CAC ‘II reunite through God’s intervention – Akinosun

Pastor Olukunle Abraham Akinosun is the President of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide. In this interview with Senior Correspondent, Aramide Oikelome, he speaks on the crisis in CAC, the deal with the late Prophet Obadare and what the church is doing to end the crisis. 

CAC President, Pastor Akinosun

When will you lift the embargo on creation of districts and zones?

We placed embargo on establishment of districts and zones because we wanted to check some abuses we noticed. We have since achieved stability in this regard.

We have also placed embargo on ordination of ministers since my assumption of office. This we did because all these things have been bastardized. We sent memo to all the CAC branches. We said we wanted total restructuring of everything. It will soon be lifted when all the policy inputs from our districts and zones have been codified. Indeed, we are already codifying the contributions made by our branches.

Was there crisis before you assumed office?

The crisis or challenges facing the church is about 23 years old now. It started in 1991 when strange things, foreign things that the church was not known with started to creep into the church. Evangelism was being merchandised. Before you knew it, people started planting independent churches within the church. The people responsible for these acts were warned repeatedly, but when the people refused to yield to the warning, the authority had to take some steps to discipline them, particularly the leader that started that thing. He and his sympathizers were suspended and instead of apologizing and repenting, they took the authority to court to challenge the suspension. The judgment said that the authority of the church had the right to suspend them. Then they went to appeal court, the case is yet to be determined.

How have you been able to quell some of the crisis to achieve relative peace?

You see, right after my assumption into office as the president, I took it upon myself to visit the leader of the factions, to make him see the need to end this impasse and he promised me.But after that, instead of abiding by what we agreed to do to end the crisis, some of them that do not want the crisis to end started throwing stones and calling names. Some of them said I was seeking for cheap popularity; that that was why I was visiting them to end the crisis.

The problem made the authorities, general executive council go to court in order to know the authentic church and by the judgment of 1^st March, 2011, that said our side is the authentic church and since 1998, and that Supreme (a faction of CAC) has ceased to exist. They are existing illegally and they said that we should do all we could do to show that we are the authentic church recognized by the government.

But you know, we are brothers, despite the problems, they are still CAC members.That is why we have been so lenient. We have been appealing to them because we do not want to enforce the ruling. If we had wanted to enforce it, we would have closed their assemblies.

After that judgment, they gave themselves titles instead of repenting. But we are still appealing to them to come back.

That means some of them are still stubborn?

Yes, some of them even say they are the authentic, even without having license, without having trustees.

Could it be that some people are using CAC church to satisfy their agenda?

That is what is happening. We are being patient to see that the crisis is over before enforcing the judgment because we are still going to address all these things. You cannot just go and build something and put CAC there. CAC is a registered name but people don’t care and they are abusing it because of the crisis on ground. If you challenge any of them now, he or she will say he does not belong to your side.

But Obadare tried to reconcile all the parties before he passed on?

When he was agile, he came to our meeting when we were holding peace meeting that time. He said God directed him to hands off his division, that God directed him that his followers should join the mainstream. We told him that in all the court litigations, his name used to appear as first plaintiff and we told him that his lawyer should write to all the courts that his name should be withdrawn, but before he died he couldn’t do it.

You see we learnt that some people dissuaded him from withdrawing. But before he died, he sent his first son to us. He came here, several times we held meetings with him and we told him to go and appeal to his people.

I’m in interested in this heaven encounter Obadare had, is it on tape?

What Obadare said was God directed him to hands off the entire crisis. But the condition we gave him was that he should go and withdraw his name from the litigations in court, it was at a meeting.

Since Obadare decided to end the crisis before he died, are you thinking about bringing WOSEM back to the fold?

That was the task given to Pastor Paul, Obadare’s first son. I told him that the ‘the problem in the CAC is the problem with WOSEM and now that baba sent you to us that there is no more acrimony, go and bring your people’. I asked him to go and tell them what baba directed him to do. ‘Go and convince them and he told us that he was going to do his best. But he came back that they refused to listen to him.

When the final burial of Prophet Obadare took place, many were surprised that you and other CAC principal officers were not there. What was responsible for this?

The burial has come and gone, we give glory to God. Why not allow the matter to die like that. As for non-attendance at Prophet Obadare’s funeral, it was due to very tight schedule I had at the time. I had scheduled some activities for that period before the burial committee decided to fix the burial date for that same period. You could say why not send people, I want to assure you that our people were at the burial.

But contrary to what many people think, we invited him (Paul Obadare), here that we wanted to know about the programme and be a part of it because his father was beyond CAC. He said they were going to make an international programme and they made it. He said Obadare was not for CAC alone and because of that the programme was going to be international in nature.

Do you see an end of this crisis soon?

You can see the hand of God in it all; that the crisis is ending by the end of the year. Other factions are thirsty for reunification and by the grace of God; by the end of the year we are going to be one again.

How do you hope to stop the court cases involving CAC?

There are not many court cases. All the cases in court now are at the instance of our brothers on the other side. There is an appeal by our brothers on the other side against the civil case in which the registered Trustees of the church and the General Executive Council were adjudged to be the authentic authority of the Church. There is also a criminal case being pursued by them at the Federal High Court, Ibadan against our leaders. On our part, we have withdrawn all cases instituted by us against them. They are the ones still prosecuting the criminal case against our leaders. We cannot force them to withdraw the cases, if they think that is what would settle the matter.

Christians are expected to be gentle and straightforward, why is it that we have politics in the church?

I don’t think it is politics, I think it is selfishness, inordinate ambition, looking for fame and big name. Instead of working for the development and growth of the church, individuals seek popularity.

Looking at the pictures of the past leaders of the CAC hung on the wall, they are all Yoruba, does it mean that the church is just for the Yoruba people alone?

It is a global church. The picture you are seeing are those of past presidents, they were all Yoruba because the revival started here.It is normal; the secretary is allocated to the eastern area.

Many pastors claim to belong to the CAC family, but their conduct and tenets are different from that of the church, are you planning to do something about it?

What you have just said is one of the many negative effects of the crisis in the church. If you want to do something and you approach the church planter to correct them, they tell you that they don’t belong to your side. This is the main reason why we are very concerned about the crisis. Once we are able to unite the church, no one who is not a Christ Apostolic adherent will be able to use the name. That day is closer than before by the grace of God.

How do you know the original from the fake?

You see, you will know if you are familiar with the church, we are easily identified.

What are those things to look for in them?

The CAC doctrine will show you the type of people you are relating with, for example, the Sunday School is number 1, number 2, we have doctrine, even about our dressing, we live in moderation, we hold the Bible, the Word of God as the authentic authority that nobody can amend or revise but whenever you see a CAC that is not acting on the pronouncement of the Word of God as it is in the Bible, that one is not a CAC. Listening to the sermon of CAC, you will really know, they are heaven conscious.

How long have you been on this seat as the president of CAC?

About two years now. I spent one year as General Superintendent before becoming the President.

What are the current challenges facing your administration on the unity of the church and how are you tackling them?

Since assuming office, I have faced several challenges, but none has been tougher than the power and enablement of our God. We have overcome them all. Glory be to God. If I start recounting how they were overcome, that will mean that I am ascribing the power to overcome to myself. But we thank God that the labour of our founding fathers on the unity of the church is not in vain. However, in 1990/1991, the leadership of the church then took bold steps to do some re-organization to instill sanity in the church. Some erring pastors then had to be disciplined. This did not go down well with some people and they took steps against the actions of our leaders.

They went to court and up till today, the case is in the Appeal Court. On March 1, 2011, there was a Federal High Court judgment, which recognized the General Executive Council as the only authentic authority in the affairs of CAC and its constitution in 1998. With that judgment, there is no other body recognized anywhere as the authority of the church. On our own part, we are praying for the erring ones and those outside of the fold to come back. We are being patient to enforce the ruling because we believe that as brothers, we should be able to solve this problem within ourselves. But like I said earlier, whether the devil and his human agents like it or not, our church will become one again.

Since you assumed the position of President of Christ Apostolic Church, how would you assess your set goals and the achievement recorded so far?

We give God all the glory for the achievements recorded so far. Though there are achievements in terms of the goals I set on assumption of office, most of the goals are ongoing things. For instance, I promised to continue developing our university, Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), this is ongoing, considering the capital-intensive nature of university establishment. We want to give glory to God, our university was rated No 1 of private universities and 11^th in Nigeria, and we have over 60 professors in JABU.

The special area of the university is entrepreneurship. When we were processing the establishment of the university, and NUC saw our programme and enforced it on all other private universities. The professors there are not new; they are retired professors. Because of that we have highly experienced lecturers.

Besides, the developmental projects in the church’s camp at Ikeji are also ongoing. My promise to develop staff through academic training and spiritual development is also ongoing. Our ministers now have opportunity to develop themselves academically through the university and our seminary. The re-organization of the church administrative structure is also on-going. We have done serious re-structuring in a bid to be more efficient and effective administratively.

I also promised to develop more income-yielding ventures, very soon this will manifest for all to see. The CAC TV project will soon materialize by the grace of God. What is delaying it is that we are fine-tuning all the loose ends. As soon as we are satisfied that we have tightened the loose ends, we shall take off. When we do, it will be clear to everybody that we know our onions.

But I must confess that the only area where we have had some challenges is the issue of CAC unity. Much as I promised to unite the church factions and I actually took steps that I consider humanly possible to achieve this, it seemed that some people are not interested in peace. They double-crossed us at every point and throw spanners in the works. But I know with prayers, God will unite the church.

What is your vision for the church?

Whenever I get somewhere, I’m not always comfortable until I leave that place better than I met it. In all my works in the past 40 years in all the areas I have worked, I have left them better than I met it that is my vision for the church. I am sure that when I leave the office, it will be better than I met it in all areas- talk of ministers, laymen, departments, etc all of those departments are going to be better than I met them.

By the grace of God, we are marching forward to greater glory. We shall continue to develop the prayer camp at Ikeji and all the developmental projects we have lined up will be accomplished to the glory of God. We shall continue to do our utmost best to see to the resolution of the 23-year old conflict in the church. Besides, we shall continue to look for, and establish alternative sources of income for the church.

Nigeria is 53; would you say we are developing? If you were to advise our leaders, what would you say?

We have national development in terms of infrastructure and development of areas than that of 1960.  We had 3 regions in 1960, now we have 36 states. That is national development. But morally, I think we are retrogressing instead of developing. My candid suggestion for the politicians is to go to the drawing board, particularly to do something on the unemployment rate. It is a very sad situation.

My advice to the political office holders is to create employment for the youths. If there is employment in the country, we will have few idle hands, crime will be reduced. The politicians should be contented. Embezzlement should be discouraged. Another thing is to fix the power problem, many people depends on power to function. Our politicians should maintain what we have properly, not diverting it to private use.

Are we to expect new policy statement and proclamation concerning your church administration?

CAC is a dynamic church, whenever there is need to amend policy and change any administrative policy, we shall not shirk our responsibility. But only administrative policy may change with time; the basic doctrinal beliefs which were based on the Word of God remains unchangeable. They are established in heaven for all ages.

Some of the church leaders are being called one name or the other by their members, this they do to show that these leaders are well respected. Is this not idolization? 

General, district or regional overseers are biblical. But titles like your holiness, is like taking the position of God for oneself. I cannot bear such a title. There is Daddy GO or Papa, they call us Baba, though Jesus Christ said never call anyone your father but that is different from when you say somebody is your Baba. What Jesus said was that they should not arrogate the power of their creator to anybody, because they have only one father in heaven that cares for every need of His children.

How would you react to the recent trend in which young men are assuming the position of G.Os in churches?

It is a welcome development if the following conditions are met: a) the person who is the G. O. is truly a born again Christian; b) the Church is properly established; c) the motive is purely to expand Christ’s kingdom and is not for selfish or carnal intent. The last one is if the G. O. is genuinely called by God. I said this because it is not all churches that are properly established. Some churches are founded by taking away members from established church to form a new one, where the new founder, who might have served in that established church, now calls himself a G. O. That kind of church cannot be said to be properly established. You need to start on a clean slate.  That is the biblical way of founding a church. The new G. O. may also be motivated by desire to have his own empire. That motive is selfish and contrary to the main motive of preaching salvation in Christ. Some G. O.s are goaded into that position by members of the church who tell them it is high time they established their own church. Such people are called by the members and not God. It is normal for people to obey their masters. Whoever calls a minister dictates to him the rules of engagement, that is, he will give him instructions to follow. Where self-aggrandizement calls a person into the ministry, you don’t expect anything less in that ministry than to fulfill that desire. But where somebody is on fire for God, you will see it in his actions. By their fruits you will know them. The young G. O.s should be genuine and no matter how good they are, they must have their own mentors to whom they report for mentoring from time to time.

What do you have to say on the state of the nation?

Our nation is in a very delicate state at the moment due to the selfishness of our politicians. As long as our politicians remain in power, they don’t care a hoot what happens to the people they are purported to be governing. They are always concerned about being in power. But for goodness sake, is the main essence of power not in caring for the interest of the people? But in our own case, our politicians begin to think of the next election immediately after they get to power. They leave the needs of the people unattended to. This is improper. The polity is heated up now because politicians are locked in agitation over which part of the country would produce the next president. They are not focusing on issues that affect the people.  They are not offering alternative ideas on how best to solve the insecurity plague currently blighting our nation. Nobody is concerned enough to give us solution to the epidemic of kidnapping. Violent crimes are currently a malaise in all parts of the country, yet this doesn’t concern our politicians, neither is the issue of irregularity of power supply and the problem of youth unemployment their worry. The nation needs politicians who think first about the people.

What role do you envisage for the church in the current scheme of things?

All the church can do is to pray. We cannot join the political fray.Our weapon of warfare is not carnal. It has power to break strongholds. Then we should continue to speak out the truth. For instance, we should appeal to all politicians currently pitching their tents against the others, whether they are in power or in the opposition to please, allow God’s choice to be in power.