Introduction
Last week, we discussed fake and false prophets and the common threads that run through the fabric of their operations. We then commenced a close examination of the nexus between Bishop Kukah and Rev. Fr Mbaka in their ministries. Today, we conclude this treatise.
Bishop Kukah and Rev. Fr. Mbaka: The Nexus (continues)
I had been quite worried by Mbaka’s sudden outburst over his then posting from Enugu to Emene. I am a Christian, a Catholic, a Knight of the Order of St. Mulumba (KSM). I had written of him when he protested his transfer as follows:
“To be a Christian, is to be Christ-like. Jesus Christ only wore sandals, with a loin cloth thrown over his shoulders. Indeed, this savior of the world after whom the Gregorian calendar is named upon his crucifixion at the youthful age of 33 (he was a mere bachelor), had no particular place of abode. He was itinerant, like the Fulani cattle herdsmen, nomadically traversing the nooks and crannies of Judea, Galilee, Samaria, Jerusalem, Capernaum, Bethsaida, etc. His food was olive, locust, date and honey. He had no access to fried rice, chicken salad, meat pie, chicken lollipop, aubergine, potatoes casserole, chicken and cheese salad, jollof rice with french fries, hamburgers, shawarma, etc; and drinks or juice to cool it all.
In Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58, he declared, “Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head?” Did Father Mbaka ever read these passages? So, he was even living comfortably in a duplex, furnished with the best that modern amenities can give, while his flock slept on bare floor of the adoration grounds, with many of them, having no roof over their heads?
I expected to hear the Revered Fr. Mbaka cry over deserting his flock, who would no longer have a shepherd. But, he was obviously more concerned with his personal comfort, and mundane matters of where he would keep the adoration property. This is quite sad. Is Christendom being reduced to a mere terrestrial matter rather than a celestial one? What happened to Matthew 6:33?
To be sure Catholic Church is built on implicit, canon laws and code of Spartan conduct. Rev. Mbaka like any other priest in the Catholic Church, is subject to the law of the Catholic Church which include being subject to any place, office or station within the Diocese.
To the best of my knowledge as a Catholic, I have not seen a priest staying at one station for over three years, maximum of five years.
To think that the priest had cornered the Adoration centre for over 20 years is therefore quite shocking to me. The present Bishop of Auchi Diocese, His Lordship, Bishop G.G Dunia, was at my Iviukwe Parish for less than three years between 1996 and 1998. He was posted to head a newly carved out Okpekpe Parish, on a hilly terrain. He went joyfully. It was while he was there that the Pope in Rome, Pope John Paul II, made him the Bishop of Auchi Diocese”.
I have not changed my views on this issue as stated above.
Mbaka’s many controversial predictions
The Rev. Father Mbaka had, prior to the 2015 elections, first adopted Dame Patience and her husband, then President Jonathan, for victory, before hearing another voice of God to adopt President Buhari. He did. Buhari won. He later bemoaned not being granted easy and adequate access to the seat of power (Aso Villa). I like Father Mbaka. He speaks straight, even if you disagree with him.
The clergyman was again recently on song when he openly criticised Mr. Peter Obi, the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had refused to make open financial donation to his ministry during a 2018 end of year event.
Peter Obi had made the mistake of promising to make his own donation subsequent after the event, attended by many politicians, including President Buhari, who donated N2 million through his representative, Chief Hope Uzodinma.
But, the controversial priest would not have any of that from Obi. He fumed at what he called Obi’s “stinginess”.
“In your capacity and what God has done for you as Governor… God hates stinginess. What I am saying is not to please you, but what will save your life. Otherwise you and Atiku will fail,” Mbaka said with hands firmly clutched on Obi’s wrist in a video that went varile on social media. It was roundly criticized by many Nigerians.
Continued Mbaka: “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. What will make my brother to come for bazaar and he won’t even break kola? Your own is taking time; the way you and Atiku [Abubakar] are moving will end in shame.” When roundly criticized for emphasizing money in his ministry, Mbaka drew punches and hit back at his critics, whom he described as “people from the kingdom of succubus and incubus”. Speaking intermittently in both English and Igbo, he ascribed the criticisms to “jealousy and envy”, arguing that “God deserves money”. He even called upon God to punish his detractors and those “firing arrows at me”. I am not too sure Jesus Christ would simply have reacted this way. From my little knowledge of the scriptures, Christ would have said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23.34). Did this PMB’s fresh donation suddenly alter God’s message to Fr Mbaka? I do not know. But, what I do know is that before the N2 million donation and the tongue lashing of Peter Obi, the clergy man had strongly rebuked PMB for the hunger and suffering in the land, thus:
“The issue is that Mbaka is speaking as the Spirit leads him – there is hunger everywhere. My job is to tell leaders the truth, the landlords are crying, the tenants are lamenting, sellers are crying, buyers are lamenting – there is hunger on the streets. I can’t keep quiet when things are going wrong. I am telling the President to look around him and know those who are advising him rightly and those who are telling him that there is no trouble. The President should know that there is trouble – if things continue like this, in the next election, nobody will vote for him. Whether they like it or not, I am speaking the raw truth. If the President should have somebody like me and he cannot be talking with me, then there is a problem.
There is a problem somewhere; somebody who can advise you without asking for anything and he is representing the poor masses in the country and he won’t tell you lies. He will praise you when you are doing well and when you are not doing well, he will look at you in the face and tell you. Continuing, he said, I don’t need the President; I need God, I need the Holy Spirit, I need Jesus; there is suffering everywhere, people are suffering. To feed is now a problem, and an hungry man is an angry man. Hunger and anger will lead to danger. So, let him know whether he can do away with some advisers around him and bring in the people who are experts in economic revamp. There are people who are experts in that; let them begin to empower people, people are not empowered, they are still walking around in vicious circles, planning and planning and planning. Hunger is everywhere, many neighbours don’t eat again, many are being attacked by hunger, hunger is becoming a normal thing and there are people responsible for this. Mortuary and ambulance business is now thriving because many cannot afford drugs. In today’s Nigeria, many are becoming hawkers, who will buy from you, with what? Everyday, more pipelines are being blown, the Avengers are at work and up till now, there is no solution. You know when certain things begin to happen, you begin to ask some questions, somebody like me will begin to ask – when will this end?
If it continues in the next three months, there will be no money to pay salaries – the vicious effect is disastrous and when salaries cannot be paid, teachers will come home, students will stop going to school, there will be more kidnappings, more hooliganism, more armed robbery, more prostitution, immorality will be on the increase. So, the President should sit up – there is a red light blinking on the country. The issue of Saraki and Ekweremadu, nobody wants to listen to such stories any more, whether Saraki is the President of the Senate or Ekweremadu is not this or that, the countrymen are tired of such stories. We need economic experts, gurus, sages that are sincere, who can come in and think about our economic revamp and judicial reformation.”
Soon after PMB’s N2 million donation through Uzodinma, with Peter Obi promising his after the ceremony, Mbaka probably heard another voice of God telling him Buhari was the savior, with a sense of redemptive messianism whom the nation has been waiting for. This, inspite of the strong stance by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), banning Catholic priests and faithful of consecrated life from engaging in partisan politics, including becoming a member of any political party. This, inspite of the prevailing searing hunger, abject squalor, heightened insecurity, renewed Boko haram insurgency, unbridled herdsmen banditry, anger in the land, despondency, hopelessness and haplessness of the common people.
Mbaka continued: “We pray for President Muhammadu Buhari; he is a man who understands the situation. Since Nigeria started, we have never experienced a President that has agricultural programmes like him.
For 16 years, the road from Anambra to Enugu was overgrown with weeds but within four years, the road is being reconstructed and the same way they are doing it to Umuahia. This one that remembered us, may God bless him.
Four years doesn’t mean eight years; he has finished his four years. I pray for peaceful transition that he may complete his remaining four years. He will hand over to a better person; may the Lord keep him. When he was sick, he was almost dead and we said prayer and God granted him healing. God knows the purpose for allowing him to be alive; if God doesn’t want him, he could have died…”.
Conclusion
Oh God of Israel and Nigeria, are these really predictions or personal wishes of a politically partisan clergyman? You are the judge, not me.
Reason? Matthew 7:16: “do not judge, or you too will be judged: For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged” (Concluded).
Thought for the week
“God has always worked wonders through his prophets to increase the faith of His chosen people or to correct their disobedience.”
(Mother Angelic).