Below is the Special Instagram Live Chat with a very prominent and respected man of God in London. Pastor Tobi Adegboyega is the Pastor of SPAC Nation. He was our Guest on our City People Live Chat and he spoke to us about empowering the Nigerian Police and Youths.
Pastor Tobi Adegboyega is the Global Pastor of SPAC Nation. Nigerian-born, he began his journey in London at just 25 years old. Arriving in the city of London, Pastor Tobi had nothing, but the clothes on his back and his ‘American dream’ of wanting to be a leading law attorney in the United States of America. Quickly realising his purpose, he soon grasped the reality that what had caused him to travel from Nigeria, was far greater than his dream of becoming a successful lawyer and put him on the path to becoming the biggest defender and advocate of young people and a poverty-free life.
15 years on from what began with a man washing plates, ‘PT’, as called by many, is now the leader of one of the biggest and fervent youth movements in the UK. Recognised as the Pastor that dared to occupy and claim a space many could only dream of and as someone who dared to confront crime and poverty, Pastor Tobi has since reached over 2 million young people across the world through his preachings and charitable deeds.
Adegboyega’s passion for a revival led by young people has amounted to the restoration of thousands of young lives. He has since helped 1000s of young people across the world establish businesses and put thousands of young people through the education system. He has also helped many young people into top universities such as Oxford and has raised individuals that have become top influential leaders in global companies. All of these in the hopes of seeing a new generation of young people wealthy, prospering and on fire for God, despite coming from difficult backgrounds.
Pastor Tobi states: “To see a generation liberated from poverty, young people transforming their communities from despair to hope.”
Below are excerpts.
How are you, sir?
God is good. We thank God. It’s a difficult time all over the world right now.
It’s very difficult everywhere. We are keeping alive and helping as much as we can help to encourage people that this season will pass away and we hope for better times. But thank you for having me on, sir.
We are very happy having you join us. We need to also congratulate you on the good work you are doing and how you are trying to help, give hope to a lot of people across the globe. Share with us a bit about who Pastor Tobi Adegboyega is and what you have been trying to do in your own space.
I’m a Nigerian. I came to the UK about 15 years ago. And, to cut the long story short, I realised that they are many Nigerians in diaspora who needed help, especially young people. Second-third generation immigrants who needed help, misguided as it may be at the time. But then, I was able to interpret that what they needed was direction. They seem to express their anger through gang and violence, but what they needed was direction. They needed people, or someone, to show them what to do – not just to tell them. A lot of times, preachers tell. But what I believe that God raised me for was to show how to do things and what to do. So that it leaves the arena of preaching and telling people what to do. And then, it comes into doing it and then young people do the same.
What has happened over the years was we were able to convert many people into gangs and some wayward lifestyles into people who brought good or who are bringing good to the society at large. Until, the metropolitan police, which is the biggest police force, came to the church, sat down – the commissioner and everyone else – said, “We feel like we failed. You teach us, what do we do?” And these are public things.
So, that’s what we have been doing. So, it’s a church, but it’s a family. It’s different. What we wanted to do is to impact a community and make sure that people that are labeled wrongly by the community would show the community how good they can be. So that’s what we have been doing by the grace of God, sir.
How did you come up with the name Spac Nation UK?
Spac means Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church. That’s the name of the church my dad pastored in Nigeria. So I’m a second-generation preacher. My dad is still a Nigerian, Pastor Spac. They don’t call it Spac Nation, it’s just Spac. We added the Nation and things like that. That’s how that came up so.
What did you make of the news when it broke that the EndSARS protest was already going on in Nigeria. What went through your mind at that time when you heard the news?
The first thing was… I was one of the first pastors, I think, to speak about EndSARS when everybody was still not speaking out. I spoke out. I did a video and I think my brother, Ubi Franklin, who I think is on as well, posted it on his page. And this was my video speaking about my own experience with the Nigerian police brutality. I still have a mark on my head from being beaten by the police for doing nothing, just driving home. So, it’s personal to me. It was personal to me.
Now, the news broke and we started hearing the EndSARS. But I feel immediately that it is not just about SARS. Watching from here, looking at how young people were coming together. It was a shock to me, I never thought in my lifetime I would see young people come together with so much uniformity, so much passion. So, we knew right away that it was more than SARS. Yes, SARS is the focus –and I support things at the movement– but it was also young people crying out against decades of injustice, decades of feeling not included in the running of the nation. It was more than just the police brutality, it is about young people trying to create social mobility for themselves in the Nigeria of our dreams.
So, I felt great, I felt elated. I felt like this is the Nigeria we have been asking for; this is what most of us have been waiting for. And immediately, we jumped on the bang wagon of supporting both financially and in every way that we can support.
What is your assessment of the protest and how do you also see the crisis that came after that in terms of the hoodlums coming and then giving the whole thing a bad colouration?
The 20th of October, 2020… I’m going to be 40 in about ten days time. The 20th of October is a dark day for me. Because, as far as I’m concerned, I know until that day, the protest was peaceful. We were off, watching from the diaspora, and I know a lot of people. A lot of people follow me real times in the diaspora. We were all encouraged, we were all happy. Then on the 20th, we heard that there is this curfew and stuff like that. And we were thinking, okay people would go home we have made a point and things like that. That night, when I saw the shootings, I saw stuffs, and I couldn’t believe it.
In fact, there’s a video going all about me in London that I was using a vulgar words, I was using swearing words. It was that night, I was angry, I didn’t know where to turn to. We were pressuring the government in the UK so badly to just say something. So, it was heartbreaking to see the violence that then followed after. I still believed in all my heart that this people called hoodlums were not part of the protesters. I know the protesters. I know the people that were on the street. We provided, with some other people, flags on the streets. The “red-blooded” flags were ours. That was the flag that’s now popular. It belonged to my friend. We brought it together. And everything was going as planned. And all of a sudden, these looting and all these started. It is heartbreaking.
At first, it felt like we wasted a revolution that could have a blood-less revolution. It felt like a wasted energy and stuff like that. But, looking back now, I think that the point was made. I had strongly clearly speak against the violence. I said, “It shouldn’t go that way. We should speak out and we should be allowed to speak our minds.” Any nation that is going to be a front-line nation in development is going to be built on the fact that people can have constructive arguments and they can build a better nation from there. It is heartbreaking, but I’m still hopeful, Sir.
Let’s talk about the reforms of the police, what do you suggest? Because, part of the campaign also was to get the government to improve the running of the police force. What would be your own idea?
I have always believed in the state police situation. I am one of the believers of state police. Of course, I also understand the arguments against the police, politicians. They might use it against the opponents and stuff like that.
I think it’s still home police. But then again, the people have to be educated about it. And also, there is an area in Ibadan called Sango. Sango has a police barrack there. This police barrack, as far back as twenty-something years ago, is a terrible place to be. Just looking at it from a distance, one can only wonder how long it would take for even the children of those police to have access to… How long it would take to be weaponized by politicians. So, the reform of the police, I think it should be in three-folds. Empowering the police themselves to be financially dependent or comfortable. Also constitution state-governed police that is accountable to the people. Those are the things, I think, that would reform the police. I know Nigeria’s problem is very, very complicated. I understand it. It’s extremely complicated. The bringing together of people are not common, it’s a whole gist on its own. But we can still make it work if we have good leadership with vision.
What would also be your message to the Youths in terms of how far we have gone and what should be the agenda and all of that?
First message would be, we are all heartbroken. We are sad. And like I said at the beginning, I have expressed myself in maybe what people would call Godly and ungodly ways. Because I just didn’t know where to turn to anymore. But, we can not afford to despair. I feel like a change is close to us. I feel like we are at the threshold of something. I think the generation we are in now is destined for change. But I would also say that we can not disconnect from the older generation as well. There is something I read in the Bible. It said, “One generation would speak of your work to the other.” So, it is not going to be a situation of our fathers’ generation failed us. Yes, we would see the things that we are not happy with, but we would need them. We would need those people who have built certain cities in the world, their experience, and with that we would have strength to build a better nation for ourselves. So, it can not be a situation of burn it, destroy it, pull it down, and every other person is not good. No, we can’t do that. If we attempt that, we are not going to go anywhere. But, we all should increase our intellectual capacity so that we can fight right, we can fight with mental resilient. We can fight with humility, opposing things that are wrong. So, I’m saying again to the youth, we should not despair, we should not lose hope. We should continue to work hard. And, as such, we must always look for ways to empower ourselves economically as well. Because we would need it. We would need finances in other to build a new nation.
From your own perspective, what would you call the biggest problem facing Nigeria our dear country?
Nigeria is so complicated. Like I said before, we have about 250 languages. People who have nothing in common, people who do not speak the same language, do not eat the same food. But, we were brought together. And I think God has a role in that. So, I don’t advocate for incisions with birth and all that. Because, by the time some people break away, other people would say we are also breaking away from those who broke away. So, it’s complicated. However, I think the melting point of the nation would still be leadership. Leadership with vision and selflessness. It just has to be that. People buy into things when they see leaders that are truly selfless. We need to go pass politicians leading us. Politicians can not lead us. They can also make their own contribution to nation-building. We need pastors – and I don’t mean pastors in the term of church pastor. We need pastors in the terms of Shepherding – people that can sacrifice themselves for the sake of the community. We need a generation that can understand that because the problems the young people had with our father’s generation is the fact that we became too individualistic too soon. In other words, they just wanted a good life for themselves –nothing wrong with that. They wanted a good life for their children, nothing wrong with that. But that is at the expense of the community.
We have a generation that thought that politics belonged to hoodlums and touts. And now, we, the next generation, we are reaping the effects of that. So, I think we must fight for good leadership that is based on meritocracy. We would have a nation that is based on people’s merits. That people are in a position, not because they are Hausa’s or Igbos or Yorubas, but because they, by track record, can help us. It’s no longer going to be, “Oh, I like that man because he’s a Christian. I like that woman because she’s a Muslim.” No. It’s going to be a Nigeria of ‘what have you done?’ Let us see your track record and let us support you. And leadership would be the way forward, Sir.
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