Many say he is flamboyant, while others see him as a philanthropist; whatever, Bishop (Dr) Tom Samson is like an elephant, you describe him depending on the side you are able to see. Nevertheless, he is the General Overseer of Christ Royal Family International Churches, Royal College of Education, among others. He spoke on Reigning in Life Conference titled ‘It’s War’, which held on July 4, among other national issues.
A conference titled ‘it’s war’ was held recently. What was the reason behind this conference?
Yes, the question has come up over and over, why war? Everybody is looking for peace? 2004, I have been having a conference in Lagos titled Reigning in Life Conference, it started since 2001. 2004 God began to minister to me, He said my son, I want you to go out there, and launch attach against demonic attacks. That many of my children thy have been crying to me and it is as if I am not answering them. And the Lord told me the case of Daniel, He said when Daniel was crying to me, I sent my angel to give me his report, to give him his desire, but the Prince of Persia, the Lord said there are many demonic powers, certain household wickedness, frustrating my mandate in people’s lives, again the Lord told me, that I promised Moses 400 years to bring his children from captivity, but they never come out until 430 years, there are demonic powers that caused that 30 years delay.
The Lord said there are certain persons that are supposed to be landlords but they are still tenants, not because they are not hard-working, you can buy land and somebody will take it from you. You can give money to a mason to build, he can run away with it, but there are certain misfortunes in life, that makes people look as if they don’t know what they are doing in life. The lord said launch attack against bad luck, promise and fail, household wickedness, demonic power.
Okay, lord how do I go about this? The lord said separate one section out of Reign in Life Conference, and let everybody have the consciousness of war, it is spiritual warfare. Now, how do I start off? I need to make an impression on this. And while I was pondering, thinking on how to go about this, for God to give me this assignment, I need to take it seriously. I said okay, it has to look military, because many times what people see, they can easily relate to what they see. I am gonna put on camouflage so that you would know that, yes, this is war. And 2004 in Lagos for the first time, I put on camouflage, I made it very dramatic, I tumbled, I jumped, create fire brimstone, it got Lagos, that is what I wanted.
Everybody was concerned, what is this man of God doing? Who is he fighting? Even military, at Lagos Airport Hotel we are fierce-looking military men, SS men, welcome to the auditorium, what is this man up to, it was a slogan all over Lagos, everywhere all over Lagos it is war, it caught the whole Lagos, what is this it is war? People came, then they discovered that it was a spiritual war, the lord honoured it, in that first meeting, the crowd was excessive, the anointing was amazing, there was massive deliverance, people were vomiting, things happened, everybody that saw it was afraid, you could see the power of God.
Do you have any mentor, it is on record that what you are doing now, Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa did the same thing. Do you have any…
You see, I grew up in Benin City I was born In Ile Ife, and as a teenager, I was in Benin and if I must tell you, people ask me, are you among bishop boys? Are you papa son? You resemble bishop, people say I am a bold man, I am confrontational. I saw that in Arch Bishop. You can see a man afar of and swallow him, I swallowed Papa, there are threats in me you can’t doubt, boldness, going for great things, accomplishment, going for big project from nothing, believing I can dare anything, I never seen anything too big to accomplish, and yet from low background, you could see another spirit of Arch in me.
Is there any other men of God in Nigeria today you are seeing as a mentor?
Oh Baba Oyedepo is another, any time I am with him we spend nothing less than three hours. Because God uses me a lot in the area of education, as of today we have 15 schools, nursery primary, secondary, college of education, we are running a university programme, Monarch University, that we are now going through the approval process, he moved to Canaanland, me too I built a city there, Royal City in Ota, I am building one university, he has built three, so those are the people that can give you encouragement. If you are looking for a mentor look for people who have excelled in the area of your dreams.
Any new thing you are bringing to the table in this year’s ‘It’s war’?
Yea, this year’ it’s war is gonna be more dynamic, because the lord is telling me it is going to be totally encompassing, that we have to really go to visit foundations, God is telling me that this period I should tell the people that the vision that they dropped, things that did not work, he will make it t rise again. The Lord said to me that the people that are coming, they are tired, but let them know, I will tell God lord I have obeyed you, move in now, you will see the power of God moving in a different dimension. I give you few days people gonna come back with their testimonies
The situation in the country; to some extent; people feel that the government has a hand in certain things, especially on the issue of Islamization and Fulanisation. What is your take?
Well, government has denied that several times, let us take them by their word, even our VP, a Christian, has said there is nothing like that, let us take them by their word, but certain events have unfolded, position, ranking, the way positions are shared, how Christians are removed from a place and replaced by Fulanis. There is a quota system in this country, where you have to share things equally, you have to appreciate there are Igbos, Yoruba, Hausas, Fulanis, there have to be fair deals. The President has explained he is putting people in trust, My appeal to the government, let there be fair share, we don’t need this suspicion, there has been much outcry, and we need a government that can listen to the cries of the people. The Igbo people should be remembered, civil war has been fought so many years back, let there be fair share, let everybody has a part in the nation, the sharing of positions is lopsided, people feel they are not well represented, you say they have legislators but the executive commands the power. Major decisions are taken at the executive level. So my appeal is that the government should ensure fair share so that everybody would have a sense of belonging in this country.
More than a month after the inauguration, no ministers, do have something to say?
Well it is better he takes his time than to rush, let me tell you one thing, there are a lot of politicians everybody is fighting for this, if he doesn’t take his time, like he said the people he is going to bring this time around, are people that gonna function very well. It is better late than never, we need help in this country, we need people that can move us to the next level, just as the slogan of the government, next level.
Your advice concerning other pastors, bishops, towards humanity
Talking about helping humanity, you have to look at their strength, there are many of my colleagues that are struggling even to keep up with the daily budgets of their ministries, you see many people I attended to, but many came for help. There is somebody I have told the pastor to go and see where they are living; they said there is no bed.
You see people have a misgiving, you attend service today if you look at it some have been given out, because they don’t know their legislators, they don’t know their senators, even the school we have, many are on scholarship, there are even some pastors who cannot pay their own rent, this thing has a reverberating effect, the economy is affecting people in the church.
There is reasoning that the standard of education is falling, what do you do to ensure standard in all your schools?
You see that is why I built a college of education, knowing that I am into education, and when we applied for permission to build a college of education, they appealed to me to make sure that as a man of God, we bring morals, and I gave them my word.
People say things are expensive teachers also want big money, they go to the same market doctors go to, the same market politicians go to, the days of giving teachers poor salaries are over. In my school I make sure you follow the syllable, whatever that is there; we have people that go round like inspectors, to make sure that standards are followed.
What do you think the government can do at both federal and state levels?
They need to invest more, money is the key. Sometime to build laboratory alone I spent 7m, 10m. In education you need to upgrade, do you know there is money government supposed to pay to us, we that are private owners, we are fighting for that, because education is expensive. If I tell you what I pay every month, I have over 600 staff, if not that I genuinely, I cannot fold up, because education is part of my services to the community. Government needs to increase their budget on education. They should extend the largess to private practitioners as well
