Lead Apostle Geofferey Nwogu has served as a minister for 47 years. He was placed into retirement during a festive Divine Service on 18th December, 2024 by District Apostle Michael Ehrich in Abuja. After the festive Divine Service, one of our correspondents caught up with him with few questions

INTERVIEWER: How do you feel today having served the children of God as the lead Apostle for 12 years
Lead Apostle NWOGU: Thank you so much, I have longed for this day to come and I have prayed for it. You know when you long for something, you pray for it and you receive it you feel fulfilled. Today I feel as if there is pressure that was hanging on me that was now deflected. So there appears to be a kind of serenity in my heart. So I feel very happy; Then looking at the apostles now who are in the active ministry my joy is that the lord will be with them, these are my feelings today.

INTERVIEWER: How were you able to leave your profession as a medical doctor to serve the children of God? *
Lead Apostle NWOGU: At the time I was practicing, I was still very young; today I am 66 years old. At the time I was 30- 30 something practicing medicine I was working all the time and I was so happy to do that and coped with my travels as time went on and so I was able to combine both of them very effectively because I was very young and very strong and so you know time does a lot of things to people as time goes on what you were able to do before and what you can do it’s not possible for you to actually get those things done. So I was able to combine them at the time because God made it possible for me to be very strong, and being in a private set up, Could leave the place and go for the work of God that was the main thing that made me to deviate from government offices/Teaching hospitals where I was to build my own hospital. If you’re in a teaching hospital you can’t be giving excuses every day that you have church, they won’t understand that. So it was possible for me to combine because, I decided to set up a private clinic and then being a young man, it was easy for me to combine.

What were the challenges faced during these years as the Lead Apostle for 5 countries, how were you able to cope? *
It was through prayers and by looking onto Christ and holding onto his teaching. A lot of challenges exist all over the place. One of the greatest challenges I had  was removing a district minister because they went beyond the church standard outside this country. You know, there are three enemies of the gospel when it comes to ministers;

1, A minister is not expected to ted to be found committing adultery and fornication

2, A minister is not expected to be found drunk dabbling with alcohol  A minister should not dabble into the offering of the children of God. The last time I discussed with the Chief Apostle It was in Ghana. It is the end of November when we are together. He told me clear, I was on a table like this. He said, if he finds, any apostle misappropriating one dollar, that day the apostle is removed from the ministry. So one of the challenges I had was I had to cope with removing some ministers from the ministry and while doing it I was not happy to do it but I had to do it because  as my position as a lead apostle those reports were brought to me and actions were expected and they knew what should be done. Also another thing I had to battle with was that in some areas we give some instructions on how things are to be done, by the time we get there it is not done that way. We do not have to blow hot and cold and then think that most people are not the children of God it happens. These are some of the things we must overcome. If Christ ask you I gave my life for you, what have you given for me?. we have to take these things and call the brothers once again to start afresh. So those we are challenges to him because you give instructions they are not done in some areas, there is good news. There are people you tell things once and they do it and when you get there you can only but start singing praises to God but it wasn’t in every place. Lastly, That of ministers in so many places there are areas we don’t have young ministers. The young ones are not interested. I tried to find out what their problem was but it was difficult for me to ascertain what the problem was but many are not interested in taking the ministry so these were the problem and some of the challenges we had.

What are your expectations from your successor? *
Lead Apostle NWOGU: Yeah, you do not recommend a successor or somebody to succeed you if you have not weighed the person. Apostle Paul himself said “Test and see if they are worthy and then allow to do the work”. My expectations of my successor is that he should be able to do better than I did because knowledge has increased and he has a pool of young ministers who can work with him. Now there are many young ones now are becoming aware of the truths of the gospel. And this is  very great. it's a very great asset to the work of salvation, and with that at hand, my expectation of him is that he should do much better than I did because some of us worked under difficult reigns we are not working under the same condition so he should do better. For example I had two countries where French was spoken. In my secondary school days, I was representing my school in French. I came out and dropped it completely. It is more than 40 years I did this. I found myself even Qu'est-ce que c'est is difficult for me to speak but he himself speaks French, so getting there already, the last time I visited, I just came back from there. When the people read the letter, they were so happy. One, they said now and they have somebody they can speak directly to I used to speak to them through interpretations, and you can be rest assured that when you are speaking, it is not everything that will be translated as it spoken. There is dilution even in the gospel preaching so I have the feeling that he will do better. He stands better chance.

How do you plan to spend your retirement from active service? *
Lead Apostle NWOGU: Yeah, that starts today. So how I will start it is that I have a hospital in Jos, I had disposed of it. I  want to reactivate a clinic. At this age, I cannot go to start working in about no government will take you at 60 to 60 something is the age of retirement and I cannot go to a colleague that I want to work for him or something unless we partner. I have to have my own portion. So I will spend this period on number one, I want to continue practicing medicine. That is my profession, it is very important to me once I start it would be good that I have some time to spend there, Visit the sick people and pray with them, visit prisoners and converse with them, going inside into the church, of course, to hear the word. It will be my joy now  to hear from my young ones that you sit down and absorb this thing, when you come down, you begin to give thanks to God, that you have people who will continue to propagate the work. So this is how I feel I will spend this waiting for the return of Christ and practicing medicine these are the two things

Any thought of advice for the future of the church for instance in-between states in the Northern Nigeria? *
Lead Apostle NWOGU: Yes, the Northern Nigeria has a future with the young apostle, he surrounded by these young ones who have foresight and who are willing to work. I see and I pray that the work of salvation here has a very great future. What I am telling you the apostle is that I have a vision in my mind that in the future, if the lord tarries this place will receive another apostle working area. It now depends on how the ministers work together. So this is my vision of the place and by the special grace of God the place will grow and all the bottle necks we have faced will gradually die down and things will change here.

Thank you!