Devoted to Talking About Jesus

By Agha Ibiam, 01.31.2006

 

Prince Ben Ukadike is not a failure in life. He is a manufacturer, an industrialist and also an auto distributor. To crown it all, he is also a lawyer, with a master's degree in international law and diplomacy. In addition, he is a member of the Charted Institute of Abitratos. Whatever that is to him, he said he has sacrificed all for the sake of the name, Jesus.  The learned gentleman who became a born again Christian in 1977 has been persistently following the Lord and worshipping fervently at the Assemblies of Gods Church (AGC), Ikeja Lagos. Ukadike is not dreaming of having a church of his own, nor waiting to be ordained as a minister of God before proclaiming his latter days campaign that Jesus is everything the world needs to survive. To actualise that dream and burden of his, he formed and became the co-odinator of the World Rescue International Ministry (WRMI), a non- governmental organisation (NGO) that believes in propagating the name of Jesus.
The self-imposed task he said did not come by mere thinking as he had a revelation in 1984 from God about the name Jesus Christ. "I had a revelation from God about the power in the name Jesus Christ. I have seen the need and subsequently I have preached in one of the churches and people caught the vision at that time. After that, I made billboards all over Lagos with just the name Jesus inscribed on them. But unfortunately, one of the governors at that time came aand stopped the erection of billboards," he said.
Even before then, he did not keep the idea to himself alone as he shared it with some of his friends. "I shared the vision with Dr. Odunaike, who happens to be the former General Overseer of Foursquare Gospel Church. At that time, we had a body called Christian Foundation Network (CFN). That body comprised Odunaike, myself and Mr. Bunmi Oni, Managing Director, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and one Dr. Lafe.
"The intention was to reach out to Christians at the upper echelon of the society. So when I shared the vision with Ogunaike, he caught the vision too and we decided to have what we called United Jesus Easther rally in 1986/87. The aim was to bring Christians together at different locations throughout the country for the purpose of having a rally and that on Easther Monday, by 12 noon", he revealed.
The WRMI, a worldwide Christian organisation which believes that various armed conflicts, disasters, trauma, injustice, corruption, man's inhumanity to man are Satan and demon inspired. The organisation also believes that the antidote to world's miseries as provided by the almighty God is Jesus.
 The organisation, according to one of its pamphlets, also has the following objectives, to propagate the power in the name Jesus; to enlighten the world as to the efficacy of the name Jesus in overcoming evil forces; to employ every practicable and peaceful means to make the name Jesus visible to all the elements for the purpose of chasing out from the country the forces of darkness and to provide spiritual and material relief to suffering people everywhere through the name Jesus.
The co-odinator recalled that the Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) 1977, which was held in Lagos, brought so many evils to the country. The wittingly or unwittingly importation of evil forces, he said, has brought untold problems to the country since then. The slow pace in development, lack of adequate planning, evil manipulations in high places, bad leadership and corruption he attributed to the hosting of FESTAC.
"Nigerian problems started during Nigeria Festac 1977. When under the guise of the name 'Black Axe', several evil forces were brought into the country. Witches and wizards invaded this country and created more problems for us. If we get our acts correctly and as far as God is concerned and His revelation to us is concerned, the forces will have no power over this nation. Like Pastor Chris Okotie said, evil forces have taken over government. Along the line, there is hypnotism. They are forces directing most of the activities in government. That is why we need to get the name God has given to us to counter most of these forces", he said.
Ukadike believes that there is a counter to most of the evil forces causing havoc to not only Nigeria, but to the whole world. He said if Tsunami, Katrina, terrorism, corruption, accidents and HIV/AIDS are names, that Gods antidote to them is the name Jesus Christ.
The Bible, he said, is very categorical about the power in the name Jesus. Without putting people in the dark, he gave instances to buttress his point as to what the name has done to those that believed. "One of my wife's friends whose husband was working with a multinational firm had an accident and he died. His remains was taken to Delta State for burial.
"The company charted an aircraft. On their way back to Lagos, over Escravos in Delta State, they had turbulence in the air. The next morning, farmers saw a piece of cloth hanging on a tree. Getting close to the tree, behold it was a man hanging on it. They brought the man down. He gave his testimony that at the time there was turbulence he started shouting the name Jesus and at that time, the plane crashed and he found himself transported to the tree miraculously. Every other person in that aircraft died.
"Again, there was this Nigerian Airways plane that crashed when it was traveling to Enugu. There was this Celestial Church member that sat with his son in the aircraft. As the plane was about to crash, he shouted the name Jesus. Later, he found himself and the son on the grass unhurt.
"Again the Ethiopian airline. There was this Winners Chapel member. The plane crashed and he found himself sinking in the sea. And as he shouted the name Jesus, he said an unseen hand lifted him up from the sea and brought him to the seashore. So he became one of the rescuers. I know this because one of his lawyers is also my lawyer", he explained.
To reach out to people with this name, which may not take in the form of house to house preaching or through interpersonal discussion, but instead with a sub-conscious judgment when the name Jesus is seen displayed, the World Rescue Ministry International has produced 50 million Jesus stickers, 50 million Jesus badges and 50 million Jesus Tee shirts, and face caps.
Other strategies include five Jesus billboards in each local government area throughout the federation; five Jesus radio shouts daily and on every radio station in the country; five Jesus flashes daily on every television station; two Jesus vehicles per local government, Jesus banners over the church altars; Jesus flashes over the internet; daily newspaper Jesus slots and Jesus rallies all over. Ukadike said the Tee shirts and face caps would be distributed in churches free of charge.
The organisation has recognised the leadership roles the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) are playing in preaching the gospel of Jesus. "We are united in Jesus for the same purpose. We believe in the next few months, evil forces in this country will find it difficult to stay. The dividends of democracy will start flowing because people will start acting differently because the fear of the Lord will be in them", Ukadike said. He noted that he has also recieved the blessings of his local pastor, Mr. Francis Okeremgbo.
Apart from revelations which he said propelled him to this task, he added that already Cindy Jacob, a preacher in US had prophesied that Nigeria had been given the missionary spirit through which the nations of the earth would be changed.