By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The National Publicity Secretary, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Dr Emmah Gospel Isong, has commissioned a mini-shopping mall at Ikot Enebong, the host community to his church, at 8 Miles, Calabar metropolis.
Isong, founder of Christian Central Chapel International, CCCI, a.k.a Faith Mansion, World Headquarters Calabar, stated that the shopping mall, which is named after some elders of the church who had passed to the great beyond, but who the leadership of the church still finds it necessary to immotalized them by naming the mini shopping mall after them.
The mini- shopping mall called, ‘Coat of Many Colours Multipurpose Arena,’ is named after the deceased elders for exhibiting capacity and hard work before thier demise would go a long way to motivate those who are still alive to work diligently for the house of God.
The cleric maintained that some percentage of the revenue that acrues as rent from the mini-shopping mall would be shared to the deceased families.
Among the legends whose memories were immortalized by the cleric include: Andy Bassey, Wisdom Anthonio, Bassey I. Uyah, Madam Frazer, Victoria Okon Snr, and Arit Nyong Bassey; with certificates issued to families of deceased.
Isong charged the community residents to align with God if they were interested to experience a turn around in every of their human endeavours.
Drawing a Biblical inference from the Holy Bible in Proverbs 10:7, in a sermon delivered at the premises of the shopping mall, where he had a prayer session before commissioning the shopping mall, the banker-turned-preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ stressed that the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Isong, who could not mention the exact figure that the mini-shopping mall gulped, charged Nigerian pastors not to forget the people who had assisted them to fame, notwithstanding whether they were alive or had passed on to join their creator.
He said, “Let’s not see the pulpit as the only place to influence people. Bring a platform like this, to make small scale businesses to grow. Lets try to remember people that served the church for more than a decade.
“Let people not see us as people who used and dumped our followers. Even in death they should be remembered.
“Let us try to keep those memories alive since they were the ones that kept our churches alive.
“Pastors should give back to the community, give back to the membership.”
On his source of motivation for establishing a mini-shopping mall, rather than focusing attention on the gospel, the cleric said, “Because I live in the village with my people, and see the way they suffer each time they want to shop, particularly during the raining seasons where they go some kilometers away from where they reside just to shop even when it is raining.
“I decided to build this shops so that they can pick the goods at almost no cost just close to where they reside; to me, part of this burden of having to go very far to shop would have been taken off.”
In the same vein the Cross River State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Barr. Rosemary Archibong, who described business as a veritable tool towards prosperity urged youths of the community not to relent in setting up small and medium scale enterprises, which if nurtured properly is likely to catapault them into big time entrepreneurs.
