Former deputy speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, who is now the presiding pastor of Livigspring Chapel International, Pastor Femi Emmanuel, in this interview with OLUFEMI ATOYEBI shares his life experiences
How did you spend your early life?
I was born in a village called Mopin in Iyesi area of Ado-Odo Ota council area of Ogun State. It is a community dominated by the Aworis.
I had a humble but poor background in the village. My parents were peasant farmers and all I knew back in those days was village life. I attended St. Peter’s Primary School in the village and later, I proceeded to Anglican Secondary School in Ota.
After completing my secondary education, I moved to Ijebu-Ode where I attended Government Technical School. I read building engineering. But much of my academic certificates were achieved through professional examinations. I was at the University of Ibadan briefly to get myself prepared educationally when I came to Ibadan. I also attended the Foursquare Bible College. Over a period of time, I worked at UNECON Associates, DAFEC Consultants and Tropical Enterprises but I never knew that I would ever be a cleric.
Were your parents church ministers?
They were farmers and nominal Christians. But they supported me in every way. They were good parents who taught us morals. I am actually a product of a polygamous home, my mother being the youngest wife of my father. She had six children for my father but one is dead now. I was the third among them. My mother died in 2014 but my father died a long time ago. The greatest joy in my mother’s life was that I answered the call of God before she died. My mother used to call me a prophet; it was as if she had a premonition of what I would become in life.
How did you become a pastor?
When I was 17 years old in 1972, I decided to give my life to God in Lagos and attended the Bible college, but not because I wanted to be a pastor. I just wanted knowledge to serve in the church. In fact, I did not want to be a pastor and that was why at a stage in my life, I became the Oyo State deputy speaker.
At a young age, I had a strange zeal for the work of God. I was in the church choir and also the translator for my pastor, Paul Jinadu. I involved myself in virtually all church activities. I knew that I could be used by God but I did not know how. With the poverty I experienced when I was growing up, all I wanted to do was to do business and make money to serve God.
Whenever any man of God was visiting Nigeria from abroad, I would be the translator. Those were the stages when particles of ministerial grace fell on me. I grew up to admire the late Bishop Benson Idahosa, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and William Kumuyi.
Did you start a church immediately you felt the call of God on your life?
After serving my pastor for 23 years, I realised that I had evangelistic tendency and told him how I felt. By then, I had established FEMAN Engineers and FEMAN Bookshop and many engineers were working for me. I made some money and began a radio broadcasting ministry in 1989 called Turning Point. It is still on till today. I also began to organise village crusade but as time went on, it was clear to me that to actualise my evangelistic vision, I needed people around me.
On December 12, 1993, my pastor called me and prayed for me and my wife. On December 18, 1993, Livingspring Chapel started at the old parliamentary building in Ibadan. After the teething period of four years, the church grew in multiple fold with branches nationwide and in the United Kingdom.
Why did you join politics and what was the experience like?
I joined politics out of protest. I felt that Christians can’t just be praying and not stepping out into public administration. The Bible says that every place that the sole of our feet tread shall be given to us. Christians pray for this country for good governance and progress. But the more we pray, the more deterioration the country slips into. At a point in my life, I felt that for evil to thrive, good people must stay away.
We have politicians who pretend to serve but they plunder this country. The best way to correct the situation is to show example. There is the fear that we would be corrupted if we go into politics and there is the myth about diabolical power in politics. But I am adventurous and daring, I like challenges. I saw going to politics as a challenge. At the time, you did not need a godfather, so I joined the Social Democratic Party. My rural background helped me at the grassroots level.
I discovered that people at the grassroots are ready to fight over N100 because they are poor. That is why the moneybags and godfathers penetrate them and use them. The people took me to the late Lamidi Adedibu and told him that I was going to be their candidate. He accepted me and I later got to know that he was a great grassroots politician.
I won the highest votes among my colleagues in the state House of Assembly.
A pastor is a mentor, helper of the people, a leader, one who pays children’s school fees when their parents cannot afford it and one who must show good examples. A good politician must also do all these. He must take the welfare of his people seriously. The church is about people and so is politics. If not that the calling was strong, I would have remained in politics.
When did you decide to opt out and why?
After the June 12, 1993 annulment, I considered the spiritual work to be superior. Adedibu, the late Lam Adesina, Rasidi Ladoja and many politicians in the state could not believe that a former number four person in the state was dumping politics. They thought it was a joke but I cannot be a pastor and be a politician at the same time. In politics, blackmail is easy but the church cannot afford blackmail.
Why do we have few Christians aspiring to occupy key positions in politics, especially in the South-West, are they still afraid?
I went into politics because of the lackadaisical attitude of the Christians towards politics. I will describe the church as a sleeping giant and I will blame the pastors and general overseers who are the leaders of the great people. They need to get the people to see the need to get involved in governance.
What role should clerics play in governance?
Their primary responsibility is to pray for the country, advise on governance and give political education to their members. The last aspect is missing. How many church members have voter cards? How many of them are party members? I said to some of our fathers that politicians go to pastors for prayers and after leaving them, they head for shrines.
They want powers and they know that the church has followership they can convince to vote for them. I told our fathers that until we are able to produce candidates and delegates, we will continue to be mere voters. The church leaders have locked up their members by not telling them to do what is right. The church has large followership but they are completely asleep and illiterate politically. I blame the church for the political problems we have in this country. The church has people who are God-fearing and not greedy but the leaders have not encouraged them to get involved in politics.
How would you describe the emergence of principal officers in the National Assembly and the free for all on the floor of the house?
The lawmakers are wicked, selfish and greedy. When I joined politics, I saw that it was a strange terrain all together. In politics, everyone is talking only about himself. They are out to pull themselves down all the time. They split into caucuses and each caucus fights for power so that the lawmakers can plunder the common wealth. This is what is again playing itself out.
We have not learnt from the mistakes of the past, it is still about greed, money grabbing and how to milk the nation dry. They merely used the people to get there but they are not thinking of the people now that they are there. The fight in the House is not about the country, the people or their welfare. Where is the change we voted for?
Has President Muhammadu Buhari done the right thing by merely looking?
I cannot absolve President Muhammadu Buhari of blame in what is going on. How can a president that came on the platform of a party say that he is for everybody and for nobody? How can a president say that he is ready to work with whoever emerges as the leader of the National Assembly? This statement from Buhari ignited the present fire. He lost control of the party with that statement.
These (lawmakers) are the people that have the power to impeach him. These are the people that can kill his bills, so where is the change? Who will now fight corruption in Nigeria? Buhari is seen as someone who is not corrupt and who leads spartan way of life. But he cannot rule alone in a democratic setting. To succeed, he needs people of like-minds who will believe in his value to work with him. Corruption will always fight back, so you have to give it a serious fight.
I told some people that the All Progressives Congress died the day President Buhari said he would work with anybody. If care is not taken, he could be impeached. His bill will find it difficult to pass through a House where the old corrupt people have taken total control. The party structure is no longer relevant; its supremacy has been challenged and defeated by its members.
It is unbelievable that on the day the National Assembly was inaugurated, the president was not there. If I were him, I would not travel to anywhere on such day. What stopped him from calling the clerk of the house and telling him to stay proceedings until he arrived? What is happening is more than meets the eye. If APC is not careful with the way it is going, it will disintegrate totally.
The party is made up of five different blocks and these are the blocks fighting. A divided house will always fall. APC is divided and unfortunately, it is the party of the president. The new and old Peoples Democratic Party members have teamed up again to take over. APC won the election but PDP is now in power.
How can the change project be revived?
The change is already compromised. If care is not taken, it will be impossible. We wanted change from the system of impunity and corruption but you can see the kind of impunity playing itself out now. The President must wake up and revive APC, but that could be too late. I am waiting to see how his list of ministers and anti-corruption bills will pass through that National Assembly. If Nigeria must be rescued, we must have serious and urgent anti-corruption laws. Who will debate and pass these laws?
I laughed when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said that he would set up a committee to look into the jumbo pay for lawmakers. He wants to be the judge in his own case. The National Assembly has held the nation hostage. When someone is taking wardrobe allowance, did he go to the House naked? There are 19 different allowances for the lawmakers who should earn less than N1m monthly. The over-bloated allowances are different from what they earn in oversight functions. To me, it should be called oversight corruption.
At 60, what is your perception of life?
I now see life from a different position, different from what I used to think. The only thing that is worth living for in this life is impacting peoples’ lives, adding values, leaving what you met better than you met it and serving God.
According to the Bible, Solomon was the wisest man that had ever lived. He looked at life and said vanity upon vanity, all is vanity. I begin to see that only foolishness will make a man steal and amass so much wealth for vain things. People have houses in Dubai, New York City, Lagos and Abuja but can they sleep in more than a room at a time? I read in the newspapers that a governor’s wives had 22 cars, it is madness in a country where beggars fill the streets.
People are only remembered for the changes they bring and value they add to life. I want to live the rest of my life helping people. I want to assist people through Non Governmental Organisation and pray for Nigeria. I want to bring my life experience to better Nigeria.
When was the saddest day of your life?
It was the day my only daughter, Esther, died in 2013. It was a sad day for me. Apart from that, I have gone through a lot in life. I have raised a lot of people who turned around to betray me. I have experienced betrayal from friends, rebellion from sons and so on. They were challenging times but they don’t compare to losing my only daughter who died five days after taking her Master’s degree certificate.
But with the life of faith and consolation that she was a Christian, I have to move on. Our faith is that a child of God does not die but as human beings, we feel the pain of physical departure. She was a healthy daughter, she only slipped at the place of work and with no one around to help her, she passed on.
Which day do you consider your happiest?
I have so many happy days. I feel on top of the world when I minister to people and they stream forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ. I was happy on my wedding day and the day my first child was born. I feel extremely happy when good things happen to people around me. I feel happy when people come back and remind me of the good things I did for them. My joy comes in helping people.
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