We have restored credibility to the pilgrimage system — Bishop Adegbite

Bishop Stephen Adegbite, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), can rightly be described as a workaholic given the number of things he does for God, the Nigerian government and humanity.

But he remains calm and unperturbed even with the huge responsibilities placed on his shoulders. Apart from being the Executive Secretary of the NCPC, he is also the chaplain of the Presidential Villa, the Chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN) and the Bishop of Ikeja Diocese of the Methodist Church Nigeria. In all of these positions, what gives Adegbite joy and satisfaction is being able to serve God and humanity faithfully and giving succour to the people he comes across in the course of his work. Having taken over the affairs of the NCPC in February 2024, he has introduced many measures and policies into the workings of the body to make it more responsive, transparent and accountable to the people and by so doing give a new image to the commission at home and abroad. In this interview, Adegbite says he has sanitized the NCPC and given a new lease of life to the Nigerian pilgrimage system. He enjoins Nigerians to see pilgrimage as a pure a spiritual exercise and not a jamboree.

By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

Let me ask you a general question.

You came into office last year. What have you been able to do differently from what you met on assumption of duties?

I can say that I have done a lot of things to change the way things were here at the NCPC. Number one, I’ve been able to ensure that procurement Act is never violated. Before now, there was nothing like that. The people who were here before now, were just doing things the way they wanted without proper planning and implementation in accordance with extant rules of the government. We have effectively stopped that and introduced a transparent and accountable system that has brought sanity to the entire process of pilgrimage and given us the credibility we need as a vital agency of government saddled with the responsibility of taking people on international Christian journeys year by year. Upon my appointment, I decided to do things differently knowing that I am under authority and I must obey the authority that put me here. I’m not here on my own. They told me what I must do and I signed that I would do. So the first thing was to get that done. But most importantly, we started with God. I came into this office during the Lent. I’m a bishop, the first to occupy this seat.  That is why we started with God and we depend on Him for his guidance and direction daily as Christians apart from the vision we have. We are happy for the kind of support we also get from the government that sent us here. When Mr. President provided support for the Hajj Commission, we also wrote and our request was granted. So that became a relief to us. And when I came, the morale of the staff was very low due to many factors and I have been able to change all of that for their own benefit, and they are very happy and motivated to put in their best. Before I become the ES of the NCPC, staff members were not allowed to go on pilgrimage and when they go at all, they were not paid their entitlements in addition to other injustice done to them by the previous system. Others were victimized over sundry issues but I have been able to resolve all of the staff matters and give them their dues and they are happy with what we are doing and are now very supportive. Importantly, too, we make it a policy not to owe any of our service providers. This has become a major breakthrough for us.  As our policy, our service providers are paid in advance to enable them to provide what is required on time and to prevent any form of failure and disappointment during pilgrimage, whereas, in the past, pilgrimage was run on credit. I can tell you that I met a huge debt of N3.8 billion on this table. But I am happy to say that as at today we do not owe anyone a kobo by the special grace of God and we will not want to owe anyone anymore.

In recent times, pilgrimage has been overshadowed by reports of fraud and other undesirable events, including abscondment and illicit drugs. How have you been able to steer the NCPC without these allegations?

 I think it is based on transparency and credibility of our system since I took over just a little more than a year ago. What we have done is to let people know how much we are given and how much we subsidise each pilgrims including the private operators. We brought in the independent operators, who are also Nigerians, into our operations so that they also feel a sense of belonging. The trouble is that once you exclude or neglect them, they would cause problems. We see them as Nigerians and the federal government has made provision for subsidy and we ensure that they also benefit from it and on equal basis. The point is this if you are a ground operator and you bring in 1 million people, the 1 million people must enjoy the same amount like the one that brought 10 people. So, that is what we have done.

So, who determines who a pilgrim is? What qualification does a pilgrim need to have so as to go to Israel?

 The most essential qualification is that the person must be a Christian. We have many ways of determining and nobody can deceive us on that.  When we are screening people for the journey we make it abundantly clear to them that pilgrimage is not for jamboree or for window shopping but a pure spiritual exercise. Once we ascertain that the person is a Christian, we make them to sign a bond and their guarantor is made to sign a bond that if you abscond, he would pay a $15,000. And if you are caught with anything illegal you would go to court and you would pay the penalty or serve prison term or both as the law pleases.

Are there compulsory places that Christian pilgrims must visit once they are in the Holy Land?

I can say that every holy site is significant. You cannot cover it even if you stay in Israel for one month. But when people go to the Holy Land, all pilgrims want to be at River Jordan where Christ was baptised. All the pilgrims want to be at the Garden Tomb where Jesus was buried or the other one, there are two places that the Jews and the Baptist lay claims to. Another place people want to go to is the place they call the Wailing Wall. That is a Jewish territory, where they pray 24/7. There is no time you will go there you will not see somebody praying. So every pilgrim wants to go to the Wailing Wall. People also want to go to the Dead Sea where when you swim you cannot drown but float because of the acidic content which makes it very salty. The water there must not enter your eyes. If it does you may not be able to open it for another two days because it is so salty. And Israel gets at least 21 minerals from that sea.

Till today?

 Yes, till today. So that is what God has done for them. So those are the places people want to see. Pilgrims also want to see Jericho, the oldest city and where Christ was tempted after baptism and the house of Joseph where he grew up and if you want to go to Capernaum the hometown of Christ where he lived, that is the Nazareth area. Some people want to go to the City of David, which is buried in the ground. One has to enter from the top and go down many feet to reach the cistern where they will hear the sound of the water rushing like a stream.

Some people may be wondering why Nigerian Christian pilgrims are still going to Israel despite the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. How safe are the pilgrims going there at this time?

Let me tell you something. Since 1999 that I started going to Israel, there has always been one form of conflict or the other between Israel and other groups.  The only difference now is that the scale of the conflict is higher today than it has been in the past years. But the Israeli Government has written a letter of commitment to us that any time we come we are safe. And if we are not safe, do you think I want to die? I don’t want to die now. So if I am not safe I won’t take people to the Holy Land.

How are you able to effectively combine the four roles you are currently occupying: NCPC CEO, Villa Chaplain, Ikeja Diocese Bishop of the Methodist Church and the Lagos State Chapter Chairman of CAN?

I think it is God that is helping me to carry on these roles effectively. I have also discovered that I am a multi-tasked person. I tend to perform better when I am given multi roles to play. Once I know I have five assignments, I would do my best to satisfy the person who gives me the tasks. I can say that my brain works 24/7 and I work in advance. Let me just give you some of the things that I am doing at the moment. As the Bishop of Ikeja Diocese of the Methodist Church Nigeria since 2017 having been appointed in December 2016, I have been working round the clock to see the progress of the diocese from day one. When I started, the diocese had no Bishop House; they were operating from a rented apartment. Upon my emergence as bishop, I gave myself five years as deadline to build a bishop house and after five years, God has provided one and my house to the cathedral now takes only five minutes. That progress has prevented the church from buying land and building the bishop house in Ogun State as was previously planned before I become the bishop. Under my leadership, we have been able to renovate a property donated to the church by an elderly woman in Ibadan and we intend to put it into use before the end of this month. As the CAN chairman in Lagos State, I have been able to secure the land that was given by the government to build our secretariat from those who sat on the land and we are about to complete the secretariat which can sit 1000 people and have provision for nine blocks of offices for all the CAN officials in Lagos State. The land was given to CAN more than 25 years ago but someone sat on it and refused to give to us for the purpose it was meant but God used me to retrieve it and put to use. Just last Sunday a woman gave us N30 million for the completion of that project. As the ES of NCPC, we have discussed what God has done with me for the agency. As the chaplain of the Villa, God has organised it in a way that it is convenient for me to operate as the bishop in Ikeja and still run the villa church. We don’t have services in the Villa on Sundays but we meet in the Villa on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for prayers. And luckily for us, we have a great woman, the Deborah of our time, the Esther of our time in the person of the First Lady, who is also a pastor herself. And there are other pastors working with us. That is why when some people say we don’t open the Villa church as it they used to have before now; I tell them come and see. But what they wanted is a Villa Sunday service that would provide opportunity to negotiate for appointments. That is not why that place was built. It was built for prayers for the occupant of Villa and the workers; and that is what we are doing. All the workers go to their family churches on Sundays and that is a great innovation by the First Lady.  So that is why there is no problem in working as the Chaplain and the other positions I am occupying. And that is why I am in Abuja every Monday and by Thursday I am back in Lagos to do the work of God.

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