One of the Coordinators of the Re-unification and Reconciliation Committee set up by the pastors of the two warring factions within the CAC, Pastor Tunde Omojuwa, in this interview with SUNDAY ABORISADE, speaks on efforts being made to end the crisis in the church.
What informed the unity meeting within CAC, after 22 years of protracted crisis?
There were two factors that actually led to our taking steps towards the reunification of our broken church, that is the Christ Apostolic Church. You see, in every dispensation, God always has His plans for His people and He would either raise leaders for the fulfilment of his purpose or He allows circumstances to come up that would work out His plans according to His will. CAC had been enmeshed in leadership crisis for some time. The crisis did not get to the root of the church because members are not involved. It is a leadership problem. It emanated from the top even though the leaders are trying to rope in the members. The elders were not involved, the youths were not involved, the women were not involved, men were not involved, even pastors were not involved. The top leaders of the church were the ones who saw reasons to iron out some things within themselves and that what led to the crisis in the first instance.
The stand we are taking today, after 22 years of internal crisis, is based on the Holy Bible because we knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that of crisis but of peace. If we have to live in peace with ourselves, then we have to follow the Biblical patterns and the standard of Christ for His gospel. In the last 22 years, a lot of people have been praying that the crisis should end. Pastor Akinosun, who is the President of the CAC, came from Ibadan to meet Pastor J.O. Ogunlade in Akure here. Ogunlade is the president of the Supreme faction of the church. When he came, the Supreme faction organised themselves for his visit and they welcomed him. In fact they were surprised to see him around; they asked him of his mission and he said he came to broker peace. That is, he wanted reconciliation between the GEC and the Supreme Council factions of the church. He promised that the 2012 conference of the church of both factions would be jointly held. He also promised that the watchword would be one. Leaders of the Supreme Council were very glad. When Pastor Akinosun left, the Supreme Council factions’ leaders were optimistic that he would live up to expectations. It was after he left that pastors in Akure here started a unity and peace meeting, based on Akinosun’s visit. They thought his visit was a sincere one. They thought he meant all he said so the Akure indigene pastors started the move. This was because everybody believed that the crisis was more pronounced in Akure. Somebody just brought up the idea that since the presidents of the two factions had met and spoken, there should be a peace meeting between the two groups and they had started the meeting before I was invited and I joined. Secondly, I could say it was the plan of God because when He wants to intervene in any situation , He would open up circumstances that would bring about a way out.
Pastor Obadare died the third day after the unity revival was concluded. Can we then say the revival has achieved its objective?
We are men of the spirit so I will answer from a spiritual platform. Before the final death of Baba Obadare, actually when we were holding the revival, we were doing so according to God’s inspiration. We heard that Prophet Obadare was once dead and that when God restored him to life, he narrated what he saw in the spirit realm. He said that God asked him to go back to the world and ensure a reconciliation of the factions within the CAC; that without that reconciliation, he would not be allowed into the kingdom of God. That is why I said the unity meeting is according to the will of God and His purpose for His church. We prayed for mercy, forgiveness and restoration of unity to the church. After the revival, there were several indications that God was happy about it. One of the results was the passing on of Baba Obadare. If anything was holding him back initially or if anything would prevent him from entering the kingdom of God, it was the disunity of the church. That is why we would say that the revival had a positive impact. Apart from that, there was downpour, a shower of blessings when the revival ended.
Which of the two factions did you belong to?
Originally, I belonged to the GEC, that is the breakaway faction. We were initially having the Supreme Council until the General Executive Council broke away. At the moment, I am neither in the Supreme Council nor in the GEC. I see myself belonging to the two because if we say we want unity, both factions should come together. So I operate with the two because our goal is to fully reconcile both groups.
How will you reconcile the church when both factions are operating separate constitutions?
It is true that the two groups operate separate constitutions. That does not mean we could not reconcile. When there is true unity, we can have a common ground based on give and take. If the GEC is hammering on age provisions for retirement, that should not be an excuse for us not to come together. We can harmonise both constitutions when we come together so that we can jointly produce one constitution. As a single church, we have no reason to operate two constitutions.
Why did you say that some members of your unity group discovered that the mission of Pastor Akinosun’s visit to Baba Ogunlade was not a sincere one?
In the first instance, Pastor Akinosun did not involve local chairmen of his GEC in Akure. He came to Baba Ogunlade and made it a private visit. Some of us who are chairmen did not know when he came. We only got to know after he had come and gone. We felt if his visit was genuinely for unity he would have carried us along. Secondly, after we heard of his visit, we contacted him and he confirmed that he came. When the meeting of the two groups started, based on his visit, he supported it. But when the meeting was fashioning out modalities of reunification, a seven man ad hoc committee of which I was a member, was set up from the larger house comprising both factions. One of our terms of reference was to fashion out programmes both nationally and internationally that could bring both factions together and to proffer solutions that would help us get over the crisis. The ad hoc committee, in its report, suggested to the larger house that both factions should start joint programmes like seminars, workshops and crusades, that would bring the youth, women, elders, and pastors together in order to weaken the hostilities that had been in existence for too long. The ad hoc committee also suggested a single leadership structure. First, we suggested that both the GEC and the Supreme Council should be dissolved while a provisional council should be set up to midwife a single leadership structure. Alternatively, we suggested that if dissolution was not feasible, positions should be shared between both factions. We have five principal offices. We suggested that the GEC should take three, being the largest faction while the Supreme Council should take two. All the Supreme Council wanted was a sense of belonging. We even suggested the creation of additional positions to accommodate most of the officials of both groups.
What happened afterwards?
When the report of the ad hoc committee was presented to the larger unity meeting, some people ran to Pastor Akinosun and told him that the meeting was a plot to remove him from office. Instead of finding out the true position of things, Pastor Akinosun was carried away by the false information and he directed all the GEC chairmen to withdraw from the meeting. It was at that point that we found out that he did not mean true reconciliation for the church. We believe that position apart, the unity of the church should be paramount.
Would you say the CAC crisis was as a result of leadership tussle or because the late Prophet Obadare was operating a parallel ministry within the church?
Before now many pastors had independent ministries in CAC. It was not the late Prophet Obadare that started it; others were there before him. Some established theirs when Baba Obadare was operating his while several others are currently having theirs within both factions of CAC now. The problem they had with Baba Obadare’s ministry was because God was working miracles through Obadare and everybody wanted to associate with him. Obadare never for once denied being a member of the CAC. When WOSEM was bearing much fruit and everybody was benefiting spiritually, the leaders of the church gave him support and they went into his ministry. Those leaders who were not comfortable with the way some leaders of the church were supporting WOSEM started the crisis. They said WOSEM would end up swallowing CAC but this had not happened up till today. The headquarters of the late Prophet Obadare’s church is not WOSEM, it is CAC Oke Itura. Papa operated his ministry within the church. They were just against him, being a field evangelist who was much more popular than most of them who were mere stationery pastors and administrative officers. The glory of his ministry was blossoming and they became jealous, hence they picked up the quarrel that led to the crisis.
In your peace moves, did you consider the withdrawal of the certificate forgery scandal suit against the leadership of the GEC?
God has a way of fulfilling His plans. Whatever it will cost to rebuild the church, God should go ahead and make it happen. If it is the court case that will give us the key to unity, then we give glory to God. The church should have avoided going to court. It is complicated now because it is the government that is prosecuting leadership of the GEC. I think the case should be allowed to go on so that both sides would be able to explain themselves. Even recently, Pastor Akinosun was still accusing Pastor Udofia of stealing the church certificate. How can the secretary be accused of stealing documents in his custody? In any case it would have been better for the church to reconcile outside the court. The restoration and reunification group should be encouraged to finish its assignment.