Reginald Washington felt at home in Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, except for his being grilled over the phone while trying to retrieve money from his USA bank accounts. “My credit card can’t work in Nigeria. My bank can’t send me money because I’m in Nigeria. Yet this country has gold, diamonds, oil, countless resources. They make huge money from Nigeria, but won’t do business here. That’s unfair”, he averred.
He wants to change that situation by first reworking the minds of young people. That is what brought him to Ritman University (RU). Dr. Reginald Washington is founder, Kingdom of God Ministries International, California, USA and Kingdom Ambassadors for Christ Nigeria.
His mission in Nigeria includes community intervention projects, education, relieving widows and less fortunate people, as well as preaching God’s word. He plans to start a secondary school where values and entrepreneurship would be elements of the learning process. His ministries’ ultimate objective is to empower communities to solve their problems.
Washington, who is also a businessman and farmer, told RU students that Nigeria has a lot to offer to the rest of the world, in spite of negative perceptions abroad. He believes the younger generation of Nigerians can change that negative image.
In a seminar titled Destiny and Purpose in Life for the Young, on 12 February 2019, Washington urged students to avoid sex before marriage and aim to solve problems because people are willing to pay them for their ideas. He said purpose-driven people do not hang out at midnight with the wrong crowd.
In rethinking purpose, the speaker pointed out that movie stars and millionaires commit suicide not because they do not have money but for not knowing who they are.
He urged RU students to be proud of their roots because God had good reason to make them black and Nigerian. He said that just as apartheid made Nelson Mandela’s birth necessary and racial segregation threw up relevance for Martin Luther King jnr, the problems in our generation are raw material for the greatness of those who can convert problems to opportunities. And the bigger the problem, the bigger the payout.
Nigeria has a lot of opportunities for people to become wealthy, he opined, adding that the next great author, surgeon or governor could be in that audience at RU College Auditorium. He noted that fear is a major hindrance to many. And that fear, made into an acronym would be False Evidence Appearing Real. He challenged the youths to think about creating refineries for Nigeria or developing their nation into a place where one would find no power generators and can access the internet even in a local library or restaurant.
“God gave Adam a tree. If he wanted a chair or house, he had to pull down that tree” he concluded.
Edidiong Esara, 12/02/2019
good teachings .from a Sound mind..