FULGA AT 60: “OUR FOUNDATION IS OUR STRENGTH”
Apostle Otoabasi Asuquo, PhD. is a man of multiple grace. An entrepreneur, author, fitness coach, educationist, pastor, politically exposed person and the President of Full Gospel Assembly (FULGA), a frontline Pentecostal denomination clocking 60 this August. Apostle Otoabasi is a scion of the old block in multifaceted approach to life’s pursuit. His father, late Donald Asuquo, was one of the most enterprising men in this side of the world. His entrepreneurial acumen enabled him to take on many fronts successfully. Besides being a deeply devoted prayer warrior, a revivalist and spiritual bulldozer who leveraged his gifts to radically transform the jungle of Ibiono Ibom into a hub that attracted people of all walks of life, including politicians who sought counsel and direction from him.
Late Senior Apostle Donald Etim Asuquo was a visionary leader who established long lasting human development fronts. His footprints are found today in schools, hospitals, farms and transportation businesses he founded. What a legacy he has bequeathed his first son, Apostle Otoabasi Asuquo, who is married to Engr. Emem Otoabasi Asuquo and blessed with four lovely children. To perpetuate his legacies, his son, Apostle Dr. Otoabasi Asuquo, has curated his pathfinding works in a compendium titled, Donald Asuquo.
The 60th anniversary celebration of FULGA provided a rare opportunity to speak with Apostle Dr. Otoabasi Asuquo. To our delight, despite his elevated status, the Apostle has remained humble, relatable and nerving.
Though he has been to many cities of the world, yet he lives in the village, where the operational headquarters of FULGA is located. A true follower of the vision of this father, Otoabasi would move the ancient landmark but has opted to sustain and build on the foundation laid by his father. Since the mantle of leadership of FULGA fell on him twenty- three years ago, he furthered cohesion, oneness of purpose and passion for service amongst the leadership cadre.
This is why FULGA at 60 has not lost her saltiness as a spiritually vibrant mission, raised to liberate souls from the vestiges of obscurity and clutches of darkness. Today, FULGA proudly stands tall as a beacon of hope, brightening communities and raising the foundations of many generations. Quest Inspirational spoke with Dr. Otoabasi Asuquo on FULGA at 60. Excerpts:
Full Gospel Assembly is 60. How do you reflect on the journey so far?
Full Gospel Assembly (FULGA) has a history of what I would call the founding testament and the continuing testament. We cannot discuss the continuing testament without a recourse to the founding testament. The character behind the founding testament was my late father, late Senior Apostle Donald Etim Asuquo, who lived from 1932 to 2002; God used him in many wonderful ways for which we are still benefiting till this day.
The church started during a 40-day fasting and prayer exercise embarked upon by my late father. It was a marathon fast for 40 days and nights; no food, no water. My father was known for making some daring and unprecedented moves at the time. This historic fasting was just one of his legacies. To avoid distractions during this prolonged fasting, he left his house for the church for those 40 days and nights and on the 38th day, he passed on, gave up the ghost. People began to pour water on him, praying, crying and shouting and the good Lord in His infinite mercy, after two hours, brought him back to life.
This is the point that normally gives me goose pimples, that as he woke up into a pool of water around him, and all the effort to massage him to be revived, when he mentally came up back to life, on the 38th day, he did not stop the fasting, he continued up to the 40th day, before he broke the fast and it bothers me because if I were to be a mature boy at that time, I would have told him, ‘Daddy, please don’t die and leave me, you have done it, stop it now.” But he waited till the 40th day to break the fast; that was what gave birth to the Full Gospel Assembly in 1965.
So, the church was built on the foundation of strong spirituality and God has been very, very wonderful to us since then. We grew from one branch church, two branches, three branches, until his demise in the year 2002, by the time he passed, the church had expanded to over 120 branches in Nigeria, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, people came to him from all parts of the world. At his passing, God made me to succeed him, though I didn’t want to do this work, I wanted to run away.
It wasn’t what I planned, it was what God wanted, I now know why God asked me to do it. From 2002 to this date, we have grown to 182 branches, God has been wonderful. We left our first location and opened a new, larger, bigger location here.
What can you remember about him that is so strong in your memory?
Two things. Spirituality and relationship: my father had a very strong spiritual endowment: he was gifted in vision, prophecy, prayers and the word. My father was friendly and humble. He related with the high, the middle, the low and the very low; he lived with them, and that also made the people to come around him. My father lived with about 120 people in this compound at a time, directly feeding from him. So, I strive, I pray God for the grace to walk in those footsteps, because they were no mean feats, for man, it’s impossible but with God, all things are possible, God is helping me.
Does the Full Gospel Assembly continue in the same foundation of fasting laid by your late father and founder?
Oh! Yes, In fact every year as a matter of dogma, we start 40days fasting from 1st of July to 30th of August, we do fast every day. As God gives you ability, you key into the fasting season. Some people do Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, some people do only Thursday. It’s a flexible fasting and prayer season and I didn’t make it flexible, my father made it flexible. He is the only one in this Church that embarked on 40 days dry fasting. He didn’t ask anybody else to do 40 days again. So, we encourage people to fast according to their ability and it is sustained till date. So, 30th of August this year would make us 60th of the series of fasting celebrations.
You didn’t want to become a preacher or interested in running the ministry. Why were you running away from taking on the mantle?
It’s a long story. I wanted to be Otoabasi first before being FULGA. I was afraid that the FULGA big umbrella will consume the Otoabasi in me. I said, let the FULGA run its course and let the Otoabasi run its course, we may meet somewhere, that was my thinking. I was a young, thriving guy, playing full-time politics. I still play politics today, but no more full-time. I can tell you, ministry work is not a joke. I saw what my father went through, so I wasn’t ready for it but I didn’t know and I might not have known that it is a different ball game when you are clearing a forest to cultivate: you do a lot of felling of trees in the process thorns may give you scars but when you get into a farm, get into what I would call crop planting, it’s easier than the times of bush or trees felling. Forest clearing was what my father did; those experiences made me afraid because of what my father went through.
My father confronted so many ungodly practices, like Ekpo masquerade culture, likewise ekpe and other traditional societies and fetish practices. Those were things you dared confront then, because it was like embarking on a suicide mission. So, these ungodly traditional worshippers were attacking also, some of them who embraced the Gospel burnt their traditional worship paraphernalia and fetish worship items. Those who members of occult and secret societies, burnt their relics. So, as idol worshippers were burning their articles of traditional worship before my father, there were backlashes. Those backlashes got me scared, making me unease but the Lord had already prepared me for the work He has given me. He’s a faithful God, I enjoy His presence a lot, If I had known I wouldn’t have tried to run. I changed my mind now.
Since you accepted the mantle from 2002 till now, how is the work going on in your hands?
Fruitful but of course challenging though. The result, the rewards, the outcome has consumed the pains of the challenges. Our little effort is being divinely rewarded into monumental successes. In membership strength, in branches, in loyalty, in peace. We are one of the most cohesive and peaceful churches of our age, there is no scandal, no fighting, no court case. So God is just being wonderful with me, not that I’m super, what do I know? Who born me? It’s just by the mercies of God.
As a well-known Church, one would have thought that the head pastor should stay in the city but you are in the rural area. What is the reason for that?
My father made attempts twice to leave this village to Uyo and God sent him a message not to go to Uyo, he should stay and make this place a city and he obeyed God. He bought lands in Uyo to move to but God told him, “No, stay here!” And the prophecy of many years has come to pass, with this road that we are seeing here, constructed from Uyo across here, my father saw it over 30 years ago, he said that he saw a road coming from Uyo, and it will be four lanes, he saw that the road came to consume this house, his compound here, so he pushed the road to the left. He didn’t make this prophecy hidden, he said it openly in the church pulpit, that God asked him to push the road from coming into this house to the left of this compound. Then, we didn’t even know what he meant, and it has literally come to pass because that road that we are seeing was to come into this house but it has to be diverted according to the words of his prophecy.
The Bible says in Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
So prophecies are powerful, especially if they come from God. They may tarry, but surely they will come to pass. So, I have no reason to regret being here, the land we have here is so massive with enough space unlike if we were in Uyo, we wouldn’t be able to have such space. So, since God asked Moses not to move to the mountain, God has brought mountain to Moses.
Aside ministry, you’re also involved in fitness and healthy living mentoring; what led you to this?
In my book, Fun In Fitness, I have explained that my father was overwhelmed with the work of God; serving the people, especially those who came to see him from morning till night. My mother would beg him to come and eat, before he would be able to wriggle out of the crowd to eat, It would be like 6 in the evening, since the breakfast he had in the morning and he did that for a long time in his life. I tell people, there is a physical aspect of spirituality, you cannot mix it, you must attain to it. The God that created the spirit also created the flesh and they have laws. The Bible says “for bodily exercise Profiteth little”, my father was not exercising and it affected his agility as he got more matured in age. So, I said, I must learn from my father’s mistakes. As early as I was 20, 22 years, I started exercising, I am 58 now, I have not stopped exercising. I have said in my book, I have had close to 38 solid, uninterrupted years of sustained exercise, Indoors and outdoors but Iprefer outdoors. For indoors, you won’t be able to have friends to encourage or to challenge you, So we do it at Uyo Sports Stadium on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays. It is a big club of over 100 people, very senior men in this town like Senators, lecturers, church founders and I co-ordinate all of them, it’s a big class. So, I now put into paper my experiences about exercise, my gains, and then I did some research to adopt what you can do and what you can get by being fit mentally, physically, alertness, even reproductively, all combined, so, that’s what got me doing this exercise.
