by Mark Anthony
Growing up in the eastern part of Nigeria, I was born hearing the name Fr Mbaka. A day came and I asked a friend if he is the only reverend around and his answer was a lecture on his ministry and how he binds demons mercilessly and throws them into fire with ease.
I thought as much because Nigerians are the only bunch that looses their common sense when they see a religious magician.
From 2011, I began to follow his ministry passively; his strong stances and authoritative opinions in delicate matters and most importantly his unsolicited political advices.
I remember when his ‘aqua rapha’ water was labeled holy water by religious lunatics who vowed never to reason reasonably.
I remember vividly an accident that happened in front of a teaching hospital and instead of the mad populace around the accident area to carry that poor soul into the hospital, they ignorantly decided to sprinkle ‘aqua rapha’ water on a bleeding man with several fractures.
To cut the long story short, the young man’s breathe quenched. He died!
In the last half of 2011, Mbaka began to tow the line of lambasting politicians on his pulpit instead of praying for them as the bible commanded. Hence, he turned a social and political commentator. He began to tackle any politician he felt he had a little information about. He dealt with Chimaroke mercilessly. He verbally castrated Ikedi Ohakim and most recently he finished Goodluck Jonathan and turned his back on him.
Sincerely, I kept quiet and fixed my gaze on him to know where he was headed. Those days, he sounded too apolitical and overly sanctimonious sending a signal that politicians and politics is leprous. He used his podium to inject guile and hate into his vulnerable congregation with his forced-oratorical-prowess. He blinded people and showed them a way he felt was best for them.
Remember; the man in question is a clergy man who claims to be called by God. The bible said in Amos 3:3 ‘two cannot walk together unless they agree’. It is obvious that religion and politics do not in any how have a common ground. They cannot walk together unless one succumbs to the wiles of the other consciously or un-consciously for gains. Politics and religion cannot be married or juxtaposed because the morality of religion must be hampered for the compatibility to be alive.
Regrettably, this ‘man of God’ who parades himself as ‘God of men’ is trying to marry religion and politics on his pulpit. For a while now, he has been juggling politics and religion leaving his call for another thing. Probably forgetting Jonah who God sent to Nineveh but he decidedly fled to Tarshish for other purposes.
The plateau of his controversy was during the presidential election of last year where his stances fluctuated and changed after every visit form the consensus party and the opposition party. Then, he basked in the euphoria of the attention he garnered because of the mammoth number of minds he remote-controlled.
One of the many happenstances that disgusted me during the drama was how he was mudslinging Jonathan and accusing him for the lives of all the victims of bomb blasts and all.
He gave the candidate of the opposition party an upper hand and prophesied the loss of the consensus candidate and luckily his ‘statistical-prophecy’ worked out perfectly.
Painfully, he overlooked the biblical standard for the relationship between religious spearheads and political spearheads. Mbaka out-rightly ran to Aso rock the other time for the birthday of the president.
Biblically, kings sought for the face of prophets and not prophets running after kings. He
bastardized the standard of Christianity and was caught on camera shaking the hand of the president with two hands showing immense respect cum privilege! The strong hold of the Christendom which is the bible never had such record of a prophet running around frolicking with the kings.
That act alone should open the eyes of religious lunatics who have refused to have common sense!
The happenings of last year between Mbaka and politics are what I think he should apologize for. He should do what he said that God called him to do which is a ‘Reverend Father’, not ‘Reverend politician’.
He who serves two masters at a time should be examined thoroughly. Politicking and preaching is the most horrible of all combinations because they are different vehicles with different destination. He cannot juggle the two without compromise!
Mbaka might claim to know what he is doing but for his sake, proverbs 14:12 rightly said that ‘there is way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof is destruction’. He needs to retrace his steps back and he should most importantly go and meet his God where he left him if at all there was a God he followed!
I am concerned with his resolution because his misdoings last year should not repeat itself this year or he will lose his fans like Fr Edeh. Mbaka’s resolution should be total abstinence from politics. Abstinence is what I recommend and not the opting for protection like wearing of cassock!
Happy New Year sir!
Osuchukwu Mark Anthony is a budding writer whose interest is in sanctifying the society with his writings. Read his blog.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
