On New Year ’s Day, Catholic Priest and Founder, Adoration Ministries in Enugu, Revd. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, prophesied that those who had benefitted from the humongous corruption perpetrated on the watch of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would try to assassinate President Muhammadu Buhari. I have used the word “prophesy” guardedly because in Nigeria, many of the things that are marketed as prophecies are a mishmash of commonsense, media reports, scientific research, and analyses carried out by people who study trends using academic tools.
For one, every leader in the world is in danger of being assassinated for either ideological reasons or for the sheer fun of it. That is why they expend huge resources guaranteeing their security. Even the Pope faces a similar threat regularly. It will not be “prophesy” if anyone says he is going to be killed. Unless Mbaka has contacts in the Department of State Services or he is an undercover agent, and therefore can share credible information about an impending presidential assassination, this is neither prophesy nor divine inspiration.
Many a “prophet” in Nigeria is simply a dowser and there is perhaps no better proof of this than how many of them prophesied how Jonathan would win the presidential election in 2015 and how Buhari would lose.
The beginning of the year presents an opportunity for these prophets to wave their sticks and make some more claims to guide their flock. I recently reviewed the 2015 prophesies of a notable Pentecostal pastor whose church proposes to have a parish in every street in Nigeria at least and could not but question how he could make more prophesies for 2016 with a straight face. Weeks after the science community already announced the discovery of a new sexually transmitted disease – Mycoplasma genitalium – he prophesied that one would surface. Those who missed the news in his church would think it is the prophesy coming to pass when they contract it. Prophesies by another popular pastor based in Lagos, whose church was involved in a building collapse last year, were development-oriented except his idea of Africa exchanging agricultural produce in return for technology from developed countries is far behind time. The Holy Spirit can surely do better.
In an article I did in 2008 titled, Nigerian Nostradamuses, I pointed out how these prophets provide an alibi for themselves even as they discharge these prophetic insights.
They tell us there will be divine wrath visited in the form of natural disasters but to avert it, we only need to repent of our sins and pray. Natural disasters, however, cannot but occur – and thank God for scientists who can predict them with far more accuracy. If it truly happens, they get the credit for having prophesied it. If it doesn’t occur, they ask us to thank God for answering our prayers. Whichever way it goes, they are indemnified against legitimate inquiry.
As tempting as it is for me to dismiss Mbaka’s proclamation of presidential assassination as another episode in the constant mis-employment of religion in service of propaganda, I concede that his sense of ownership of Buhari’s government is understandable. Mbaka took a definite stand for Buhari – a major risk – at a time it was not politically expedient to do so. Now that his gamble has paid off, he owes it to the public to do more protecting the same government by campaigning for Buhari in the name of “prophetic utterances.” Although he will claim divine inspiration, much of his New Year message reads like a press release from Lai Mohammed.
Let me be clear that I do not oppose clerics of all hues wading in the murky waters of politics. Like every one of us, clerics are citizens and can hardly afford to be neutral when the survival of the nation and her inhabitants are threatened. In the Old Testament, the mark of a great prophet was the one who could look the king in the eye and say, “Thus saith the Lord…” without pandering to or sweetening his message. Those times, the prophet was an equivalent of a social critic, channelling spiritual capital towards mitigating abuse of power by rulers who got high on the power they embodied. While Nigeria is lucky to have such intrepid men of the cloth, a number of “Daddys-in-the-Lord” are men who cannot afford to offend the powers that be because their fingers are deeply embedded in the king’s feast.
If the end goal of clerics engaging the state is not to liberate people mentally, politically and socially, then it is virtually useless. If, at the end of the day, it is about getting the president to come to your church or mosque, grant you import waivers, fly you to Jerusalem to go pray to an omnipresent God, and allow you to desecrate public facilities and institutions while practising your faith, then who needs such a self-serving agenda?
One should ask, what genuine contribution has Mbaka made to the polity by prophesying that Buhari would be killed other than generating fear among the vulnerable and sowing seeds of distrust that only need one unfortunate event to hurriedly germinate? In a country where people take pastors so seriously even when they prophesy STDs, should they not use words to edify rather than tear down fragile walls? Really, what is such a prophesy supposed to achieve even if it were true that Mbaka heard clearly from God? What is his congregation – and by extension, everyone who hears – supposed to do about it? Pray? Panic? Or just be prejudiced against those being accused of corruption so we can add the potential for murder to their list of sins?
If I may suggest to Mbaka, he should leave the job of the DSS to the men who are trained to spot and tackle such threats. That propensity towards running the President’s errands, combined with a lack of discretion, brought disrepute to Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria under Pastor Ayo Oritsejeafor in the last administration. He was not only partisan, he became politically exposed; the kind he should be preaching against if he had had more restraint.
Mbaka, I am sure, does not want to go down that ignoble path. If he wants to get into the arena, he can take up a subtler role; the kind played by Prophet Nathan who made King David face his misdeeds in an audacious yet tactful way.
Buhari, I guarantee, needs such a voice of conscience in his head. One only needs to look around our leaders and see how their fawning admirers and sycophants use the cries of “Sai Baba” to insulate them against reality.
In these times when Buhari’s government that promised change is flailing, and even some of his ardent campaigners are getting worried that their great expectations are being shortchanged, it is important that some of those who are close to our leaders retain their heads and speak some earthy truth to him when necessary. Mbaka owes it to his constituency – and the nation in general – to help this government succeed in spite of its present shortcomings. He cannot perform the critical role his own involvement with Buhari has thrust on him by becoming a megaphone for the government. There are more than enough people already jockeying for that spot. For a man of the cloth, it is tantamount to self-debasement to join the league of Buhari fan club who have committed their lives to blind praise singing.
When Mbaka visited Aso Rock recently, Buhari thanked him for the role he played in getting him elected and declared him courageous. I assure Mbaka that the true test of his courage has yet to come. When he can face Buhari and like Prophet Nathan, tell him where he is missing it in the discharge of his duties to the state without minding losing presidential patronage, then he will know what courage feels like.
PUNCH
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