“If you are called and destined to be a minister of God, if you like, take up a job at the Central Bank, you will not be successful until you answer the call.”- pa Nweze Edmund Echendu

Veteran gospel musician, Pa Nweze Edmund Echendu, has shared deep revelation and cultural insights into destiny and spiritual calling. He made comparisons between the Igbo Agwu and divine calling to be gospel minister.

According to Pa Nweze, in Igbo land, Agwu represents a spiritual mantle or ancestral calling that runs in certain families. He explained that when such a calling exists in a lineage, an individual chosen to bear it cannot thrive in life until the mantle is accepted and embraced.

“In Igbo land, there is what we call Agwu. Anybody it is meant for in a family is expected to take up that mantle,” he said. “Even if the person goes to work at the World Bank, he will not be successful until he comes back to answer that call.”

Pa Nweze likened this traditional belief to the Christian understanding of divine calling, noting that a person called by God into ministry may also struggle in life until they obey and answer that call.

He further shared his personal experience as a testimony of destiny alignment. Before venturing into music, the gospel singer said he was engaged in the transportation business, a venture that ended in repeated losses.

“Before I started music, I did transportation business, but I didn’t succeed in it. All my buses were destroyed on the road,” he recounted.

Following these setbacks, Pa Nweze said he began to experience recurring dreams that revealed his true calling. According to him, people appeared to him in dreams, telling him he was destined to be a musician.

In one particularly striking experience, he said he saw birds singing to him in his dream.
“That was how I knew that music is my destiny,” he said.