Dunamis: The Church Should Be Doing Better Than Governments

By Taiwo Adisa, PhD

I was quite elated to see the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, stand beside the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre (DIGC), Dr Paul Enenche, and his wife, Dr Becky Enenche, as they cut the tapes signalling the commissioning of the pedestrian bridge built by the church on the 10-lane Abuja Airport Road on Friday, 30 October.

The church had applied for approval to construct the bridge on the prime Abuja Road, as far back as 2018. The then minister did not work on the file until it was brought to Wike’s attention. An equally elated Enenche, a medical doctor who should know the value of life, told the gathering that the bridge was built out of “love and commitment to impact” the community.

He said: “God is love. To be a messenger of God means to be a messenger of love. Love is about what we give, not what we get. We may make a living by what we get, but we make a difference by what we give. Our impact is more important than our income.

“Posterity and what we are remembered for is more important than prosperity. We are remembered not for wealth, possessions or accumulated resources, but for the problems we solve and the contributions we make.”

Wike, who also expressed his happiness at commissioning such an intervention from a church, said it was important that the church was setting a good example. He praised the “exemplary model of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” on display by the church.

Wike said: “Government cannot do everything alone; there is nowhere in the world where government carries every burden. That is why we emphasise comprehensive social responsibility.

“You have carried out what we call corporate social responsibility. Instead of utilising these resources elsewhere, you sacrificed for the welfare and safety of the people.”

The feat performed by Pastor Enenche’s church could pass as one of those things churches routinely do, but I regard this as a significant step in nation-building. The Abuja Airport Road is not just a busy corridor; it is a massive 10-lane road which ordinarily should look unthinkable to cross without a pedestrian bridge. Yet residents of Airport Road have been coping with this near-impossible mission since the road was opened in 2010. Without a pedestrian bridge, a sane person would easily write off any attempt to cross from one side to the other as a sure suicide mission.

Drivers regularly observe countless pedestrians who practise this attempted suicide daily. With the launch of the DIGC on the Lugbe corridor, traffic became more intense, and more people needed to cross the busy road into the Dome, the church’s iconic building on the Airport Road.