Men of God (god)?

Pola-pola-pola-pola! When the Bata drum begins to stridently sound that way, the leather is about to tear. Those are the words of the elders.

Two clerics, pentecostal Bishop David Oyedepo of Faith Terbanacle, Otta and Living Faith Church Worldwide, and Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, a Catholic priest who runs the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, recently activated the imagery of the Bata drum in mortal throes, shocking all who had ever respected them as men of the cloth.

For Oyedepo, it was a gaffe long coming. He has been getting increasingly political in recent months. While no one can grudge his consistent defence of Christians wherever they may be, it beggars reason that he would be so far gone as to believe just about anything that seems to justify his prejudices.

Oyedepo misread Olatunji Dare’s satire on the sick joke about President Buhari having a Double who was now alleged to be ruling Nigeria in Buhari’s stead. Dare is Nigeria’s master of the satire genre in column writing. He has donned that crown for decades. That Oyedepo, author of over 70 books with churches in over 300 cities, could be so easily fooled by satire as stark as the one in question, shows that he is just as gullible as the next man, spiritual pretensions notwithstanding.

Give it to him: Oyedepo is a gifted preacher. He is Nigeria’s richest pastor. He is said to own four private jets. His church in Otta seats 50,000 worshippers. It is no mean feat to preside over the large organisation he runs. However, to be tripped by something that didn’t require much intellectual rigour to decode, is a lesson for those who think every word that issues forth from the mouth of a socalled Man of God is sacrosanct.

Oyedepo’s sermonised that a national daily had assertively and “authoritatively” revealed that the man posturing as President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock was actually a clone called Jubril from Sudan as the real Buhari was dead.

He read from Dare’s article extensively as if it was the Bible: “I can report authoritatively that representatives of the Jubril family, having discovered the gigantic swindle, suddenly showed up in Abuja the other day and demanded to be compensated with a power-sharing arrangement at the federal level in perpetuity, plus 50 percent of Nigeria’s oil revenues for ten years in the first instance. Failing this, they warned, they would tell their story to the whole world.”

Oyedepo believed every word of that fib and even worked up his large congregation to rise up in prayer against devastation, slavery, shame and reproach and evil men wreaking havoc on Nigeria. The congregation went ballistic, speaking in tongues and supplicating in frenzied gyrations. The pastor apparently ignored the paragraph where Columnist Dare gave away the game: “Meanwhile, dependable sources tell me that Abuja is close to unraveling the true identity of the fake Jew parading himself on faked foreign soil as Nnamdi Kanu”.

The danger in Oyedepo’s unfortunate reaction is that unsuspecting congregants could easily be misled into civil insurrection on account of the misguided utterances of their spiritual leader. That is why religious leaders are always advised to be careful what they say from the pulpit. There must be hundreds of thousands of video clips of Oyedepo sharing the Word of God. The one where he demystifies himself my misinterpreting an otherwise hilarious newspaper column is surely one he would never wish to see again.

Just like Oyedepo, the intrepid Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministries, Enugu, had become a household name. He had cut the image of a holy man with charism for healing, foretelling and efficacious invocations. In a society where poverty has rendered many families prostrate, Mbaka’s ministry provides food for both body and soul.

When throngs of people, low and mighty, hang on your every word and look up to you for direction, the temptation is only too real that you’d begin to see yourself as a kind of god. That is what happened to Mbaka in his disgraceful encounter with PDP’s VicePresidential candidate, Peter Obi. What Mbaka tried to do in plain sight was blackmail Peter Obi into announcing a hefty donation. He also made it clear to APC elements present that although he had prayed for President Buhari in the past, the president was yet to reciprocate in the form of a donation.

Is God’s mercy now for sale as if the priest is just another traditional ‘dibia’ supplicating before the god of mammon?

Happily, the Catholic Church which is known for its great contributions in the religious, moral, educational social and health sectors of national life, has dissociated itself from Mbaka’s spiritual mercantilism. It now remains for the bishops nationwide to enforce strictly the traditions and values of the church against which there is a noticeable tide of cowboy priests carving out fire-spitting fiefdoms in the name of crusade ministries. Some bend the church’s liturgy and structures to accommodate their greed.

The harsh economic climate has made more and more people turn to God for salvation. Many people don’t know the difference between magic and miracle. They want instant answers. So, pastors who preach prosperity have risen to the occasion. I know for a fact that the Catholic Church has remained steadfast in preaching the strait gate and narrow way. Until Mbaka’s attempted shakedown which must never be allowed to happen again.

Amen?!