Christianity without charity is not complete —Rev. Tioluwani

Reverend Paul Tunde Tioluwani is the Presiding Pastor of the Bible Way Crusaders Church International and President of the Care People Foundation. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, he speaks about, among other things, the role of the church and government in the urgent needs of the nation.

YOU have focused more on humanitarian service as a chaplain. So, what is that like?

To the glory of God, it was wonderful, inspiring and encouraging. This is because Christianity is incomplete without charity. The very first mandate that God gave to Jesus was to preach the gospel to the poor and this can only be achieved by helping them. Therefore, we must borrow a page from that. Even the missionaries who brought Christianity to Nigerians came with free schools and health care among other things until Africans hijacked it and started charging exorbitant amounts. Many prominent Nigerians benefited from the free missionary schools and free hospitals. This was how Christianity was spread in Africa. So why can’t it create such an opportunity for the present generation? As Christians, we must show mercy so that we can also receive mercy. I am proud to say that most of the things God has done for me till this day are by the act of grace and when I come back to life, I still want to work in the work of grace and charity.

How do you combine the two callings, charity work and pastoral care, without them clashing?

When God calls you, He will tell you what area He wants you to focus on. I believe that God is a threefold being – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and therefore, by creating us in His image, He also made us threefold, and therefore man is body, soul, and spirit. So, God the Father can call you, God the Son can call you, and God the Spirit can also call you. For example, Paul was called by the threefold, while Moses was only called by God the Father.

When God the Father called me, He called me to be a global evangelist and He told me that He would connect me with the late evangelist Reinhard Bonke who laid his hands on me. Later in my journey, God the Son came and told me that He wanted me to do charity. I was led to establish an orphanage and He raised people to help me. We have built over 15 gigantic structures by prominent Nigerians on the 10 hectares of land in the centre for the less fortunate and I cannot point to any that I have built myself.

Even the land where our ministry was built in Ibadan was a deep gorge and it took a miracle to get it built. After we acquired the land, they said we would need about 50 million naira to fill it with sand, but God told me not to worry because He had specifically colored the land and that He would remove it. Not long after, former President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the canalization of Oguna River. A friend later told me that the land was grabbed from me by the government because he saw people working on the land with heavy crawlers. When I was about to confirm the information, I realized that the construction company that was executing the Ogunpa River project had chosen our deep gorge land to fill with the sand evacuated from the river. I later asked them to relocate, we put up a fence and eventually built the church. That is why miracles happen and no one can convince me otherwise. In fact, I believe that if Baba Obadare had not seen anything in me, he would not have sent me to represent him in his churches abroad before he died.

What are the challenges for a spiritual and a humanitarian person?

Of course I have problems because you can’t please everybody but what I do is only focused on pleasing God, not men. So it’s okay if everybody doesn’t agree with me because God is my focus. Even Jesus agreed that men can’t be pleased. We have about 10 graduates from our orphanage from our free school, and students don’t pay tuition. One of them is a soldier and a teacher at Makuadi. We also have a lady we called Onaara, now an American citizen. We gave her Onaara because we picked her up from the railway after she was dumped shortly after birth. She is now a Master’s degree holder and married with children. We have many who are now doing well in their various disciplines and we are not tired of raising more children. Some people are charging money for their church schools and all that; people say they are cheating their members. The challenging part was that there were rumors in some quarters that I was abusing people’s glory, but whoever is leading the orchestra must be ready to support the audience.

Well, the main thing is that I am not a politician looking for votes and I am not in it for money. If I had spent all that money on myself, I would have been richer. But I am doing this because of divine instructions and I have enjoyed it immensely because I obeyed – not only me but even my children. The 33 hectares of land we recently got for free in Ondo State is part of the rewards in folds. I could not possibly afford it if I were to buy it. The land even came with a church, borehole and other amenities. Most of these things that I enjoy, I cannot buy. I was an advisor to two governors in Oyo State, Colonel Ahmed Usman and the late Lam Adesina. I did not lobby for it. Whenever I travel to Canada, the prime minister, mayor, police, etc. invite me.

I currently have a van and 50 computers that were sent to me from Canada to give to people to help them learn. If I bought all these things, I would have spent a lot of money. Now we are planning to expand. We want to set up a tuition-free university and another orphanage in Ondo State and we have people who are willing to help. We are working on celebrating excellence because Nigeria does not celebrate excellence except mediocrity.

First class graduates get 10,000 naira while people who commit sins on national television get 100 million naira. It is not appropriate and it does not guarantee the future of Nigeria. That is why we are working to celebrate every first class graduate irrespective of where they come from and help them travel and get better opportunities through an initiative called ‘First Class Club’. I am planning this with my daughter in England who has also involved her organization in charity and helping the youth. We have different packages to put smiles on the faces of Nigerians and this is the only way we can ease the tension in the country at the moment. People in the country are hungry and I think the church must respond.

What is your view on the challenges in the country?

To be honest, if a man does not calculate the cost properly in terms of a particular project, there will be a crisis. I think the current leadership of Nigeria underestimated the problems of the country before they got involved and it is so obvious that they have no idea and do not have the answer. I think the President had two plans and he thought that by the time he played those two cards, everything would work. The first is the unification of the bureau de change into one – he thought that would solve the problem but that failed. The second is the removal of fuel subsidy, which also failed. Now that those two major cards have failed, everything he did is a matter of trial and error.

Now they are raising the issue of increasing electricity rates. They promised that once it is fixed, electricity will be stable, and guess what? Yet it has failed. I think this development shows the incompetence of those responsible.

Things can only work in Nigeria if there is no divine intervention. This is the first time Nigeria is facing a worse crisis in the economic sector. If they think religion is the answer to Nigeria, why can’t the religion factor that was introduced through the elections make things work now? Let’s disentangle religious sentiments. The most important thing is to put the right people in place.

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