As Dr. Robert Johnson rolls out the drums to celebrate 70th birthday along with 45th wedding anniversary with a book launch the Ahmadu Bello University- trained veterinary doctor and the general overseer of Kings Mission Centre, Lagos, shares his salvation story; recalling how quite time was part of his secondary school curriculum, and also how he was challenged to start praying immediately for a life partner (wife) shortly after he confessed Jesus Christ at 13 years old about 58 years ago in the below interview with Christian Benefits. Excerpts.
How will you like us introduce you sir?
My name is Robert Abdullahi Johnson from a Christian home. My father was a minister of the gospel. I got to know God quite early while leaving home for secondary school. Then there were only two secondary schools in my area in the east of present Kogi state. One was a government secondary school for the whole of the northern Nigeria; admitting very few students back them.The second was a mission school; Ochaka secondary school named after my village where I got an admission for my secondary education in 1967.
Tell us about the mission secondary school and its impact on your upbringing
The mission secondary school, Ochaka secondary school, was founded by the Qua Iboe Mission; an Irish missionary organisation. Most of the missionaries were ladies and few men. They came through the south east (Akwa Ibom) to the core east and to our area. The school was not supported by government. The missionary organization also started a Teachers college. The secondary school was mission-orientation where we were introduced to having quiet time every morning; whether you were born again or not born again. It was part of the school’s curriculum. By 5.45 a.m every student gets to the class for 20 minutes quite time before going back to do compound cleaning. Thereafter, we would file from our various classes to the assembly hall where we read the scriptures, sang the hymns and said then prayers and then filed back to start classes by 8a.m.
Will you say this daily routine paved the way for your salvation encounter?
The reason why I gave this background is because of those who were not fortunate to have the type of background I had. In 1968 in my second year in the secondary a friend of mine lost his dad. And for the first time I started questioning, what goes on when people leave this earth? Where do they go hereafter? I began to having a very serious thinking about life and death. That same weekend on February 2, 1968 precisely we also had an evening service in the school. We were divided into groups where people were called to give testimonies about been born. Those who were (born again) gave testimonies. Though I came from a Christian home; involved in school mission activities I didn’t have those kinds of stories to tell. I had served Jesus and sung about him but personal confession was what I lacked. I told a white missionary lady that I had heard about hell and heaven; heard about how Jesus came to die for us but had not come to a personal confession like the people that had just spoken. Nobody wants to go to hell. If accepting Jesus as my Lord and saviour will not take me to hell, why not I confess him? So, that night they led me in the sinner’s prayer. I pin-point to that day as when I was born again.
Subsequently, what happened next shortly after you got born again?
After been born again we were told there would be a necessity for us to have water baptism. We had a stream flowing behind the school where water baptism was conducted. We were put through six weeks baptismal class; thereafter we were immersed in water as water baptism. That was how my walk with Jesus Christ formally and genuinely started about 58 years ago next February 2, 2026.
What were some the factors that boosted your growth in the faith as a young convert?
My rebirth story may be slightly different from that of some other brethren out there. As soon as we became born again the people nurturing us in the Lord put some challenges before us. The first challenge was we have to start serving God immediately. The second challenge was we have to start praying for a life partner. In those days as scripture Union (SU) we had a Bible Study guide called Daily Power; a small devotional book. We also had a prayer list at the back of our Bibles on major things we pray for everyday. So, this matter of praying for a life partner when I was barely 13 years old was a major item on my own prayer list. Every Sunday afternoon we trekked like about four miles out of the mission school to neighboring villages where we conducted Sunday school. So, if you talk about service; if you talk about ministry, this was where it all started. Holiday times were only when the students were allowed to go back home to meet with the students from other schools. Those of us from mission schools were not really regarded as school guys because in the mission schools we were not allowed to dance worldly and engage in other social life activities that those in the government schools were allowed. So, from childhood God delivered or say preserved me from worldly vanities. It was during those so-called holidays that the missionaries went into the interiors for mission works and they would need interpreters to the local communities. I was one of those young boys who would go out with the missionaries for evangelism in the interior rural communities, and that was as long as it lasted till I got to form 5.
How did you proceed further in the faith after completing Form 5 in the secondary school?
After completing Form 5 I had to leave Ochaka to a government college in Okene for Higher School Certificate (HSC) certificate. At this particular government school that I attended everything was Islamic. There was a mosque on the school compound. Government College Okene, Barewa College, Zaria and Government College, Keffi were the main government colleges in the north back then. These three colleges; predominately Islamic, even exchanged their students with one another. It was all an Islamic fraternization. It was much later we would ever get to know that. As students of the college we wore babariga and cap as school uniform, and we used to be proud of that; we were just coming from a secondary school where we strictly wore shirt and knickers as uniform. Suddenly, we started seeing as ourselves as big men in our babariga and cap uniform. But it was all a ploy to Islamize. Some of us had been indoctrinated Christians from secondary school but now arrived in an all Islamic setting. Our principal does not favour the Christian students in the school. When we came to the lower six class most of the so-called Christian students on the campus were just lukewarm Christians. Their Christianity was only limited to when they were home. But few of us who had been genuine Christian right from secondary school started gathering ourselves together for fellowship and formed Fellowship of Christian students (FCS) on the campus. We had fellow Christian students on the campus like Emmanuel Oladipo based in Ilorin then as the FCS traveling secretary. He was among the first graduates of the college who opted for full-time ministry in their own time because of their love for God and the gospel. I am talking about 1970 graduates who could easily get good job offers after graduation. After they graduated they kept visiting us; taking it upon themselves to keep eyes on us the few Christian students still on the campus. Whenever we suffered persecutions on the campus they would come visiting to encourage us to press forward. They would organize revival meetings for us. We also formed an off the campus fellowship of Christian student brethren. On Sundays, we went to prisons and hospitals on prayer visitations to the inmates and patients respectively. There was no church on the campus. So, we attended off the campus churches in the evening. Some of us who were the fellowship leaders attended ECWA not too far from the campus. We got permission from the school authority to do attend churches. After completing my two years HSC program I proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria for a five program in veterinary medicine and continued fervently in the faith
