Dr. Abel Damina is the President and Founder of PowerCity Int’l. Of late, he has been travelling widely, revealing and re-introducing the person of Jesus to his listeners across the world. Author of books and CEO of Kingdom Life Network TV, Damina in this interview with Emmanuel Clement talks about his ministry and the state of the nation.
Kindly let us a bit into your family?
I am a pastor, I preached the gospel of Christ. I am married to Rachael Damina and we have three daughters namely, Jemima, Jesimiel and Jeiel. They are called the Triple J Plus Singing. They have a music ministry and they are also into Movie.
Before the ministry what have you been doing?
I have always been in the ministry. I was born into a Pastor’s home, I went to school from Pastor’s home and started ministry from school.
How long has your ministry been?
Power City Int’l has been on since 1993 till date. We held the first service in the hall of the Old Apex Cinema Hall, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, but I have been in the ministry earlier than that.
How did you come about the name of your ministry?
The scripture tells us that the kingdom of God is in power. I always knew that everything about God has to do with His power to save, heal and deliver. That is how we came about the name of our ministry Power City Int’l.
How did God call you to ministry?
I tell people I didn’t hear a voice, see a light or see a vision. I just grew into knowing Christ and my desire to make people know Christ got me to start preaching the message of Christ, and from there I got into ministry. My messages have been a blessing to people all over the world.
How did you receive Christ and what prompted your salvation?
I heard the Good news that Christ loves me and he died for me, was buried on the third day he rose to justify me from sin which I didn’t have solution for. I believe that message and I got saved.
Have you ever thought of backsliding from the faith?
I have not backslidden because I don’t believe believers in Christ can backslide. But sometime you can get overwhelmed especially when things are not working for you the way you wanted them to. But since I have been in ministry I only got discouraged years ago when I got frustrated because what was called the gospel as at that time did not sound like a gospel to me, I got fed up with it and I began to seek God to find out what the problem was and the Lord opened my eyes to see what the true gospel of Jesus is.
The gospel of Christ is what Christ has done on his death, burial and the resurrection for mankind. He died on our behalf to offer up his life and when I understand this very well in details I cannot explain right now, it reshape and re-design the faith of my ministry, since then it has been exciting as I travelled all over the world preaching Christ, making Jesus known and revealing the mystery of the gospel of Christ to humanity. There are testimonies from everywhere on how the power of God has changed people’s lives through the teaching of his word.
What is the core focus of Powercity Int’l?
To re-introduce Jesus to this generation, equipping believers to know who they are in Christ, what they have in Christ and what Christ can do through them. The greatest problem of mankind is identity Crisis.
When you don’t know who you are then you don’t know what you have and when you don’t know what you have you don’t know what you can do and once you don’t know who you are, you will become a victim of identity Crisis. Identity crisis is what produces jealousy, envy, competition, wickedness, selfishness, etc, all these are the attributes of what I called Toxic Emotion. You become a man of toxic emotion when you suffer from identity crisis.
And that is what the revelation of Jesus cures through the gospel.
Apart from the preaching the gospel, what else do you do?
I am an author. I have written lots of books that have been a blessing to many. I own a TV called “Kingdom Life Network TV” – it’s a Christian Satellite TV Channel covering Africa, Canada, North America and part of Europe. I am also the president of International Charismatic Ministers Association (ICMF), a body that provides covering and ministerial resources for ministers of the gospel globally. I also host Daily TV and Radio Programs, Righteous Invasion of Truth (R.I.O.T) through which millions are being transformed across the world. I am the current National Chairman of the youth wing of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
Sir, you just rounded up a program called The Revelation of Jesus. Can you tell us about it?
It’s a Word conference 2018, hosted by our Lagos campuses. The purpose of this program was to unveil the person of Jesus from the scriptures. I taught about Revelation that God reveals things by revelation. There are no new things about God that has not been revealed yet. The Old Testament is Jesus conceived while the New Testament is Jesus revealed. I also talked about knowledge. That the Holy Spirit came to give us knowledge. I taught that the believer does not have power problem nor any kind of problem but the greatest problem of believers is knowledge. The believer does not need anything. The believers have everything. The programs was so enlightening, interactive and educative. It was held at Our Place Event Centre, ikeja. Our Lagos campus can be located at TFC (upstairs) Caterpillar B/Stop, 44a, Ijaiye Road, Ogba Lagos. 08088834866.
What inspired the program?
It’s our branch in Lagos that organised it. We called our branch campuses and since when the campuses started I have not been here. People who followed me on TV and social media love what I was preaching, came together and started campuses. So, it’s my first time of coming to meet a number of them, preaching and answering their questions, get to know them and they get to know me.
How do you sustain the program?
All the member of the campuses came together, put money together to organize this program and invited me. The programme is at the instance of Pastor Gospel Johnson, the coordinator of Powercity in Lagos and the whole of south west.
Sir, let’s look at the state of the nation. How would you access the performance of Mr. President?
It’s a bit difficult for me to access his performance. The reason is, if you are not wearing a shoe, you can’t tell how the shoe feels. What I know is that we need leaders in this country and not one leader. We need leaders who are forthright, who have vision and who are sincere to bring dividends of democracy that cut across for everybody to benefit.
Can Nigeria still be better?
Yes, it will be better, like I said we need leaders who are ready and willing to take the benefit of democracy, provide leadership and also have a program for the common man.
What can be done for Nigeria to make headway?
We need good leaders who are visionary, selfless and committed to the vision of this country as a nation, who will be willing to sacrifice so that Nigeria will become what it ought to be. But first, we must have a national vision that gives us direction of where everybody is going. The Bible says ‘where there is no vision the people perish’. So vision is Key and Leadership is what will make the vision become a reality.
Do you have any words for Nigerians particularly or leaders at this time?
It is people that determines who good government is and I will advise Nigerians to get their PVC and vote in line with their conscience.