Interview

“The pulpit has the ears of society so it has to wake up to its reformative role.”

Rev. Ntia I. Ntia,

Senior Pastor, Full Life Christian Centre

who is reverend ntia ntia, growing up, education, ministry and family?

Rev Ntia Imeh Ntia is my name, I was born in Calabar 45 years ago to Dr Imeh and Mrs Stella Ntia in calabar. I had my primary education at Holy Child International Nursery School in Ikot Ekpene, my secondary education at Federal Government College, Minna, Niger State and tertiary education at University of Calabar where I studied accounting.

While in Calabar, I worshipped with Revelation Minstry, Good Cheer Partners (now Christian Central Chapel International) and Liberty Gospel Church. I got married in 1997 to my wife Pastor Mrs Ukamaka Ntia and we moved to Enugu where I worked with her father, the late Archbishop Victor Onuegbu, in Ministry from 1997 to 2000. The Lord spoke to us to relocate to Uyo, and in May 2000, Full Life Christian Centre started in Uyo.

You have been around nigeria and have perhaps observed the seeming proliferation of churches back home in comparison with most other parts of the country. why this?

With every generation, there are peculiar problems which require God’s intervention and God always responds to these needs of humanity. I see Church as the help of God being made available to man. The number one cause of proliferation of churches is the call of God. Everyone who starts a minstry will tell you God called them and you are in no place to say God didn’t call them, even though you know God couldn’t have called everyone. Secondly, human pervertion. I think the tendency to pervert everything available to human beings is just normal with society. There are many reasons but the bottomline is the fact that there is a need in society; a need for hope, a need for God, a need for truth.

This proliferation is the reason why people view church as a business and as such, they feel churches should be taxed by government. what is your view on this?

I think we need to analyse every sector of society based on its intended purpose. Church is not a business. Church is meant to be a social humanitarian platform to meet needs. Government should be interested in the proper registration of churches rather than treating church as a business because this will legitimately make pastors go into profit-making.

Many churches today preach prosperity and people now tend to see church is a shortcut to prosperity, as against responsibility and hard work...

Prosperity should be preached; it’s a good thing, but prosperity alone should not be the message of the church.

INTERVIEW

Progress and development does not happen overnight; we should cooperate with our Governor and the leadership of the State

so do we need more churches and messages of properity, or more people to be hardworking?

No message sinks in overnight; if the pastor must change the mindset of a people, he must present the message continually. Prosperity has many messages. There is the giving, the thinking aspect, and the working aspect of prosperity. The pastor should endeavour to present a balanced message so the people have a good body of knowledge to act upon. You can’t just drop money in an offering bucket alone and prosper. That seed you sow will create a divine opportunity, but if you do not maximize that opportunity, you will still be broke because your sowing was just one part of the equation.

it has been said that unless we have more industries than churches, the poverty level will continue increase...

You can compare that with any other sector; unless we have more industries than sit-out joints or brothels or whatever... Whether it is church or anything else, the life wire of any society is industries and the ability to create wealth, irrespespective of what else that society wants to do. Let’s face it, the reason we have more churches than industries is because Pastors are taking more risks than many businessmen. Even the fake ones! This is the same culture the businessman ought to adopt. We need that drive in every person, if poverty is to reduce. You are evidently one of the accomplished Men of god from this part of the world, and consequently, a very inspirational figure to the people, especially the youths. what is your advice to youth with regards living a meaningful, successful life?

A very passionate point I make to every young person is, after you have given your life to Christ, you have a mandate to add value to yourself, to your family, and to society. How? To yourself: get educated - formally, informally. Just get some level of training and deploy that training to create wealth. What are the ways to create wealth? Number One: get knowledge; somebody will pay you for what you know. Number Two: render a service; somebody needs some form of service. Number Three: buy and sell; there’s a demand somewhere, there’s a supply somewhere, so bridge the gap. Number Four: Create a product. If the average youth can have a business and passionately grow that business and not be in a hurry to live large, there is a great future for our city, state and nation.

in developed countries where we have fewer churches, we find more development yet the reverse is the case here which is over-churched. what is the problem of the black man?

It’s not a black man problem; it’s a humanity problem. If there are available openings for crime, decadence and irresponsibility, the natural tendency of man is to take the path of least resistance. In America today, elections are over, nobody is talking “Republicans” or “Democrats” anymore; people are now talking “America”. But in some countries in Africa, two to three years after elections, people are still talking party. These tendencies frustrate development in Africa.

what role can the church play in contribution to societal growth?

People like Bishop Desmond Tutu and Matins Luther King discovered that one of the weapons for reformation is the pulpit. The pulpit has the ears of society so I think it has become necessary for the church to wake up to its reformative role. We need to include the message of mental reformation, societal reformation and of socioeconomic development by sensitizing every gathering of people that they can do more than just pray, fast, sow seeds; that they can get up and put some ideas to work.

incidentally we have a man who is preaching this very message, albeit from his “pulpit” as the governor. what is your perception about the governor as he clocks two years in office this May?

The first thing I admire about Governor Udom Emmanuel is that his sincere. Very sincere about actually transforming society and wants to actually see things change. Secondly, he is skilled. Skilled enough to come up with ideas, concepts. Thirdly, I think God has brought him to Akwa Ibom State at this time to use his experience in financial and resource management to do the needful irrespective of the shortage of financial resources.

One of the frustrations of being a creative leader is that people might not necessarily accept everything you try to do simply because they are used to particular ways of doing things. For instance for a great period of time, people saw government as just dishing out money. When you now tell them they have to pick up a tool and do something it won’t go down well and it so will be a bit difficult. So far there is a gradual shift from the mindset of just sharing money because he is not a waster of resources. That’s how I see him.

He will have to toughen his heart and help people change even when they don’t want to change. You know many times, the voice of condemnation sounds louder than the voice of appreciation. He should not become discouraged, upset or downcast.

He should also gather knowledge from those with political creativity and dynamism to balance his technical edge. It’s only two years so far, so it’s still the beginning. I believe by the time he goes into his second term - which I believe he deserves - his message will sink in deeper.

do you think there is any critical area the governor has not touched and what would that area be?

I don’t think there is any critical area he has not touched. The resources coming to our state is far less than what it used to be. He has tried to spread less resource to cover vast areas just to let the people continue to feel the touch of government, that it is possible for people to think he has not touched any particular area massively. He is a Governor, not a magician.

Your message for akwa ibom people

A people divided among themselves cannot stand. My message for Akwa Ibom people is that we should cooperate with our Governor and the leadership of the State. Without cooperation, not much can be done. Progress and development does not happen over night but the ground that God has helped us cover today is worth celebrating. We should thank God for it.

I want to challenge every wealthy Akwa Ibomite to create wealth. God made you comfortable so that you can translate your comfort to impact for the benefit of more people.

Thank you very much for having us, pastor.

God bless you all