The Winners of Ota by Pelu Awofeso

Every ‘blessed’ Sunday morning, some 50,000 very expectant souls ride an average 80 minutes to the immense Faith Tabernacle in Ota town (Southwest Nigeria) to experience three hours of spirit-lifting, morale-boosting worship. They’ve been at this devotedly since 2000, their number increasing by the week and with not the slightest sign of waning in the horizon.

One thing, Cannanland (the other name) has Nigeria’s biggest religious assembly building, is said to sit the most spacious single auditorium in the world, and caters to the pious desires of as many as a quarter-million worshipers during special programmes.

The members refer to themselves as ‘winners’. And the teachings every week really does inspire them to believe themselves as that. “It is the winners’ company,” stresses Bishop David Oyedepo, the meticulous man at the center of it all, to a New York Times’ TV team earlier this year. “[When] you come in here, you join the winners’ army. That is, you belong to the winning group.”

The philosophy, in one sentence, is this: “What you see you believe, what you believe you behave, and what you behave you become.”

The church auditorium alone is a masterpiece of architectural brilliance, a testament of vision becoming reality. Simply described it resembles—imagine you are looking down from directly above—the three blades of a ceiling fan, each arm reportedly representing, ‘God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. But think red roofs and a cream underbelly.

Gigantic as it is, it has been achieved by an all-Nigerian think tank without a single pillar standing, one feat the parishioners and Presiding Bishop Oyedepo, a qualified Architect himself, revel in.

But, it is not just the church that wows everyone. The less spiritual portion of the compound thrills as much as it confounds. On the vast land, there is a health center, an upbeat restaurant, elementary school, a high school, fledging ‘Covenant University’ and a gas station, all of them delivering spotless services. Yet there is more free ground for future expansion and projects.

That’s the Bishop for you: he speaks and craves excellence. With him there is no such thing as half measures; if it will be done at all, then it must be done right the very first time out. And he gladly names the active players when the moment calls for it. He did reveal sometime ago that an estimated 600,000,000.00 Naira has been spend on it between January and May alone, a good percentage of that religiously coming from the parishioners.

“He believes in people applying their faculties to solve a problem or better their situation,” says one passionate member as we walked amidst a horde of other eager legs towards the chapel, by now lively with praises.

And, continues the man, “The truth is that Papa (an alias) draws a line between the religious and real life. While he accepts miracles as one of the blessings of the believing person, he counsels on the necessity of acting to get results. And he equips his listeners accordingly drawing from the Bible.”

Building the church at its present location has, evidently, rubbed off on the indigenous residents of Ota as well as surrounding communities. Nonetheless, the general outlook is still very much peasant. When the congregation has to head to the Tabernacle for services, Thursday evenings inclusive, vendors of everything from white handkerchiefs and envelopes to sausages and suchlike ply the latter kilometers of the thoroughfare.

“What amount they make on Sundays alone,” discloses my partner, “is more than they are likely to realise the rest of the week.”

Government revenue also peak. Since Ota (President Obasanjo has a home here) is in Ogun State, more than ninety percent of the church population have to head out of the former federal capital of Lagos, cross borders and drive through a toll point. At 20 Naira per car as toll charges and a little more for buses, several thousands in collected bills bulge the federal coffer. Nowhere else in Nigeria’s 36 States does this happen.

The traffic passed, it’s now time to listen to the Word. We are all seated, pen-and-paper ready to jot points. Bishop Oyedepo, attired in a fitting brown suit and tie, steps smartly to the glass pulpit (positioned right at the center of this astonishing interior) to preach an hour-long message he has titled One Thing is Needful.

Inside has the appearance of an amphitheatre; only that rather than the customary concentric format there is a stretch of neatly arranged white plastic chairs extending in three directions towards the exits. For the sake of those seated many rows back—and beyond—projectors beam an enhanced image of the proceedings to six large screens (four this day), while three men in purple overalls on the corridors above direct Sony JVC cameras at every activity—praise and worship, testimonies, choir ministration, Bible reading et cetera.

Significantly, every invitation from the Faith Tabernacle to Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power, is honoured; either the first citizen himself comes or a very senior aide stands in. The honour is repaid when the Presidency requests the presence of the Bishop on occasions when a special service has to be convened—as happened in May during President Obasanjo’s inauguration.

That apart, the church’s yearly week-long SHILOH (every December) camp meeting/ crusade has attracted such well-known American and U.S-based preachers as Myles Monroe, Mike Murdock and Creffo Dollar. So has it Reinhard Bonkee of Christ for All Nations (CFAN), England-based Nigerian Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo and centenarian Pa Sadela, the oldest practicing preacher in Nigeria at the age of 102.

And Dr. Oyedepo (he’s got a PhD in Human Development) is father figure to thousands within and outside his Ministry and pre-eminent role model for a lot others in a society where there are only a few of that to inspire. His motivational books, more than 40 of them to date, have been translated to French and are bestsellers in their own right.

It has taken 22 years of focused walk to reach this phase. Still the journey isn’t ended. About 350 churches of the Living Faith Church Worldwide throb with the ‘Dominion’ dream across the globe.