Governor Akpabio Invites Bishop Oyedepo For Christmas Carol Night.

Bishop David Oyedepo, General Overseer of Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, has accepted to be the guest preacher in this year’s Akwa Ibom Government Christmas Carol Night, which will feature 9,999 choristers from the 31 local government areas of the state.

National and international music stars will also feature at the event. Bishop Oyedepo, who dropped this hint at a breakfast meeting with Governor Godswill O. Akpabio in Uyo, was responding to an earlier invitation the governor extended to him.
This year’s carol night is slated for Saturday December 21, and will hold at Uyo Township Stadium. Akpabio is expected to officially flag off the event.

Meanwhile, a cross section of prominent Akwa Ibom people have lent their voices to the continued hosting of the yearly event.

Speaking with correspondents in Uyo, Bishop Cletus Bassey, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Akwa Ibom chapter, described 9,999 a divine arrangement by God to showcase a people, who has always known how to praise Him.

He noted that sometimes people don’t understand how much people before today used to praise God, saying that God has used 9,999 to showcase that attitude, a nature that Akwa Ibom people had imbibed within the culture and in our expression of love for God.

Bassey posited that 9,999 has come to stay because it is something that broken the world record as per the number of people coming together at one place at one time to worship God, recalling that in other parts of the world, people have carnival and all kinds of thing are being displayed, but the governor came and decided to take a detour from the traditional way of doing Christmas to when God is being put at the centre of the year.

Dr. Sylvanus Ukafia, Chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Akwa Ibom Chapter, and General Overseer, Insight Bible Church, speaking on the significance of the event, remarked that given the number of people who are exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ last year, the number of people that made up the decision to commit their lives to Christ, a lot more can be measured, a lot more can be rated in terms of policy and impact.

The clergyman was of the opinion that the event should continued after the Akpabio administration, explaining that it is an avenue to preach the gospel. “What will you gain if you gain the whole world and lose your soul.

“Whatever brings spiritual enlightenment, whatever brings people from darkness into light, we need to pursue all along”.

Dr. Anthonia M. Essien, Head of Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, University of Uyo, described the carol as a wonderful and worthwhile venture, having such a large number sing praises to God, recalling that the first time she watched, she was thrilled and thanked God for Akpabio for such a good sight of getting us to sing praises to God.

Essien, Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion in the university, congratulated Akpabio on his foresightedness in bringing about the programme and called for sustenance of the event by successive administrations in the state, inviting people from other states to join in heralding the event, because praises could move mountains and barriers.

Dr. Johnson Akpakpan, a lecturer in the Department of Music in the university, described the programme as a great innovation and a good feat by the people of Akwa Ibom State, saying from the music perspective, it is not quite different even though 100 people sing together, but when 9,999 people sing together in one singular performance, the result is that the intensity of sound will be quite different from having 200 or 500 people singing together.

Director of Protocol to the Governor, Aniekpeno Mkpanang, hinted that his team has raised a 200-man band Ibom Choral and Orchestra comprising a 100-man classical mass choir, a 50-man orchestra choir, 35 singers, 10 instrumentalists and 10 lead singers as well as Akwa Ibom Voices to sing as ensemble comprising Aity Dennis Inyang, Pastor Goody Goody, Folake Umosen, Linda Etukudoh, Fadabasi, Freke Umoh and Nathaniel Bassey. Others are AKSG Choir and Unity Brass Band.

Also expected, include national and international music stars such as Israel Houghton, a US internationally recognised worship leader, recording artiste, song writer, producer and a five-time Grammy Award winner and Lionel Peterson, a world renowned South African Gospel legend famous for mega gospel hits, will sing at the event.

Others are Sinach, an international worship leader of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Believers Love-World Incorporated, also known as Christ Embassy International, notable for over 200 songs;  Frank Edwards, a Nigerian exceptional, versatile and multiple award-winning gospel rock artiste and one of the music ambassadors of Christ Embassy International Church as well as National Choir of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and Guest appearance from West Indies.