I Used To Put Lizard Inside My Father’s Cup To Punish Him – Says Rev. Uma Ukpai

President of Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Ministries, tells ‘Nonye Ben-Nwankwo of Punch how he became a pastor and his life thereafter. When asked... How do you feel at 70?

He said; In a way, I am grateful. I didn’t know I would live this long. I was born with nuisance value. At the age of nine, I was already an established criminal.

I would go to school with a snuff box and if they were teaching a lesson I didn’t like, I would blow air into the snuff box and the air would carry the tobacco into the classroom and that would be the end of that lesson. I would sneeze with everybody and I would cough with everybody. I was very stubborn. 

Didn’t your parents try to discipline you? 

My father never spanked me when everybody was awake. He would flog me between 2am and 3am. The next day, I would find a good small lizard and put it inside his cup of water and cover the cup. When he opened the cup, the lizard or toad would jump out, it was my way of retaliating for flogging me.