We have image issue in C&S because we don’t tell our own stories – Adeyemi

The ability to maintain positive public image is critical to achieving corporate objectives. Although, the C&S church did not really enjoy much of this in time past. But the causal effect of a paradigm shift which occurred not too long ago has changed the whole narratives, thus giving the fold a facelift amongst other denominations. Without having to state the obvious, a considerable number of factors, which are still at play, are responsible for this change. Meanwhile, the body that has ensured that the developments stemming from this shift are properly processed and projected to earn a good public perception is the National Publicity Committee of the church, headed by the Chief PRO of the church, Snr Supt. Apostle Muyiwa Adeyemi. In an interview with Seraph Dayo Oyewo and Seraph Taiwo Akinyemi, the committee’s head honcho who has carved a niche for himself in the journalism profession speaks on how the image making assignment committed to his hands has fared. Excerpts…

Can we meet you sir?

My name is Snr. Supt. Apo. Muyiwa Adeyemi. I am a Board Member of The Eternal Sacred Order and also the Deputy Minister In Charge of The Eternal Sacred Order C&S Church, Irawo Owuro, Ikotun, Lagos. I am also the Chief Public Relations Officer of C&S Unification Church of Nigeria, just to mention few among others.

How have you fared in your capacity as the national Publicity Secretary of C&S Unification church of Nigeria?

Yes, it is getting to four years that I have been elected to head the national publicity committee of the church. I am not the only person in that department but I am the Chief PRO, with others like PRO 1 & PRO 2. But at the same time, I tried to bring on board some journalists I think were within the holy order so we could work together. That is how we make the work easier. I did not concentrate the work on myself; to me C&S is a bigger church with many activities happening with the way we structured it. I think everything we do within the organization in the area of publicity comes into the Committee, be it league of prophet and prophetess, evangelical committee or Ikare pilgrimage committee. And these organs need to involve the public relation department in their various functions. And we have no problem in publicizing their activities because we are many in the publicity department, so we are doing fairly well, but it could be better.

What has changed since your assumption of office and now?

The first thing I will say is that when I took over, the publicity aspect of  the church was not well defined; in the sense that the people that were in that office then are not professionals according to the record at my disposal. I have been in journalism all my years, from my university days, I’ve been practicing journalism and immediately I left NYSC in 1991, I went straight to The Guardian and I have been working there. I have never  done any other job in my life than being a journalist. So if somebody with that experience is now coming, certainly, he will look at some things differently, so that’s why I am comfortable to work with some professional colleagues; even when they were not elected or appointed, they were allowed to contribute their professional service to the development of the church.

And how were you able to push through?

We have tried to redefine the message we send to the public by improving on the contents that define perspective. The messaging is very important because anything printed or said has impact on the perception of the church, and perception matters a lot. So, if you are publishing what is not well crafted or defined, people will look at you like – what are they saying? That is why we have to give kudos to Baba Olori because he gave that department much prominence, and had even driven us more than what we should do. Never have we had much member of publicity unit than we are having now at the national level, state and local level, that is why you hear most of our functions on radio and read them on newspapers; not just seeing them but well situated because we have professionals working on them. My wish is that by the time I am leaving, I will still want to see a professional; somebody who practices journalism, they are many and abound in the fold. So in our own way of doing things, we have been trying to highlight those issues as I said – issue of publicity is elastic but we can easily work within the scope of the objective setup and the resources available and those things considered germane that must be built.

So what does the public perception of the church look like as it stands today?

When we came on board, we had serious problem of public perception, and I will blame that on three things which are: Firstly, we don’t tell our stories ourselves. We allow others to tell our stories for a very long time and when they are telling the stories, some display a lot of ignorance and even making errors in confidence. For instance, how many books have we written about the church. Who is writing and providing  literature as references for the world. We rely on books written by none Seraphs that did not tell good stories about our Prophets, leaders and spiritual fathers. We have a lot of men and women of God doing fantastic works within the Holy Order, we have not promoted their good works enough but we allow negative news to fly around. I hereby call on all of us that are educated to take up this challenge and write about our fathers and mothers that are doing well, let’s write about our church. If we did not, others will continue to call us what we are not.

Secondly, people commit a lot of fallacy; because you see somebody who started a white garment church very close to your house and practices things that are not known to C&S does not mean you use that to generalize. Not all white garment churches are C&S, but just because we are the oldest. Thirdly, some people criticize some of our doctrines, even when they will still come back to adopt them, like the sanctification of water, anointing oil, etc.

What has your office done to re-tell the story and change the whole narrative?

We are not re-telling the story, we are telling the story the way it is for those who have been feeding on ignorance to know what it is. And the first thing is to let our people to know whatever they are doing to justify the essence of the church. Secondly, when it comes to area of publicity, we highlight what we do. We have some magazines where things are being published such as Seraph News, campus fellowships magazines and lots more. What I will just say is that we should tell the truth as it is and not to just engage in fallacies and propaganda, because the church does not condone anything fetish, illegal or anything anti-Christ.

Being one of the guests at the New Seraph Initiatives, what can you say about its impact so far?

It is what many of us are happy with. Many kind of initiatives coming up here and there, in which “New Seraph” is one of them. I was there not as a guest alone but a Speaker on the solution to the problem identified. I think we have to commend the initiator, Dr Yomi Sholoye. The program is to empower the youths, to encourage them and to bring about the new perception of how C&S will look like. So we pray that they will continue to grow in the direction they started with and meet up with goals set out to achieve which we all heard when they started. So we are giving our little support for what they are doing, and we pray God continue to strengthen them.

Moses Orimolade University project is alive and kicking again, what are the prospects?

The project is an idea that has come to fruition now because, before, we did not have people coming together to do something on that place, and that we have to really commend the supreme head, Baba Alao, for rallying round people to start something there. So the church is starting on their permanent site. And the university is meant for everybody, not few individuals, so we are working on a model that will make it affordable without compromising the quality. Although, with that it seems to be taking time, but we are already building now and this year we hope to start enrolling new students. This is not the first time we are having a learning institution, we have many C&S secondary schools and primary schools, so building a university also I think is going to be in that direction. With prayer and support of everyone, the target for this year shall be met.

Some Elders of the church, led by Baba Olori recently met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, what is the essence of that parley?

I think the meeting with the President was in recognition of our spiritual contributions to the peace and development of Nigeria. However, it must be noted that this is not the first time that the church is meeting with the people in authority. Remember how the British monarch during colonization had seek for the prayers of Baba St Moses Orimolade and the miracle of healing that followed. But on this visit, the church used the opportunity to pray for the country and tell the truth to power. It was not like other visitation of some churches where they went on patronage and seek for supports. We did not make any demand on the President but Baba Olori was emphatic on the core expectations of Nigerians, like the restructuring of the country, war against corruption, ensuring Sharibu Leah was released and he condemned the activities of the Boko Haram. You can see that issues raised with him are not to curry favour but to know what Nigerians are yearning for. He was grateful to the church and appreciated our sincerity and asked for more prayers.

As a seasoned journalist who plies his trade in one of the most reputable newspaper companies in Nigeria, what is your advice to Seraph youths who are nursing similar career?

What I will say is this, if you want to be journalist it must be something you are passionate about, if it is about money you may definitely not stay. I told you earlier that journalism is what I have passion for since my secondary school days where I belonged to literary and debate group. From there I went to do my advanced level at Oyo State College of Arts and Science, Ife. When we got there, we did not meet press club. But we started it there – myself, Laolu Akande, the media aide to the Vice President; the Director of Publicity of UI now, Mr. Tunji Oladejo and a few others that I cannot remember now. When I got to the university, it was easy for me to continue with journalism, and by the time I finished my NYSC in Katsina, I went straight to The Guardian where I already had a full page to myself aside from other news before they gave me job. I once got an offer to work in a bank but I turned it down because It is not the money that drives me but the passion that I wanted to be a journalist. Also in journalism, credibility matters. If you are not credible, you won’t have sources, and if you don’t have sources, you don’t have room in journalism. And as a journalist you don’t misquote your source, if you misquote your source, that is the worst damage you can do to yourself as the person will not be happy and from there, you continue to break new grounds to get new sources. I have many governors and ministers that I can call and they will answer. They have never had any reason to complain about our relationship. As a journalist, you are good as your source. So anybody who want to take this job should hold his sources seriously. That is the greatest asset.