Matthew Ashimolowo, Founder and Senior Pastor of London-based Kingsway International Christian Church (KICC), is an individual who has operated successfully in two worlds: in the spiritual world where he has created a vibrant and dynamic church with television network in over 200 countries. And, in the business world, he has built a couple of first-class business entities while he owns choice properties in prime places around the world. He recently got a licence to establish and operate a University. In this interview with Ayo Arowolo, which he granted in his residence in Nigeria, Ashimolowo gave insight on his interesting ‘worlds’ where he says everything is possible to those who believe and pay the necessary price. Excerpts:
Who is Matthew Ashimolowo?
I guess someone else has to do that. Anyway if you are asking to know when I was born, where I am from, then, I can tell you that I was born 63 years ago in Zaria (in Kaduna State of Nigeria). Zaria was an army depot where my father served as a soldier. I spent the first 14 years of my life in Northern Nigeria, and only came back when the pogrom was going on in the 1960s. There were a lot of killings: the Igbo brothers were being killed and some people who felt uncomfortable about that called on the Yoruba soldiers to return home. So, that was how I found myself in the Western Nigeria, again. We came to Mokola Army Barracks in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in December 1966.
Apart from that, I gave myself to Christ; and in 1973 I felt the call of God. In 1974 I went to a Bible school and joined the international arm of the Foursquare Gospel Church. I served in the Shomolu (in Lagos) Parish of the Church for 10 years. When some students that travelled to England started fellowship there, I was sent to England to pioneer the first Foursquare Gospel Church in the place. I served in England for eight years before I felt led by the Holy Spirit to start something fresh and different. That is how KICC (Kingsway International Christian Centre) started.
Looking at the level of prejudice in the United Kingdom, how were you able to start something of that magnitude and still succeed? Didn’t you think remaining in an already established place would have served you better? How were you able to overcome this obvious challenge?
There is a spiritual angle to this, I felt led to start something fresh and new, and the first thing I did was to recognise that visions are as distinct as we have over 7.5 billion people on earth, our visions define who we are. It doesn’t have to be like the other person’s own; it doesn’t have to look like what you already have. It is as distinct as we are from the rest of others. When I was starting out, I needed to find my own niche, my own peculiarities, my own uniqueness.
What I did as soon as I got to the United Kingdom was to enroll for a degree programme in The Sociology of the English People, although I did not finish the degree programme. I left as soon as I got what I wanted from the course. What happens to people who come from elsewhere into the United Kingdom is that they come with the mindset of where they are coming from, the culture, the attitude and their perceptions. So, when the English people refuse to accept what they are offering, they start complaining, that they don’t even understand the English people. The issue is that every set of people have a way of doing their own things; it may not look like your own but it works for them. For instance, the English people have a way of raising their own children. They may not beat them but their children also grow up responsible, at least on a greater scale.
When we started KICC, people saw the ambience of the place, the settings, the quality of our infrastructure and presentations, they could not believe that was coming from a Nigerian, a Blackman! So, I realised that quality sells, that people identify with quality and that quality breeds and generates quantity. That is, excellence rewards. So, we excelled because of the quality of work we put into our endeavour and the grace of God.
But what people do is to blame the ordeals on one witch out there who doesn’t know them. They blame Satan as if he is omniscient. He is not everywhere at a time, although he has demons that are scattered all over the place but he isn’t everywhere.
It became clear to me that when you pursue a vision and pay the price that it requires, success is guaranteed. Quality and excellence attract the best and atmosphere of quality will attract quantity. It became clear to me that people are attracted to quality and excellence. When you find your vision and pay the required price, you must stay with it till it breaks through and it is realised. So that’s how we come to where we are. The right application of knowledge, the right and careful application of the truth guarantees a man to make progress in life.
Those who have listened to your teachings series on THE JOURNEY say it is unique. How did you come about that series? What informed it?
The Bible talks about doing things line upon line, precepts upon precepts. So, we thought about building, the building blocks of people line upon line, step by step. In the pedagogy of teaching science, it is established that when you want to teach a man something, you start from the known to the unknown. For instance, when you want to teach abstract physics, you say, when you throw a stone up, it comes down because there is a force of nature, a magnetic field that pulls things down.
What I do is to concentrate on topics and exhaust them fully. I do serial teachings. They can take five years; the journey of life never ends, the teachings took five years, and when they finished, I went on to The Road to Success, which took me four years, now what I am teaching is The Road to Unlimited Success. Now, I am teaching on How to Have A Great Day - some people don’t know how to have a great day. When you have a great day, you have a great week and then a great month and a great year and so on, that’s it. Many people don’t know how to manage a day, not to talk of a year and they wonder why their lives are such a failure. They blame witches in their villages, and so on. They blame the Devil; the way people talk about the Devil, they make him look omniscient, omnipresent, but the Devil isn’t omnipresent. The failure of many people has absolutely nothing to do with him. They brought it upon themselves.
You were not schooled in Britain or the USA, yet you were able to bring to bear concepts that are intellectually-driven and universally acceptable. How were you able to do that?
First thing I did in 1984 when I went to Britain was that in 1986 I enrolled for a degree course in The Sociology of Britain, I wanted to understand the nation in order to make impact. I have seen people come to England to make a difference, they don’t understand the mindset and culture of the English people. So, for 31 years they are still trying to superimpose the Nigerian culture, mindset, and way of doing things on the British people and when such are not working , they start blaming the Devil. They don’t understand that to get to a people, you need to know and understand their thinking, way of life and culture. There is what is called in pedagogy, the principles of teaching, the laws of teaching, which state that to teach a man something you have to start from the known to the unknown. To influence a people you have to understand their culture, concepts, their perspectives of life, tradition, etc. To influence a man you have to first understand him, otherwise they get angry when these British people do not respond positively to them.
To influence a man you have to first be relevant. Second, you have to understand him; that is, the anthropological setting of a man. What makes the Yoruba man civilised or advanced would be quite different from those of the British people. Their proverbs, ways of life, among others, are adequate for them.
I learnt by observing and by reading; I gave myself to studying, it isn’t only structured universities or polytechnics that are meant for learning or acquiring specialised knowledge or skills. I read two books a week, that’s eight books a month and 96 a year. In fact, in order to read two books a week, I had to take a course on speed reading on how to read a book in two hours and retain 90 per cent, because we were taught the wrong way to read.
Could you expatiate on that concept of having a great day, because it sounds interesting?
You want to have the message before my members (laughs). Well, if you can’t manage a day you can’t manage the entire life. To manage the entire life, you have to learn to manage a day greatly. There are 10 things you must do to have a great day to make a great life. There are number one, preparation, inspiration, you must be excited about the course of the day. Two, pray, plan and set the day before you and be excited about it believing it will be great. Three is organisation. You must be organised, your day must be organised, you must have the things you want to achieve the entire day planned and worked through. Four is delegation. There must be things as you get to a point in life you must delegate, to let you concentrate on the bigger issues. Do not do something you can delegate, let someone else do that thing even if he can make a little money off it. Five is elimination. Let off all distractions, not all phone calls are worth picking, not all emails are worth reading. The Internet is a big distraction as well as the biggest blessing so far. You must learn how to use it and not let it distract you. The sixth point is impartation. Always read someone’s writings, read someone’s ideas, someone’s books, always learn, stimulate yourself with someone’s writings. The number seven is cultivation, there are vision statements, I call them my statement of values; my financial values, my soul-winning values, my social values, moral values, and so on. I have a vision to travel round the world and enjoy myself not because I am a preacher, just to increase my perspective and increase my capacity. Number eight of the things to do to have a great day is information; you need to get all the information you can, along the line of the endeavours you are engaged in and more. Number nine is meditation. The Bible says we should meditate daily; you have to ponder on all that lies ahead of you and the ones you are engaged with. Number ten is celebration. You must learn to celebrate your daily achievements, even if what you were able to achieve in the day was just a fraction of what you had laid out. You have to celebrate it, even if it’s just with a bottle of Coca-Cola or anything. What happens when you do that is that your mind rejoices and gets ready and excited for the next day looking out for what to accomplish.
How do you spend a typical day?
My typical day, if I am in England, is boring. However, in Lagos, it’s exciting. What I do in a typical day is, when I wake up have my devotion and pray; I then go on to do my writing; there are two types of writings I do: One is on emergency; the next is on the continuous journey of life. In each day, there must be something you are doing to add up to the big picture of life. Life doesn’t just happen at once, in a bang; it happens in sequences of little contributions towards the big goal.
I plan the day, then walk down to where I play golf and exercise my body and mind, then come back and read the materials I have to read, and go and discuss with my staff, my people and give them new ideas. You see, when a vision is not followed through with motivation it turns into a movement, and if a movement loses its excitement, it becomes a monument and when a monument loses its fire, it becomes a museum. The first time I was in Holland, they took me to a museum of seventeenth century churches. What you have there now are mere great architecture and no churches, because they lost their fire. So it’s now a museum and no longer churches.
I eat between 6.00 and 6.30p.m daily. It has helped me keep my weight and my health; I am in shape and I look younger than my age. Some people say you have to take breakfast because it is very important, but eating once has helped me and it works for me.
Would you isolate a few books that you have read that you would say have inspired you?
The books that I read now and even the ones that I write are majorly about sixty per cent secular: Books on leadership, on finance, management, and so on. My library has about 50,000 books. I have books, and I read books. Every time I step into any airport, I buy between $400 and $500 worth of books.
Tell us about the ones that have made the greatest impact on you.
The books that have made the most impact on me are firstly the ones I encountered when I stepped out of the denomination to which I belonged. It was on Vision, the title was The Power of Vision by George Barma. He is an American Christian researcher. His books changed my life; they altered everything I had ever known. I was raised in a structured way by the people that attended the same school with me, but Barma altered everything. He said your vision is your fingerprint, your identity, the reason you live and why you don’t have to be stereotype, that you express yourself through your vision.
Mike Murdock is another person; his books have impacted me greatly. He writes books majorly on wisdom. He taught me how to write a book without writing. That’s why I have written 98 books; that’s why if you look in my briefcase you will see different types of tape recorders, various types of digital phones. He wrote a book on The Pursuit of Wisdom and many more. All his books are wonderful. He taught me to write through dictating into your recorders and when you are set, you just write or give it to a secretary or editor to pencil it down for you. This is because your brain works faster than you can write. So if you write first, you are likely going to miss on a lot of ideas flushing from your brain.
And of course, if I might reverse, the greatest impact on me has been from the books of the Bible. That’s the greatest of all books and it has made the most impact on my life. The next person whose books have made great impact on me is Jay Abraham, of course, in the world of business. His books are so expensive, but a single concept from there can change your entire life. Donald Trump is another man; his books have made tremendous impact on my life. When I read Trump’s books I stop to think and meditate. Another man is John Maxwell; he has influenced me so much that these days I concentrate on Leadership.
My latest book is on leadership, it’s entitled, Irrepressible Leadership – Thirty-five marks of irrepressible leadership, these are the 35 marks that make world-changing leaders. It is purely a secular book with great impact and value. We are currently looking for how to distribute it in the Nigerian market.
Now let’s zero in on finance. If you mention Matthew Ashimolowo you think of wealth building and development. What is your definition of wealth and how can one create wealth, having written “The three M’s of money” and more.
Let’s start with the Hebrew word for wealth, which is interpreted to mean empowerment, endowment, enablement, endued. What happened is that when you receive Christ you receive all these blessings and they only wait for expression or manifestation. The day you receive Christ you carry these blessings. However, the church you go to, the ministration you sit under determines if these blessings will find fulfillment in your life. Some people go to churches where they are taught they don’t need these blessings, some work on cursed ground, others work with cursed hands. The environment where you are operating is important to the blessings manifesting in your life.
As a Christian we are blessed for the following reasons: to be a blessing to our generation, to make a difference in our family and to be a major sponsor of the gospel. We are blessed so that we can make a difference in our world, we get wealth so that we can touch our world, you can do much more when you are wealthy than you can do when you are broke. As Christians, we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. So we are blessed to make a difference in our world and to touch lives with our blessings as well as to propagate the gospel with our wealth.
What you denigrate would never come to you, what you celebrate will naturally flow to you. The first thing is if you want wealth, do not talk down on it. Celebrate it and as you follow the principles of building wealth, it will naturally flow to you.
When you receive Christ, you receive the blessing; you are only waiting for the manifestation. Manifestation is not a blessing. However, many people have had their seeds die because they sit under the teaching that says they don’t need the blessings, they only need to live righteously and die and make heaven. You need the right atmosphere, the right teaching and without working in cursed land and cursed hands for these blessings to manifest in your life.
So if you do not know these, the blessings would not manifest in your life. You can do more to humanity being blessed than you can ever do being broke. If the Bible says the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, it does then, imply that the riches of the earth belongs to us, for whatever belongs to my father belongs to me. If the earth is my father’s, then, it’s mine too. So, I should be blessed immensely.
Whatever you celebrate gets attracted to you and whatever you denigrate gets repealed from you. Money is called currency because it flows to where it is celebrated, to wherever it is respected and showed it is needed and can be handled well.
To attract money you must show passion to get it, passion to multiply it and passion to use it to bless and help others. This can be done in two ways, using your gifts or through a business. Among these, the best has been entrepreneurship; it has been proven that if you want to do something great for the Kingdom of God, you must be an entrepreneur. Salaries can never make you rich, for instance, there is nobody in Nigeria that is paid a million dollars, not even the bank CEOs. Nobody!
So, if you must be rich you must set out to create something to create wealth, that’s being an entrepreneur. The Bible says we are created to be co-creators with Him and that’s being an entrepreneur. Then, entrepreneurship could mean buying and selling, it could mean selling service, an intellectual property marketing, manufacturing, entertainment, and so on. No matter how much and what kind of job a person does, if he is an employee, the salary is fixed, and therefore, he can’t create wealth. There is a limit to what he can earn. Consequently, there is a limit to what he can give to humanity and the Kingdom to be a blessing.
But there are some people who are not that educated, or not even educated at all, who are into some form of business or service rendering, like being a builder. And if this person has about 10 houses he is developing at once and makes say five million naira on each building, that’s 50 million naira and no matter the value of naira, in five months, that man has made a million dollars. And this is a man that’s not educated but by the act of utilising his area of strength, he has created much more money than all the people with salaries in the country. That’s entrepreneurship for you! By this, this man can do much more good than most people because he has engaged his strength in creating wealth.
Anything that causes you to profit is entrepreneurship. You know the Bible talks about that. He (God) is the one that causes us to profit, that’s talking about wealth creation and there’s no better way to create wealth than through entrepreneurship.
Anything that helps you create wealth in order to establish His (God) covenant is the most-tested and enduring method of building and preserving wealth - that’s entrepreneurship.
Most people don’t know that preaching the gospel costs money. KICC London version on T.V. costs N50 million, while KICC Maryland, Lagos, costs another N50 million, and that is on Channels T.V. alone. We are on television in 214 countries. We also run our channel, we have a 24-hour channel, the KICC Television. It runs on the Mytv cable network. This things cost a lot; they cost money.
Is it correct to say that you are very comfortable? How wealthy is Matthew Ashimolowo?
Anything God blesses me with I pass on to others to be a blessing. There is nowhere I keep so much money at once than to be a blessing to mankind, to people as I get blessed by God. Anything God blesses me with I just use to bless others. I don’t stack it somewhere. I just gave out my Hummer Jeep recently, to a man of God who is in the heat of Boko Haram insurgency. In what other way can we empathise with people like this, than just to spot them and bless them? So, God laid it upon my heart to bless him with the car and I did. He has been at the heart and heat of this insurgency. He deserved to be blessed and I did.
In the last three years I have donated 24 cars to people. Some of them are people who have been praying to God to be blessed and God laid it in my heart to be a blessing to them and I gave them out to these sorts of people.
The principle of wealth creation is universal. It has no respect for anybody; if an unbeliever practises it, it works and if a Christian doesn’t practice it, he remains broke. There are so many Christians who are broke, whereas some unbelievers are being blessed with these same principles. In the United Kingdom, some organisations are using these same principles to prosper and grow tremendously. Organisations like Marks and Spencer, every year give out a large chunk of their earnings as charity and it works for them even without knowing that they are practising biblical principles. The business world calls it CSR (corporate social responsibility) but this is a fancy way to call this biblical principle.
But some people even churches are helping people break the very principle of wealth creation. Somewhere around Ikeja (in Lagos) there is a church although I won’t mention its name. It has programmes every day and I ask of the time their people will go out to create wealth needed to propagate the gospel and bless humanity. They are helping them to break the first principle of wealth creation which is industry or being industrious. Another principle is branding, mentorship, and so on. I remember being on first class (flight) with Aliko Dangote sometime ago. This man was the last to go to sleep, every time I woke up to go to toilet; he was still studying his notes. He never went to sleep, that was when he was valued at about five to seven billion dollars and I was saying if I had just a billion dollars, I ain’t studying anything. But you see a man that was disciplined and hard working, he didn’t attend any formal school but he has tutored himself to learn the very things that matter. That encounter taught me a lot about the man. I don’t know him much, but that encounter taught me a lot about his person. If I were any of these young Nigerians and I have a chance of meeting with Dangote, Tony Elumelu or Femi Otedola, I will ask if I could carry their bags for three years without getting paid, so that I can learn their habits, work ethics, or patterns that have brought them to where they are, so that I can replicate them. But you see what most young people will ask for if they meet such men would be that they give them money.
Some people believe that you are expensive, that you don’t come cheap when you are invited to preach or teach anywhere. Why do you charge so much?
That’s not true. I have been in ministry now for close to 40 years and never have I charged to preach. Never! So it’s not true that I am expensive nor do I charge anything at all. What I required of them was that ‘when you invite me, you take care of my fares, pay for my hotel accommodation and provide even if it’s water.’ They are the ones that invited me, I didn’t invite myself. So, why would I pay my own fares to the place and pay for my hotel accommodation? I was on my own when they invited me. Is it too much to ask that they pay for my air ticket and for the hotel accommodation?
Even in our church, we constantly invite people to teach and preach to our people. It is healthy that way because if you are not getting people from outside to also teach in your network, you might not be checking your contents unknowingly and could be getting into compromising doctrines. So getting other people to also preach in your church is a way to keep healthy your doctrine and teaching contents. We also extend that to our television channel, the KICC Channel on Mytv. People have said that’s why they watch our channel; other pastors preach there, too. It’s not just myself or other pastors in KICC that preach there; Paula White, Mike Murdock, Rev. T. D. Jakes preach there also. We do this because these people have also come to preach in our church and we have established a relationship. We went beyond being a visiting speaker to forming a relationship, because we all value one another. But some people just want to keep using you. Some organisations just have the same set of internal preachers from their church preach year in, year out. That’s neither healthy nor right. There is no benchmarking nor standardisation of their doctrine and contents.
What’s your impression of the state of the Nigerian nation and the political scene in particular?
Till date we have only raised tribal chiefs and not national leaders. Those that came up to leadership position in Nigeria, quickly surround themselves with people from their own side of the geographical location of the country and sideline all others no matter how good they are. Even when the constitution of the country forces them to appoint others into their government, they get them into insignificant positions and agencies and ministries.
National leaders should be concerned with merit; they are concerned with making changes, positive changes that impact life and bring development to the nation and improve on the quality of life and state of infrastructure. They make positive impacts in the nation.
National leaders are futuristic in their pursuit. We have not had any national leader in Nigeria. We have not had any leader come to establish a 25-year development plan and take us through it. National leaders are enforcers of change, they are problem solvers, they are people that citizens can trust in their social contract that they will deliver and not betray them. In Nigeria now, people do not and cannot trust any leader nor their words because they had their fingers burnt in the past.
The people in authority have run down the states and the states are now heavily indebted to the tune of hundreds of billions of Naira. Unfortunately none have been reprimanded in any form. There is no governor who has been jailed by the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission). None! In fact, what happens is that they get promoted to the Senate. In other climes, in the United Kingdom, when you run down any business, you can’t be on any board for three to five years. But here what they have run down is not just any business but a whole state government, and for that they get promoted? No governor has ever gone to jail in Nigeria not even for all their atrocities. Governors who have run their states into bankruptcy are not punished but promoted to the Senate and then they get there, they ask for unbelievable salaries. It’s unbelievable!
National leaders are futuristic in their pursuit, they are enforcers of change, they are problem solvers. In my book I mentioned some, Margret Thatcher, I mentioned the builder of Dubai and Governor Babatunde Fashola; we have so many of them. It doesn’t mean we lack them because of all that have been going on in Nigeria. We have pockets of good leaders here and there. All we need to do is to have the will and strength to go for them and fish them out to come and serve.
What Nigeria need are total restructuring and concentration on certain key elements of development to jumpstart development and the culture of excellence and we would be on the right track to development and growth. Boko Haram is not fighting because of economic reasons, although some northern leaders would want us to believe that it is a hydra-headed menace.
Nigeria needs a national emergency and concentration in five key areas; one is Electricity, two is Economy and then Environment, which includes agriculture, the fourth would be in creation of an environment that Entrepreneurship would thrive; then fifth would be Education. Nigeria needs a marshal plan in these areas for 25 unbroken years. A marshal plan is what Nigeria needs in all these areas, by also creating a marshal plan in road construction. Get half a million youths together and assemble our engineers and get them to repair the roads on a regular basis. We have the NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) scheme, what we need do is to get these people to work on road repairs and maintenance on a regular basis with our engineers superintending.
Next is for us to create a marshal plan on the automobile industry, to make our cars and not just assembling knocked down parts or importing ready made cars. What we would do is to fly to the GM Motors or Ford Motors and get them to bring down their plants here and make cars for us not getting in knocked down cars for assembling. We make the engines in Nnewi, the tyres in South West, and so on. We make everything here and get our people to work and produce these things and learn modern technical skills. If you do not want Ford Motors because you don’t want to deal with America, you get KIA motors or even Peugeot.
You have just acquired licence to operate a university. Could you tell us about that? What is your university bringing in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria?
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has just granted us a licence to operate our university. We have it in Osun State, in a sleepy town called Odeomu. It’s a place good for learning. Our university is established and would be known for three things: ILE – meaning Information system and management, Leadership and Entrepreneurship.
The Nigerian youths need a place to learn potential information system management. In our university, there would be no handouts, everything would be online. Even when a lecturer writes handout it will be uploaded online for every student to access. In the classrooms, there would be cameras everywhere to record lessons as they are delivered and uploaded online for those that missed it to catch up on it.
The second one is Leadership. This is a big challenge in Africa. There are some leaders in Africa who have been heads of state for over 35 years, and they are still there and not giving up. Their nations are misgoverned and not developed, the standard of living is so low, yet they stay there and wouldn’t bulge. That’s why we thought it would be good to lend a hand in leadership education and training in Nigeria and Africa, because it is highly needed here.
The third one is Entrepreneurship, before the advent of colonialism, our forbears were first and foremost businessmen. The hunter went out to hunt and when he gets any spoils, he comes back to sell them, the same goes for the farmers and the fishermen, and so on. However, the colonial masters came and changed all that. Today, our people are still grappling with that, that’s why there is unemployment majorly. So, we want to change all that, through entrepreneurship education and training.
Before the Whiteman came we never looked for jobs, the only people who looked for jobs were the people who moved from their communities to another, who wanted a place to farm, even that can be made a business, because you can get series of land for farming and it becomes large scale and sustainable.
The young people of these days are the fifth generation of our people who never knew business; the only thing they know is that daddy works there and mummy works in the other place, so they would want to also work in another place. So we want to teach them the act of business and money management.
Where are you going to get the lecturers from?
There are so many of them looking for work that we don’t have to look too far to get all we need. Nigerians are highly talented and trained. Go anywhere; there are so many economies that would shut down if Nigerians pull out of their system. In the State of Texas alone, there are 3,000 Nigerian surgeons. That’s just Texas. If Nigerians should pull out of that system, they will shut down their medical system. Nigerians are good, talented and trained. So, we would seek them out and hire them.
When are you starting off the university?
We are starting off in January 2016. We have just acquired a licence and don’t want to struggle with already established universities for students. We already have the campus all fixed up and ready for resumption with 32 apartments for the lecturers. Although with that, many of them would be coming from the cities, such as Lagos and Ibadan. We would run a system where the industry is in synergy with the academia, in that we bring in the relevant industry practitioners to prepare the students according to the industry requirements. So, we would be getting in a lot of the industry practitioners and professionals to also teach our students. And we would be developing and building infrastructure as we go forward.
In several universities outside the country, what you notice is that a lot of their teaching staff are from the industries. What model of teaching structures is your university going to adopt? Would you be getting in people from the industry and other places to join your teaching staff?
In fact, a lot of our teaching staff would be guest lecturers, the reason being that where the university is sited in still a sleepy town with no accommodation except the 32 residences we have built presently. So, two-thirds of the lecturers would be visiting lecturers.
You would notice that a lot of the students our universities are churning out these days lack industry relevance and skills needed to operate in the market immediately. What they learnt in the university is not in harmony with what the industry requires. How do you intend to resolve this challenge?
Our university would operate a structure where we mix industry skills and contemporary knowledge with academic learning, and that’s why we are getting those guest lecturers from the industries and from the cities to impart the industry knowledge and make the academic curriculum relevant to what is needed out there.
Wouldn’t your colleagues question why you are pastoring and doing business and other things as well?
I used to think like that as well. In 1974, I was in the bible school; in 1976 I started pastoring, and in 1979, I traveled out for the first time. I bought BTA, basic travel allowance, and on returning I bought a musical instrument for N500 and sold it for N1200 in Nigeria. And, with that I built my first house. At that time my salary was N100, whereas I started with a salary of N50 when I joined ministry. People would say N50 was a whole lot then, but it wasn’t. My wife used to get that amount from her father as pocket money while she was in secondary school back then. So, I began to think and realised that from the age of 14 years, I had always sold things and God was telling me that it was my gift to make a difference and be a blessing to my generation.
So it’s okay to be where God has put you and use your strength to be a blessing and touch lives and that’s what we are doing. I have always sold things from the age of 14 years. I have been hawking bread and the mark is still at the centre of my head.
How many of your children are in ministry and how are you integrating your wife into your ministry?
I have two sons and they are both born again and working with us. The first one just joined us two months back and he is handling the project team, while my second son handles the social media. We are huge on social media. I only feel my first son would someday preach, but that’s about it. My wife at first wasn’t interested in coming out to the fore because she was also raised in the denomination. So, she thought she shouldn’t be seen, but with time she has begun to make improvements. Today, she is good and getting better by the day.
What is your opinion on Boko Haram, and how do you think this scourge can be taken care of?
Boko Haram is a religious radicalism; it’s my belief, that it must be handled from that point. The whole Islamic clerics must be made to help de-radicalise these people. They must set out to preach and sit with the young ones from the North and teach them for the purpose of de-radicalisation and that is the only way it can be handled.
The whole section of the country must be given equal attention in terms of development. We cannot afford to be developing the north because today there is Boko Haram, or the Niger Delta because there are militants - the whole nation must be developed evenly to discourage things like these. That’s why the marshal plan is necessary and must be adhered to.
QUOTES FROM ASHIMOLOWO
•Vision: It became clear to me that when you pursue a vision and pay the price that it requires, success is guaranteed.
•Giving: In the last three years, I have donated 24 cars to people. Some of them are people who have been praying to God to be blessed and God laid it in my heart to be a blessing to them and I gave them out to these sorts of people.
• Personal development: The right application of knowledge, the right and careful application of the truth guarantees a man to make progress in life.
•Wealth creation: What you denigrate would never come to you; what you celebrate will naturally flow to you. The first thing is if you want wealth, do not talk down on it, celebrate it and as you follow the principles of building wealth, it will naturally flow to you.
•Books: I read two books a week, that’s eight books a month and 96 a year. In fact, in order to read two books a week, I had to take course on speed reading on how to read a book in two hours and retain 90 per cent, because we were taught the wrong way to read.
•Relationship: I remember being on first class flight with Aliko Dangote sometime ago. This man was the last to go to sleep; every time I woke up to go to toilet, he was still studying his notes. He never went to sleep; that was when he was valued at about five to seven billion dollars.
•Nigeria: Till date we have only raised tribal chiefs and not national leaders. Those that came up to leadership position in Nigeria, quickly surround themselves with people from their own side of the geographical location of the country and sideline all others no matter how good they are.
•Boko Haram is religious radicalism. It’s my belief that it must be handled from that point.
