INTERVIEW Why Christianity practised in Nigeria is scam

Controversial Nigerian Pastor Ofuche Ukoha, popularly known as Sign Fireman, has returned to the media spotlight after a relative absence.

From 2013 to 2014, Fireman gained notoriety for his unconventional and controversial sermons focused on unconventional money-spinning services accompanied by unusual miracles.

At that time, he attracted significant media attention, with PREMIUM TIMES covering two of his church services – his wedding and a service after his alleged arrest.

In January 2014, news reports were awash with news of his involvement in an alleged rape and killing of a 12-year-old girl in Badagry.

According to Ikechukwu Egbo, 18, who allegedly carried out the dastardly act, Mr Ukoha instructed him to strangle a female virgin, obtain the faeces she would pass out in the throes of death, and bring to him for a reward of N100,000.

However, the messy controversy has been over for ten years, and the clergyman now aims to embark on a new chapter in his ministry.

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Fireman addressed the past controversy that nearly derailed his ministry.

He also discussed topical issues within Nigerian Christendom, shed light on the source of his claimed miraculous powers, and other pertinent topics.

PT: People view you as a controversial pastor. How do you handle controversies?

Fireman: One of the reasons why some people may view Sign Fireman as a controversial pastor is because I have not replied to the press in about 15 years.

So if somebody puts out a story, and I do not reply to it to give my side, the other side of the story continues to sell. I have decided to respond to people’s and non-doctrinal stories related to my personal life.

PT: What about doctrines? Many believe that your teachings are always unconventional compared to other Christian doctrines.

Fireman: For doctrinal controversies, when people say that I am controversial because I said something conventional with the ordinary preaching, that is, if a person is saying that what I am preaching is not valid, I would ask the person to give me the scripture that is against what I am saying.

Controversy is not measured by the man of God who said something but by truth. And if you tell me what I have said is invalid, I will show you iron-cleaned scriptures. These are scriptures you can’t argue with.

PT: What are some controversial ideologies you often challenge in Christendom?

Fireman: Many pastors devise funny doctrines and unscriptural motions, one of which is ‘cancel my name from the Book of Death and put my name in the Book of Life.’ Throughout the scriptures, there is nothing like the ‘Book of Death’ in the Bible.

We children were told that the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate was an Apple. It will surprise you to know that even today, pastors preach that the forbidden fruit was an Apple when it is in Genesis Chapter 3 that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit; it didn’t specify it as an Apple.

It’s funny how they made us believe that the larynx, the male vocal box, is called Adam’s Apple because a piece of the apple was found in Adam’s throat. Pastors should stop telling people this deception.

Some would even be praying and say, ‘Any evil spirit holding my destiny should die by fire’ spirit don’t die; they are eternal. That is why, when I see all these things, I am forced to say that the brand of Christianity that is on today is a scam, especially when it comes to the issue of tithing.

PT: Tithing has always been a topical doctrine. Why?

Fireman: Most people, from the pastors to the members, do not understand what tithing means.

Often, people quote the famous Malachi chapter 3, verse 10, but they need to learn that the scripture goes from verse 8 to verse 10. Specifically, in verse 9, the Bible says, “ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.”

Look at it this way: Who was God talking to? In English, we are taught about a sentence’s object and subject. Who was that scripture talking to? Was it talking to a person? No. The Bible says in verse 9, “You are cursed with a curse, even this whole nation…”

God was addressing a country, not a person; if he was addressing a country and not a person, then the blessing he talked about in verse 10 in the same context must be a national blessing, not a personal blessing. In other words, the tithe was a spiritual task for national development.

PT: Are you saying that the age-long tithing Christian principle is wrong?

Fireman: Like taxes, tithes don’t enrich individuals; they enrich countries. That is where the body of Christ missed it. I am not saying I don’t tithe.

You bring money into the house of God; it is to build the house of God, not for you to be blessed, as most pastors will explain. So, tithing helps us expand the kingdom.

We need to return to the scriptures and begin to read them for ourselves. If a man of God tells you something, ask him to show you where it is in the scriptures.

If your pastor refuses, he has an axe to grind, and there is something he wants to hide. If he gets angry, he wants to deceive you without you having the opportunity to escape the deception.

PT: In 2014, you were involved in a messy controversy, one that indicted you for murder, and it was reported that you were arrested.

Fireman: That story is funny. I drove to the State Criminal Investigative Department, Panti, to ask them where the story originated.

How can the person who is driving be arrested? When that story came out, I was in Louisiana, US, ministering in a church, and they asked me if I had heard that I had been arrested in Nigeria that same day that I was in Louisiana. I said that this was wonderful. Why? Because the same me who they claimed to have been arrested was in Louisiana at the same time.

Also, an associated press interviewed me in the US, asking me to explain the situation because it was reported that I was arrested in Nigeria while I was in the US preaching. How can I be in Louisiana when I am detained in Nigeria?

PT: Were you vindicated?

Fireman: When I returned from the US, I obtained a certificate of innocence from The Directorate for Public Prosecution, DPP. But I have not responded to the press on the allegation over the years.

PT: Why have you yet to respond to the press?

Fireman: All this while, I would have answered the press, but I said I would when I was ready. But right now, I am prepared if you want to attack me. I have read the Bible more than 200 times, and on average, I read 11 books a day on any topic. I have done that for more than 20 years, so until I got to this point, I didn’t want to come out.

PT: What makes you think you are ready now?

Fireman: Although I was working on performing miracles then, I was not satisfied. If I go to a crusade and preach to 1,000 people and only two people are healed, 998 go home the same, I would not be happy. So I told God I needed to know how to solve everybody’s problems, and if I couldn’t, let it be that time was limiting the people I would be attending to.

PT: Because of your strong views about their teachings, do you manage or relate to fellow pastors?

Fireman: I don’t try to manage them. God didn’t call me to be their manager; he just called me to fulfil my work. Many people know the truth, but the ministry is like a cartel. Some run it as a cartel, while some run it just for profit. So, to hell with how the people feel.

PT: Does this mean most of your colleagues are misleading their flocks?

Fireman: No man of God who has been in ministry for up to six months or one year will say that he doesn’t know that much of what is taught in churches is a lie.

For example, there is this popular theology of ‘Believe it, confess it, and claim it.’ That is a lie, but it is a popular teaching in Christendom.

How many things have you claimed that refused to come to pass? These are lies, and the pastors know, but because it sounds sensational. It can move the audience’s emotions, so they tell you something spectacular that can move your emotions. Before you know it, maybe your money is gone, time has gone, and you have not seen anything close to what you believed.

Most ministers already know that what they do is false. When you tell someone who is perhaps looking for a breakthrough to fast, and the person fasts, and nothing happens, as a pastor, you should know that what you told the person was the wrong key, yet you maintained it. That is deception.

How many people did Jesus tell all those things? We need Christianity by precision, and how that can happen is when we take children off the pulpit.

PT: So, are there children on the pulpit?

Fireman: The Bible explicitly states this in Isaiah chapter 3, verses 1 to 5: When children rule, people are oppressed.

You would see someone who can speak in tongues because he can shout in tongues; he believes he is qualified to be a GO (General Over).

The oppression among believers in the body of Christ is directly proportionate to the immaturity of the ministers.

PT: You married in 2013, but unlike many of your colleagues, your wife is inactive in your ministry life. Why?

Fireman: A warrior must know that he alone is the warrior and is trained for warfare, that your wife and kids are not trained for combat.

I know that when I go out and say these things, if I teach doctrines that a significant man of God has used to run a series on television that shakes him up if he is not a spiritual person, he may look for a way to get back at me, either by embracing me or trying to call the media on me or tell some lies or blackmail.

So, as a warrior, I can take it, but can my wife and kids take it? Would they be able to go to school or market without unnecessary harassment? Therefore, I want to remain the warrior and let my wife stay a wife and the kids remain kids.

I don’t have to put them out there and expose them to battles they are not trained for. I have prepared for this thing I am doing since I was a kid, but they haven’t. I protect my family by not putting them on the war front.

PT: If you emerge as a global General Overseer like the others, are you saying your wife will not be ‘Mummy GO’, too?

Fireman: Mummy GO is for those who are into pastoring, and since I am not, we will not need a ‘Mummy GO’.

This is why when you look at many men of God, they are doing well, but the members of their families are suffering. A lot of bad things happen to the family members.

This is because family members are exposed to things they are not called to handle or graced for. If the person I graced is okay, leave them out of church because you will find disgrace when you bring someone into a place they are not graced to be.

Even though most pastors and their wives are assistant pastors, I don’t believe their wives should be pastors because pastoring is a call, not a marital position.

PT: You said you no longer pastor a church; what happened to your church, the Perfect Christianity Mission at Surulere?

Fireman: God told me to forget about pastoring and face crusades and be a blessing to the body of Christ.

The only thing I do is that I want people to enter the kingdom of God by conversion. Then, the pastors can church them. God has told me that is not what he has called me to do. Then, I solve the problems of people inside the churches.

PT: You are famous for performing miracles; what would you say is the source of your power?

Fireman: I was called when I was three years old. I was born again when I was five and started preaching when I was seven. I am the fourth generation of a missionary family. My great-grandmother worked with Mary Slessor.

One of the things Jesus told me was that different gifts will work in your life. One is that no miracles shall be impossible. Another is that when you meet anybody, whether you have met the person before or not, once you look at them on the spot, you will begin to have visions about them, whether you have met them before or not.

Papa Adeboye has church planting, Papa Olukoya has prayer, Papa Oyedepo has teaching and faith, and Papa Kumuyi has holiness. Myself I asked God for my own.

READ ALSO: A Sunday with controversial preacher, Dr. Fireman

I told God, Let me do Church planting, God said I have given it to Papa Adeboye, I said let me do prayer, God said I have given it to Papa Olukoya, I said okay, let me preach holiness; God said, papa Kumuyi has taken that one already, and I said let me teach people faith, he said he has given that one to Papa Oyedepo, so I told God which one is my own. And God said Miracles only.

PT: does that mean you do not preach and teach?

Fireman: I teach, I do all that, but my primary assignment and call is to take the final move of God to the ends of the earth, but by ministering miracles, and this is evident in the miracles we witness in our miracles all through the world.

Jesus told me that only two things can make my gifts fail. Number one is if I am hungry, but Jesus told me I do not need to fast to be used. Number two is if I am tired, my gift will grow weak. So when I am exhausted, I stop.