Princes Ngozi Oluwagbemiga: An amazon @ 50, impacting Africa, touching lives
For close to one hour during a chat with Church Times, Princess Ngozi Oluwagbemiga cut the picture of a woman with deep passion for her calling. She radiated so much confidence and talked with the tone of a game changer.
And indeed she has been changing the game across Africa in her own little way. Since 1986 when she came to know the Lord as a secondary school student, she has not ceased to do the Lord’s bidding, preaching the gospel and attending to the needs of the less privileged.
Though from Anambra State she is married to a Yoruba man; Rev Dr. Bukola Oluwagbemiga. Her husband is the Dean of Post Graduate Studies of Life Theology Seminary Nigeria.
A mother of four wonderful children, Princess Oluwagbemiga who clocks 50 on March 15, 2020 is uniquely gifted. She has the rare grace of hearing from God in clear tone since she became born again. “I hear God clearly when He speaks to me. Usually when I am busy doing house chores the Lord speaks to me. That has greatly helped my ministry over the years.” She declared.
Called to ministry in 1987, Princess Oluwagbemiga has been used of God in setting people loose from satanic oppression. God has used her to deliver many through a regular faith clinic program she runs.
While chatting with this reporter, she displayed rare wisdom on issues. For instance, she believes from experience that many are not okay. “If you say you are okay that is the very proof that you are not okay. If you have this understanding you will not laugh at anybody. The moment you are born again, the spirit is what is converted, but the soul realm and the body go through continual pruning. Your spirit is connected but you need to continually purge yourself.”
A General in the Chaplain Fellowship of Nigeria, Oluwagbemiga holds Diploma in theology, BTH in Theology and Master’s degree in Theology. Apart from being a regular face on television stations across Africa, she has been honoured with several speaking engagements both in and outside Nigeria.
She reasons that “Theology helps you and makes you balance. I don’t know why people shy away from theology. Jesus was with his disciples in a theological set up kind of. He gave parables and taught them. Those of us theologically trained are not crazy for power. We study a lot of other things connected with theology. Theology helped me a lot because I was in a power ministry. Theology helps me to balance the anointing. It did not make me lose my head.”
Called to street people
In 2000 she founded Charity Mission Empowerment Foundation- CMEF: a trans-denominational mission network – a multi-cultural rural mission faith-based Nigeria registered NGO to serve Africa rural regions.
CMEF is exclusively a support provider agency committed to philanthropic activities in Africa for African rural grassroots to achieve self-reliance, self-productivity and stable psychological future.
On how she came about the outreach, she recalled; “After we left Christ the Restorer Church, that was the church my husband and I worked for several years before the Lord called us to a fresh work, we came back to our house and we were using our house for counselling and for fellowship. It was during one of the days of fellowship that the Lord asked me to come out of the gate of our house and he pointed my attention to a scavenger and said to me: Do you believe I died for people like this? I said yes.
“The Lord then asked me to reach out to them. I later called the boy and said to him that God asked me to reach out to him and people like him. I preached to him and wept bitterly pleading with him to surrender his life to Christ. At a point the boy asked me to bring out a N200 note and showed me somebody’s signature and said he was connected with the owner of the signature.
“By implication he was from a wealthy home. But somehow his destiny was truncated through some mysterious ways. That was when I understood why God asked me to reach out to him. He was a leader of OPC at a point and very tough. He eventually gave his life to Christ. He lived around the market before Aguda in Lagos and there were about 200 of them in that place.”
That information prompted Princess Oluwagbemiga to rent a place near the market for a church. By 2001 she launched out fully. “I took a rally to that market. We carried out free medicals and came with welfare. We empowered widows, widowers and the aged. God told me the street children were my children.”
That was the beginning of what has become a phenomenon.
Charity mission
On how the charity mission is being run, she says “We take humanitarian gesture to the doorsteps of the less privileged people. We are in six African countries. Kenya, Republic of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Niger Republic and Nigeria. We collaborate in those countries to do community services. We have done over 50 projects. We empower people and provide jobs for young people. We support churches in rural areas. We give them skills, free medicals and reach out to their widows and widowers. A lot of them have renounced their witchcraft because we showed them love. We hold crusades at the end of our interventions and we see them dropping their charms. We are also into police empowerment. I love Police.
Pastor Mrs Oluwagbemiga
“Our projects are specific. As I hear, I obey. In Ghana we have five communities. Somebody bought us a land and he built a structure for us there. One of our goals is to leave behind vocational centres in the places we go. By the time we are done with training we leave those things for the communities. We never monitor the post training days. We expect that the communities will monitor and take advantage of the equipment we leave behind.”
Despite her good intentions, she said she had suffered some form of persecutions in the course of the work. “There was a time we went to Niger Republic and the people of the community mistook us for another group that had promised them all sorts of things, so they came with all kinds of diseases which we had no capacity to address. People at the programme started harassing us saying we were being fraudulent. Being the leader of the team I was taken to the United Nation’s office for questioning. That was where we realized there was a misconception.”
Her only regret is that the people she expects would buy into the project and help the needy are not buying into it. “But then, we have every cause to thank God that the work is being done and people are being blessed.”
The theme for the 20th anniversary is “better together”. She disclosed that the anniversary which will hold at the church’s premises, Famous Gospel Proclaimers Church, Ajuwon, Lagos will also serve as opportunity of carrying out a major project in the community.
With a team of gifted partners Oluwagbemiga who is also treasurer of Food for the Hungry, Nigeria, has been able to impact God’s Kingdom with specialized programs that foster a “zero-failure Culture”!
In the spirit of “charity and enterprise,” she has a vision to create wealth, health and provide solution platforms that will liberate lives. The mercy and favor of God upon her life has connected her with senior entrepreneurs, stakeholders, and great community leaders. She has also served at the state level of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
On the 20th anniversary of the mission outreach which holds on March 14, she says; “The celebration will afford the ministry to appreciate those who have been with it over the years. We intend to appreciate those who have been with us and we hope to still be together as we cover more grounds. A lot of African countries are asking us to come. We are being asked to come build empowerment centres. We want to take liberation crusades to places. We have experienced instant healings in many of these communities where we do crusades. Our hope is that we would spread more and make more impact.”
Story by Gbenga Osinaike
