made no mistakes is the man we buried yesterday. Every man alive can make mistakes. A great man is someone who can learn from his mistakes. Jonathan is among the great­est we have had in Nigeria. I know he’s a man of few words, but he has bright ,analytical mind. He’s very intelligent and also patient, which is something missing in Nigeria.

Was that why he married patience?

No, No No, I don’t know why he married patience. I have known him before he became president of Ni­geria and as we speak, I have still great respect for him because he is still as intelligent as he was when he was saddled with the responsibility of leading us. But, nobody should regret it because the lessons he has learnt will be of great use to us in future.

There’s a clamour for Biafra, how do you react to that?

Their leaders were here. They want me to lead them. Or they said it’s a prophesy that I should lead them.

Which of their leaders?

I will not tell you. I said to them, if you want me to lead you then you must drop your agitation and carry the bible and become what the bible wants you to be and resort to giving birth to yourself as a people be­fore you can give birth to the community. What do I mean? Every child of God is supposed to be a creator of wealth. You don’t need to depend on government and every child of God has Abraham as his covenant father. The Jews thrive anywhere they go without the government, supporting them. The Jews are great in creativity, great in wisdom, great in knowledge, they are not just rich in money they are rich in imagina­tion. They make the impossible possible, they have turned a barren land into fruitful land. The bible promises that no man who is a born again child of God shall be a disappointment and go empty handed. You have to demonstrate that first before you begin to blame other people for not helping. No man is a failure until he begins to blame others for his prob­lems. We need to discover God, discover what he can do for us, and hold on to him, he will turn our state of confusion into a state of fruitfulness.

Was that all you told them?

Yes. I made them discover what the bible says about them to give birth to the dream God has for them first before trading blames on others.

Sir, what are your perceptions about the electoral tribunals, especially in their judg­ment in Akwa Ibom, Taraba, Rivers?

I don’t know if I am the right man to answer that question because I’m biased. I believe that 90 per­cent of these attorneys are corrupt and once a man can dance to the tune of money , he is not worthy to preside over a tribunal. A man who has a price tag, has no business with being a chairman of a tribunal. A man that you can buy either with women or with money has no business presiding over a tribunal. We have judges that money can buy, and therefore what­ever they do; people like me can’t trust their verdict. We need honest men, we need selfless men, we need men that love Nigeria, not lovers of themselves. We are looking for men that love Nigeria , who can give up their comfort, their pleasure to the welfare of this great country. Allow me to say that I don’t know any country as beautiful as this country. Our problem is, we have men who have no knowledge of how to move us forward. Men who don’t even know what the questions are, so they can’t even answer our questions. A man you are asking which one is the lon­gest river in the world and he names Aba River. That tells you the whole story. That’s where we are. A man who is not self less has no reason to lead us but a man that loves us, a man that is helpless, a man willing to pay any price that will be placed on him to help this nation move forward. Since 1960 till now, have we made any progress? the answer is no. We have been running in circles like blind horses and what breaks my heart is that we have men with dead conscience. A man with dead conscience is more deadly than an armed robber. A man with dead conscience loves no­body but himself; a man with dead conscience can even kill his wife and children. Most of our leaders have no conscience. I can’t see us dancing because of a rosy tomorrow. God allowed our problem to crease for us to turn to him and seek him but because we have dead conscience, we are marching as if nothing has gone wrong. I had begun to travel across the world when one naira could buy two dollars. When one naira was equivalent to one pound. You show up in a European shop the whole place will come to a stand still because a Nigerian has walked in. now, its no longer so. When they see your passport, without even checking out your name they rate you before knowing you. That is what poverty can do to a na­tion. Now, one naira cannot buy anything anymore. You need 230 naira to buy one dollar. Our leaders should be crying, they should be weeping, asking God for forgiveness, wisdom, knowledge and un­derstanding. I want to add that we no longer have a problem; our problem is not now an emergency. But unfortunatelty, the men have gone on break.

If you are to see Buhari face to face what will you tell him?

I will ask him to seek God to help us because only God has solutions to our problems, to our questions, healing for our sickness.

Recently, one man was given three offices, Works, Housing, Power. What is your take on that?

The man they gave those appointments is a per­former. He has my vote. If they had asked me to vote I would have voted for him. As governor of Lagos, he changed the place. He showed that Africans don’t have biscuits in their head, that we have brains and we can think. I have never met him, I don’t know him but I celebrate him. There was a time I promised to vote for him in Lagos any day he wanted my vote. I will travel from Akwa Ibom, register in Lagos and vote for him so he deserves that honour. We are look­ing for men who can think, not men who re-arrange their prejudices, not men who are blind. A blind man can lead a blind man.

The crop of ministers that President Buhari put to­gether, we have hope that poverty will be a thing of the past.

I don’t know them. I know some of them , I don’t know all of them. So,its difficult for me to judge at this time. its difficult for me to judge at this time. I don’t even know their pedigree. Where have they performed before now? Like the man that had my vote, he has performed before. Others have no pedi­gree, we can’t make reference to their past. There’s nothing there to give us hope.

The man in the saddle do you think he is capable of giving that change?

Ask me other questions. Those who know me will know the story but I won’t discuss it on the pages of newspapers.

With what is happening in the country, is the hand of God in Nigeria?

Of course yes. This God, sometimes I think he is a Nigerian. We ought to have disappeared from this planet earth. Our stay here shows that he loves us beyond our imagination. He loves this great nation.

You hold a world wide crusade every year, has it any impact in the state of the nation?

Well, it’s difficult to judge and assess except what the Christians are doing there would have been no more Nigeria. we are where we are because of prayers being offered from different points, different churches, different Christian alters, not for his mercy Boko Haram would have crushed this nation long time ago. While we have not overrun the nation is a puzzle and a miracle. The program has affected the nation positively. Not for this prayer, the level of pov­erty in Nigeria would have overwhelmed this nation. How we survive economically is a puzzle. Do you know there are states where workers have not been paid for nine months but they are alive. It’s a miracle. There are broken roads. In the entire east, we don’t have any functioning roads. From Uyo to Calabar there’s no road, from Calabar to Ogoja there’s no road, from Enugu to Port Harcourt there’s no road, from Aba to Port Harcourt there’s no road, from Uyo to Aba there’s no road, from Uyo to Umuahia there’s no road, from Owerri to Port Harcourt there’s no road. How the people are survivinng in this country only God made it possible.

Who should be blamed for all these?

We blame everybody. The leadership you find in every country is the bad product of that nation.

About Boko Haram what should the gov­ernment do?

The government should find out why they are pro­testing, why they are fighting and sort it out quietly. Crisis is only an expression or a demonstration of somebody asking for something and nobody listen­ing to him. If they can listen to the agitators and an­swer their questions there will be peace all over the country.

Could you tell us about your forthcoming Uyo Miracle convention

We are bringing about eight speakers; we are all variously and differently anointed. We don’t have the same calling; we don’t have the same measure of anointing. Solomon was greatly anointed but he was anointed in wisdom and creativity sand imagination. Was anointed to generate wealth and create wealth. He was given wisdom of administration. The man we call Elijah was anointed to bring down the power of God and do the impossible. He was a man that could compel God to cancel his programs in heav­en and come down to this world to do his bidding. The man we call Elisha, he was a different breed altogether. Elisha could heal various sicknesses, he could also demonstrate what we call the miracle of judgment which not everybody has such anointing. We are going to bring a collection of preachers who have various anointing. In this program which I have done for almost 10 years now, we are going to bring different preachers with different anointing to dem­onstrate the anointing of God upon them. It will start on a Sunday and ends on a Sunday. We are going to provide about 50 buses a day. We are ready to go as far as 100 buses a day. The crusade starts on the 13th day of December and end on the 20th of December. We are bringing down the best musicians the coun­try has, who will lift the worship to high level. What people don’t know is, God will not show up with­out a good song inviting him. Song is higher than prayers. Paul and Silas prayed nothing happened then they began to resort to praises then God did the impossible. I am an apostle of music. I bought musi­cal instruments into the churches in the East in 1972 when it was forbidden. When it was a taboo. A pastor in 1972 grabbed the microphone and said Uma has come to destroy the church or he will kill the church with these instruments. These guitars are demon pos­sessed, the drums are demon possessed, the organ demon possessed, kill this young man , I grabbed the microphone from him and said to God, between the two of us whosoever wants to destroy the church kill him and kill him this week.

If its me, I’m ready to die, if he’s the one let him die. He died that week. I’m happy and excited mu­sic is now in all the churches. In the morning ses­sions we have pastor’s conference. Pastor’s confer­ence because the only mountain there is in life is the mountain of ignorance. Pastors don’t need to be paid by any church; they need to be a blessing to their members so that they can be a blessing to them. At the meeting we had in Port Harcourt, I announced that 100 women with fibroid will shrink after prayers and when we counted the number we have 158. I announced that God will heal 1,000 people without prayers and when we counted we had more than 1,200.


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