Mbaka: A Man Of God Or Just An Impostor?

Opinion

By Jonathan Ekene Ifeanyi

In this piece, I intend to briefly examine, in the light of Catholic beliefs and practices, the man called Father Ejike Mbaka—who currently rules the minds and even consciences of thousands of Catholic faithful in eastern Nigeria. Firstly, I will look critically at Mbaka in the light of the three vows taken by priests at ordination; secondly, I will look briefly at the Catholic Church’s original position on modern democracy, I mean a democracy which Mbaka claims to be championing; thirdly, I will look critically at just a few of Mbaka’s statements. I have decided to do this in view of Mr Mbaka’s sermon to thousands of parishioners at his “Adoration Prayer Ground” in Enugu, on Wednesday, December 31, 2014—which is currently generating confusion among Mbaka’s followers and other gullible Catholic “faithful” around the nation. In his sermon, Mbaka condemned President Goodluck Jonathan, describing him as a real “bad luck” to Nigeria, saying he had failed to stem the tide of insecurity and corruption in the country and should not be voted for another four years. He concluded his sermon by saying “the continuity of Jonathan means disaster to Nigeria…”

Firstly, traditionally, there are three vows which every Catholic priest takes during his ordination, and these are the vow of obedience, the vow of chastity, and the vow of poverty—and I mean physical poverty. These three vows are called the Evangelical Counsels. The popularity of every priest or bishop must always be judged based on how faithful he is or was to the keeping of these three vows. If you study the lives of priest-saints for instance, particularly the popular ones, you will see that either the saint in question manifested his love for Christ by being extraordinarily poor, or by being extraordinarily chaste, or by being extraordinarily obedient to the teachings of the church and to his superiors.

However, today only the religious priests make these three vows. A diocesan priest only makes three promises at ordination: To pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily, to obey his bishop, and to live a celibate life. Thus contemporary priestly spirituality has tended to make little reference to the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. As a consequence, many a diocesan priest has responded to a question about poverty with, “I’m not a religious, we didn’t take that vow.” And the consequence: there is nothing many of today’s diocesan priests cannot do for the sake of money! Indeed, today’s ‘secular’ diocesan priest may rightly be described as a man not in the world and yet still of the world!

However, as the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church insist, these counsels are a necessary part of the life of every diocesan priest, whether they like it or not! But these Counsels are not and can never be for the Nigerian priests, like Mbaka! If you go to some places in eastern Nigeria and speak against the man called Father Mbaka, you may risk being stoned to death by fanatics and money lovers who masquerade as Catholics. This is because Mbaka, for them, is simply a priest like no other one even in the whole world—a miracle worker, a healer, a fighter of all kinds of evil in the land and above all, a bold prosperity preacher! Currently, the man called Mbaka is, put simply, one of the richest men in eastern Nigeria. Mbaka simply has no atom of Catholicism left in his head. For years, he has caused thousands—if not millions—of gullible Catholics to lose their Faith because he teaches and confuses them with purely Protestant doctrines. Perhaps that was why recently Cardinal Onaiyekan, responding to Mbaka’s latest bombshell, was forced to admit that “If he (Mbaka) was in my archdiocese, I would have sanctioned him long ago for the kind of things and utterances that he makes. But, he is not under my diocese; he has a bishop to handle that if there is any need. I hope that people are not thinking that we are sending Mbaka to talk rubbish.”

Similarly, Cardinal Okogie said to journalists: “I want you to know that he wasn’t speaking for the church. He said he was moved by the spirit, and I wonder what kind of spirit was that. He said he was under the inspiration of the spirit. If he was under the inspiration of the spirit, I wonder if the spirit is that of God. I don’t think the spirit he’s referring to is the spirit of God. He must have been under the influence of another spirit. He must have been listening to a wrong spirit.” Again, question: “Is the statement not embarrassing to the Catholic Church as a whole?” Answer: “Indeed, it is. But I must say to you that he was not speaking on behalf of the church. No! No!! No!!! Anybody with such opinion is in error. The man cannot hold brief for the church. Pardon me, but how can I say you are bloody fool and anybody takes that to mean that all journalists are bloody fools? It’s very funny… Don’t forget that this same man was at loggerheads with a former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani, and it was the same Adoration Ground in Enugu. If I have my way, we should close that place because a lot of things have been happening there that are out of tune.”

Mbaka preaches openly that poverty is evil and that every good Christian must be rich. I don’t need to say much on this—just get one of his horrible CDs and play to hear for yourself. But then, pause a little and compare this sort of teaching with the words of Our Lord:   “Whoever wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?…” (Mark 8: 31-38). Again, in Matthew (6: 19-21), we read: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Again, (in verse 24), He says: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.” The word ‘‘Mammon’’ is from the Greek word Μαμωνς (‘’Mamona’’), which in the New Testament is begun with the Greek letter mu, ‘‘μ’’ (‘‘μαμων’’). ‘‘Mamona’’ in the New Testament is a personification of wealth and greed as a false god, used in opposition to the Almighty God (cf. Luke 16:13).

Unfortunately for fanatics who blindly follow the likes of Mbaka because of their material promises, it seems God Himself has numbered the days of all the false prophets and false teachers who masquerade as “Catholic priests” particularly in Igbo land. God indeed has been warning people to stop going to evil places like Mbaka’s Adoration ground through different signs. For instance, at one of Mbaka’s crowd-pulling crusades held on 7 March, 2002, at the Government Trade Centre (GTC), Enugu, a terrible disaster struck and 14 of the worshippers died under mysterious circumstances. Similarly, in 2013, God also exposed one Father Obimma, one of the high-ranking “miracle workers” in eastern Nigeria. Unlike the disaster that struck at Mbaka’s Adoration, this very one attracted national attention because it occurred during a gubernatorial election. We read, in the Vanguard of November 3, 2013:

Related News

“No fewer than 26 persons, who attended the weekly crusade at the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, in Idemili North Local Government area of Anambra State, lost their lives during a stampede at the end of the ceremony in the early hours of yesterday. The crusade, organized by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obinma for prayers, healing and spiritual retreat, attracts thousands of people, but the one that was held yesterday on the Feast of All Saints turned tragic. An estimated 100,000 worshippers reportedly attended the crusade because, besides coinciding with the Feast of All Saints, it was also the first Saturday of the month.  Apart from the dead 26 whose bodies were said to have been deposited at Immaculate Heart Hospital and Maternity, Nkpor, and Charles Borromew Hospital, Onitsha, several others, who sustained various degrees of injuries, are receiving treatment in various hospitals in Onitsha.” (Sunday Vanguard, Nov. 3, 2013, p.1 and p.5).

And what was the cause of the tragedy? We read:

“Governor Peter Obi, who attended the crusade in the company of 10 persons, including the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, the candidate of the party in the November 16 governorship election, Chief Willie Obiano, as well as two siblings of the governor, were said to have left the crusade ground around 3.30 am, before the tragedy. Meanwhile, an unconfirmed report blamed the stampede on the governor. The report quoted eye witnesses as saying the stampede started when Obi started campaigning for his gubernatorial candidate and there were shouts of disapproval, causing his security aides to fire tear gas into the crowd…” (Ibid.)

To date, the “priest”, Fr. Obinma, who permitted the governor to campaign in the “holy ground,” and the “governor” himself, have never been brought to book for wasting the lives of innocent Catholics. In fact, Obi, who became governor through the help of the clergy—which is a normal practice in eastern Nigeria—instead of proceeding immediately to a priest to confess his sin, rushed to Archbishop Okeke of Onitsha Archdiocese and heaped the blame on his political opponent, Dr. Chris Ngige—who was nowhere near the worship arena when the ugly incident took place; and the Archbishop, as usual, collaborated with Obi to cover the sin. The Archbishop then came immediately to tell Nigerians that the stampede was caused by someone who raised fire alarm, then again, that it was caused by “some desperate politicians in the state looking for another backdoor route to power.” Obi himself said it was caused by Chris Ngige’s supporters, while the APGA Chairman, Victor Umeh, himself among those that came with the governor to campaign, called for “the immediate arrest of Ngige” (Hallmark, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, p.35).

Now if many people are not spiritually blind, they should have known that even though death is not a curse from God as many suppose, it is nevertheless quite impossible for people to die just like rats in a “holy ground” where they had come to worship God and “receive their blessings.”

….To be continued

•Ifeanyi writes from Victoria Island, Lagos

Load more