 |
| Rev. Uma Ukpai |
By Nse Peter
A renowned Nigerian clergy, Rev. Uma Ukpai has let out
shocking revelations about his life as a teenager, saying he was ‘already an
established criminal’ at the age of nine.
In an exclusive interview with The Punch newspaper, Uma Ukpai who recently celebrated his 70th
birthday said he didn’t know he would live this long. “In a way, I am grateful
(to God),” he said. “At the age of nine, I was already an established criminal.
I would go to school with a snuff box and if they were teaching a lesson I
didn’t like, I would blow air into the snuff box and the air would carry the
tobacco into the classroom and that would be the end of that lesson. I would
sneeze with everybody and I would cough with everybody. I was very stubborn.
“At the age of 10, my cousin taught me how to
smoke Indian hemp. Anybody with the kind of profile I had is not expected to
live long. If I hadn’t met Christ at the age of 10, I think I would have been
dead by now. I am even shocked that God saved me and I am able to live up to
now. I did so many unprintable things I cannot even say now because of the
shame that goes with them. It never crossed my mind that I would be among those
that would live up till now. It is a pleasant surprise. I am thankful and
grateful to God. It makes me excited and I am fulfilled that I have lived this
long.
“Until I met Christ, I had no dream. If I had
one, it was to eat well, play hard and shock my parents and friends with my
nuisance values. I took delight in surprising people. When I met Christ (my
father had died and then I moved on and joined my uncle in Bori in
Ogoni, Rivers State) a mad man came to our school and pursued everybody. He was
a healthy looking man and he made me wonder if the life of a mad man wasn’t
better than that of a normal person. He came into the school and he was stark
naked. His name was Deco. As people were running away from him in school, God
said to me that I could also make him run away. It was a strange voice that I
heard. I commanded the mad man to roll out of the school. He fell and he rolled
out of the school.”
When asked if his parents didn’t try to discipline him, the
respectable evangelist who lives and runs his Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Ministries
in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said he used to put lizard into his father’s cup of
water as retaliation each time the father flogged him.
“My father never spanked me when everybody was
awake. He would flog me between 2am and 3am. The next day, I would find a good
small lizard and put it inside his cup of water and cover the cup. When he
opened the cup, the lizard or toad would jump out, it was my way of retaliating
for flogging me,” said Rev. Uma Ukpai.
In the interview, the man of God revealed how he
lost his children in a road accident.
The PUNCH: Going down memory lane, there was a time you made a
tough decision where you had to choose to save your wife and not your kids. In
your sober moments, don’t you regret such decision?
UMA UKPAI:
Before the accident that claimed the lives of my kids, God had told me there
would be a day He would not answer my prayer. This was after a big crusade I
conducted in Lagos. God said He would test me. Every man’s faith must be
tested. In that discussion, I told God that he could take away everything from
me but not my wife. I told Him if he would remove my wife, then the pillar that
held the house would collapse. That day, by 5am, an armed robber had broken
into my office and removed every equipment we owned. That same day, they
removed every printing machine I had. I told my wife that might be the day God
had warned me about. Before then, some people had fasted with me and we were
asking God to change His mind. God said no school graduates any man without
testing the man. We left Uyo with two vehicles. I was driving ahead of the
second car. When my driver who was driving the second car got to a very sharp
corner, he stepped on his brake suddenly and the car somersaulted and went into
the river with the roof of the car. My children were in the vehicle. I dived
into the river to save the children and my wife did the same. She knew she
couldn’t swim even up till now. She was drowning behind me. She had been thrown
up six times and it was remaining one more time. I thought if I saved my wife,
my prayer would bring my children back to life. I brought out the children and
I took them inside the car to pray for them. But another vehicle from the
opposite direction drove into that car and smashed the chest of the engine and
the bonnet and the bumper. I remembered that God had said there would be a day
he wouldn’t answer my prayer. I resigned and gave up. The good news is that
since that time, God has given us back all the things we lost. My wife kept
giving birth each year until she got tired of having children. We have replaced
our printing press. We lost three cars that day but God has replaced those cars
10 times over. God said for handling that crisis very well, he would bless me
with 100 angels that would accompany me anywhere I want to go. I made a choice.
I asked God to spare my wife. When a man loses his children, he can weep with
his wife. But when a man loses his wife, he weeps alone. He wouldn’t even want
the children to see his tears. It made sense to me then to save my wife. It
still makes sense to me today even 30 years after.
No comments:
Post a Comment