God or the ballot box?

It is always good to hear from God through the men of God, especially when the sun announces the dawn in a new election season. God tends to speak to them more often at such times, not least because such times are spending times in the many political kingdoms. We eagerly listen to the men of God because we want to know what God says about our presidential and governorship candidates. Remember, the people vote but God gives power.

An intriguing peculiarity in our very peculiar electoral system is that being a nation that seeks the face of God in everything, no Nigerian seeks political power to satisfy his personal ambition. Few countries, if any, could boast of such a great bunch of selfless people in the service of their nations. You are not likely to find ambitious Nigerian politicians, even if with your watery eyes, you could see political ambition pulsating in all of a man’s veins. They all obediently submit themselves to God from whom power comes through the ballot paper, rigging not excepted.

It comes down to this: our politicians seek elective political offices because a) God asks them to verily do so and b) their people want them to say yes to God and the people. When a man combines God’s directive with his people’s wish, he is fully persuaded that he is a man sans ambition chosen by God. The people merely rubber stamp the divine choice. It is called a miracle.

It is a bit complicated. The politicians themselves do not entirely trust the men of God to prophesy in their favour. So, they take it upon themselves to prophesy for themselves. Pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God in Lagos, made quite a splash about God egging him on into the crowded field of presidential aspirants in 2003. His message to his congregation was simple: “God said I would be president.” I feared that President Obasanjo would be a one-term president. I feared for nothing. Obasanjo too had heard from God. In the end, he won; Okotie lost. But God is not a liar; the devil is. Remember that.

Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly has become the first man of God cum politician to throw his hat or rather his black signature Awo cap into the ring for a presidential run in 2019. At a new year eve service in 2017, Bakare told the congregation: “I heard the Lord say, politics is not over for you, run for president. And the lord said to me, I’ll work it out myself and make it happen in due course. Please trust me. I lie not in the Holy Ghost. It appears destiny is calling and the time is at hand…”

Bakare has not been entirely indifferent to politics. In 2007, he became the first man of God to move up the scale of our national politics when he became the vice-presidential candidate of the ANPP. His principal was MajorGeneral Muhammadu Buhari. I do not remember his attributing his decision to run for public office to a divine prodding then but my guess is that he took the chance believing God to make the face of his servant shine on our dark political firmament. The election did not work out for him. It is the way of politics.

I welcome him back into the ring, not because I want to see how God plays the game but because I am impressed by his grasp of issues in the public space.

Enter Rev Father Ejike Mbaka, the spiritual director of Adoration Ministries in Enugu. He shook the politicians early in the new year when he warned President Buhari not to seek a second term in office. He said: “Mr. President I was waiting on the Lord. I’m asked to advise you, don’t come out for second tenure. After this, retire peacefully.”

The APC leadership did not find this funny. It is not funny. Mbaka predicted Buhari’s victory in 2015. He advised Jonathan to go home. Jonathan did not but the electorate sent him home and replaced him in Aso Rock with Buhari. When he predicted Jonathan’s defeat the country was agog. He spoke what the people wanted to hear.

But this time, only criticisms have greeted his prophecy. It is not music in our ears. I am sure the APC men are quaking, wondering if they could take the reverend father seriously. Is he really speaking for God? If he was right once, would he be right again? The answers are in the midst of the future, as in February 2019.

Mbaka must take credit for perhaps, unwittingly, opening the prophetic floodgates for the 2019 presidential election. In the weeks ahead, I predict, since I am not qualified to prophesy, that tens of men of God, some of whom head husband-and-wife places of worship, follow his foot steps and make outlandish prophecies that beg to be taken seriously. But the politicians, ever unsteady on their feet, will, of course cultivate them and seek their assistance to put in a word for them with God in order to realise their political ambitions. You cannot bribe God but you can make the men of God feel good in the earthly kingdom.

Our former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan knew that. He openly ingratiated himself with the men of God to help him realise his presidential ambition in 2011 and 2015. Many Nigerians were intrigued, to put it politely, to see him kneeling down to receive blessings from Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in 2011. During his 2015 presidential campaigns, Jonathan was generous to the religious communities. Not a few pastors and imams had bank managers eating out of their hands. Pastor Oritsejafor became a private jet owner and the proprietor of a private university. See? The treasures of the men of God are not laid up for them in heaven; only those of their poverty-stricken congregants are. God is good.

Some of the state governors seeking a second term in office have already told us that God has approved their ambition. Their parties controlled by them at the state level duly endorsed them. And their pastors have anointed them with, I am sure, groundnut oil made holy.

I find the prophecies a bit disturbing, not just because they are patently self-serving but more importantly because there are elements of blackmail in them. The men of God want us to do what they say God wants to do. We have no way of confirming it. I think it interferes with our right to rationally decide the fate of our office seekers. Why do we fear these men of God and their outlandish claims and prophecies? Ah, we still believe they have the power they claim to have even in the age of enlightenment.

My question is: If, as our religious leaders tell us, God sees everything we do, how then would he approve the ambition of state governors who have proved themselves roundly incompetent and stolen their states blind while the people suffer, to remain in office for another term? I do not get it. It hardly squares with God’s sense of justice and fairness.