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Peter Obi ‘The Stingy’ And Fr Mbaka The Prophet By Achike Chude

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“The pidgins wouldn’t fly,” he said again. Perhaps he was under so much pressure from people who were so disappointed that, like an emperor, he had prophesied that President Goodluck Jonathan would lose the 2015 election because of the pidgins who refused to fly.
They wanted Rev Fr Camillus Ejike Mbaka to discard the useless set of pidgins that couldn’t do the simple task of flying. After all, what use is a bird that cannot fly? How could any man of God put the fate of a whole president of Nigeria on just these sets of pidgins?
“I tried, I tried” said the ‘man of God’ and the overlord of the Adoration Ministries in Enugu. “I got some other pidgins. I shooed them and harassed them into flying for President Goodluck Jonathan, but they wouldn’t budge. Therefore, it means that the Lord has rejected Goodluck Jonathan as president of Nigeria for the second term.”
And, President Jonathan’s fate was sealed – as a result of those damned pidgins.

Achike Chude
But the ‘Lord’ did not leave us an orphan. Where there is a tree, another one would stand in its place, says an old African proverb.
Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka knew that we had another tree chosen by ‘God’.
“Buhari will be president,” he noted with religious pomposity and spiritual superfluity. And as he spoke of the virtues of the incoming Muhammadu Buhari, those who had been appalled by the failures of Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP were lifted in spirit and were fervent in their praise and adoration of God almighty for delivering them from the hardship of Jonathan’s government and into the bliss and paradise of Buhari’s APC.
If only they knew that they were moving from Jonathan’s frying pan, into Buhari’s hell fire.
And we had thought that the man from Adoration Ground who had helped usher in the disaster of the past seven years in our country would be hiding his head in shame. We had thought that he would be in repentance mode for wittingly or unwittingly trying to make God out as a liar.
We know that God does not lie, cannot lie!
But man does! Ever so often.

The man from Adoration Ministries had told a lie that has cost us dearly. It was just like number ’15’ who was so sure that he was destined to be number 16 in the order of the politics of our country. He scored zero in the APC presidential primary.
At least he and his congregation are ‘wearing the zero like a badge of honour’. They told us so themselves, through the man in the eyes of the storm himself, Tunde Bakare.
But not Mbaka! The other day he was quarrelling with Laurel and Hardy (Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu). They were not happy that Father Mbaka was abusing the government of their principal, Muhammadu Buhari for being a failed president. Now, these two presidential spokesmen who were once his allies are accusing or implying that he might not be a true prophet after all – after they had benefited from his prophecy.
This is the strange world of the prophets.  First, Mbaka prophesies that President Muhammadu Buhari is the saviour of Nigeria, then he states that Buhari is a failure.
This time around, he is going after Peter Obi for being stingy. He has once more, put on his prophesying cap to say that stingy persons don’t become presidents. Like a highway robber, he once held Peter Obi to a ransom at his Adoration ground to publicly declare how much he will give ‘God’. The ‘man of God’ forgets that we too have an idea about scriptures. We know that God likes a cheerful giver and prefers the gift given in secret.

But Camillus Ejike Mbaka forgets or is not aware that Nigeria has been unwholesomely fraternising with ‘generous politicians’ for sixty years after independence. Unfortunately, their generosity has led to ruination for Nigeria, dilapidated hospitals, bad roads, a broken down university system, etc. Most importantly, their generosity does not go beyond their families, criminal friends, and perverse political collaborators and allies. Their generosity has ensured that the country’s once-thriving real sector has virtually shut down with millions of our youths roaming the streets in frustration, and becoming a threat to us all. The consequence is insecurity everywhere.
People are looking for a revolution because they know that we cannot continue like this. This is becoming the revolution. Any politician that can massively mobilise the youthful population around ideas, beliefs, and principles is creating a revolution. If these great number of young people on social media and the streets are willing to coalesce around such a person with ideas without financial rewards because they are acting based on conviction, then it is a revolutionary situation – especially based on our antecedents.
Webster’s dictionary describes a revolution as:
‘A political upheaval in a government or state characterised by great change’.
‘The removal and replacement of a government, especially by sudden violent action’.
‘A sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving’.
Suddenly, we are beginning to see a sudden, vast change in our way of thinking and perception of our present political problems. Will it translate to a radical transformation of political leadership in 2023? No one knows. Tomorrow is pregnant, very pregnant. A lot of work still needs to be done. Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, says that it is in the hands of the youths. After all, they outnumber all of us 3 to 1. They must seize this moment which might never come again in this shape and manner. Peter Obi, the ‘stingy’ man with government money, could be the means and vessel of that movement towards sanity in our country. Who knows?
As for Rev Fr Camillus Ejike Mbaka, he might have been a true prophet a long time ago. But it would appear that the spirit has left him and he is not even aware of it. A word from his beloved scriptures might yet help to restore him to his former glory:
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing … Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled.” (Ezekiel 13:3-6).
At one time or the other, we have to sit back, and do an introspection on our past and present. Such reflections are imperative and help to redeem us from ourselves. The Director of Adoration Ministries also needs to do this, so that people would see anew, the Fr Ejike Mbaka they once knew. Once he is able to do this, then apologies will no longer be necessary.
As for Peter Obi, ‘the stingy’, Nigeria needs serious stinginess with the public purse so that the needs of ASUU can always be met and our students remain permanently in school. We need his stinginess to ensure that our hospitals are properly equipped and funded. His stinginess is crucial for building and rehabilitation of our roads as well as providing employment for our youths.
But he must first spend ‘reasonable’ money for his campaign.
Thanks, Fr Mbaka, for unwittingly making us realise that certain kinds of stinginess are a virtue.