Founder and Senior Pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Sam Adeyemi, has revealed the reasons behind his relocation to the United States of America. He said this during a virtual interview with Seun Okinbaloye on his programme ‘Mic On’ podcast, where the duo discussed Leadership Beyond Governance Politics and the Role of the Younger Generation in Nigeria.
The video, lasting one hour, thirty minutes, and forty-seven seconds, was streamed on the Mic On YouTube channel on Sunday. Earlier this year, Adeyemi explained why the older generations of Nigerians must put their act together and make Nigeria work. He said it was important for the older generations, including the political and religious leaders, to retrace their steps and get the country working because the younger generation would soon begin asking questions.
Adeyemi revealed that COVID-19, EndSARS protests, and, notably, troubling dreams about Nigeria, prompted the relocation. He said, “When COVID-19 started, all our children were in the US, so everyone stayed with their families. We stayed with our children. The week services resumed when EndSARS started, so we were preparing to return to Nigeria.
“When the EndSARS protests ended in violence, we stayed back a bit. When we were ready to return to Nigeria, a different experience altogether happened. My wife had a dream in which she travelled to Nigeria and returned to the US, which was a bad dream. I told her I wouldn’t say I liked this dream.
“Three days later, I had a dream. We both travelled to Nigeria in my dream, and I was in a big fight. I was being attacked violently, and I had to ask the Holy Spirit in my heart what to do. He said I should call the name of Jesus Christ. I shouted ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ in the dream and didn’t realise I shouted out loud in real life.”
The gospel preacher and motivational speaker, who hails from Kogi State but was born in Niger State added that whenever they plan to return to the country, a bad dream brings a setback. “My wife woke me up at 2:00 a.m. by hitting me and asking what was going on. We decided to take it seriously, especially considering a dream we had three days earlier.
“We prayed fervently, sensing danger. Three hours later, I fell back asleep and had another dream. We were in Nigeria this time, and I was in a fight,” he added. The president of Success Power International, an NGO that specialises in organising leadership, financial, and motivational seminars, revealed that whenever they (he and his wife) set dates and booked flights to return to Nigeria, he would have a bad dream about something terrible happening to him there (Nigeria). He further stated that he had never experienced two dreams about the same event in one night.
“A few days later, we called family members in Nigeria, and one person said, ‘I’m feeling very uncomfortable about you travelling to Nigeria.’ We called another family member who said, ‘I feel uncomfortable about you coming. What is going on?’ We just turned and looked at each other, pondering the situation. Then I said, ‘You know what? I’ve been a Christian for 40 years.’
“At this point, if God is speaking to me, I should have an idea that it is God speaking. Something is going on. I don’t know what it is, but I want to pray more. And at that point, we called a meeting of all the leaders in Daystar Christian Centre—the top 120 leaders on Zoom.”
The President of Success Power International noted that he informed the elders of Daystar about the situation, and they agreed to keep the church running. “They said you’ve never deceived us before. If God asks you to stay, stay as long as He directs. We’ll continue this journey,” he asserted.
The host of the radio and television ‘Success Power’ programme heard and seen in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East said he and his wife stayed in the US after the church leaders’ Zoom meeting.
“Six months later, we were still in the US for one year, tearing me apart. I discovered that, until COVID-19, I’d been out of Nigeria for eight weeks. To now be away when you had the church with 40,000 members,” he noted.
He added that the experience in the US highlighted Daystar’s strengths, including investments in training and established systems.
“I’m passionate about building systems so the church does not collapse. It is fantastic, and we call it an organisational miracle. It was almost three years before we had the Holy Spirit’s clearance to return to Nigeria.
“But what eventually the Holy Spirit would tell me was that he wanted me to shift my focus from just being the pastor of a local church to that global walk that I had known that I would do. So right now, the focus shift is to do that global walk while we keep Daystar running, leveraging technology.”
