How A Homeless Man Turned General Overseer Of A Nigerian Pentecostal Church

How A Homeless Man Turned
General Overseer Of A Nigerian
Pentecostal Church
The story of Apostle Chibuzor Gift Chinyere,
General Overseer of Omega Power Ministry
Worldwide (OPM) is likely to provide the needed
tonic that will ginger you to call the bluff of life’s
challenges and succeed.

The clergyman’s life experience and eventual
journey to the top is also likely to serve as a
spinal transplant for those who have lost the
backbone of focus and determination.
Incidentally, his church also holds out hope for
the less privileged including prostitutes to acquire
skills that will enable them live decent lives.
Up till 2004, Apostle Chinyere whose church rates
as one of the largest in Rivers State, lived in the
valley of life. For years, he lived under the bridge
at the Ogudu area of Ojota in Lagos. Later, he
moved to Diobu, generally regarded as Port
Harcourt’s Ajegunle.

Within that same period, he eked out living from
selling GSM re-change cards.
By dint of divine touch and handwork, Apostle
Chinyere now shepherds hundreds of thousands
of faithfuls and has left no avenue unexplored to
give hope to the hopeless.
In recent years, his church has spread the gospel
of hope to the shanties of Port Harcourt, Prison
yards and brothels within and outside the Rivers
State capital.

The Christian organization runs free computer
programmes for less privileged slum dwellers,
prison inmates and prostitutes. This is aside the
free schools and other skill acquisition schemes
of the church for its members and non-members
alike.

Speaking recently at the graduation of about 120
persons who went through its five-month
Diploma Course in computer and Information
Technology organized for residents of Bundu
Waterfront, one of the Port Harcourt slums, the
clergyman said his heart goes to the poor
because he was one of them.

“I want to touch the lives of the less privileged. I
was living under the bridge, an ordinary re-
charge card seller. I have real feelings for the less
privileged and that is why I want to empower
them.

“Since God did it for me, I believe he would make
some others very great. We are doing what we do
for those who cannot pay back”.
Apostle Chinyere told Daily Sun that the church
chose Bundu Waterside because it is populated
by the less privileged.

“There is high level poverty there. I will not do it
in GRA because people in GRA have money to go
to school. “Go there (Bundu) and see how people
are living. People live near waterside, inside
shanties. I feel for them, having remembered how
I was some years ago, and wish to give them the
best of computer education.

“For sustainability of the programme, we have
given many of them employment. We have so
many Chief Executives in the church and we have
referred so many of the beneficiaries of the
programme to places to work. So, as we speak
with these employers, they employ them”.
The OPM General Overseer explained that the
various empowerment programmes of the church
are open to members and non-members of the
church. He advised the youth within and around
the state to avail themselves of the programme
and become gainfully employed.

He assured that although the various
programmes gulp several millions of Naira, the
church would not be deterred.
“The challenges are so much because the project
runs into millions of Naira but we won’t stop.
“We have even gone ahead to offer 26
scholarships in Abia State. A few days ago, the
church offered another 36 scholarships, one
recipient from each of the 36 States of the
Federation to study to any level in the university”.
He frowned at the high school fees being charged
by many educational institutions owned by
religious organizations in the country and
accused the church of contributing far below
expectation to national development.
“A lot of churches have not done enough. If you
look around, you will find some churches that
build schools and their fees are unbelievably too
high for the poor.

“That is why OPM started building schools. We
give them school uniforms, free books and they
don’t pay school fees. They just come to school
and learn”.