Prophet Isa El-Buba is a Nigerian charismatic prophet and philanthropist. He is the leader and founder of El-Buba Outreach Ministries International (EBOMI).

 

He was a former Islamic occultist, who served the queen of heaven from his childhood as a dedicated child. He inherited Islamic occultism from birth until 1982 when he experienced the exceeding grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that brought salvation to him, baptized him with the Holy Spirit, commissioned him to preach the gospel, and gave him Godly heritage. Before his salvation, the Lord gave him series of revelations of the reality of hell.

 

Both the place of Birth (Jos, Nigeria) and year of Isa's birth were divinely and prophetically scripted by God. Isa was to trigger a massive spiritual Renaissance in Jos, Plateau that made many to refer to him as "The Prophet on the Plateau".

In 1982 he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus which led to his salvation after the Lord gave him a revelation of hell. In 1983 he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and answered the call of God into the ministry.

 

After several revelations and encounter unknown to people around him, the 23rd of March, 1982 marked a watershed in the life of Isa. Something happened. He came across, and reluctantly watched a Christian film titled "Burning Hell", after which he was translated into heaven and the experience became the game-changer for his life and, in tears, surrendered to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He became born again. Isa then began the journey to fulfill his divinely pre-destined purpose. He had never looked back since then.

 

Apostle Isa El-buba, after his dramatic conversion was taken to the desserts of Maiduguri and while on the run for his life from assassins, he was trained directly by God. But as radical in his faith was in Islam so also did he become radical in his new-found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His life was placed on his head by several Islamic groups for assassination. So his natural abode became the desert and far jungle between Maiduguri and Jere. In that lonely state, he had several divine visitations from the Lord that assured him that he wasn't alone. Isa continually fasted and prayed while on the run for his life. This went on for a few years. On a particular day in the early eighties, he sneaked into a church in the Biu mountains area where he was hiding. He has a strong desire to do anything possible to support this church. So he decided to farm even though he had never farmed before now. He saw a man plowing farmland and requested to plow the entire farmland for only N1500 (about$10) while on a marathon dry fast. The next day, the 4th day of the fast, he completed the job in the midst of a torrential rain at about 8pm having asked God for supernatural strength. He handed over the proceeds of that hard labor to the procurement of the badly-needed items for worship. The Pastor prayed for him.

 

His ministry is accompanied with the manifestations of the presence and power of God, the Lord working with him confirming His word with signs following. He has a special burden to reach the Muslim world through publications so that they might understand the true God, and also to open the spiritual eyes of Christians much more on the activities of cults and demons and how to deal with them.

 

Prophet Isa El-Buba is the president of EL-Buba Outreach Ministries, Int., with headquarters in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria. He is married to Pastor Choice Isa El-Buba and God has blessed them with six children. Isa's Influence and ministry in Nigeria saw him becoming the spiritual guard of several Governors, Federal and state cabinet members, and has had the privilege of counseling and praying for several Nigerian military and democratically-elected Heads of State and Presidents. This also has been the case with several great Africa Heads of Government.

 

Our Editor-at-Large, Taiyelolu Ojo met with the prophet on the Plateau as he is popularly called recently in Abuja where, despite his tight schedule, made out time to pour out his burden for Nigeria and also shared practical pieces of advice and how we can birth the Nigeria of our dream, with both Christians and Muslims working together in the interest of nation building. It sure is a good read, enjoy.

 

Countdown: Looking at the state of affairs of the nation, how will you describe the role of the church, the Christians being part and parcel of the citizenry in the face of the decadence which we are witnessing in almost every facet of the polity today?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: Basically, if you look at the state of the church, the church has been the hope of the sustenance of this nation. If the church is out of the equation, the nation would have collapsed. If you look at the functional systems and structures that are in place that are working now in this country, it is the church. Let us take it in terms of education, the most functional educational systems that are working now, with quality, are the schools run by the church.

Secondly, let us look at administration. Administratively, the church has the best systems. The church runs medical institutions, hospitals, and funds those hospitals, giving the best services you can ever find, it is the church. When you look at the area of commerce, how much the church has been able to empower a lot of people? For example, just in our organization, there are about 200 individuals employed, just within the headquarters, we are not talking about the branches, the other segments (the schools, the agro alliances, etc.). You can imagine how many households are being sustained by the church. The true sense of it, when a nation does not recognize the system that works, and does not submit to the system to help it run, you are going to find what you are seeing, and that is the level of the decadence.

Let us take another example, I know of just one church that has over 50,000 work force. And that 50,000 work force is being paid as and when due. Now, if you have a system like that that has been able to sustain employees of that number, I think you need to come to that organization and ask how is it it’s being able to maintain the balance? The Federal Government today is having crisis in paying salaries in most of its MDAs. The Federal Government is having crises in terms of running its infrastructure. Churches have run infrastructures. They have put rules in place. For instance, few weeks ago, we constructed some roads into some communities. Now that is the church. If you look at the issue of sponsorship, it is countless.

The decadence in the nation is as a result of its citizens turning blind eyes to the right type of leadership. If you look at some of the developed nations, they saw how the church was working, and so they went to submit themselves for the church to help them. For instance, John Kelvin in Germany when the systems were not working, God used him to save Germany from decadence. They submitted to him and he was able to show them the way out. Let us talk about Great Britain when they had recession and the system was collapsing, the Quaker Movement helped Great Britain to metamorphose into an industrialized society.

It is like a man living in the house with so many children and then the next neighbor also lives with a number of children. You will discover that this neighbor does not have the facility you have, the system you have, the resources you have. This neighbor is doing well with less resources and you that has more resources is not doing well. I think wisdom informs that you should come to that neighbor and say please how are you doing these things? Then he will be able to tell you this is how I do it.

A typical example is the Redeemed Christian Church of God camp in Lagos, there is no issue of crime. The system is well secured. CCTV are working, electricity has been working there for more than 10 years uninterrupted, road networks, etc. So if you have a system like this where electricity, water and security are working, you that have the larger resources (not even the CCTV in the FCT is working, and they have spent billions) should learn to seek wisdom from the ones whose system are working. We at Ebomi built 53 housing units, three bedroom each, with road network, electricity and solar. We spent about a hundred and thirty something million naira, that is a church project. But I heard of a government that was building around 20-something units in Calabar, and they spent about 2 billion naira. What we have in Nigeria today is a system that is not honest with the people. That is why things are the way they are.

Countdown: On the proliferation of churches, there are so many churches in all nooks and crannies of the country today. Can we say this has been a blessing to the nation or an abuse to Christianity?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: Well, it is in two ways. First it is a blessing. It is a blessing in the sense that it has brought hope to the common man. In the second place, what is Jesus’ mandate? It is to spread the gospel to every household that Christ should be exalted. The other side of it is that there are counterfeits in the church. That is where I have issues. People, who are not called by God who called themselves, people who have turned the gospel to merchandise. By their fruits you shall know them. For instance, if you are a greedy person, it is easy for fraudster (419er) to swindle you of your money. But if you are someone who is contented with what you have, it will be difficult for someone to say he wants to make a thousand dollar notes for you and you will agree. Someone will come and say he wants to double your money in less than 24hours and give you 100% of what you put in, and you will agree?

So if you really want the genuine, you will have it. And there is the fake too. We pray every day, that God will expose them. And that is why I admonish the government to empower the Christian and Islamic bodies; because it is both sides we have these issues. There are also counterfeit Islamic centers; these are where Boko Haram radicals are being groomed. What we need to do is not to interfere as a government, but give legal powers to CAN and say that anybody who wants to register a Church must first submit itself to the CAN to be scrutinized and the scrutiny should be spearheaded by churches and ministries that have been in existence for 30 years and above. They have a testimony of credibility, consistency, character. Based on that, they will make recommendation before the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) can accept to register any church or mosque.

But sometimes government wants to run everything by itself and they cannot. There are bodies in place. Go through the bodies, empower them and allow them to be the Police of its own self. Let the church purge itself of the fake churches that are here and there. You must have a referee from an existing church with integrity and widespread recognition. There is no way that my ministry that has been going on more than 30 years will now endorse a homosexual to become a minister. There is a schooling process you have to go through, before you can even become a worker. As a worker, you will grow to become a Deacon, from being a Deacon; you will become an Associate Pastor. The next stage is to become a Pastor.

Countdown: Aside the role of regulation by CAN, do you think CAN is doing enough as an Association to unite the body of Christ in Nigeria? Continually, we have been hearing of crisis during the last tenure of the last CAN president, we have been hearing of different blocs pulling out. It looks so much as if there is more division within the CAN itself.

Prophet Isa El-Buba: First of all I will like to say the body (CAN) has the strength. From 1976 till today, that is about 44 years ago, the organization has been standing. That is to tell you that it takes the grace of God for it to stand. Yes, does it have its challenges? It does. But then there is always room for advancement. In a system, where the system is growing, you will realize some of its own areas of challenges that it will be faced with. But the key thing is are the leaders of this organization willing and ready to listen and also confront those areas where challenges are coming often? Yes.

As a leader in the body, I can tell you that I have been in different leadership meetings where we discuss the leadership/doctrinal crisis and how we need to approach it. I think to the best of my knowledge, the CAN leadership is trying its best. The best is not the ultimate, it is required that they should add something. It is when a leader comes into a position that he feels he does not have to grow again, that problems starts. The system will be stagnated. The reason Nigeria is going backward is that we have a leadership in place as a President that is not ready to improve on himself. But to say there is no issue in the nation is not possible. That is the reason you asked for leadership.

Now, when you talked about the Northern bloc pulling out of CAN, we should know that they are still under the control of the National. They don’t run things by themselves. They still subscribe to the national. The CAN chairman in Adamawa State is a Catholic Bishop, the same in Plateau State. They are not working by themselves, they work with all churches. So the fact of the matter is not that Catholics really pulled out. The thing is there are certain individuals who wish to cause division in the church. It happened in the past. The Bible says (Paul) mark them that cause division among you. There are people that as long as it is not them in the affairs of leadership, nothing will be achieved. They want to create factions. That was what Paul said. Some of you say I am for Thomas, some say I am for this and that. Then he asked them is Christ divided? Did any of these people die for you? No, it is Christ who died for you.

The key thing that I always believe is that if a leader comes on board, it is the lieutenants that make the leader strong. Let us take for example; if you have a sheep for a leader and the followers are Lions, what you are going to find out is that a sheep will win the battle. But if you have a lion as a leader and the followers are goats, they don’t agree to follow the instructions of the leader, and then even though the leader is strong and powerful, he will lose the battle.  The crisis of the Nigerian state right now, why Nigeria has gone 40 years backward is because there is a man i.e. President Buhari, a man of integrity that is surrounded by wolves. So what will you find when you have people like Lai Mohammed and Garba Shehu, people who do not know the reason the Nigerian people voted this government, to be able to put on the ground a template and run the system? You will discover that even though you are a strong leader, with a very divisive followership, you will have a failed system.

There are some people also in CAN who are working in every direction to be able to discredit the central. And so, because of that there is this thing you hear about division and all of that, but the fact is that these same people when it comes to national issues and meetings, you will still find them there. If you say you have no business to do with something, you should stay away. For instance, why should you continue to have Catholic Bishops becoming chairmen of states? They should have stayed away completely and say we are never going to associate with any church. The northern CAN leaders should point out to something they have done. They are only there for self-promotion and projections. The greatest of problem is in the North. What problem did they solve in the North? Tell me one thing they have been able to achieve for the church in the North.

I am a Northerner from the far North. I do not in any way subscribe to the division of the body. I do not believe in tribal churches, I believe in the church of Jesus Christ. And so with the church of Jesus Christ, we are one body. When it comes to the body of Christ, I do not subscribe in any way to those instruments that Satan want to use to discredit or weaken the church in any way. I subscribe to one body, one faith and one shepherd.

 

Countdown: We know that CAN actually is supposed to be relating to Christians in Politics in some way. How have we faired since 1999, and what will your advice be to the Leadership of the Church in order to improve on the status quo now that we are approaching the 2023 general election?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: I will say that in the beginning, at the earlier stage, the church was not too participatory in the electoral process. But they suddenly woke up. The fact is Jesus called us to be the light of the world. And as the light of the world, it means that you determine whether people stay in darkness or they come into the light. Based on that, we have a prior understanding that every believer is meant to be in participatory politics. The word politics means a display of power, either positive or negative. And you cannot allow corrupt people with a corrupt mind, demonic in nature use evil power to run the system. So because of that the church and believers have been stepping in into politics. I can tell you for instance that the states that have the best governors were brought on board by the church. Let us take for instance; there was a governor in Plateau state who took Plateau state from 30 years of backwardness to a place of accelerated development. Even the then President (Obasanjo) came over to the state and looked at the amazing things the man did with little resources, transforming Plateau within a short period and is one person that was awarded at that time by the EFCC as the most transparent governor in Nigeria. If you go to that state till today, it is what that man has done that is still outstanding. And that man was a Pastor. Governor Jonah Jang. The most credible governor in Nigeria as of that time.

Let us take Akwa-Ibom for instance. The Governor there is a sound believer in Christ. He is a Deacon. Just take a look at the transformation of Akwa-Ibom from a rural state to an urban state. Today, the Federal Government does not have an Airline of itself despite the money they spent just trying to get the name of a carrier that was not in existence. But look at Akwa-Ibom; it has a functional airline, one of the best airlines as of today in Nigeria (IBOM AIR). The state has been witnessing industrial revolution, agricultural revolution, and road infrastructure. The Governor is a believer who loves and fears God. I think the church is stepping in and now if you look at the nation at large, the church has been able to establish in the time past what most of our nationalists went through to acquire education.

The President got the favor of the church because of the Vice President that was his running mate, i.e. Pastor Yemi Osinbajo. And because of him, the President got more credit. But the pain is that instead of using the tool, if the President had allowed the Vice President to really work, the President would have written his name in gold. So the church has been making efforts to intervene, and it continues to come up strongly. In 2023, you can be sure that the church in collaboration with the right-thinking Islamic bodies who are coming together to be able to produce a government that will restructure, rebuild and restore this country.

Countdown: On the economy, with all the performance and effort this government has tried to put in, Nigeria has been described as the headquarters of poverty in the world. God has blessed this country with a lot of human and mineral resources. How would you respond to the statement of Nigeria being described as the poverty capital of the world?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: It is the poverty capital of the world, because when you don’t appreciate the gift of wisdom, poverty will be your neighbor. And not just your neighbor, poverty will be the mattress you will lie on. The bible says in a multitude of counsel, there is safety. Let me give you an example, Nigeria at a point during Jonathan’s time was growing up as one of the fastest growing economy in the world. If you look at the way the ordinary citizen (the middle class) was growing up, you will be marveled. The government then (Obasanjo) brought onboard wise people, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and others. They are gifted people when it comes to economic framework. Nigeria was relieved of its debt because he brought on board people that know about international economic processes. This present government is nepotic in nature, a government that hates its own citizens by not appreciating the gift that it has. Look at the person running the Ministry of Finance, how do you expect wisdom from that kind of person? There are certain people that are gifted with wisdom to run leadership. In the North, there are people that are gifted to run government charismatically well. That is a gift from God. The Western part of Nigeria is gifted with education. The eastern part of Nigeria is gifted with business. So if you want to run the economy, get the Ibos on board, they will run the system and you will have a viable economy, if you want to run the politics, get the Northerners. If you want to run an effective educational system, get the Westerner. This is the way a leader thinks to pull from its treasure of resources to run the system. But you cannot run a system with a bloc people that are not competent.

The moment you become the President of Nigeria, you are no longer for APC or PDP, you are the Nigerian President. And all you have to do is to give a future to a Nigeria you may not live years later to see, because your great-grandchildren will be partakers of what you have done. Look at the Naira today, it is almost 500 Naira to a dollar. The government today is currently covering itself with a veil of deception, saying things are going well. Look at the EndSARS movement, the looting of warehouses and all the violence that followed, as much as I do not encourage it, it shows the true state of the average Nigerian.

Countdown: The government of today has been borrowing so much over the years to fund the economy. What do you think this posits for us as a people, bearing in mind what the scriptures says about a borrower being a slave to the lender?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: There is a case in the Bible I will refer you to. A woman ran to the Prophet and said I am troubled. My creditors came to collect two of my children because my husband borrowed and could not pay. She was crying for help. What did the Prophet tell her? The prophet did not say go outside and get the help you need to solve your problem, but rather he asked her “what do you have in your house?” A nation that would first think about borrowing money to sustain the economy is a failed nation because it has everything within it to be able to sustain itself. Let me give you an example: The Nigerian Railway. Do you need to borrow money to run it? There are two ways about it. One is to open it to the Nigerian public to make investments into the railway corporation. It means that when the system is running, every Nigerian that has made an investment into the railway will be getting dividends. And I tell you the Nigerian government will have more than enough resources. The second option is to open it to the international community. The same China that you brought in, ask them to bring it in, run it for a number of years, recover their money and hand it over to Nigeria. Simple. There is no need for a loan.

Countdown: What about the palliative measure that the government has been taking in the last four five years through TraderMoni, Cash Transfers, Do all these translate to…?

Prophet Isa El-Buba (cuts in): Did it improve the citizens? Did you see massive infrastructure? It shows you that you are utilizing a policy that is not working. You are deceiving yourself. The scripture says let no man be deceived, God cannot be mocked, whatever a man sows, he shall reap. You can’t plant apple and expect that you harvest banana. What the people are looking for is not surface dressing. If you have surface dressing, the wound is going to get more rotten. At the end of the day the leg will be amputated. Many legs are being amputated right now, because they are busy doing surface dressing. What needs to be done first as a physician is to examine the wound, open it up so that you can heal it from inside out. That is the only way. Now, how do you do this in the Nigerian scenario? Look at functional organizations, and functional businesses and give a target. Let them mentor 1000 Nigerian youth, I will be paying you for it. I want you to raise 1000 women for agriculture in this area. I will pay you to pay them a stipend monthly. You are going to have a working society that is going to develop a mental capacity to be able to be self-sustaining. But where does the money go to? It goes into private pockets. So if I give you fish today, I give you fish tomorrow, what happens? You go back to square 1. What should be done is to teach the people how to catch the fish. So that is why I said functional. There are functional institutions that are working in this country. Look at functional churches and mosques that have been able to do viable projects. They have massive followership. Give them the task of moving 10 million Nigerians out of the poverty line. Plan a mentorship program that will last between 6 and 12 months. In another one year, you will see that not less than 50 million people have been transformed. And the government will spend less to accomplish this. Talents will be unveiled, manufacturing will soar. You will see that there are many Nigerians that can manufacture some of the automobiles we import every day.

Countdown: Talking of the Nigerian project now, this marriage called Nigeria, sometime in 2015, some congressmen from the USA predicted that Nigeria will break up. Today, their predictions are proving so right, killings are everywhere, civil disobedience and unrest and on the increase. And one could say this prediction is becoming a reality by the day. Do you think Nigeria can break up sir?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: There are two possibilities. There are certain things that the South cannot survive without. Same applies to the North. Basically, what this country needs is restructuring. I am talking about giving equity and fairness to every region. Every region should be evenly represented in government. The next thing is to give qualified people, people with the best brains to run the system. So basically, this nation will survive if we restructure. But if we say that we will continue to do what we are doing and we are not ready to listen to the cry of the Nigerian people, this nation will break into several parts. And that is dangerous.

Countdown: We want to find out your opinion in the way the Federal Government is declaring partial amnesty for repentant Boko haram insurgents that have been captured?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: To me, it is criminality. It is unjustifiable anywhere. The Bible says whoever kills should be killed. So even if these Boko haram members have repented from their violent act, they are not meant to be sent into society. They are meant to be confined to a place, because of the antecedent of them going back into that situation. You can imagine, 43 people were slaughtered like chicken on a rice farm recently in Borno State. And now you are saying these people have repented and you want to bring them back to society, I think you are harming the system.

There is a place of rehabilitation. What the government should do is to confine them to a particular area where they can farm, acquire skills etc. But they should not be sent back to the regular society.

Countdown: Apart from being inducted back to society, we heard some of them are being recruited into the military.

Prophet Isa El-Buba: That is what I meant when I said the government of the day knows what it is doing. The military is supposed to be the most sacred organization in this country. That is the strength of the unity of Nigeria. If a person has any record of criminality, they are not supposed to be engaged in such places as the military. To bring the repentant boko haram members to the military, they will become sabotages, agents to destroy the system. You can’t use betrayers to build a house, the house will collapse.

Countdown: On the issue of people who were slaughtered some weeks ago in Borno, as usual the response of the President is that the service chiefs should intensify their efforts and they will give them all the resources they need. Some military veterans that we spoke to two or three years ago said no one can win insurgency militarily. If you like spend 1 billion dollar which they have spent already. And we are still seeing that it is of no effect. What is your advice sir, do you think it is the right approach to fighting insurgency?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: To fight insurgency, you must come from both sides. One, you need intelligent officers who know that their identities are being protected. Two, you need initiators. You don’t need people who just maintain the status quo, you need creative people. Three, you need community interaction. You need to hear the people, engage them without disclosing who they are. Four, you need to welcome technology. Why should the Soldiers move into a place to be ambushed if there is certain satellite information? Google for instance can be used to track movements. Forget about the wickedness in Nigeria, there is a camera that is less than 900,000 Naira, it can cover 9 kilometers. Why do I have to move my troops when I can use my camera to monitor 9 kilometers of circumference? I know of a camera that can cover 50 kilometers. And you will see movements around it.

Basically, our Police and Military need to imbibe technology, we will have less loss of personnel. There is a weapon (I don’t want to call its name) that senses, it fires on its own when it censors the target. The military would have done what is right if they are not behind what is going on in terms of making their money. Look at the General that came out to cry. He said they were ready to work, but look at the instrument they had. They were supposed to call that General and talk with him, and know that the service chiefs are not being fair. They should be removed. This issue of Boko haram is a small matter. Chad is a small nation; they were able to wipe out Boko haram on their soil. How come the giant of Africa is not able to do this? We need deeper intelligence, initiators, people who can communicate properly and imbibe technology to drive this warfare. Lastly, the time of the service chiefs have expired. They should go.

Countdown: This suggestion sounds very easy and simple. Oftentimes when people come out to tell the government bluntly the truth, people get invited or arrested for passing such comments, including you yourself.

Prophet Isa El-Buba: A few weeks ago when I was invited by the DSS, I was accused of being a major sponsor of the EndSARS protest. I said I wasn’t a sponsor, I only saw my children rising up to take responsibility of saving their country from going down the drain. And so I had to give them the necessary support that they needed. A wise father will not ignore his mature children when they cry out that they need his attention. He should take interest and ask what it is they need his attention for? Based on what they say the wise father would be able to form a policy.

I have six children and three grandchildren. My daughters came to me sometimes, and brought a long list of what they want us to improve on in the school that we run. They wrote about three pages of paper. They are intelligent, they are securing the future knowing that tomorrow, and I may not be there. I decided to work on it. Do you know what, it was able to solve at least 90% of the issues surrounding the school? The ideas were informative and innovative.

The pain I had when I was arrested… I told this government, you don’t listen. The Bible says when the king surrounds himself with wrong advisers; his government will be full of wickedness. The people who surround the President are supposed to be the ears of the President, not hearing for sentiments, but on a practical truth. Sir, this is the reality on the ground. This is the state of our people, they need your help. Based on that the President will come out in an informed position to present an issue. So you have a leadership that does not hear the cry of the people, and that is why the nation is going the way it is going.

Countdown: There is this issue of Christian/Muslim relations in Nigeria; one tends to get really confused over them. Do you think some or any of the crises rocking several states in the country (Plateau, Taraba, Bornu and even Kaduna) is religious?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: It is religious. Let’s not deceive ourselves. The fact is like I told the people in the North where I come from, there are certain teachings given by some of our Islamic leaders that are not helpful. They take the Quran and use it out of context. They use Jihad out of context, and some of them present a message believing that the Christians are pagans and should be treated as one. They believe that certain territories should be invaded, taken over and Islamized. I have sat with several Sheiks, advising them that we will destroy the North. God is God; he planted Christians and Muslims in the same regions. I wasn’t a Christian from the beginning. I converted to Christianity. In my father’s house, half are Christians, half are Muslims. We have realized that you can’t force anybody to be what you want him to be. We are doing well as a family because we respect one another. When there is respect for one another, then this issue will come to an end.

And of course you can’t expect that coming to somebody’s house as a visitor; he gives you a house, the next thing you say you want to take over the house. And then you begin to kill the owners of the house. Do you think that the church will just sit down and fold its hands? They will surely react. What you found happening in Kaduna, Zamfara and the rest is that people who are visitors now want to claim ownership of the places. And they are killing the original settlers. We need to face the fact, the issues of killings in the North is religious. We need to address our followership that we need to live together in peace. The Bible says pursue peace. We continue to demand for peace, demand for understanding, demand for amicable settlement of disputes. It was great in the past. What happened now is that trust has been broken and it has to be built again.

Countdown: Sir, this issue of foreign bandits invading Nigeria…

Prophet Isa El-Buba (cuts in): It is a collaboration of a tribe, bringing in their relations from other parts of the world to help them in the Jihad. So that is what we are confronted with. The borders are opened up to these foreign tribes. The fact is that there is no genuine Northerner that does not have one relation or the other in Gambia, Mali, Sudan, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. But the Fulani are the ones they are bringing in as bandits to invade this country. The government knows about it, but they have given protection to these bandits to invade this country and mess up everywhere. It’s a planned program. And that is why we are raising the alarm that this must stop. Every community must protect itself, especially in a time like this. We must improvise ways of protecting ourselves as a people. Until this country is restructured and things are brought on the table to discuss the state of the nation, that is when this nation will move forward. 2023 is very important with the type of people we bring on board.

Countdown: What do you think the church needs to do in regard to 2023?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: The church will not have a Christian party. Religion does not survive a developing nation. Basically, what we need is people of faith, Muslims and Christians. People who have the interest of the nation at heart, and they want to see this nation become what God had designed it to be. And I can tell you, there is a lot of discussion and collaboration going on. We don’t want to bring politicians into leadership, but we want to bring leaders into politics to drive the nation. Nigeria is one of the simplest nations to lead. It has all it takes for effective leadership. By 2021, 2022, people will see.

Countdown: On the international scene, at the inception of Donald Trump’s presidency, many Evangelicals identified with him and his emergence four years ago. In fact many painted a picture of him being the God-sent president. At the tail end of his tenure now, how will you describe him, his tenure and the fact that he lost the just concluded election?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: I tell you the truth, till tomorrow and next tomorrow Donald Trump stands out. As one man who has been able to speak out on behalf of the persecuted church. He has also stood out as one man that has been able to make Israel and UAE to come together today. Now Dubai has Catholics today. Israeli headquarter has been moved back to Jerusalem. The first time you have President Buhari had a meeting with Trump; Trump looked at him in his face and says why are you killing Christians? That is a man who has not collected a dime from the American government as salary and donated all to the nation.

The fact is that it is not over until it is over. I will continue to stand for Trump. He is a credible man. On the visa issues, what Trump is simply saying to African leaders is that they should stay in their countries and build their countries. You can’t be leaving your country to a country as great as this and you have your people being wasted as slaves. So if they deny every African visa to the US, kudos!

Countdown: You are one man that we all know that God listens to his prayers. What will be your prayers for Nigeria if you were given a blank cheque to ask God for any singular thing for Nigeria sir?

Prophet Isa El-Buba: My prayer is that God will give us credible, competent leaders with character and capacity. It is also my prayer that the peace of God will reign in Nigeria.

Countdown: Thank you very much for your time sir.

Prophet Isa El-Buba: Pleasure all mine.

By:Prophet Isa El-Buba with Countdown.