The General Supervisor and Minister-in-Charge of ThankGod Awaited Liberation Ministry, Ikeja, Lagos, Prophet Francis Otukwu, has cautioned Nigerians against early optimism, but rather to gird their loins for more tough times in the new year, as there are no visible structures and clear policy measures to back Federal Government’s political assurances that the current recession ravaging the economy would ease in the 2017 budget year.

His words: “Much as we have a clear spiritual understanding of the unhealthy global turn of events vis-à-vis God’s end-time agenda, Nigeria’s economic situation is a peculiar case that can only be resolved by a pragmatic and non-parochial approach to issues. To reflate the economy and end the recession, government must provide solution to core economic challenges, such as total dependence on importation, unfriendly manufacturing environment which enormously contributes to weakening of the naira, as well as fuelling the run-away inflation. The government should also sincerely address the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta from where the nation generates the bulk of its revenues, including foreign exchange; the threat of armed herdsmen versus farming communities, as well as the constant clash between security operatives and unarmed agitators of IPOB and MASSOB in the South-east.”

Prophet Otukwu, who stated this at the ministry’s 2016 Thanksgiving Service, regretted the inability of Christians to discern times and seasons in line with Bible prophecy. He recalled the words of the Son of Man that what happened before is happening again, as captured in Matthew chapter 17: 10 – 13, which reads: “ Then the disciples asked Jesus, Why do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah has to come first? Elijah is indeed coming first, answered Jesus, and he will get everything ready. But I tell you, that Elijah has already come and people did not recognise him, but treated him as they pleased. In the same way, they will ill-treat the Son of Man. Then his disciples understood he was talking to them about John the Baptist.”

The cleric explained that same scenario played out in the case of their Founder ThankGod Chukwuma who, through the mass media, declared: ‘I am the Christ….’ “But rather than investigate the proof and veracity of his claim, he was dismissed and rejected, he said, adding:

“Despite persecution, events are unfolding exactly as he foretold, and the institution he left behind is the only ministry today led by the Holy Spirit, the Mantle of the living God, not by theology or precepts of men driven by an insatiable quest for material wealth, as evidenced in their crowd-pulling prosperity churches, which is contrary to the words of our Lord in Matthew 7: 13 -14: ‘Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to Hell is wide and the road is spacious, many travel therein….’”

The thanksgiving event, according to Otukwu, also featured among other things, presentation of gifts and harvest of songs praises by the Choir led by budding Gospel Singer Chetachi Donatus.

•Prophet Otukwu.