The Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, on Wednesday said his persistent gratitude to God through a series of thanksgiving services was prompted by the fact that God had lifted him from grass to grace.
At a special thanksgiving service at the Baptist Church Warri to mark his 60th birthday celebration, Uduaghan said although it was practically impossible for him to summarise the long journey through life in the last 60 years, his remained a litany of testimonies.
Uduaghan, who danced away at the service with his wife, Roli, said he could only sum up his life-story of testimonies so far with the phrase, “God lifted me, He gave me a song!”
Describing himself as “a living testimony of thanksgiving” he recalled that he literally rose from rags to immense influence and wealth, as a family man with a mere Volkswagen Beetle car to the position of the governor of one of Nigeria’s most powerful states today.
The governor said: “My testimony is very long; 60 years is not a joke. However, in all, the almighty God has lifted me from nothing to a very high pedestal of influence and means. God has been so kind to me, my wife, my entire family.....from when I was ridding a Volkswagen car.
“So, I’m always thanking God because I have always had reasons to do so. Some people have even said why is he always doing thanksgiving; but I tell them I have no apology. Even when in 2010 the court judges said that I should leave as governor, we came here for thanksgiving. I was thanking God not just for my removal as the governor of Delta State, but I was also thanking God because I knew that He would bring me back.”
While thanking all and sundry, including his political associates, clergymen, traditional rulers, women and youth groups for their consistent support and encouragement, Uduaghan advised Nigerians to learn to move the hand of God for endless blessing through regular thanksgiving.
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, in his sermon during the service, warned Nigerians and politicians to stop making electoral activities a do-die affair.
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, in his sermon during the service, warned Nigerians and politicians to stop making electoral activities a do-die affair.
While urging Nigerians to imbibe the habit of thanking God in every situation, Oritsejafor urged the people to commit their worries and expectations to God in thanksgiving and to “celebrate who you are as a person and creation of God”.
He lamented the resort to violence, including ritual murder and fetish by people aspiring for elective office or during elections, saying it was shameful and scandalous that even very educated people and Christians were involved in this desperate attempt to win various elections in the country.
“I feel pained to see educated people saying they are going back to juju shrines or to worship different inanimate objects or carry out all sorts of rituals because they want power.
“As elections are around the corner now, some are burying cows, some are burying human heads; they are rubbing smelling things, throwing fetish sacrifices into the river and the ocean. It is just crazy and utterly shameful.
“This must stop. Please, don’t go back to darkness. Why go back to the unprofitable things that tied down your forefathers from making much progress? What progress ca you see around you?”
Oristsejafor however called on all Nigerian leaders and people with means to help other less privileged Nigerians instead of waiting for the government to do even the things they can do for the people and their communities as individuals.
The minister in charge of the Warri Baptist Church, Rev. Challenge Ugbede, told THISDAY that Uduaghan’s association with the baptist church drew from the fact that he had his childhood Christian orientation in the church and wedded in the church.
Ugbede noted that the governor had come to the same church for thanksgiving and prayer after receiving the gubernatorial flag of the PDP in Port Harcourt in 2007, adding that the governor has always come to the church in Warri give thanks for everything that happened in his life.
While praying for the government in Nigeria to be able to work their plan for the people and for success against insecurity and economic problems, he said that social service and not grabbing of public funds and extortion of the people should be the reason for politics.
Reverend Daniel Afokayan of the House of Cedar Ado-Ekiti, said it was in order for Christians to go into politics, but stressed that the “motive for Christians’ entry into politics must be for service and not for personal aggrandizement or to amass wealth for themselves and their families.”
While admonishing the people to make thanksgiving their watchword, South-South leader of CAN, Rev Johnson Okoroji Jnr, noted that “people with the fear of God should be encouraged to participate actively in politics, saying God could steer their hearts away form the many ills that people today associate with partisan politics.
The thanksgiving service had in attendance numerous dignitaries, including Governor Uduaghan’s deputy, Prof Amos Utuama (SAN) and his wife, Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Peter Onwusanya, former secretary to Federal Government and ex-presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae, Chairman of the South-South Chairman of PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, governorship aspirant, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Senator James Manager and Senator Emmanuel Aguariavwodo.
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