By Tunde Thomas
IT was praises and thanksgiving galore recently when Oba Adedapo Adewale Tejuoso, Karunwi 111, Oranmiyan, Osile Oke-Ona Egba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, played host to some traditional rulers from within and outside Nigeria at a 24-hour praises and thanksgiving session at Bishop’s Court, Onikolobo, Abeokuta.
The spiritual event also attracted other dignitaries including top government officials and captains of industry. In this interview, the monarch spoke on restructuring, his romance with evangelism and what the programme is all about.
Sir, what is your view on the clamour for restructuring?
There is nothing wrong with calls for restructuring. However, we need to get our spiritual foundation right. Although I agree that we may need to call a conference to address all those issues that are leading to agitations here and there, but in discussing them we have to start everything with God. The Bible said build your house on the rock, because a house built on the rock will endure whereas the one built on sand will collapse when there is a storm. A house built on sand refers to us human beings, we are dust, but God is the rock. That is why anything you do with God will always endure whereas any venture undertaken with human beings’ wisdom is never reliable. We must put God first in whatever we are doing.
It should take the form of worship and thanksgiving. For anything we want to do, we should first of all appreciate God through thanksgiving. Last year was the 20th year of my mother’s death. I advised that the President should call all Nigerians out irrespective of religions, for a day of thanksgiving and praising God. On that day, we would do nothing but to praise God, dancing singing and appreciating God.
If we can repent, God will heal us and heal our land. But God wants us to repent first, and that If we can organize a day of thanksgiving and praises, it will go a long way in appeasing God. Thank God, President Muhammadu Buhari is trying his best but he alone can’t do it. He and his cabinet can’t do it alone we all have to invite God to intervene through our thanksgiving and praises.
How does Kabiesi reconcile being an evangelist, a polygamist and monrch?
Let me explain my position, these three women with me who are my wives, I had them before I became king. As at that time, I was not born-again. I became born-again in 1992 the three of them as at 1992 had bore children for me. So if now I have accepted Christ into my life and said I want to be a monogamist, and insisted that they should go away, what about the children, am I showing them love that way?
The Bible says whosoever sends his wife away will make such a woman to commit adultery and that would amount to sin before God, and I would be held responsible for that. The most important thing is that if you are a polygamist before accepting Christ, the key thing is that you must make sure you don’t marry more wives because you have given your life to Christ.
Then secondly you have admitted Christ into your life, the three wives should also admit Christ into their lives, and which they have done in my own case. I don’t believe there is any problem, I go to crusades with my three wives, we evangelize and preach Christ together. My three wives, children and myself are all immersed in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is in us, and we are all in Christ. We are not leading our own lives again but leading the lives of Jesus Christ. We have all become members of Jesus family. We are now a family fortified by Jesus Christ.
What is the Kings’ Day of Praise is all about?
The Kings’ Day of Praise is a day set aside for kings to meet and worship God. It usually takes place second Thursday of every October after independence celebrations just to thank God. This is the 14th edition. We invited kings not only from Nigeria, but also other countries like Ghana and Republic of Benin.
Although we call it Kings’ Day of Praise, but if you are a believer in Christ, and Christ has made you a king and a priest you are welcome to the programme.
If you look at Revelation Chapter 5:10 in the Bible, once you believe in Christ and accept Jesus Christ into your life, you are made a king and a priest. So a natural king is invited, and all believers in Christ are also invited to join the gathering and worship God.
God created us for just one purpose, that’s to worship Him, to praise Him, and thank Him for all He has done in our lives and that’s the essence of life. That is what we will do when we get to heaven, and by the grace of God we will make it to heaven. We will do nothing there else but to worship God 24 hours of the day. We will join the 24 elders who put their crowns aside worshipping God saying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord 24 hours of the day.
That is the essence of our being here. That is what we will continue to do till eternity then let us start practising it from now while on earth. That is the essence of Kings Day of Praise.
Talking about the inspiration, how did the inspiration come about?
It is very interesting talking about how it started. I just received a letter here in the palace, and the letter stated that God was looking for a king who would gather other kings together to praise God. I got this letter, but it was a mysterious letter because I did not know where the letter emanated from. I did not know the origin or source of the letter.
That was 14 years ago. I cannot even remember how the letter was delivered to my palace but the funny thing is that soon after I started the programme, I could not find the letter again. But in the letter, it was stated that God will bless the king who complies and starts the Kings’ Day of Praise programme.
Coincidentally, during one of those occasions when we were having my yearly coronation anniversaries, suddenly while making my speech, Ebenezer Obey just walked in. This is a man who has been doing praise altar programme with me for the past few years. My spirit just told me, “wait a minute, what am I delaying this Kings’ Day of Praise programme for since Obey is here, and the coordinator of Oba Karunwi Evangelical Movement, Prof. Adeyemo is also here, and our guest king for the programme, King Orukhare from Bayelsa State is also in attendance?”
I publicly told the audience about the letter I received concerning the Kings’ Day of Praise and how God said He would bless whosoever started the programme. That was in May 2004. I told the audience that we should start the programme adding that if the programme failed, blame these people not me. If it worked, give the credit to them also not me. Believe it or not, by October 2004 we held the first edition of Kings’ Day of Praise. Since then we have been holding the programme every year.
I give all the praises and glory to God for the programme. It is only God that can sustain that kind of a programme for that long.
Are there plans to take the programme round other places?
So far, we have been organizing it in Abeokuta. But our prayer is that it will soon become universal. God created man to worship and praise Him and thank Him. This is what is required of us so why should we restrict the programme to Abeokuta? Our ultimatum goal is to make this programme a universal one.
The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, sent representatives to this year programme, was he invited specially?
He was invited with other state governors. Usually we sent invitation letters to all state governors, especially to encourage kings in their states to join the programme. El-Rufai sent some Christian traditional rulers from Southern Kaduna to the programme. They represented him at the programme.
El-Rufai even sent some amount of money to us to support evangelism and the cause of God’s work. We appreciate El-Rufai for doing this. Coming from somebody like El-Rufai, we really appreciate him. It is a sign of tolerance and it will help foster good rapport between Christians and Muslims.
It is like building bridges between Christians and Muslims. El-Rufai through his action has shown that he is a liberal Muslim. His action will promote harmony. I enjoin other state governors to be liberal-minded like El-Rufai. We also appreciate Governor Ibikunle Amosun. He has been a pillar of support to the programme.