How Boko Haram is funded exposed by Senior Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, KICC, London

Matthew Ashimolowo has an esti­mated net worth of $6 million. He is the Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in London. Ashimolowo earned his net worth from his annual salary as senior pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre as well as from his media company, Matthew Ashimolowo Media.

He enrolled in a Bible school after the death of his father and at age 22 converted to Christianity from Islam. His Kingsway International Christian Center is reportedly the largest Pentecostal church in the United Kingdom where he earns an annual salary of $200,000. Ashimolowo also has a program called Winning Ways aired on Premier Radio and on TV in Nige­ria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, TV Africa, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and Europe on The God Channel and Inspirational Net­work. His media company, Matthew Ashi­molowo Media which according to reports is the major source of his wealth subscribes to and teaches success in the area of pros­perity theology. He is an inspiring preacher who has lifted countless souls with his pas­sionate preaching of the gospel. On Janu­ary 3rd, the man of God and his wife Yemisi hosted the 9th annual widow’s event in his home town, Odeomu, Osun State, Nigeria. It was indeed a mammoth gathering of wid­ows from all the nooks and crannies of the state. At the venue, he talked to Christy Anyanwu of Sunday Sun about the state of the nation, his life as regards touching the lives of the less privi­leged, his vision for widows and lots more. Excerpts:

Can you tell us about yourself, sir?

My name is Matthew Abiodun Ashimolo­wo. I’m from here in Odeomu, Gbongan. It’s my father’s hometown, but I wasn’t born here. I was born in Zaria. I was born in the north. I grew up in the north, in the army barracks and then became a pastor 41 years ago. I was sent to England 31 years ago by the Foursquare Church, and then I started KICC almost 23 years ago. That’s me in a nutshell. I’m mar­ried. This year, my marriage will be 34 years. I have two sons and one will be 32 this month and the other will be 30 in May. Both of them got married in July and October 2014 respec­tively.

We are in the New Year. Nigerians would like to know what God is saying to us as a country. Do you have a mes­sage for Nigerians?

Very interesting. I believe that globally, there is going to be a shaking of the world. There will be earthquakes in some places. There might be famine in places they never knew famine, and flooding in places they didn’t expect. For Nigeria, the Lord showed me, who will win the election. I will not men­tion his name, because I have to be politically neutral. But when the president’s name is an­nounced, 20 percent of a certain part of the nation will not agree. Eventually, after ne­gotiation they will. We will agree that we’re one. Wales is only 400,000 people or about a million people. They call them a nation, and they call Yorubas who are 27 million a tribe, the Igbo who are 18 million you call them a tribe. For us to have many nations that make up Nigeria, it was God that made it happen. And that prophetic mandate still remains on Nigeria. Anyone who incites people to di­vide this nation will lose his chance. Nigeria will remain one. After all the noise, you will be amazed that also some politicians will be shocked, nobody will be ready to die for them. There will be peace in Nigeria after the elec­tion. I see a man who will one day rise, but I don’t know when, I don’t think it’s up to 10 years though . He will turn the fortunes of Ni­geria round. Nigeria will look like one of these advancing nations like United Arab Emirates , India, and China. That is how Nigeria will be.

You said there will be peace, what about Boko Haram insurgency?

Boko Haram is a snake with many heads. We are cutting one head, which is why the other head shows up. If you know the hydras in the story of Hercules, every time the head of that snake was cut, two heads grew there. We need a robust approach. Boko Haram will still be around but we need a robust approach. We need to deal with fifth columnists in the sys­tem who are empowering them. I am 62 years old. I was born in the barracks and I know when Nigeria fought the civil war. My father fought the war too. In fact, he died in Biafra. He died by the Asaba bridge. But I can tell you, in Nigeria, there were only five battalions when Nigeria fought the three-year civil war and yet the war came to an end. It was mas­sive. How can you fight a bunch of riff-raffs with the army and they hold you to ransom? Fifth columnists are selling Nigeria to them, giving them petrol, money and ammunition. As my mother used to say, when a child keeps throwing stones and he’s not exhausted, there is a supplier in the corner. But our prayer should be that our government will be bold enough to indict the fifth columnists, either inside the system or outside the system.

Do you think foreigners are backing Boko Haram?

The only foreign aide in my opinion to Boko Haram are weapons from Libya during the revolution. They came down south. Other than that, it will be people who believe in the advancement of the religion of Islam but do not realize that in the process they are funding the wrong people.

You have a large crowd of widows gathered here this afternoon, and I see you jubilating. Why?

Ten years ago, I had this urge to bring to­gether members of my extended family. I didn’t grow among them. My father was a ren­egade. While all his brothers and sisters were farmers, my father chose to be a solider. So, we lived in Zaria, Kaduna, Kano and Ibadan. So, we are a little different from them, but I felt everybody was pulling away. So, 10 years ago, I began to bring together all the children of my grandfather and his great- grandchildren and great- great-grand children, almost four hun­dred of them. About the second year, I started to bless the widows in this city. The first year, we assisted 308 widows with clothes, food and money. In the second year we assisted 850 widows, third year 1,000, fourth year, 1, 500. The number climbed to 2,000. About three years later, suddenly we had another neighbor­ing town called Modakeke; they showed up with over 640 widows. Before I knew it, they now made it permanent. They come every year. Last year, they came with 900, this year they came with 1,703 widows. There are about 30 widows from Osogbo from a church also. We have a total of about 4,000 widows here today. We are giving them clothes and food. We used to give them N500 each for eight years, and I felt that God was speaking in my heart that, just as we also deserve promotion, these widows themselves desire to be promot­ed. So, we decided to give them N1,000 each. That’s meager to somebody working in the city, but in these rural parts of Osun State that may be the first time some of them are touch­ing a thousand naira notes.

You also gave out scholarships?

Yes, about three years ago. I wanted to re­ally make a difference in this town. Odeomu may be a small town but incidentally, it has produced two senators and two federal minis­ters. In fact, the current minister of police affairs , a very nice man, Jelil Adesiyan is from this town. I felt that God is leading me to do some­thing unique. So, three years ago, we awarded 25 scholarships. We sponsored twenty five university students. Last year we sponsored 20. This year, because of the money we had to give widows and clothes we had to buy, we cut down the scholarships to about 12. In fact we prepared for 15. We don’t sponsor polytechnic students at the moment. It’s because a lot of young people from this little town, Odeomu, prefer the polytechnic. I have nothing against polytechnics, but I want to see them read cours­es like electronic engineering, because I be­lieve they are gifted. All over the world, I meet professors from this small town. So, I wanted to encourage especially those whose parents are struggling. There was one student last year who was referred to me from this town. He had done three years in the university and he was about to proceed to Part 4 when his dad died. The university gave him two years to look for his school fees but he just could not. He lost weight, his mother also lost weight. We spon­sored him for the remaining one year. When our university takes off, my vision is to give 50 scholarships every year through the university. Forty to those who are anywhere in Nigeria and probably 10 to those from this quarter.

Could you talk more about this uni­versity?

It’s The King University and we have been through so much and awaiting our license. We are among the last nine that have just been ap­proved by the National University Commission and the matter is now before the Federal Ex­ecutive Council. The decree that allowed the founding of private universities was written by the military. And you know the military, if they want to cough, everything must go to Federal Executive Council. That made it inevitable for university proprietors to go to the Federal Ex­ecutive Council for approval . But the NUC is very thorough as they ensure that applicants can truly run a university and give young people of Nigeria good education. In fact, they raise the standard every time and that is why a university like ours now has to really wait. Some people who had ten buildings in the past could start. We have 47 and yet we are still going through challenging times .They are making it tough for us so that we can be the best.

Considering all you did today for wid­ows and scholarships you’ve awarded, do you have any kind of support?

No. Sometimes, I’m a bit reluctant when peo­ple want to support me, because I want to feel the strength of giving these widows. The rea­sons are two-fold. First, David said when a man offered him the land to build the temple, he said no I want this thing to cost me something. Sec­ondly, when I was a young boy, I went to live with my uncle. Christmas came and I needed five yards of Ankara to sew buba and sokoto. It was seven shillings. I had three and I asked him to give me four shillings. My uncle began to tell me stories of how he visited my father and my father never helped him. There and then, I made up my mind I will bless widows.

You have been married for 34 years. What’s the secret of the success of your marriage ?

The secret is that we have chosen to love one another in spite of everything. To accept each other, to stay together, to celebrate one an­other and to accept that we are one. Marriage is giving and forgiving. So, I believe that God sent me to marry the right person for me. I am not perfect, she knows how to work with me, she is not perfect, and I know how to work with her. She’s brought me a lot of joy. She has become the greatest asset in my life, and I ask myself several times, if this woman were not around, would I have been able to live with somebody else and the answer has been NO.

What advice do you have for intend­ing couples?

Please don’t focus on just the physical. That is the challenge. In newspapers, television, ra­dio, Ebony magazine, GQ, Vogue, Hello, all they talk about is the shape of a lady, the chest of a guy as wide as Australia. That guy may have two packs, four packs, six packs, and it may be an empty pack. You need a guy who has something upstairs and who knows where he is going. In fact, if I were a woman, I will not ask what car you drive, I will ask where are you going?

In your first few years of marriage, was there any time you felt like run­ning out ?

If anybody is honest with you, they will tell you the first five years of every marriage is stu­pid. That is the basic word. You behave stupid because you are so selfish. In everything that happens, you are covering your terrain until after five years and you realize that really, I have no terrain to cover. My terrain is her ter­rain, her terrain is my terrain. What is hers is mine, what is mine is hers. The best thing is to marry someone you love and like. Love is not enough. You fall in love, you fall out.

You lived in the barracks, were you a troublesome young man?

No, on the contrary, I was not troublesome. I was extremely brilliant. I introduced my teacher when I was in primary five in the pro­gramme today. The reason she stands out was that in my class, I was too brilliant that she felt I was advanced; I was ahead of the class. She introduced me to the library, the defunct Western State library in Ibadan. She took me and put me on television, and radio, in primary school. She recognized the anointing for me­dia I had when I was still in primary school. So, I went and looked for her and I began to celebrate her, blessed her, bought her a car.

As a pastor, how would you describe your success in the ministry?

In a nutshell, according to 1st Corinthians Chapter 15 vs 10 , by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me is not in vain. Grace brings an uncommon ability, grace gives me the opportunity to operate by the strength of God, grace is when God does in one year, what should have taken you 10 years. My father served in the Nigerian Army for 30 years and died in the civil war. One day , I went to speak at a corporation and after speaking for 30 minutes , what they gave me after 30 minutes was more than my father’s 30 years salary. Favour helps destiny. It’s not your Master’s degree, it’s not the country you went to, it’s not who you know. I know a gov­ernor, I know the man who was his best man and he did not give him a penny while he was in government for eight years . He did not give him a contract and this man was his best man. Before he was governor, he stayed in this man’s house in London, but when favour is behind your destiny , anyone who does not know you will know you, who does not see you will see you , who does not hear you will hear you.