Celebrating The Incredible Life Of Late Deaconess Florence Iyabode Ogunrotimi. By Felix N.Jarikre

Mr.Rotimi Ayo Ogunrotimi giving a eulogy of her mother.

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Of Late Deaconess Florence Iyabode Ogunrotimi, it can truly be said: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

Mr.Rotimi Ayo Ogunrotimi at the interment.

When Pastor Bolaji Olukotun of Manna Prayer Mountain, Lagos invited me to attend the burial ceremony of the woman, I accepted out of simple courtesy. But at the end of the whole ceremony, I was glad I attended. Her inspiring story was that of a woman of substance and influence who did not live for herself alone, but spent her life empowering others who were less fortunate than herself.

At the Thanksgiving Service: From Left:Pastor Bolaji Olukotun.

According to her only son, Mr. Rotimi Ayo Ogunrotimi: “The place where you are born does not determine where you die. My mother came to his world over 70 years ago, and she did not look at the circumstances of her life. She rose from humble beginnings. From a top Guinness beer distributor who won many sterling awards to a real estate tycoon, she was determined not to live an ordinary life. Your life has no meaning if it is not expressed through giving. She certainly exemplified that.

Invited Guests at Sheba Event Centre having refreshment.

“On my mother’s birthday January 6, 2015, she wrote of herself, concerning her charity foundation : ‘I was not born with a silver spoon, but I received help and training from many and today I am a fulfilled person. Though we are not there yet, we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Join me and be a blessing for you are blessed by the Almighty God to be a blessing!’

“I salute her courage. We, the children, will stand on her vision to continue to press for the realization of her dream. The FIJOO Memorial Foundation has now been raised to honour her and her late husband, Mr. Joseph Oludare Ogunrotimi, our father.”

"Favour Doesn't Come by Explanation or Begging." Says Rev. Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe of ODM.

Rev.Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe,publisher,ODM.

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ard to erase would be the memories of the October 24^th 2015 monthly Anointing Service of Manna Prayer Mountain, Lagos, Nigeria. Thousands of participants from across the states of Nigeria, and from across the borders like Ghana, happily registered their presence. One testimony that got the roar of approval from the crowd was given by Chidimma Ohagun, a medical doctor, whose father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Troubled and discouraged, the man started to use ODM with unusual fervour where he came across Dr. Chris’ prophetic declaration: “Whatever Jehovah Over-do has not planted in your body shall be uprooted.” Holding on to the prophetic declaration, it was not long before he went for another medical examination only to gladly find out he was free of prostate cancer.

 Thunderous prayer warfare was conducted with incisive devil-tearing prayer points. By the time the Manna Voices finished their rousing, feet-stomping and hand-clapping “Hold On” a song made popular by Sound of Blackness, the vast crowd was eager and ready to hear Rev. Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe, the publisher of Our Daily Manna who doubles also as General Overseer of M.P.M.

If you are ever in doubt of what favour represents, and how to secure it for your life, his unadulterated teaching on the subject leaves you with a categorical picture that clears away any doubt, question or illusion. Favour, he says, does not come by beauty, your education or your human connection. Your success that comes by favour is not because you are very intelligent or eloquent or that you have money. Uncommon favour can locate you after God has “crushed” you, and you have been rejected, ostracized and forgotten by men; when you finally come to the place where personally you regard yourself as a “nobody!”

Ordinarily, when you get a better generous treatment that seems unfair to others, that’s favour. It means for somebody to get approval or support from a sovereign authority. Joseph’s story in the Bible is particularly instructive. Sold into slavery by those who despised his dreams, falsely accused of attempting to rape his master’s wife, he was thrown into prison. The wife was an enemy, the husband collaborated in her hatred of Joseph; everything was against him. Yet in prison, Joseph became the boss.

Rev.Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe and his wife, Dr.Ejiro Flora Kwakpovwe.

According to Rev. Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe: “Favour is the ‘but’ showing up at different phases of your life, taking you from defeat to victory.” Listening to the bishop carefully, it is clear that favour does not necessarily mean escape from affliction or tribulation: as it has to do with your ability to lead and influence others to do your bidding. To have uncommon favour means whether you are in the dungeon or gutter, the fact of your temporary condition doesn’t stop you from being the leader or influencer you are meant to be!

 Truly, we should not allow the affliction we go through to undermine our confidence, or make us defensive. Falling into the pit of despair out of intimidation, and to be reticent when we should step forward, for many of us, seem to be easier options when we are afflicted. But those options are untenable. It helps, probably, to learn from the bishop that: “ Favoured people go through unexplainable battles. God can allow battles and delays though you are a favoured person.”

Another point that seemed to strike a chord with many people at the October monthly Anointing Service was: Favour does not come by explanation or begging. It’s note-worthy that after Joseph had interpreted the chief butler’s dream from which he predicted the man would be restored to the position that he was removed from, he begged the chief butler to show kindness and rescue him from prison by making mention of him before the Pharaoh. In Genesis chapter 40 verse 15 of the Bible, Joseph started to explain that he was unjustly incarcerated as he was innocent of any crime. That he was stolen away from his native land to be enslaved in Egypt. The painful lesson is that after all that explanation, lobbying and self-justification, Joseph was promptly forgotten by the chief butler immediately he got out of jail. Not even a whisper of Joseph’s name was heard within the palace walls. Yet, says Rev. Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe, “When God’s time comes to favour you, even those that neglect and hate you shall cooperate to help you. Favour, a function of sovereign authority, does not answer to begging or explanation. When Pharaoh had a problem that only Joseph could solve, it did not take long for this foreigner and ex-convict to step into national prominence.”

From Left,Bishop Shola Rowland and Archbishop Amu.

Crowd of worshipers praying fervently.

 

 

Is Dr.Chris Kwakpovwe of Our Daily Manna Celebrated For The Miracles or Message? By Felix N.Jarikre

Dr.Chris Kwakpovwe.

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e trained as a scientist in the university, a man whose reality was supposed to be triggered by a body of knowledge that came from observation and experiment. Precisely, in 1983, as a pharmacist, Rev.Dr.Chris Kwakpovwe, graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria.  Yet as he takes a single scripture from the Bible, weaving hard-hitting, practical narratives to reveal some profound, gripping truths with an unusual clarity, you cannot help thinking this is a man who moves with signs and wonders, in a miraculous realm where even scientists would stumble, trying to interrogate.

Did he wrestle with the conflict between science and the realm of the miraculous when he resigned his pharmacy practice to go full-time into the preaching and teaching of the Bible? Yet if he refused to say that he felt any conflict, it is easy to let him off the hook when you eventually learn that from the young age of 14 –student of the prestigious Government College, Ughelli –he was preaching the Bible fervently through the nooks, creeks and villages of Delta State with a bicycle.

As I tried to develop a clear, un-biased, objective portrait of this preacher and publisher who is happily married to Rev.Dr. Ejiro Flora Kwakpovwe with wonderful children, what kept popping into my mind were the words of Dave Breese, author of the book, 7 Men Who Rule The World From The Grave: “Despite its accomplishments, science has no final answers. Observation and analysis can take us only so far. After that, there stretches out, beyond our ability to observe, the unreachable vistas of a limitless unknown.”

When he nearly committed suicide, hounded by shame and misery for what he thought was a failure of ministry never to be recovered from, was he bound by the limitations of observation and analysis? Having recovered from his depression, when he started publishing the devotional, OUR DAILY MANNA with N20,000 borrowed from a friend, and no one else gave him a chance to succeed, what kept him going? When he was shunned and abandoned by friends who failed to see that his temporary set-back was a set-up for his come-back, where did his courage to persevere come from?  Did he press on tenaciously, turning stumbling stones into stepping stones because he was able to connect the “unreachable vistas of a limitless unknown?”

Today ODM has practically become a household name, used by millions of people all over the world. The annual WORLD ANOINTING SERVICE, attracting a crowd of over 500,000, (HALF A MILLION) beyond being the flagship of spiritual pilgrimage in the entire country, and the world over, is gradually becoming an event for economic empowerment as well as a ground for the bigwigs in the business world and politicians who yearn for a prophetic re-engineering of their lives. His message is pungent, action-packed, useful and practical. From any rostrum, he was fond of saying: “Destiny can be chained but cannot be changed. Pain is the father of profit. Delay is not denial because behind every glory, there is an untold story!”

From Asaba and Uyo in Nigeria to Lusaka, Zambia onto Mmpulangha, South Africa, that explosive mirales trailed his ministry cannot be denied. Take what happened during the maiden edition of Uyo Anointing Service at Uyo Township Stadium in Udo-Umana in Akwa-Ibom State where Dr.Chris called out a woman by name “Anthonia.” He had said: “Anthonia, you are in this crowd. You planned to divorce your husband just after this programme. Don’t do it. By this time next year, your baby shall make a WORLDWISE NOISE.” After 15 years in a CHILDLESS marriage, Anthonia truly wanted to get out of her marriage. Yet she ran out to be ministered to. To the shock of everyone last year, she not only gave birth to her child, she got pregnant again!

From the young man in South Africa who got healed permanently from a defective liver condition to women in Asaba who got blessed with fruit of the womb like Sarah and Hannah in the Bible, the story is the same: miracles are real!

To the question whether he was celebrated because of miracles or the message, he said: “The reason I do what I do is not because of me but because of God. If you are expecting from me, then I have failed.”

Rev.Dr.(Mrs) Ejiro F.Kwakpovwe.

MMM Youth Choir performing a song.

Making a Fortune in Nigeria's Fast-Growing Fashion Industry. By Caleb Jarikre.

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A fashion model on the runway.

It has long been acknowledged even on a global scale that Nigerians are fashionable and stylish people. Though the fashion industry that caters to them has long been neglected by the government, it can no longer be said that it is treated with disdain and lack of respect. And the capacity of the industry to create massive jobs and generate foreign exchange earnings, boosting the national economy, can no longer be ignored.

Nigeria has a population estimated to be over 160 million people who need to wear clothes, and underwear; use shoes, bags, fragrances, and other fashion accessories. It is usually said that the purpose of fashion is to add value to the charisma and presentation of a person. And Nigerians have never been known to slack on how one could package the whole personality. It is probably not an over-statement to say the popular maxim: “looking good is good business” is perhaps tailor-made for them. They love to party, go to weddings in their latest clothes; even events of religious matters present occasion for them to be properly and gorgeously attired.  Properly facilitated, the huge potential for fast growth of the Nigerian fashion industry has gone beyond the realm of idle speculations.

 It is clear that apart from crude oil, fashion as an industry can add immense value to the Nigerian economy. Clearly, it does not come as a surprise that this huge potential has already attracted attention from the financial community.

 After all, a wise man said: “There’s money in anything about life that is appreciated and developed.” The Bank of Industry recently launched the N1 billion Fashion Fund for Nigerian designers seeking funds to expand at the micro, small and medium-scale levels. The bank saw an opportunity to support Nigeria’s fashion businesses to increase their production volumes and quality, making them competitive substantially in both the international and domestic markets. According to BOI’s Managing Director/CEO, Rasheed Olaoluwa: “Nigeria’s fashion designers certainly have the creativity, intellect, skills and drive to take Nigeria’s fashion industry to the next level on the global fashion stage. They must be encouraged and funded because many of them have received training in some of the best fashion schools in the world.”

With leading designers like Deola Sagoe and Ejiro Michelle Amos –Tafiri, amongst others of competent ability, taking the global fashion community by storm, there is no doubt that doors are also being opened for other Nigerian designers to enter, as they will no longer be content to adjust themselves to an inferior status on the international level.

Funmi Ajila-Ladipo, national president, Fashion Designers Association of  Nigeria (FADAN) says the potential of the industry, worth over N2 trillion, is yet to be tapped into because of epileptic power supply. She has long articulated and proposed for government intervention on the need for a production hub and retail store that could accommodate about 70,000 tailors and designers. She says: “We need to bring so many talented people we have all over Nigeria together in one place, and give them opportunity. We want to manufacture, and stop consuming second-hand clothes from other nations.”

With the renewed confidence and bold exploits of the Nigerian fashion industry, it cannot be denied there is no excuse for anyone talented or creative enough to shy away from making his or her contribution to the industry. Fact, there are shortcomings that require government intervention, but that should not frighten anyone looking to make a profitable career in the industry – knowing that every challenge is simply a masquerade for an opportunity.

Because it takes fashion to complete a man/woman, it’s no exaggeration to say that for anyone that is daring, creative and skilful enough,  there is always a fortune to be made in the Nigerian fashion industry.

Fashion model doing her thing.