Founder and senior pastor of the Omega Fire Ministries (OFM) worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman, has been named the recipient of ‘Special Recognition for Excellence in Humanitarian Services’ award at the 2022 edition of the prestigious Excellence Recognition Awards (ERA 2022). Suleman, a former journalist, who has spent most of his life as a Christian leader supporting people in various kinds of crisis, was picked for the second time in three years for the humanitarian services category amongst three other co-nominees. He won the award under the same category first in 2019.
Another servant of God on the list of ERA 2022 awardees is Dr. Daniel Olukoya, the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, who went home with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. also on other VIP categories at the ceremony which held at the Balmoral Hall, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos State, were the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Nigeria’s Minister of Sports, Hon. Sunday Dare; SIFX Group CEO, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi; Zenith Bank; Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Oba Saheed Ademola, the Elegushi of Ikate-Elegushi kingdom; Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, and nine others.
Apostle Suleman, who runs the OFM, an evangelistic ministry with branches in over 62 countries, is among top Nigerian televangelists with a remarkable bias for charity works. He has taken his act of charity to a remarkable level by building schools, roads and touching lives. Also, he regularly places students from his clan and outside on scholarships of various disciplines while empowering many on entrepreneurial drives. Recently, this Auchi, Edo State-born cleric opened a free food restaurant where 50,000 persons are meant to be fed with N288 million every year. His other recent charity gestures include the building and handing over of a 7-apartment lodge, for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Edo State, jointly funded by his wife, Reverend (Mrs.) Lizzy Suleman. Earlier, Suleman had extended his caring gesture to the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, by building for the institution a 700-room, self-contained, blocks of the building. Also, he has provided electric transformers for various communities hoping to do more even in many other states outside his native Edo.
That is not all. The ‘Restoration Apostle’ as the famous cleric is fondly addressed, also built houses for widows and ensures that they are well cared for. He pays these widows, over 300 in number, monthly excluding weekly feeding allowance. Likewise, Apostle Suleman runs a special scholarship scheme that has graduated 1,120 students in the last thirteen years with students partaking both at home and abroad. For the record, Apostle Suleman, aside from building;schools for public usage and handing them to the government for running, he is the first Nigerian to build a British standard primary and secondary school with a school fee below N50,000 per term. His school is reputed to be the cheapest of such standard in the whole of Africa.
On a regular basis, Apostle Suleman demonstrates his heart of giving and spirit of love by reaching out to different categories of people, from the obscure to celebrities. Suleman, who at age 16, was already fending for himself, believes his charitable act was fired by the fact that he tasted raw poverty at childhood, which equipped him in his pursuit for lost souls and mandate to wipe out tears and restore men and women to their destinies. He declares that giving in public is just a fraction of what he does in the corner to help people.
Apostle Suleman is both fulfilled as a servant of God and owner of successful private businesses. He is the chairman of Hosanna Conglomerate, a firm with vast interests in real estate, oil & gas, banking, transport, print and broadcast media and publishing. He is the CEO of Celebration TV, Celebration Airline, and Hosanna Vessels, to mention a few. From these ventures the servant of God joyfully gives in cash and kind to the less privileged. And he has authored over 100 motivational books. His love for charity giving and empowering people, with the sole aim to make a difference and have a lasting, positive impact on others, simply knows no boundary.