When it comes to Celebrating Women In Ministry, the list of women in Nigeria and Africa at large doing exceptionally well and inspiring the next generation would not be complete without mentioning one name that has become a household name in Gospel music not just in Nigeria or Africa, but globally.
Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, known professionally as Sinach, (born 30 March 1972) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and senior worship leader, serving in this capacity for over 30 years.
She is the first singer-songwriter to top the Billboard Christian Songwriter chart for 12 weeks in a row.
Her song “Way Maker” received three nominations and won the Song of the Year at the 51st GMA Dove Awards, making her the first Nigerian to win the Award.[5] She also won the BMI song of the year, and in 2021 was recognized by the US Congress while on tour in the United States of America.
She has released 9 studio albums with several other hit songs, including “I Know Who I Am”, “Great Are You Lord”, “Rejoice”, “He Did It Again”, “Precious Jesus”, “The Name of Jesus”, “This Is My Season”, “Awesome God”, “For This”, “I Stand Amazed”, “Simply Devoted” and “Jesus is Alive”.
“Way Maker” has also piled up many recognition and awards since it was released in 2015. The visuals for Way Maker is currently the second most watched Nigerian music video on YouTube. In March 2019, it became the third Nigerian video to have garnered 100 million views on YouTube.
“Way Maker” has been covered by over 60 Christian artists such as Michael W. Smith, Darlene Zschech, Leeland, Bethel Music, and Mandisa and in many languages. In the first few weeks of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown in 2020, Way Maker was the go to song, as several viral videos in hospitals, parks were made with large numbers of people singing the song. After being on the Christian Copyright Licensing International top 100 chart for several months in 2020, it claimed the No. 1 position in June and has remained till December 2020, making it the most played song in Churches across the United States for 2020.
Sinach received a Bethlehem Hall of Faith certificate of commemoration during her visit to Israel in December 2017. In September 2019, Sinach became the first gospel artist from Africa to tour India, headlining concerts with several thousands in attendance.
Sinach was also recently appointed as the Global ambassador to the Commonwealth of Dominica, making it the first time an African Gospel music singer would receive such an honour.
Below are excerpts of a testimony shared by Sinach on how God gave her way maker and the unprecedented success the song has enjoyed so far.
Sinach shares:
“In 2015, august precisely, I was flying from the united states to my home country Nigeria, it was a very long flight so I got into a conversation with the lord. Previously for several months the Lord had been telling me that he wants me to move to a new level in my ministry and I was in my comfort zone, it was comfortable where I was and I didn’t want to make that change.
The Lord told me that “you must Remember that I was the one who made a way for you and I am still the way maker, I am the promise keeper, when I say that I was going to do something then I would do it. The Lord had told me that he was going to make me a story of his grace and favor. So, I wrote the song in my heart, and who knew that this song would become the song that would assure the whole world?
I’ve been writing songs for a long time and I have catalogues and catalogues of songs and when we were singing some of these songs, they were making a lot of waves but this one was different, it just went … I guess when the lord is introducing you differently, he does it in his own way.
God told me something, he told me that when he called Abraham, he told him to leave his people, his comfort zone and he took him out to the place where he would show him and he didn’t even explain everything, and He said to Abraham, I’ll make you famous, I will make your name known, I am going to make you great. God made all these promises.
Everybody just started singing the song from different places, people were translating it to different languages.
The song just taught me that you can never outdo God, when you decide to believe Him for what He said He is, who He said He is and what He said He would do, That, would He do.
I have seen myself from being that little girl in Africa, to being able to overcome my environment, believing in the pictures that God showed me. That He would do what He said He would do.
My story is that I am doing what I am doing and touching the world from Africa, which has never been done before”, She said.
