Bishop Egbunu, a Bishop of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion was born on the 4th September, 1960 in Lokoja. A former Assistant Editor (Books) at ECWA Productions Limited, he studied English at the University of Jos in 1979-1983, completed secondary school education at Abdul Aziz Atta Memorial College, Okene, Kogi in 1978
The Most Reverend Emmanuel Egbunu was enthroned as the Second Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Lokoja, 2004 at the Cathedral Church of Holy Trinity, Lokoja during an elaborate ceremony attended by a good number of Bishops including the then Primate of All Nigeria, Most Reverend Peter Akinola. Before then, he was Suffragan to the Bishop of Abuja who was also the Primate and he has served as a Priest in the Dioceses of Jos and Minna, both in Northern Nigeria.
He is currently the Diocesan Bishop of Lokoja and the Pioneer Archbishop of the Anglican Ecclesiastical Province of Lokoja, one of the 14 provinces of the Church of Nigeria.
His Grace, Emmanuel A.S. Egbunu, PhD is the Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Lokoja, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). He is also the President of the just concluded tenth Synod of the Diocese which was held between the 20th - 23rd July, 2023. His Grace was kind enough to make out time out of his tight schedule to have a Pre-Synod Press Interview with the Editor of Countdown, Taiyelolu Ojo, where he shared his views on the contemporary issues faced by the Church of God and our Nation, Nigeria and the solutions he proffered. Please sit back and enjoy.
COUNTDOWN: There is a kind of repackaging of the Gospel for money and in other instances for cultural balancing, making in-roads to many of our pulpits these days – the impact has been very damaging to the image and realities of the Church today, what warning do you have for these innocent souls who fall victim of this so called repackaging and a word for those championing the repackaging sir, e.g. the Gay Marriage phenomenon, monetisation of salvation, flamboyant lifestyle of some Church leaders after fleecing the innocent devout?
BISHOP: Yes, that is happening and I believe those who are doing this repackaging have their own reasons but however good those reasons may appear, they cannot supersede the priority and purpose of the Gospel. If we go back to the Bible, Paul says in Romans 1:16, I’m not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for Salvation to anyone who believes and later again in Galatians 1 which looks more like the kind of situation being addressed here in verse 8, it says, “Even if we or angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”. And he repeated that again. Obviously, there were people who were beginning to bring in other parameters for gentile, non-Jewish believers to be able to call themselves Christians and Paul came down strongly. So, in our time, people who for the sake of money try to repackage the Gospel are doing a lot of damage, and they will be accountable to God for it.
COUNTDOWN: Idolatry and materialism in particular have found a residence in many of our denominations today, even among our Church leaders, what words of caution do you have to our believers all over sir, followers and leaders alike?
BISHOP: For those who are talking about cultural balancing, I know there are those who say Christianity is a White-man’s religion which it is not anyway. They say it's foreign and that the Missionaries have taken so much of our culture away, and we need to recover that. Yes, there are those who talk about contextualization, indigenisation or what some people call inculturation to address these issues. But we must understand that the Bible is God's message to humanity in whatever culture. So, cultural sensitivity can only go so far and no further because the Bible and its message must be superior to the message of culture and people must be very careful about that. Pulpits have been so misused or indeed abused. Therefore, we must measure the effectiveness of every pulpit by its adherence to authentic Christianity and those who are under the ministries of such pulpits, what kind of life do we see produced? If people become more Christlike, great, but if it makes them anything different, then there's a lot of question mark about that kind of Christianity and indeed, there are victims that have become a caricature of what I would call authentic Christianity and people must be careful what they believe and who they follow.
COUNTDOWN: The economic crunch biting in the country due to the fuel subsidy removal, do you have any advice or admonition so to say, for the current leadership we have today on the best approach towards cushioning the effects?
BISHOP: The prophets of various religious persuasions have spoken; the witches too spoke, hired charlatans who posed as men of God also paraded themselves. Now the media is awash with the dimensions and implications of the subsidy remova - whether indeed there was actually any subsidy applied to anything for public benefit or not. One thing that is quite likely is that people who do not know better could resort to extreme and unwise actions as their response to these hard times. That may include crime, suicide and even terrorism out of frustration arising from the economic crunch.
For our political class, religion has become merely a tool of manipulation. Rather sadly, we seem to have perfected the art of self-deception to unimaginable levels. The tragedy in all this is that some of those who should speak for the Church in the political space have become willing useful idiots, who see nothing wrong about the issues that should make them stand up for Jesus. We must caution that blatant injustice has the high potential to trigger a reaction against impunity. What has become clear is that we have a country where the fear of God is mere lip service, for people swear to the Holy Books and go ahead to do things that cannot be associated with the character of our righteous God. The Bible says, in Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man, rules, the people groan.” A day of reckoning will surely come. We look up to God for the emergence of the Nigeria of our prayers, and of His mercy, by whatever means, in His sovereignty, He chooses.
COUNTDOWN: Still on the State of the Economy, how would you describe the spate of mass exodus of citizens, especially young people most of whom are professionals in their fields who could have been here to develop our economy?
BISHOP: Whatever we say about the "Japa” phenomenon, people - especially the young generation - have to take their lives into their hands and look for more hopeful situations with the nation going deeper and deeper into gloom. True, it is often said that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but who knows how long it may take to reach the end of this tunnel. And in any case, even tunnels have light sometimes. So, those who can endure could continue to manage the light within the tunnels, until we get to the end of it. After all, not everybody can ‘japa’.
COUNTDOWN: What is your opinion about what transpired in the nation’s political landscape in the last six months, the General Elections, inaugurations and the expectations from the Election Petition Tribunal vis-à-vis the recently released report by the European Union’s Observer Group at the 2023 General Elections?
BISHOP: Everyone who has lived in Nigeria can testify to what has happened. The General Elections brought a lot of previously unenthusiastic voters forward, especially from the Youth population and a lot of people felt this was a time to have a new set of Politicians away from the same recycled Politicians who make promises that they can't keep. The outcome has been definitely unexpected to many and in a situation where the result announced by INEC was being challenged by frontrunners, one would have thought that the best thing to do was to ensure that these matters were laid to rest by the Tribunals before just swearing in a candidate whose legitimacy was being questioned both by the fellow Contestants and by the Election Observers, especially the European Union. The outcome of the election tribunal will determine the future of the Country. Nigerians have become used to hardships;we have endured hardships so much that we have become desperate for a change. I don't think that there was something particularly sacrosanct about May 29 in the face of such major outcries. Anyway, the swearing-in and the inauguration of the new administration has been done. We congratulate the President but certainly, we hope that the law courts will come out with a judgment that appears to be fair based on the evidence presented to them. Usually, they talk about technicalities and things like that but the average Nigerian is not looking just at those technicalities but the Judiciary itself is on trial and we hope that there can be a rebirth whatever the outcome so that the confidence of Nigerians in their country will be restored.
Whatever we want to believe about ourselves, our integrity is undergoing much scrutiny and we hope it will not be in tatters. From the Presidential election to JAMB results (with the recent Mmesoma Ejikeme case) we are being watched. We are alarmed to see that our biometrics can be faked - as with the increasing cases of artificial intelligence impersonating people. While we have loud voices defending the indefensible, the reality is that any country dealing with us now must do so with caution. Our export products have to be subjected to meticulous quality checks not because we are lazy but because some want easy ways out. It is tragic how many respectable people have now lent their voices to endorse evil and mediocrity, believing that the end justifies the means. Since the election tribunals started sitting, the reactions of Nigerians are varied: some believe the exhibits tendered and how they are interpreted will bring compelling delivery of justice. Some others are more cautious and yet others are outrightly pessimistic, in view of what they have seen of some things that looked so obvious to the eye of the unlearned, but which went differently in the eye of the law.
A lot is happening, there are appointments all over the place but it is important that we do not just say 'Oh, so much water has passed under the bridge, so let's continue'. If we do, without regard for the rule of law, then, it will be building on a shaky foundation. We are hoping that God will guide the Judiciary and give courage that the right thing is seen to be done whichever way it goes. But Nigeria is a great country and we cannot allow ourselves to become a laughing stock. The National Assembly is in place and it should not become a rubber stamp. From what we are hearing now about how disregard for the suffering people are going through in view of the so-called removal of fuel subsidy, these people are talking about what kind of vehicles to get for themselves and are allocating money, I'm not sure how that helps Nigerians out of our present predicament. Indeed our image internationally is something that we really, really must protect, so that our integrity is intact. There is a lot of uneasy calm in the nation right now. And we hope that we will see a new beginning.
COUNTDOWN: The Herdsmen/Farmer clashes in Northern Nigeria, would you say the government is doing enough, especially with a new set of service Chiefs just being appointed, do you have confidence and hope that the crop of personalities so appointed unlike the previous administration where it was alleged that most, if not all the Service Chiefs were from a particular ethnic or religion background to guarantee a lasting solution in the shortest possible time?
BISHOP: We've called it different names but at the root of it is the weaponisation of religion because our day is not the first time that we've had herdsmen in this country or farmers but the fact that people who for their selfish reasons have chosen to misuse religion and to politicise it are really doing a lot of harm and lives are being lost. We see so much injustice, people labour on their farms, they are attacked, women are raped and what they have even cultivated, their crops are given to cows. Is it the first time that we've had herdsmen? There are communities where they have coexisted over the years with these herdsmen and suddenly in the last few years, that has become an issue and there is no sense of justice at all. You just find that the ravages go on and on, with no arrests or reparation. It is sad. For the appointments that are being done, unfortunately, with politicians, they just want to score political points. And where it coincides with issues that eventually amount to alleviation of the problems people are going through, we thank God; but where it doesn't, and people are playing a political script, then it would seem like we are in the woods still. Yes on the surface of it, there is a difference about spreading appointments across the usual ethnic and religious divide, but one just hopes that it is not cosmetic. Nigerians are hurting, and the kind of leadership and appointment we need must be such that feel what we feel and are serious-minded about bringing lasting solutions that will ensure National unity, fair play, equity, and integration.
COUNTDOWN: Generally, looking at the state of the Nation, if you were given a blank cheque from Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief today to make a request on what you feel is the most needed expectation for Nigerians from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu sir, what would that request be?
BISHOP: The biggest challenge before us now is the security of lives and properties. To ensure the safeguard of future generations, let’s go back to education, quality education. I mean, one could easily say, education, but again health will come crying, by the time you finished with education, health is coming. By the time you finish with that, then you see the road infrastructure is coming, you finish doing that, then you say economy, I think the biggest challenge before us now is security. None of these things can work in an insecure environment. And we must come to a situation where people feel free to legitimately carry out business without being hunted down for whatever reason. I think that will be security, let people feel secure. There are a number of other people who say justice, equity, let people get what they want, unity, but the problems are myriad. Let people feel secure again, to be able to move around. And I will say yes, education, health, infrastructure. But I'm sure that there are people in charge of planning. Nigerians have had quite a raw deal over time. This country is not poor. This country is blessed; it's just that we have people who are greedy. And that is not helping us.
COUNTDOWN: Thank you very much. Now, on the last note, we want a reflection on the state of the Church. The letter that was written to the Church in Laodicea in Rev. 3:14-18 describes the three stages that the Church can find itself - being cold, hot, or lukewarm. How will you describe the stage the Church in Nigeria is today?
BISHOP: I think the Church is lukewarm and in need of revival.
COUNTDOWN: Is there any advice as a leader of the Church?
BISHOP: Revival is what we desire. But it is not something that we can program. Revival is the prerogative of God, but there are conditions that we can usually fulfill. In II Chronicles 7: 14, it says, If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and heal their land.I believe that this land needs healing. And it must begin with the church. I have often said that it cannot be well with this nation until it is well with the Church. Because when the Church that fears God, prays, and the blessings of God come down, and the church reaches out with love and compassion and the Gospel, the true gospel, the fear of God comes back. The issues of corruption will give way where there is fear of God. SoI think the Church must pray. We must turn from our wicked ways. Unfortunately, the Church is often part of the problems of this nation. So if we will turn from our wicked ways, God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our Land and if there's any hope I have and any longing I have, it is the healing of God upon the land, revival for the church, that is my desire.
COUNTDOWN: Thank you very much sir. It has been a wonderful time. On a lighter note, we will like to know, outside your official duties and your spiritual leadership, what sort of pastimes do you engage in, what do you enjoy doing at your leisure time?
BISHOP: I love music, very much, a wide range of music, I like classical music, I like Church music. I write songs and I write poetry, generally, the arts are things that I enjoy very much. Those are my pastimes.
Thank you very much, sir, it’s been a wonderful time with you.
BISHOP: I hope it's been useful.
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COUNTDOWN: Very, very useful, thank you very much sir.
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