Apostle Eugene Ogu: A unique man of God

 Has spent over N.3bn to support less-privilege, widows and orphanss

Apostle Eugene Egwatu (fearless) Ogu, the General Overseer of Abundant Life Evangelic Ministry (ALEM) is a well known pastor in Port Harcourt and a former Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigerian (PFN). In this interview, he speaks on his painful childhood and why he is investing in widows and orphans.

Apostle Ogu

What is the reason behind your NGO - Arm of Hope World Outreach?
It is my NGO and a child of circumstances because many years ago as a child in a family of 10 - five girls and five boys. I come from a very poor background and my mum, who was the breadwinner of the family died and my dad could not train all the children and he also died eventually. I was given out as a houseboy to a very wealthy man in Cameroon but life was not as comfortable as it ought to be for me. After five years, the experience was not something to be proud. A man came to Cameroon and saw me in that house and the condition I was living in and he came back to Nigeria to tell my elder brother that I was better off dead than the condition he saw me in.
My brother had to come to Cameroon and bring me back to Nigeria. But being a student who studied two weeks and take two weeks off to hustle to fend for himself, my brother couldn’t do much for me. He gave me out also to learn carpentry and from there I started another phase of experience sleeping on the carpentry table. That was where I slept for four years and seven.
Going through these backgrounds and having to stop my education in primary four because there was nobody to train me and never gone to any other school when I came out from that experience I knew I had to do something for those in similar condition. God showed me mercy and appeared to me on the 27 September 1983 where I was sleeping in that workshop. I always cried myself to sleep because I would remember that my predicament began when I lost my mum. Crying to bed became a part of my life.
So on one of those nights, the lord appeared to me and the atmosphere became so bright and the lord called me while I was still crying in the dark and said 'wipe your tears, work with me and I will transform you and use you for My glory.'  That was the genesis and transformation of my life.  When I got up I realised that I had this inward joy. I started attending Christian Pentecostal Mission and DeeperLife. During the week I go to DeeperLife - it was not a church then it was just a ministry - and on Sunday I go to CPM. My life started experiencing some enlightenment when I started reading the scripture. It is not only going through the university that God brings the best out of you, God can do that.
After the experience I went to Redeemed Bible College by then Papa (Enoch) Adeboye was one of the lecturers and he was teaching on Divine Healing. We were there for nine months. The Redemption Camp was a forest the only thing there was the school camp and the bible school was like a kiosk. We were asked to pull down trees as lesson for coming late, tsetse fly and snakes were all over the place. It was where we went and had transformation. It was an environment that gives you time to think about what Christ came to do.
With this background God has helped me to be who I am today. One thing I will never forget is the experience of not having someone to assist me. My not having a school certificate, degree or Phd today is a reminder of what it means to not have help. It is not as if I can't get those degrees today now, but I want it as a reminder of the pains of not having someone to cater for me.
There are many people Nigerian children across the country in the homes and services of wealthy Nigerian politicians, businessmen who cannot afford money to pay school fees or write exam. Not forgetting that, I made up my mind that if I would live one day one earth, it will be dedicated to those who are in my shoe. That was how Arm of Hope came about - to extend arm of hope to people who think hope is far away from them.
Tell us about the foundation and what you have done with it
Arm of Hope is a brainchild of I and my wife, Mrs. Lilly Ogu. We feel that the church should not just be a place where you tell people what to do and what not to do. If we use Christ as example, he not only taught, he fed the people, he gave, put his life into jeopardy for the benefit of the world. We saw a combination of teaching and giving which is the bedrock of the teaching of Christ. That is what Christianity is all about; you should love to the detriment of your comfort.
Putting that into our NGO, we travelled to places to see where there are needs. I remember travelling to Maiduguri, during the 18 February crisis, where 54 churches were burnt and 68 persons burnt to death, including one reverend father. I put myself in the shoe of those people as a pastor and a human being. What if one of the victims was my brother, sister or mother? I went there and visited all the 54 churches, I had photographs, I saw the devastation and destruction. I met one Mrs. Hannatu whose five children were burnt, I met one Effiong who lost his wife and three children and another Mr Obodo whose wife and children were burnt.
From there we started giving assistance. We met over 3,000 victim of that crisis. We had to get them money to cushion the effect of their losses. The least we gave was N25,000; some went home with N50,000 and others with N100,000 and so on. We also gave each of the five CAN family money and check to look into what is happening to their members. Some we gave money to rent houses, start their businesses and so on.
We also went to Plateau State, to Jos and Dogo Nahauwa, where 365 persons were killed. It was shocking to find out that although the report was in the news after the incident no NGO or government agency thought it wise to go back to the community to find out about the plights of the victims and their families. We went there before the burial and during the mass burials were went there and promised them a school in memory of the victims. We offered scholarship to all children who lost their families; treated others. I brought one of the victims who lost both families here (Port Harcourt) and he is currently living with me. Daniel is his name and he is currently in school. We invited all the widows here and they stayed here for some time before returning home. When going back we gave them some money to help them start afresh. We made sure we also dug boreholes for communities because we realised that the problem sometimes start when they meet the cattle herdsmen in the pounds when they take their cattle for water. That is why we dug boreholes.
We also did not just make promises, we are happy to report that the first secondary school in Dogo Nahauwa called Arm of Hope Memorial Grammar School, where all the victims of the massacre will attend school free, have been built. We have put everything in place; we have teachers employed and we will commence the school at the end of the month (September).
We have also provided boreholes in some communities in Imo State, 10 in 10 different communities in Oboho and anywhere we do borehole we give them generators. In Port Harcourt we have done nine in Obio-Akpor and given nine generators also in Etche. In a town in Mangu, Plateau state we have also done boreholes, this is place where people are living without water or light. When you see these things, you wonder if we really have government in this country for people to be living as they live.
In what other areas have you intervened?
We have given subventions to patients in the hospitals. When you go to most Nigerian hospitals you will realise that most of the patients there have been treated for surgical operations, amputation etc. Some of them have been treated and ready to be discharged but the bills are so high that they cannot be allowed to leave - they are being held hostage by medical bills. I think Federal and state governments should have a way, a form of Ministry Of Social Welfare to see how they can bring succour to such people. When you see the psychological effect their circumstances create on them, you begin to wonder what kind of country we live in. When we find out these situations, we pay their hospital bills, take them home and give them money to start something with. In some cases we give their children scholarship and these are ongoing.
We also have scholarships for the children of widows that we have encountered from all churches, different states and places. What qualifies them is that their mothers are widows. We have over 720 students on our scholarship.
We also provide legal aids to Nigerians who are falsely accused and are forgotten in prison custody. We have a couple of them in Rivers state here where as a result of reported armed robbery or kidnap, police comes around and do what is called mass arrest. When they get 20 or 40 persons, those arrested are made to pay money for bail. Even the so-called criminals pay the money and are allowed to go, but the innocent ones are made to suffer. They are charged on these alleged crimes and remanded in prison custody and left there for up to two years. We have a lot of them that we have been able to help through our legal departments. So far, we have freed about 11 such persons. We not only bring them out, we give them money to start business because some of them who had jobs during the ordeals lost them.
We also provided succour to over 1,000 widows wherever we go - churches, crusades and community development projects. In one of the states we are building hall, we ask for widows and they turn up. Some of them just need N500 to buy things to sell.  Sometimes you give N1,000 to hundreds of widows to start something and you see them being so happy. You will realise that some Nigerians don’t need millions to get by, just a few thousand naira and they are set up.
How do you indentify beneficiaries of some of these gestures and how do you ensure that people you assist are widows?
As a preacher, I am invited everywhere to preach. When I get to these venues, after preaching I ask for the widows so I can pray for them. In these communities people know each other; no woman whose husband is alive would step forward to receive a widow's prayer. From there we separate those who have jobs for prayer to God to help them get promotion. Then we put aside those who don’t have job. Then we ask children of the widows who are standing there to join their mothers. Again from there we ask those who are in school to step aside for prayers and so on. We ask the students to fill forms and their school names, department and so on. From there we get their information. We go to the schools to investigate and for some of them you will be surprised to find out that they have not paid their fees for the previous terms. So we pay the fees and just send them text messages that their fees have been paid and they are henceforth on our scholarship. Their reactions and joy are usually priceless; the joy and outpour of emotions gives us satisfaction.
How do you sustain some of these projects, like the boreholes and generators?
What we do like in some communities in Rivers State is we give them (beneficiaries) money and we asked the communities to take charge, not individuals. In the northern part, you don’t use generators it is the manual type. However, in Jos we have an engineer who we pay to go around checking so when there is a breakdown, he fixes it. We also have an office with staff in Jos. Some of the villages we hand over the generators to the royal fathers and we ask them to call us whenever they have problems.
How much have you spent on these gesture so far?
Arm of Hope for the past 14 years has been operating before it was officially incorporated about two years ago. I can't tell you the total because we were operating without any record we just did what we did before it was incorporated as an NGO. I can tell you though that we have spent no less than N300m. You can imagine giving over 3,000 N25,000 each in Maiduguri and some go with N200,000. I was in Jigawa, Kano etc. This is the debt I owe to the society and to God for making me who I am today.
What is the source of your fund?
One, from the offerings we get from the church, ALEM (Abundant Life Evangelic Ministry) we have supported our project. I also own a company set up for charity, all the proceeds from that company go into humanitarian work.