TheCable

Mathew Ashimolowo, senior pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in London, has advised the Nigerian government to set an example by reducing the cost of governance.

Ashimolowo spoke on Thursday at a media briefing to unveil the church’s plan for its mega crusade which will hold from November 6 to 11 in the Ikorodu area of Lagos state.

Ashimolowo said the current government inherited a damaged system and should have informed Nigerians of the cost of fixing it before taking drastic measures.

“It is the same time that the national assembly is putting aside N57 billion naira to procure SUVs and you are still debating minimum wage. Even when you say minimum wage, minimum by what standard?” he asked.

“So I think we should set examples. We should set examples of cutting costs. We should set examples of reduced costs of governance, and examples of austere measures carried out by the government first.

“The challenge this government has is like that of a man that received a DHL parcel that is damaged on arrival. They received a system that was damaged on arrival.”

On the crusade, Ashimolowo said it is part of the church’s initiative known as Christ Compassion To The Rural World (CCRW) which is aimed at reaching out to the less-privileged in society.

He said the initiative was birthed about ten years ago following an experience he had in a church in Ghana.

“These people will combine compassion with the preaching of the gospel. Night time, it will be miracles and healing but daytime, they will distribute many packages of rice, beans, garri, etc,” he said.

He said he concluded that Nigeria needed that kind of compassion with charity, and “we need to do it right”.

He said the vision of CCRW involves bringing all churches together and that over 200 churches in Ikorodu/Igbogbo are part of the initiative.

‘FIVE STAGES OF CRUSADE’

“The first phase of the crusade is surgery. We want to be able to help people who are indigent and need some surgery but are unable to afford it. Further to this, we have got some doctors, nurses, pharmacists who are working for us,” he said.

“The second part is the evening meetings. Our evening crusades are the reason for what we are doing. We believe that we are not supposed to be throwing food and things around at people. We are doing it out of compassion for people and compassion for Christ.

“We want to see souls saved and the evening meetings are going to be really strong gospel crusades.

“The third is the daily distribution. From 8am to 2pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we will be distributing to people.”

He said the items to be distributed included 75,000 pieces of clothing; 2100 thousand pieces of noodles; 1042 bags of beans; 1,000 bags of rice; salt; sugar; garri; vegetable oil, exercise books for children, and medicine worth N160,000 million.

“The fourth one, on Thursday, and Friday, in the morning sessions, we will have a special pastors’ empowerment seminar for like 2000 pastors in the Ikorodu/Igbogbo area.

“We will bring speakers to speak into their lives. Steve Mensah, Poju Oyemade, Jerry Eze, and Festus Adeyeye will be speaking into the lives of the people.

“The fifth, which is one of our biggest initiatives is on Saturday. Ikorodu/Igbogbo stadium will become a hospital. 100 doctors; 100 pharmacists, 50 pharmacist-technicians, about 50 laboratory technologists, and dentists will be lined up.

“We will be having an optometrist who will check people’s eyes and would be giving them glasses. We have 10,000 glasses.”

He said the church has put a lot of work into the project and he believes it would be a success.

“We are excited, it has cost us so much but I have worked the journey of life a few years now and it is the first time, possibly in my life, that we are spending money that has so many zeros behind to give people you don’t even know and you are excited,” he said.