Prophet Michael Okikiola is the President and Founder of Daily Spiritual Tonic. He started ministry in 2015 and went into church in 2020. He spoke with Church Times’ Isaac Nguma
You have been in ministry for quite a while. What are the challenges you have had to contend with?
One of the basic challenges we contended with over time is funds to run programmes especially crusades. But God has helped us to do the bit we can. We have had to contend with the issue of betrayers too. We have raised some people who eventually turned against us.
But then we are not bothered about that because Jesus Christ also faced betrayal. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied Christ, and Thomas doubted him. There is the possibility of betrayers in every ministry. It is a basic human factor.
Another challenge we are currently facing is that people no longer go to church because of transport fares. Things are hard.
Talking about hardship, who do you blame, how will you assess President Tinubu’s government in the last one year?
The truth is that this government is not encouraging at all. When President Tinubu was sworn in 2023, he made a speech that the subsidy is gone. It is that statement that has put the country in a deep mess till now. Not long after that declaration things started going up starting from fuel to transport to electricity tariff to the cost of food items and then the exchange rate.
There is hardly anything that is not expensive in today’s Nigeria. The percentage of increase is embarrassingly high. We have recorded as much as a 1000 percent increase on some items in the market. This is simply unbearable. The earlier something is done the better.
Where do you situate the blame, is it the economic policy that is not working or that there is sabotage somewhere?
It’s difficult to pinpoint where the problem is coming from. The bottom line is that things are not working for now. I don’t know if things will work in the future. The average Nigerian cannot feed. Businesses are down. Many have closed down. Some have run to other countries due to high taxation. The economic policies are simply not working or that they are badly implemented
How then will you advise the president if you are meet him?
He should get the right people to work with. I have a feeling that the wrong people surround him. He needs men of integrity and character to help him push his policies. The country also needs to move from consumption to production. We need to encourage investors by creating an enabling environment for them.
So far for the past year plus everything appears to have been done wrongly it is not easy to lead nothing has been in progress for now.
I also think if President Tinubu can revisit the outcome of the 2014 confab it will help in certain areas of our polity. One of the suggestions of the confab is a constitutional review. We need to review the constitution as fast as possible
This also boils down to the restructuring of the country. Nigeria should be restructured. We should also shop for men of character and integrity.
We keep complaining about people in government. Do you think it is right for men of God to embrace politics so they can also make impact in that area?
The Bible says if the righteous are in authority the people rejoice. So there is nothing wrong if pastors are part of the authority so that they can initiate a change. It is not wrong for men of God to join politics if they have a calling to do so.
WIll you subscribe to men of God using security agents? Many people believe this is not right if indeed they believe God to be their protector?
If you have money to get security for yourself go ahead and secure yourself and your area. I think that is just common sense. God indeed protects. But he has not stopped us from putting security in place. God uses people to carry out his purpose on earth. The truth is that if God does not protect you, no matter the security around you, it will not work. We have seen cases of people with all the security, yet they are easy targets of men of the underworld. Ultimately God is our protector.