Govt must change tactics to tackle insecurity -Pastor Kumuyi

What is your comment on the state of the nation? Everybody knows that we need some progress and we also need the clarification on the vision of the direction the country ought to go. Instead of mourning the past, or having self-pity or national pity, we should begin to think together what can the leadership […]

What is your comment on the state of the nation?

Everybody knows that we need some progress and we also need the clarification on the vision of the direction the country ought to go. Instead of mourning the past, or having self-pity or national pity, we should begin to think together what can the leadership of the country do. When I say leadership it could be from the number one to the rest of us.

We won’t ask people from outside to make our country better. They have their own challenges. This is our country, there should be people who will rise up and say what to do, not just condemning or criticising or lay blame or throw stones at anyone or at any section of the leadership but to positively be proactive and say what can be done to tackle the challenges.

Insecurity is one of the major challenges in the country, and obviously I have always said that if we do what we always do the same way, we will get what we always get. So if we apply the same method we have always applied we will get what we always get.

We look at other countries that have gone through the same process. I am a Christian and I am a pastor and I know that we can pray and I know that prayer changes things and people.

God has also given us intelligent and sound minds. We have all things at our disposal to make use of, so while we are praying on the one hand we also brainstorm and think of what can we do. God can give us wisdom on how to move ahead.

Why has the church organised this programme at this time?

You will see that the title of the programme is Success Camp for Youths. We are thinking of excellence and in these their formative years when you can redirect them and refocus them and re-channel them to the direction they ought to go…train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it—we are interested in their education and their general development, we are interested in their lives as a whole because you know it is not just academic.

There are people who are successful in academics but in social relationship, they are almost nil. Some people have good relations but they are not making it in life. Some people do not have the right attitude to life and because of that whatever they learn or do they don’t make it. Some have much but they don’t know.

This programme is a whole package to address all these problems. It is a kind of holistic spiritual, physical, academic career building. That is why we are bringing the young people together. We are not going to preach the bible only, we are also going to bring in the educationists, who are into career building, into passing exams, addressing juvenile delinquency, addressing the problem of hooking up with addiction and drugs, looking into our society and bringing them both the spiritual wisdom and natural wisdom for their lives.

We discovered that those who have gone through this kind of life are by the grace of God moving on in life and we believe we can impact on the lives of these children and make them successful and make them love to live and have fulfilment in life. That is the goal of the programme.

The church seems to be at the receiving end of the security situation in the country?

We say the church is at the receiving end. Of course, when something has happened it has happened. We are generally inward looking and then we forget other people. It is like when somebody is having headache and it is so terrible that he will feel that he is the worst hit person in the world. But if that person manages to go to hospital, he sees that there are others who have lost their legs. He will know that he is not the only person in the world that is suffering.

So to say we Christians in the church have been at the receiving end, people may look at it like that. But when you look at it critically, this insecurity has not hit the church only. You can see that in the FCT, there are many who were affected when the UN building was hit. The police headquarters and even Muslims too have been affected in some states.

But we are interested in finding solution to the problem so that freedom of worship entrenched in our constitution is observed. Everybody should have fair chance to live and to live the best way he or she wants to live. I think that is the most important thing.

All citizens of this country are creation of God and God wants the security fulfilment for everyone whether it is in the church or not. We want really holistic national development that gives fair chance to the people to make the best of their lives.

What are your concerns on the proposed constitutional amendment and sovereign national conference?

Whatever name you call it, I will say we fight over semantics. I may say this is not coming from my party. It is coming from the other party. But we might be saying the same thing. All we want is solution. Even in our families, husband and wife may have problem, they are not talking to each other. How do you solve the problem? Can you solve the problem without dialogue?

Now, in a whole country, we know that the problems are there. How do we solve the problems? Nobody just rises up to say he wants to destroy property, destroy lives. There must be something that worries the people. It is when we begin to talk that we will know why the attacks and where they are coming from. Then we might see that we are fighting for nothing and if at all we are fighting for on something we may then realize this approach is not going to give us what we are fighting for.

You want to live and some one wants to live as well. How can you and I then have a fulfilled life? I feel this is the best way to live. The other fellow also wants to live the same kind of life so it is when we dialogue and talk that we can resolve to tackle these issues.

There are growing domestic and global challenges. Are they really heralding the end of the world?

People might say yes but this depends on the interpretation someone means by the end of the world. If the end of the world means catastrophe and all that people might say okay, we are all going to die. Why live? Why make efforts? Why don’t we say let us eat and drink because the end has come? But I will say that whatever end is coming here, we are today between now and that end. What can we do to improve the lots of ourselves and the people leaving around us?

Now things that have happened, if we think about them…we may say the end has come. Look at the Tsunami, look at Japan. We say the end has come and what has happened to us is not half of what has happened to them. They did not say the end has come!

You see, some of those places where we have explosions, they are building and they have some kind of recovery. We here, we are too religious. We say the end has come and we fold our arms. Ten, 20 years, the end has not come. Children supposed to go to school should not go because the end would soon come? Things that we are supposed to improve on, we did not improve on them. We say the end is coming, yet the end does not come.

I would say when the end will come is lies with God. While I am here, whatever I can do to improve the lot of people around me, I will rise up and do it because this is my chance. I want to live a mark in this world and want them to say while he was here, this is what he did to move the country forward.