You once said you thought you were finished when your husband died. How exactly did you mean?
I knew late Archbishop Benson Idahosa when I was young and we were friends for eight years before we got married. He was not only my husband, he was my brother, my friend and a confidant. In addition to these, he was my bishop and archbishop. When he died I was in a confused state and honestly I didn't know where to begin and what the future held for me. I thought to myself after the burial I would just recline to myself. By then my children were all abroad and I said I would be staying with them one after the other and then come over to Benin to see how the ministry is being run. But God who knows the heart of man directed my path to where I am today.
When my husband was alive I was with him and the best I could do was to encourage him and pray for him. I was a great supporter of his vision. So when he died I just wanted to remain in my cocoon. But God had a different plan for me.
You were 55 years when he died. How easy was it for people to accept you then?
As a matter of fact when I was called the day I was ordained as bishop I thought they called me just to pray for me. I came out and the Archbishop who ordained me said he did not confer with flesh and blood that Holy Spirit had directed him to do what he wanted to do and he said that the Spirit of God had instructed him to ordain me as a bishop. When he made that declaration there was a thunderous response from the audience.
Before then I must confess that my mind was not in ministry. But to my greatest surprise there was a great acceptance of the ordination. But honestly I was not looking forward to it and after a while I had to go and pray and God spoke to me and said he had called me and he would give me the enablement and the strength to do the task that has been set before me. And I said okay God it is a deal. And I said let us try. If I'm successful fine and if I do not then God would understand. Before the funeral ceremony of my husband God has spoken with a lot of people about who succeeds him
I recall that when my husband was alive he used to travel a lot and there were times he took people out for lunch in some of the countries he went to and those people were used to asking him questions. One of the questions by one of his friends was whether he was preparing somebody to take over from him and he said was not preparing anybody because the anointing breaks the yoke and that anybody who had the anointing would definitely be put in place. But he said I think my wife will fit into my shoes. Somebody brought the video and we watched it. As a woman I look and watch and conclude and I take matters to God and I tell God if it is not your will delete it. There was a general acceptance of my person when I was ordained and God has been helping us in the ministry.
What were the things that you did to equip yourself with the task ahead?
What I did was to bring out the constitution of the ministry and I gave it to men that had experience. I wanted them to help me interpret it because people were giving different interpretation and when they did it I was comfortable that I was not usurping anybody's position. And I called all the pastors of the church and said, “our daddy has gone do we want this ministry to go on or it should die with us and majority of them said they wanted the ministry to go on and that was how we started working.
What were the initial challenges about the issue of marriage when your husband died?
There were challenges in this area and I told God that I wanted him to direct my affairs and my life. And I think God heard and He gave me the ability to do what I'm doing now. I had a husband and I enjoyed him and I think there was nobody else that could match up to him. I told God I said, Father I want you to take the desire for another man from me. I never wanted to think about re-marriage. God gave me so much to do that after a hard day's work I just go to bed and sleep. I did not have a desire to marry and I don't have a desire to marry. To be married to who?
Let us look back to the time you married your late husband. Was he already in ministry when you met him?
I met him already called into the ministry. There was a book he wrote called, Fire in his bones. Everything about his life is in that book. And those are the things I know about him. And he kept saying to me that I should focus my attention on God. He said when he gave his life to Christ a lot of things happened and that God showed him some visions. In one of the visions God showed him a big dry tree with branches that had no leaves but it has branches and God put him under the tree. When he lifted up his eyes he saw an old woman carrying a huge load and he got up from under the tree to help that woman to where he was going and there was a tiny leaf on the three after he had rendered the help and he opened his eyes he saw another person and he helped the person and there was another leaf on the tree. The more he helped the more the tree had leafs. And God told him that the more he helped people the more he will get protection and shade. Some of his
mentors when he was alive were TL Osborn, Godorn Lidson and Pa Elton.
Benin is said to be a peculiar place. How was it doing ministry in Benin?
When you are called of God and God gives you the boldness you can withstand anything. When God called him to Benin City for fourteen days he went round Benin City praying and he walked round praying and asking God to take the city for the gospel. Benin was so bad that if a native doctor told you that you would die by 2 o clock there is nothing you can do about it except you run to Christ because that thing will surely happen. When my husband finished the fourteen days marathon praying round the city he started a small fellowship with students all over the the place. Those that he started with then have become pillars in ministry work.
God used my husband to demonstrate the power of the living God. He brought courage to bear on the work and God used him to liberate a lot of people around the world during his time.
We heard stories of how he defied the witches in Benin. There was a time the Oba of Benin gave instructions that nobody should come out but he did not heed to call. All this while were you not scared?
I was scared for his life and he would tell me, honey I want you to be at the same pace with me. I can't say yes to God and you are dragging me back because of your unbelief and he will tell me let us be on the same terrain with God and see what God will do. So I had to believe his belief. I said to myself if he believes and since I'm his wife I'm acting on his belief. And that was it. A lot of things happened then. There was a time the witches were going to hold conference in Benin and he went on air and I said there was no way they could hold meeting where he was and he said the meeting would not hold. And it didn't hold even when the chief priest had threatened that it would hold. There was a time the Oba of Benin died and there was an order that every man in Benin should shave their heads and he said there was no way the living should shave hair for the dead; that we grow our hair for the living. He told all church members not to comply with the
order and they didn't but those in the palace were not happy. They did the burial ceremony of the Oba for seven days and they pronounced death on those who did not comply with the directive and particularly my husband and gave him seven days to live. But he did not die. He only died when God said it was time for him to leave the scene and that was many years after the incident.
How comfortable are the obas with him?
The present Oba has become our friend. As a matter of fact he is my uncle because I'm from the royal family. My husband also from the royal family. So, before my husband died he became the friend of the Oba. Up till now we are friends to the Oba.
What were the things he had a mind to do that he did not do?
I don't think there was anything he wanted to do that he didn't do. He died in March. In February he called me and said, Margaret, I think I have done everything God had asked me to do and I said it is because we were still in February and that because he had not traveled. I said he needed to travel and if he did that he would come back with a fresh idea. And he said he would travel in March and that he will be by himself and will not interact with anybody. I was abroad when he died I was planning to travel that night to Nigeria when the report came that he had gone home. That to me was a great shock. Before he died had preached a message on death. He preached a message titled the benefit of death and he preached so hard and made death so useless. He made it clear to us that he had finished the work God gave him in that message.
He is referred to as father of Pentecostalism in Nigeria. What do you make of what is going on in PFN now?
When he came on the scene ministry work was not a joke. It was hard. It was difficult. Even the orthodox churches waged war but he stood his ground. He cleared the land for all of us. Many years ago it was a taboo for women to hold the microphone not to talk of preaching in the church but he encouraged us to move in the spirit of God. He encouraged us to preach and asked us to do the work. That was the last message he preached to the women. He preached also at the Bible School before he went to lunch with a team from Oral Robert University. He gave instruction to all the members of the team and they were all glued to him after a while a gentle breeze was blowing and everybody set their gaze on him and he was saying thank you Jesus and those on the table thought he was praying and they all closed their eyes and started saying thank you Jesus along with him but suddenly they did not hear anything again and one of the team members opened his eyes and found
out that Archbishop was gone. They tried all they could to revive him but he was gone. He was not sick. He never had high blood pressure. He was never down. Each time we came back from foreign trips doctors were always there to take our blood pressure. I was the one that was the sick one. Even the doctors were surprised that he died because he was not sick at all.
How did the children receive the news?
All the children were in school when he died. I was in America and the children were in London. So one of our friends told our eldest child that I was on the way to meet him. We met and we held hands and cried at the airport in London. We didn't mind who was looking at us. My first daughter was in law school in Britain too. I called her and said she should tell her lecturer that her father had just died and that she should come. My two daughters in America also had to come and they all cried. I believe everything that God asked him to do he did. He said he had done all what God wanted him to do.
What would you have to say about his spiritual children; are they really preserving the legacy of the man?
You know when he was there everybody was all over him. Most of them showed concerned when he died. But some of them have relented in their show of concern. Some of them see me once in a while but bishop Oyedepo and his wife have never left us, Bishop Ado and a lot of them have kept the fellowship and even Bishop Ossa Oni. But I'm not offended that some of them are not coming over because I know they have been busy. They are busy and I am busy the work of the kingdom has to be done. Nobody should be offended that he is not being visited because the work is much and the time is short.
How do you feel being the first ordained female Archbishop in Africa?
I don't know how it came. For many years I belong to different Christian bodies but in the last ten years I have been functioning in the position of Archbishop and the bodies that I belong to said it was time to recognize me. I don't feel the difference but I feel the responsibility. And I have asked God to give me the ability to perform and do what I'm called to do and see and hear the hurt of those around me.
What is your interpretation of the state of the nation?
I'm not a politician. But I think that the crisis we are experiencing is what has been caused by those in leadership position. At about 2005 God spoke to me that there was a need to go into all the areas of human endeavours with a view to sanitizing what is going on in all these areas of concern and we have been doing that as a church.
What do you make of disaster happening around the world?
Disaster will always come but I think it is one of the signs of the end time but not the main sign and when it comes I believe that those who are alive should help the victims and that is why we take seed offering to help victims all over the world like the Haiti case and that of Tsunami. Disasters happen everyday around us. When it comes we should always help.
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