Last December, the publishers of The Business Eye, a new business journal based in Lagos, were left seething with rage. Materials for the magazine’s last edition for the year, scheduled to hit the newsstands on 17 December, were delivered to their printers, Global Plus, well ahead of time. But less than 12 hours to collection time, one Kayode Olurombi, a representative of Global Plus, phoned to say that the edition would not be printed.
His reason, though unsatisfactory to the publishers, was simple. The edition, explained Olurombi, would not be printed because the cover story, titled In God’s Name plc, was considered offensive to the owner of Global Plus. The angry publishers demanded that their materials be released so they could make an alternative arrangement for printing. That was to no avail, as the printers refused.
What they faced was not a group of heady printing press staff, but the power of a business mogul and owner of the press, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
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Oyakhilome, a flamboyant preacher and founder of the Lagos-based Christ Embassy, was irritated by the magazine’s cover story which he believed attempted to depict his ministry as a corporation in a fierce contest with rivals for a share of the market. The celebrity preacher, though mentioned just once in the story, was sufficiently irked to order a seizure of the magazine’s materials.
The part of the story, later printed in another press, read: “In many cities in Nigeria, factory sites, warehouses and other business concerns are fast giving way to churches...In Lagos, for instance, the contest to buy up available sites, including closed down factories, is even more intense among churches like Chris Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy.” Aside from marking Oyakhilome out as an advocate of press censorship, the incident also advertised him as the owner of a top-tier printing concern. Oyakhilome established Global Plus, located on Ikosi Road in Lagos, over a year ago. It is equipped with a Computer-to-Plate, CTP, machine, a Digital Imaging, DI machine, a Webmaster and a Speedmaster as well as machines for folding, cutting and trimming and saddle binding. The CTP technology is a modern printing technology which eliminates the use of digitally separated photographic films in the printing process. The CTP also allows the direct sending of images created in a Desktop Publishing, DTP, format to be exposed on printing plates.
The Webmaster, which prints between four and five colours, is capable of producing 50,000 copies of a 32-page A-4 size brochure or booklet in an hour. A Global Plus source disclosed that the press will soon take delivery of a few more ultra-modern printing machines and is considering going into the printing of recharge cards. According to this magazine’s findings, business has been slow. Among the few clients it has now is a major news magazine based in Lagos. The bulk of what the press currently handles comes from Christ Embassy, which to the source, is not adequate. While Oyakhilome may not endure a long wait for his printing business to blossom, his interest in the news media may take longer to yield dividends. The preacher, an acutely media-shy person, plunged into news publishing about four years ago via National Standard, a monthly magazine that ran the first and only press interview he has granted locally. A year after setting up the magazine, Oyakhilome established National Daily, a newspaper. Both publications, based in Lagos, remain invisible on newsstands but are kept afloat by the owner’s financial muscle.
Though success has eluded him in the print media, Oyakhilome has breathed life into the television arm of Minaj Broadcasting International, established in the 1990s by Senator Mike Ajeigbo.
For years, the television station was on its knees, as unpaid salaries sent staff on job hunts in other stations and fields. Equipment went bad and, expectedly, transmission occurred fleetingly. The few remaining staff hoped for, rather than expected, a cure to the station’s ailment. Then in 2006, Oyakhilome, said sources, arrived the scene with a huge dose of cash injection. The result has been remarkable. Minaj, once one of the wastelands of the broadcast media, snatched personnel from more illustrious competitors like Channels Television and Silverbird Television. Transmission resumed and has remained vibrant since.
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The preacher’s interests in the print and electronic media are hardly surprising. His image in the media, particularly in print, is less than gleaming. Since he joined the ranks of Nigerian superstar preachers, Oyakhilome has been a favourite subject of scandal-hunting celebrity journals. His interest in television may also not be unconnected with the ban on the broadcast of unverified miracles by the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, in 2004.
Up till then, Oyakhilome’s Atmosphere of Miracles ran seven days a week, on about 20 TV stations. The ban, however, did not stop Oyakhilome from keeping his slots on the air, replacing the ATM with Teaching Programme and LoveWorld. The ATM also continued to run twice a week on Ghana’s Metro TV and throughout the week on LoveWorld Christian Network, a satellite channel owned by Oyakhilome. It also runs on TBN in South Africa. While Minaj remains a work in progress, Oyakhilome’s business nous has been confirmed in other areas. An Architecture graduate of the Ambrose Alli University – formerly Bendel State University – Oyakhilome has built one of the nation’s most virile religious brands from his name, looks and followers’ adulation.
His name moves merchandise in a way similar to how English soccer star, David Beckham’s does. These items include books, video tapes of his crusades and miracles, audio tapes, CDs, VCDs and DVDs of his teachings. All these are sold at Christ Embassy’s satellite churches and other outlets for Christian materials in Nigeria and abroad. They can also be bought on-line, via his ministry’s on-line store. On the store, prices of DVDs range between £12 and £25 in the UK and Ireland, while they cost between N600 and N3,600 in Nigeria. Audio tapes attract between N450 and N1,800 in Nigeria and $15 and $90 in the United States. For books, prices range between N200 and N3,200 locally; and $3.50 and $32 in the US. All are written by Oyakhilome and Anita, his wife, who heads the church’s operations in the United Kingdom and is director of the church’s international operations.
By far, the hottest item on the list of Oyakhilome’s products is Rhapsody of Realities, a bimonthly devotional guide. The book, which is currently published in 46 local and foreign languages, also has a children’s version. For Oyakhilome’s followers around the world, it is a companion to the Bible and an emblem of faith. In Nigeria, it costs N150. Abroad, it is $2. The preacher’s messages are also received on pocket personal computers, mobile phones and palmtops. They could also be downloaded on MP3.
Oyakhilome’s talents as a pastor, speaker and author have been well harnessed to give him, his wife, Anita, and two children a Hollywood lifestyle. On Lagos’ Kudirat Abiola Way, where his church is located, his convoy of gleaming autos is a fixture. He also dresses elegantly like a tycoon.
His immodest means have ensured that his ministry’s growth has been exponential, as evidenced by the sprouting of Christ Embassy satellite churches all over Nigeria and the world.
The headquarters of the church, once a sprawling inelegant structure, is undergoing a make-over and the frontage already resembles the head office of a bank.
A nice looker and electrifying speaker, Oyakhilome’s crowd-pulling capacity is immense, especially among wealthy, middle-aged Nigerians. Average attendance at his services is put at 30,000. Many of his followers travel from far places, some of which already have satellite arms of the church, just to be in his presence.
His open air crusades draw hundreds of thousands. In 2006, he attracted about 500,000 worshippers to his Miracles Ground for an Easter Crusade. The ground, said to be about 3,000 hectares on the Lagos/lbadan Expressway, has since been taken off him. The monstrous turnout at the programme resulted in chaotic vehicular traffic and condemned road users to a wait of 24 hours.
But Oyakhilome, the host, was flown to the venue in a helicopter. His followers did not mind, despite being trapped in the horrendous gridlock.
His name was frenziedly chanted like a superstar’s. Without doubt, he is one. There is yet another certainty: his appearance on the pulpit at crusades provokes delirious acts of howling and frantic waving of arms.
Despite being a regular subject of scandals, his followers continue to increase. The preacher’s teaching of “sowing the seed” draws strict adherence. The teaching enjoins followers to give part of their earnings to the church in offerings and tithes as requirements for divine blessings.
With a church brimming of young company executives and businessmen, every programme yields mega-earnings. Followers without money are implored to ‘sow seeds’ with jewelry, wristwatches and other ornaments in lieu of offering or tithes. Some have been said to give cars, generators, musical equipment and chairs to the church.
Six years ago, Lawrence Agada, an assistant pastor and former cashier with the Lagos Sheraton Hotels and Towers, donated cash and gifts worth N39 million to the church. He bought a 250KVA generator valued at N4.4 million, and another 27KVA generator for NI.5 million and turned them over to a satellite arm of the church.
Earlier, he had provided N6 million for the refurbishment of the branch, N1 million for the purchase of plastic seats for the headquarters and contributed another N1million to Oyakhilome’s crusade tagged Night Of Bliss.
Agada also gave N400,000 to his pastor, who needed money for a trip to Australia.
Chuffed that Agada had obeyed the teaching on seed sowing, Oyakhilome wrote to commend the cheerful giver. “May God, who gives seed to the sower and bread for eating, multiply your seeds in Jesus name,” wrote the preacher.
But Jesus did not multiply Agada’s seeds. Instead, the giver became a guest of the police when his employers discovered that he had stolen from them to give to the church. Agada’s employers demanded a refund of the stolen sum. However, the church issued a statement admitting that Agada made donations, but refused to make the desired refund.
One year later, Gbenga Kehinde, another member, donated to the church in similar fashion. Then an assistant manager with the defunct Eko International Bank, Kehinde stole about N40 million from his employers and donated N10 million to the church. Information on the preacher’s background are notoriously sketchy, something that seems to add to his mystique. He celebrates his birthday yearly, but his age is never included in any congratulatory advertisement.
But according to an article on one of his ministry’s websites, the preacher is the first child of Elder and Mrs.T E Oyakhilome, who got married in 1957. The article, credited to one Bolanle Talabi, was written in commemoration of the 50th wedding anniversary of Oyakhilome’s parents in 2007. It quoted his father as saying that they had to wait four years for their first child. By the father’s account, the man fondly called Pastor Chris was born in 1961 and is, therefore, 47 years old.
Oyakhilome was said to have been brought up in a strict Christian home and started his ministry in his undergraduate days.
Additional reports by Michael Mukwuzi and Blessing Ogunli.
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