Scam At The Pulpit: A Case Of Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka And Peter Obi -By Nwogboji Emmanuel

In Nigeria, Churches have grown by leaps and bounds in depravities. The core tenet of the Church evangelical mission has been bypassed and what we have today could be better described as profitable business ventures; and our pastors and priests are nothing but businessmen. If churches were true to their mission and vision, our environment and people would have been transformed. But the fact remains that there is no morality in business; and as such, churches and other foreign religions have become the singular bane to our nation building.

For the past few days there has been a high level of outrage on social media regarding the incident that happened during the 2018 Harvest and Bazaar at the Adoration Ministry of a controversial Roman Catholic Priest, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, where a lot of dignitaries and politicians were present; including the former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, now the running mate to the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (Atiku Abubakar), as well as a representative of president Muhammadu Buhari.

In the YouTube video that captured the event, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, who is the spiritual director of the popular Catholic adoration prayer ministry in Enugu state, removed all doubts regarding the source of his prophecies. It became crystal clear that he doesn’t preach about salvation anymore, he doesn’t see visions regarding the numerous challenges facing Nigeria in order to predict workable solutions to better Nigeria; rather all his visions and predictions revolve around who will or will not win elections. This unhealthy practice is what many social media users that lambasted the controversial priest referred to as a calculated move to extort money from the politicians and his followers and promote his ‘money making center’ as well as his economic status. This is a high level of corruption and scam in the adoration ministry purported to be a house of God.

As seen in the video, the priest stated that Atiku and his running mate (Peter Obi) will lose their 2019 presidential bid simply because President Mohammadu Buhari donated 2million naira and promised to build a word class health center for the adoration ministry, but Peter Obi failed to make a donation during the harvest and bazaar celebration but insisted on meeting with the priest to discuss any projects he may assist the ministry.

Peter Obi explained his intention regarding the donation by saying “father, what I said is straightforward. You will come and show me the project so that the two of us will talk”. But Rev Father Ejike Mbaka said in his response that “… if people start arguing like this [whether to donate now or later] their downfall begins”. He added by saying “…God hates stinginess. What I am saying is not to please you, but what will save your life [political ambition]. Otherwise, you and Atiku will fail.” In furtherance, he said “if there is a place they will coat words for you, it is not at Mbaka’s altar. You can save your political destiny. Or in 2019, you people will not even know how they did the election”. This is shocking and very shameful. It is purely an attempted scam at the pulpit point, but thumb up to Peter Obi for the resistance.

The action of Mbaka is a blasphemy against the entire Catholic Church, the Holy Spirit and the Almighty God as well. I hereby implore the Catholic Bishop of Nigeria and the Christian Association of Nigeria to call Father Ejike Mbaka to order because holy spirits don’t make mistakes and never can holy spirits lead some into a state of confusion.

And finally, in as much as religion cannot be separated from politics, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka shouldn’t be a reason for the indecisiveness of the Christians in our democratic society. Let’s join hand and move Nigeria to the next Level.

NWOGBOJI EMMANUEL
A Corps Member Serving At Kwara State.