NIGERIA: Damning verdict of a radical professor turned Anglican Bishop

Via VirtueOnline:

"Satan has taken over the church," he says

By Alvan Ewuzie
The Daily Sun
http://tinyurl.com/y9fsuy6
December 31, 2009


His was not a typical Saul-to Paul story. Professor Dapo Asaju whose father late Oba Micheal Asaju once reigned as President of Nigerian Union of Journalists, says he had consistently seen the hand of God in all he has done, the hand that drove him to study Theology in place of a long standing desire to study law.

Now Asaju a professor and international scholar at the Lagos state University Ojo, who has just been elected bishop in the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion says 'I would have been unfulfilled and unhappy if I had read law.'

The erstwhile radical lecturer who once led the Lasu chapter of ASUU[Academic Staff Union of Universities] and even lost his job in the process had close interactions with the late Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome Kuti, Attahiru Jega and other radicals.

The document on which pedestal lecturers stood to get on going improvement in welfare was drafted at Lasu under Asaju's watch in the heady days of the military when Atahiru Jega led national ASUU. Professor Asaju, a quintessential Theologian has now shifted his radical posturing to the church. He had always loved God but it was not until 23 years ago that the 'pull' to work in God's house hold became strong. Come January 10 he would be consecrated a bishop of the Anglican Communion. In this chat he gives a damning verdict declaring that 'satan has come to take over the church' . but the Kwara born academic now sees himself as one of the soldiers to wrestle the church back from the devil. He responded to several other questions. Excerpts;

Background:

I was born into the royal family of Asaju in Ijumu land in Kogi State. I hail from a town called Iyara Ijumu and my grand father was Oba of the kingdom. My father also became the king of Iyara town. He had served as a journalist for more than 40 years. He was once President of Nigerian Union of journalists. His name was Chief Michael Asaju but he died as Oba Michael Asaju. My mother, also late, was Mrs. Alice Asaju. I was born in Kabba but an indigene of Iyara-Ijumu. I went to primary school at St. Andrew's Primary School in Kabba and later Holy Trinity School, Lokoja. At Ilorin, I attended a Muslim Primary School. My parents were not discriminatory, that was the school nearest to us then after the civil war. It was near the Emir's palace in Ilorin.

For secondary school, I attended Abdul Azeez Memorial College, formerly Government Secondary School Okene, one of the reputable institutions of the Northern region in those days. So, I had a very good education. Then I gained admission into the University of Ilorin in 1980 where I did Christian Religious studies. When I graduated in 1983, I delivered the first university alumni lecture, which was meant to showcase the quality of students produced by the university. I then secured employment here at Lagos State University where I have been since 1984, rising from lecturer to Professor in 2004.

I teach Hebrew and Greek languages as well as Biblical studies. I also teach Christian Theology and Missious. Generally, I have supervised several PhD thesis. At the same time, I studied at Birmingham Christian College for a Masters degree in Missious in the U.K and also picked a diploma in Anglican Communion studies from the Crowder hall, Selly Oak in Birmingham, U.K. I have been a visiting professor and external examiner for PhD Students to Birmingham University in the U.K. I also have the license of the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as the license of the Bishop of Birmingham who is today the Archbishop of York, Most Rev. Johnson Tamor. But I am primarily a priest of the Lagos West Diocese. I was initially ordained by the retired Primate of Church of Nigeria, Archbishop Adetiloye.

I was made a deacon in 1998 and later made a full priest. I have served in various parishes including Church of Epiphany, Iba Estate, St. Michael's Anglican Church Ojo, Church of Transfiguration, Ketu, Ijanikin, I was also curate at our Savours Anglican Church Ijanikin and the Vicar of Bishop James Johnson Memorial Anglican Church in Okokomaiko Lagos before I was moved to the Chaplaincy of Lagos State University. I am chaplain of Lagos State University. I was preferred Canon by Rt. Rev Peter Adebiyi of Lagos West in 2006 and made venerable Archdeacon Missioner, Diocese of Lagos West and chairman Board of Evangelism in November 2008. My election to the position of Bishop was taken on October 29, 2009. I have had a very good experience in the Anglican Communion after series of experience and exposure in the Pentecostal churches. I am married to Barrister Mrs. Harriet Asaju who has her first degree in theology, second degree in Library studies and she also read law. She had been called to the Nigerian bar. We have three children.

Why I read theology:

All through my life, I have seen the hand of God move in determining my destiny. I had no intention to study theology but my father had passion to be a clergyman because he lived in the vicarage all his life. He was raised up in Lagos. My grandfather was also raised up in Lagos. He worked with CSS bookshop and left in the 1920's to become the Oba of our area. He served the church in Ghana and also in Lagos. His best friend was the renowned Herbert Macaulay. As far back as 1953, we had a street named after us. The area where they call gutter now where they sell clothes now used to be called Asaju Street.

We are a prominent family in this Lagos. So we have served the church and my father aspired to be a clergyman. I think his dream was that if he could not make it one of his children will make it. I wish he was alive today to see what has become of his son as he rose from the position of a priest to become a bishop. When I was Vicar Church of Epiphany, he came once and that was one of the happiest moments of his life: that he had to kneel down and take Holy Communion from his son. He told the congregation that his dream has come to pass.

However, my original intention was to read law but I lost out in getting admission to read law in 1979 and they offered Christian Studies, I rejected it and I had to spend the next one year staying at home to drive my father. The following year, I didn't get admission into law. University of Ilorin offered Christian studies. My father told me well, if you want to sit at home and drive me for another one year, it is your choice. I now said well, instead of me driving you for one year free of charge without salary when my mates are in school, I better go for Christian studies. And that was why I started Christian studies in 1980 in University of Ilorin and I was trained by renowned late Professor Peter Idupamu, Professor Ralp Akamidu and Professor Samuel of Ibadan.

So, these are my academic patrons. I grew to love the course and I would have been unhappy if I had read anything else. I see the hand of God moving me here and there and I think he has a role for me in world history and that is the reason why I'm here. And academically, I thank God also, I have distinguished myself to the glory of God in academics. Not only I'm a professor of biblical studies, I am also visiting professor to Universities abroad and I am external examiner PhD level to at least 15 universities in Nigeria. I thank God for my accomplishment. I have over 80 academic publications to my credit. Books and several other academic general publications. I think I have paid my dues to academics. I have produced three PhDs this year. I am producing six in the next one year, including Bishops who are doing PHD under me. So, I think I am fulfiled. I will spend the rest of my life to serve the church.

So, you see the hand of God and destiny in driving you from reading law into reading Christian studies? It is the hand of God and destiny. I would have been very unfulfilled person if I had been a lawyer. What I love most is to preach the gospel and teach the Bible. This is what God created me for and I think it is a lesson for humanity. Most people who have made changes in the world including Rev Martin Luther King Jnr. are theologians. So, we need to understand that fundamentally religion has a role to play in determining even the movement of society. My inaugural lecture was held in 2005 and the title was re-enthroning theology as Queen of sciences. Re-enthroning - that means Theology was the Queen of sciences, it lost its place to natural science and philosophy. My call was to re-enthrone Theology as the queen of all sciences. If it is going to be well with the society, God must be fundamental. So, I think the course is the best course anyone can read.

Sir, at what point in your life did you decide to work in the church because you can be a theology teacher without necessarily being a priest. At what point did you decide to work in the church for God? I cannot claim that I have any spectacular revelation but I have an inner intuition that tells me that I was created for this purpose. When you feel happy doing what you love best, that is the will of God for you. And I think that when I became a lecturer here and I started developing the gifts of God in my life, I have been in Deeper Life Church, I have been in Redeem, the old Redeem. Pastor Adeboye was my Pastor at Ilorin before he became the General Overseer of Redeem Christian Church. I got baptized of the Holy Spirit as a student member of Christian Fellowship, University of Ilorin. I also developed my spiritual gifts in Foursquare Gospel Church, Badagry and I think it was in 1986 that I was having a desire to really serve the Lord. So I went to Anglican seminary in Lagos. I didn't finish at the seminary because when I was there, a church invited me to be its General Overseer because it was God's revelation.

So I was there for two years as general overseer and when I felt that the mission was completed, I left and I came back to the Anglican Church as ordinand and later became a deacon. I came from the top to down. I came down and I just came into the Anglican Church there and started to grow and to serve the Lord. So, I think that the desire started around 1986. It was when I had the feeling that I was really called to be a minister of the gospel. I think I am fulfilling that and I know that God has a lot in stock for me. He still has more assignments for me.

Sir, Let us talk about the Anglican Church, as it were, it was your original background going by what you said about your grandfather. But at a point you left and later came back. I would like you to share your experience in terms of what you saw in those other places you went to and what is happening in Anglican Church?

The Anglican Church is the church of Nigeria. Anglican Church derived from the Catholic Church, there was a reformation and the Church of England was born and they sent missionaries for us here. The CMS and they came here. Anglican church has three broad categories:- we have the High Church, which are the Anglo-Catholics - these are the very high cadre Catholic type of churches and we have Low Church called Evangelicals, they are ones that are missionaries, that go about establishing churches and spreading the gospel. They are the ones that came to us here. Then we have the Charismatics, these are new group of people who believe in the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So all of them are Anglicans. So, Anglican Church was very rich and still very rich. Anglican church along with Methodist. Methodist came out of Anglican anyway.

So, Anglican Church is the mother church and I here want to say that the majority of Pentecostal Churches today derive from the Anglican Church. The founders of Redeem Church were members of Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Cherubim and Seraphim came out of Anglican Church. Mountain of Fire came out of Christ Apostolic Church. Christ Apostolic Church founders came out of Anglican Church. So, Anglican Church is the mother and proper church and it is the original church for us in this Nigeria. So, it is very rich in liturgy, very good in tradition, solid in the gospel, very well organized, the liturgy is very profound and they have a very good foresight. I think it is the ideal church for everyone to belong to. People left the Anglican Church because I think there was a time when spirituality was low and when some of the priests compromised themselves with cult and some other things. All that has gone now. The Anglican Church today is in the forefront of fighting against cultism, making people to swear oaths that they don't belong to cult and will never belong to cult. We are the first to do that. We led Nigeria to that. We are the only people in the world, to the best of my knowledge, fighting against evil in the world, against this homosexuality in America, other churches are keeping quite.

So, Anglican Church has always been the ideal church. I went to all these other churches not because I was not satisfied with Anglican Church, I was born in Anglican Church, I was baptized in it, confirmed in it. However, because of campus evangelism that was why at Ilorin, Pastor Adeboye was coming to us, preaching to us at University Christian Fellowship, that was how we became members of his Church, we are those attracted to him. Then in 1979, 80, 81, I was very much attracted to Deeper Life church because I came to Lagos and participated in their many activities and programmes. It didn't start as a church , it was just a ministry.

So I was part of it at the initial time. Then Oyedepo used to be a student at the Polytechnic, Ilorin near University of Ilorin. When he started his ministry at ITC, Ilorin and when he went to Kaduna, we disconnected for sometime, when he came to Lagos, at Winners Chapel, he started in Lagos, my family was part of the first 50 people to start with Winners Chapel in this Lagos - this church that has become a big church now. We were there together at the new Era Road, at Iyanapaja, we were sitting on benches there. Then we moved together to Raji Oba, then later I had to leave.

So, at a point in time, I got a job in Lagos. And when I got a job in Lagos, I was staying with one cousin of mine, a medical doctor who was a minister in Foursquare Gospel Church, naturally I was there with him as I was living with him. It wasn't that I left because I was not happy, but as I moved from place to place, I interacted. I just went to churches where I feel I will find fulfillment. Let us not forget that the Church of God is one. Denominationalism is a sin to the body of Christ and Christ prayed that we should be one. So, I see no difference in worshipping in any other place and I think we should breakdown this denominational bearer. Let us worship together.

A Christian must be able to take Holy Communion in another church. It is a body of Christ. So, I see all these my experiences in these churches as preparation for me. Of course, I was also in Redeem Church in Lagos when I left Winners chapel and the Pastor then was Tunde Bakare. I was in his congregation at Adeniyi Jones when he went to start Later Rain Church. We went with him when he started. Two months later I left. So, I think God took me round all these churches to gain a few things. And what did I gain; Pentecostal imperative for this moment. People need the demonstration of power of God and I acquired gifts, I learnt from these people as mentors and God sent me on training so that I could come back to Anglican Church to make my own contribution and many people have left like that and they have come back.

Adeboye once made an announcement in one of his gathering that Anglicans who were there, that God told them to go back to their churches and rebuild their churches because God was going to use Anglican Church above other churches in this end-time and there are about 20 million Anglicans in Nigeria. Anglican Church in Nigeria is the largest in the world in the Anglican Communion. So, this is the very important place, we have a huge population of people that need really to be redirected and channeled towards heaven. A revival is going on now and God is raising up young people, gifted people who have been exposed in other areas. I think my mission was to go there and get experience there and bring it to Anglican Church and don't forget many of these church themselves are coming back to Anglican Church. They copied the Anglican Church in many areas, their liturgy, their vestment is Anglican. So, Anglican Church remains the ideal church today.

Sir, you have just been elected Bishop, let us trace what I may describe as your church genealogy, how did it all cumulate into your being elected Bishop? Well, in Anglican Church, it is by preferment as the Holy Spirit moves upon the Bishops and the hearts of the Bishop, they elect people or they prefer people. I was preferred a canon by the Rt. Rev. Adebiyi. Initially I was an Ordinand at St. Michael's Anglican Church Ojo and later I was ordained Deacon in 1998. I remained at Ojo and later that year, I was made a Priest and I was posted to Church of Epiphany. I grew through these churches as a vicar. I was involved in evangelism, eventually rose to become the chairman of the board of Evangelism in the Diocese of lagos West appointed by Bishop in November 2008 and just appointed Bishop October 29, 2009.

That is the history of my life. That I move from Deacon to Priest, from Priest to Canon, from Canon to Archdeacon and from Archdeacon to Bishop. To the glory of God, I have gone through the various stages, and just by the grace of God, the College of Bishops met in Abuja and elected me and that just means that I am now a Bishop Theologian. It is the first time in Nigeria such position will be created. Bishops are elected for in a particular diocese. In my own case, I have the whole Church of Nigeria as a parish. That is my area of jurisdiction in theological matters. It is going to function in three-different dimensions: (i) it means that I am responsible for fashioning or supervising the theological orientation of the Church of Nigeria. That simply means responding to vast challenges that are questioning our theology.

We are supposed to do that and secondly, to respond to the outside world, we are working under the Archbishop and New primate on theological matters. I take instructions from there and secondly, I will relate with all other dioceses to really formulate the theological policy that will train our younger generation of priests and thirdly, I am supposed to be responsible for theological training like training of Priests and Bishops all over and I am suppose to preside over the new Crowder Graduate College of Theology which is established in Abeokuta. That college is a graduate theological institution which is to train other priests and bishops and also serve as a language school where all our seminarians would come for one year to learn the two other major languages of Nigeria other than their own. They are there now. So, these are my responsibilities, of course, I am going to work with the new primate in Abuja. So, I have offices in Abuja, have in Abeokuta and I will also be moving about

This is a new position, how have you prepared yourself in terms challenges that it poses and how do you see that position impacting on the Anglican Church in Nigeria? Well, I think it is a very strategic position. I am a disciple of the current primate Most Rev. Dr. Peter Akinola who has led the entire conservative Anglican world. He came to revisit the abrasions of the Anglican world in the West. He has been at the forefront of the fight and he is about to retire and he has trained disciples including the new primate who has also been widely exposed and he is the current chairman of theological resource group of global Anglican Conference and I am a member of that group. I was there under his leadership in Jerusalem.

So, I will say that the new primate has trained us. We are his disciples, we carry on with the lamp that has lit carry on with the struggle without compromising of the gospel and trying to reform the entire Anglican Church. I think I am more prepared for these assignment through mentoring and through discipleship of the primate and through my own conviction as well. I have always been a conservative theologian all my life. I am against tampering with the Bible, I am against inhumanity and evil and condoning of Satanism in the church. You can imagine a church bishop been a homosexual in the church.

So, the devil has come to take over the church and I am part of the soldiers that will fight against him. Christianity has collapsed in the West and it is our intention to carry out a reverse mission to go and reclaim the west for Christ and God will use us and I think, I am actually theologically prepared, theologically equipped and spiritually empowered to carry out this assigned. I will work with the College of Bishops under the new primate to really achieve this. Of course, I think, I will be giving directions on theological matters to the Church of Nigeria. It is a big assignment, which is beyond just an archdiocese to control. It is an experiment and I believe God will continue to help me to achieve this.

There is this issue of gay priest, it is not as if it is not existing in other denominations, how come it is prominent thing in the Anglican church in terms of discussion, in terms propping up, does it not happen in other places? It happens everywhere. Let me remind us that even in our schools. Go to the north, very many of wealthy northerners are homosexuals. Even in the west, coming out of the East as well. It has become an elite thing. In single schools, lesbians and homosexuals are there. It is a common problem. It is a worldwide phenomenon and it is there in every church. But others are covering theirs and Anglican Church is speaking out because we have the responsibility for the truth. Others are compromising on their theologies. Theology as good as it is, has damaged a lot of things about Christianity today. People no longer live for Christ; People do not have convictions, people compromise. You have people who call themselves pastors, they do terrible satanic things and they go ahead exploiting people.

So, these are things that Anglican Church is fighting. We know our roll in Christianity and we know our responsibility towards the society, globally, locally and nationally. That is the reason why we are very lucky to have Baba Akinola as our primate. He is a very courageous man. He has been able to challenge the West against this evil. So, this problem is in other churches. It is there in the Baptist Church, it is more in the Catholic Church. They have problem in Catholic Church too. They are covering them, settling people with money just to keep them quite.

The problem is everywhere. And we would have loved it so much if other Churches had risen up with Anglican Church to fight this evil. But they have been compromising and keeping quite. You see, it is unfortunate that, why it is prominent in Anglican Church? It's not that it is too common, but it is just that Anglican Church has a peculiar nature. Whereas Catholic Church is purely a authoritarian. It is Papal, Pope places the order and others follow. Anglican Church was built upon three stones. We stood with three legs. We call it a tripod, it has scripture on one hand, which is revelation, it has tradition on the other one and then it has reason on the other.

That aspect of reason gives people liberty to do whatever they like. And you know, Anglican Church has this government format of operation. It is Episcopal led. But it is synodically governed and that simply means that they have executive power in the Bishop and they have legislative power in the synod, which is like legislative arm. So, when you have a church where the fear of God is gone and don't forget that generations are there, disconnected from God, God has been taken away from family, family has been assaulted, God has been taken away from schools.

So we have people who fill the Churches who are not really born-again Christians. So, when they run it in the synodical manner, majority will carry the day. So, when the majority of synod vote have said we permit homosexuality, it becomes a law - that is not how churches supposed to be run. The church must obey the Bible, which is the word of God. The church must be morally obliged to keep the orders of God. But they see it as democratic thing, they see it philosophical thing that they can decide their own destiny. That liberty is in Anglican Church and people exploit it. That liberty is not in other Churches and that is the reason why they are able to cover all these things up, but the problems are there. There are criticisms that the Anglican Church in Nigeria is creating too many Diocese such that the new ones cannot even sustain themselves. Whats your view on this.

Nigeria is a very vast country. For 20 million Anglicans they are not too many. People who are talking have they asked how many churches are growing out of the Reedemed Church. They plant churches in every corner, every where. You cannot even walk for two minutes without seeing one. Sometimes it becomes embarrassing. Nobody is complaining about their expansion but the Anglican church that has been here since 1842 how many churches do we have, how many bishops do we have. Bishopric is not a status symbol. The vision of our out going primate is to have a church where the bishops are close to the people. Let me give you an example. The old Kwara Diocese which was run by late Bishop Herbert Haruna now has twelve different dioceses.

You have Jebba, New Busa, Okene, Kabba, Ijumu, Lokoja, Igbomina and several others. Before then the bishop may only see his members once in three years. The truth is that a bishop is supposed to be a grass root person. When they brought Christianity here one of the founders named Bishop Herbert Tugwell trekked from here to Ilorin, to Kaduna, to Jebba. There were no vehicles then. Ajayi Crowther went to several other places. You see being viable is not a question of finance it is a question of potential for evangelism. We should do mission the way we are supposed to do mission. We want bishops to be close to the people. It is a challenge. When they give you a barren land, you are supposed to develop it and make it grow.

That way people will be able to develop. I don't think we have too many. We even have fewer than necessary. It is just because of the way it is currently being run. Bishop is not just to live in a big court. They call it bishop's court, ride in a jeep and have a garage full of cars while the people are suffering. No. he is supposed to be a man of the people. That is the problem with mega churches. Take winners chapel for example. Why should there be just one church in the whole of lagos and people will be travelling long distance to come there. Is the church personalised? If anything happens to the founder will the church not continue? Will the pastor ever get to know the members. ? They only go to have mass excitement and fellowship. They do not really relate to their pastors. The pastors also do not know their sheep. It is good that the bishops in the Anglican church will now be grass root people. They will now go and work, get close to the people and take care of their spiritual needs. We do not have too many. It is wrong to say we have too many. The church is actually doing a lot of good for Nigeria. People are putting their hope in God and not going on revolution.

You were once an activist to the point of becoming the chairman of Academic Staff Union in Lasu. Now you have become what I would describe as achristain activist. How do you marry both You see beneath every major change in society you have the church. It gave education to the country. The church produced the civil service. You can never separate God from any developmental venture in the society. So I think it is a very important thing that I was ASUU chairman. I became ASUU chairman in 1988 here in LASU. They were looking for somebody who had integrity. I was active as a student Unionist even in my days as a student at the University of Ilorin. I was picked on the virtue of integrity and God gave me the courage and I was able to lead the university through a lot of important victories.

The struggle that university teachers are benefiting from today began in our time. During the reign of Attahiru Jega I was one of the foremost .i led the struggle during Babangida and Abacha. At a point my appointment was terminated because we led struggles against aberrations in the system. God saw us through and I got my job back. So I was a radical. I was close to Beko, very close to Gani Fawehinmi and others. All that have now been diverted to the service of God. It was a period when God trained me in courage, to give me the ability to champion the course of the down trodden. The document that led to the welfare improvements now noticeable in the university system was drafted here in Lasu during our time in the union. So I have paid my dues to ASUU, now it is my time to pay my dues to God. And this is the most important. I am like Saul who became Paul, diverting his radicalism to the church and the church became the better for it. We have dreams for a better Anglican church and we pray God to help us achieve that dream.

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