NIGERIA - Blind evangelist strives to heal others
24/05/06 - the story of an evangelist in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria
General photos of Nigeria can be found at http://www.opendoorsuk.org/media_photos/nigeria/html/index.htm
Summary:
Dr Bitrus Gani-Ikilama, blind since the age of five, has overcome numerous obstacles to become an honoured physiotherapist, university lecturer, writer and founder of an internationally known centre for the blind. But the best thing that ever happened to him, he says, was becoming a Christian; and his greatest challenge – and satisfaction – comes from being a preacher and evangelist in Muslim-dominated Zaria city in northern Nigeria.
Full story:
Dr Bitrus Gani-Ikilama’s accomplishments would be impressive even if he were not blind. A member of the Society of Physiotherapy in Britain and Nigeria, he has won numerous awards, including Nigeria’s national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and the Nigerian government’s Icon of Hope. He has over ten publications to his credit and has been on a working tour to France, Spain, Britain, Germany, the United States and many African countries. He established a centre for the blind which attracts blind people from around the world.
However, becoming a Christian has been the best thing that has happened to him, he says, and his greatest challenge – and satisfaction – comes from his long-time work as a preacher and evangelist.
For the past 40 years, Dr Gani-Ikilama has been involved in evangelistic outreach to Muslims in northern Nigeria. “I find it very interesting to lead my Muslim patients and colleagues to Christ,” he said. “That hasn’t always been acceptable to the Muslims, especially up this way, in Zaria, but that is my calling.”
Early obstacles
Born on 25 February 1944 in the town of Donga, in Taraba state in northern Nigeria, Dr Gani-Ikilama went blind at the age of five, after contracting measles.
“I went to Sunday school for lack of anything to do, a blind little boy. But there I found memorising verses exciting – at least that was one thing I could do in competition with sighted boys and girls.”
Attending Sunday school opened his eyes to the reality “that I am a sinner bound for hell. That didn’t please me. But not long after that, I discovered that Jesus had taken care of that problem. He died to forgive my sins and promised to take me to heaven, not hell. And that excited me.”
An elder in his village church named Dauda Kwancha led him to Christ. Dr Gani-Ikilama said, “He was also the main instrument God used to send me to school.”
Dr Gani-Ikilama was the first blind child in Nigeria to be enrolled in primary school at the school for blind children in Gindiri, a mission station in Nigeria’s Plateau State, in 1955, and also the first blind teenager to attend the Boys' Secondary School in Gindiri. He went on to attend the School of Physiotherapy, Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK, from 1963 to 1967.
Education beyond books
Besides studying physiotherapy in London, Dr Gani-Ikilama became a member of a Baptist church. “That church gave me the opportunity to be involved in evangelising and witnessing in London,” he said. While there, he was also a member of the 4,000-strong choir that sang at a Billy Graham crusade.
He returned to Nigeria after completing his studies to begin his practice at a teaching hospital in 1967. Again he encountered obstacles. Potential employers were not sure a blind man could work as a physiotherapist.
“I remember in my first employment in Lagos, the British administrator thought I couldn’t work because I was blind,” he said. “I laughed.” When the man asked why, Dr Gani-Ikilama responded, “I trained in your country – if I am qualified to practise in London, why not in Lagos?’ He didn’t like what I said, but he employed me.”
Ministry
At the hospital, Dr Gani-Ikilama was part of a Christian fellowship that witnessed throughout the city. “We divided the city of Lagos between us in order to do street evangelism,” he said, which had good results. He also started a gospel music group, the Medic Melodies, made up of staff and students at the hospital. “It was part of our effort at evangelising,” he said. Their debut album, 'The Challenge of Our Time,' became a best-seller in Nigeria.
After six years in Lagos, the physiotherapist/pastor/evangelist moved to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria city, Kaduna state. He worked there for 30 years, until his retirement in 2002. He still lives in the Muslim-dominated state and has contact with former patients and colleagues.
In Zaria, the Lord called Dr Gani-Ikilama to minister to the blind, enabling him to establish the Hope for the Blind centre in 1976. In Nigeria, more than 2 million people are blind, he said. “Soon after we started, we got requests from all over Africa, from as far away as Egypt and Zimbabwe, and from other places like Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.” He added that the centre has helped to bring Muslims and pagans to Christ.
Still, Christian ministry in the sharia (Islamic law) state of Kaduna is challenging – greater than living with blindness:
“The restriction on our religious liberties and that of freedom to speak out against persecution is the hallmark here,” Dr Gani-Ikilama said. The restrictions, he said, come not from government policy but an Islamic government supportive of longstanding attacks by Muslim extremists on Christian outreach.
Such attacks occurred in 1987 when a member of Dr Gani-Ikilama’s fellowship in Zaria city held a crusade in Kafanchan town. Muslims attacked Christians at the crusade ground. The violence spread to neighbouring towns where Christians were killed and churches torched. “In Zaria city alone, 103 churches were burnt," he recounted.
Persecution of Christians in northern Nigeria has reached such levels, Dr Gani-Ikilama said, that churches and Christians urgently need to be strengthened. “I have found that the space [in northern Nigeria] is wider, the people more diverse, and the need to strengthen the churches through teaching and preaching is even greater here.”
Opposition increasingly takes the form of efforts to cover up the persecution, he said.
But Dr Gani-Ikilama is quick to point out that, “though we face Muslim opposition, this should not be an obstacle to reaching Muslims.”
“Right now, you have to weigh every word you say, whether you are preaching or in a conversation privately, so as not to offend any Muslim sensibilities,” Dr Gani-Ikilama said in his Zaria home. “The challenge is greater, but the reward is greater too.”
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