By Fred Chukwuelobe
Let me make it clear from the beginning. I am a Catholic and a Knight of St. John International (KSJI). I understand religion and the importance of faith in our lives. I believe in God and in the efficacy of prayers.
I also know that religion can be used for good or bad. It is also a fact that many people who masquerade as men of God are actually businessmen who use religion to promote their self-interests and deceive the undiscerning whom I shall call ‘the gullible ones’.
Nigeria has a huge population of such people. Therefore, those with the gift of the garb easily understand that religion can be used to win followers to themselves under the pretext of winning souls for God.
The famous German philosopher Karl Marx understood it that way when he described religion as “the opium of the people and the soul of the soulless”. To me, I support religion when it serves its primary purpose, which is, as the moral compass of the human race.
Having set out the premise of my piece this Sunday morning, let me go straight to the point. My point is on the reigning pastor Jerry Ezeh of the famous “what God cannot do does not exist” mantra and the Zion family of Evangelist Ebuka Obi.
Jerry Ezeh recently pulled a maddening crowd to Twickenham Staduim home of the Rugby Union in the capital of England, London.
The stadium hosts Rugby matches between England and other nations. It makes money for the sports and for the country. It has now added to the money making from religion for the country, and the money from religion comes from the Africans – Nigerians.
Secondly, Ebuka Obi is currently in his village, Ngo Okpa Ala, Imo State, where an estimated one million people are gathered “to break a 100-day fast”. Money will flow. Local businesses will benefit. Ebuka and his twin brother will smile to the banks. The crowds will disperse afterwards to return to their lives.
I grant that the constitution guarantees everybody the freedom of worship and association. It is an inalienable right that no one should be denied of so long as they do not inconvenience or force anyone to join them in what they do.
Therefore, I concede to these maddening crowds the freedom to congregate and worship God as they deem fit and proper. It is debatable if the crowds really worship God in truth and in spirit, as He enjoins us to do or if they’re seeking solutions and miracles to the myriad of problems confronting them, especially with our governments’ seeming inability to solve them.
But there’s something that excites me and also troubles me about such huge crowds and the promoters of the latest religious figures, and it has to do with a comparison I had someone make recently.
He was excited the two crowd-pulling pastorprenuers are Igbos and that they’re giving the Pentecostal churches dominated by the Yorubas and Edo people ‘a run for their money’.
Before these two suddenly emerged from nowhere into the crowded Pentecostal market, the Pentecostal movement anchored mainly on prosperity preaching had been dominated by the Adeboye’s Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG); Oyedepo’s Winners; Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy; Kumuyi’s Deeper Life Bible Church; Paul Adefarasin’s House on the Rock; Paul Enenche’s Dunamis; Fatoyinbo’s Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA); Johnson Suleiman’s Omega Fire Miniseries; Mike Okonkwo’s The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM); David Ibiyiome’s 50-year advance tithe seeking church; and many numerous others.
The emergence of Jerry Ezeh and Ebuka Obi excites my friend. It also excites me as an Igbo man even though I do not share in their style. But it excites me as an Igbo man because I know that religion as practised in Nigeria and most third world countries is business and is also politics; and all politics is local.
In Nigeria, where politics can be deployed to a great advantage, having my people take their fair share of the religious sub-sector of our economy excites me. But it is much deeper than that, and that’s what troubles me.
What do I mean by this?
These other Pentecostal churches are well organised. They have branches; many of them have universities, schools, hospitals, and other business ventures. They make billions weekly, and their General Overseers live a life of obscene opulence.
Many of them own private jets, drive in exotic armoured vehicles, and move around with a retinue of bodyguards, many of whom are conventional policemen and, in some cases, soldiers.
They add values to their communities and provide employment opportunities for their adherents. They have also exploited the networks built by their political brothers to put their own people in positions and high places.
So, as the Jerry Ezehs and the Ebuka Obis branch of the religious sect firm their grip on the religious scene, I’d like to think that they should move from drawing huge crowds to whatever venues they congregate ‘to shout alleluia and collect money’ to building an organised religious institution that will truly outlive them, rival those before them, and serve as a means of building truly religious people and not just miracle seekers.
I know some will argue that they will get there. But I remember ZOE. Patrick Anwuzia used to promote it in the 90s, drawing crowds and selling miracle handkerchiefs. It fizzles out because it had no foundation.
People who thronged there migrated like Wildebeests in search of greener pastures. All the Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) licensed as “ZOE 1, ZOE 2” all disappeared too.
It is not just enough to rent buses, plastic chairs, hire venues, buy flight tickets, and fill venues with loud songs and praise worship. It goes beyond that. The early Apostles and missionaries who brought religion to us didn’t just fill venues, they didn’t collect money, and engaged in bragging rights.
They built institutions; they built people; they introduced education and healthcare institutions to which many of us benefited and which enabled us to enjoy things civilisation offers.
Although we have proven overtime to be incapable of sustaining civilisation, our future generations can, at least, have a better chance of surviving if these new religious bodies could lay the foundation for them to build on.
Let us remember; most of those worshipping there now are Catholics and other Pentecostal faithfuls who are constantly in search of miracles and solutions to their problems. With time they may move again if they do not get what they seek.
The Catholic Church remains today “the largest Christian church, with 1.28 to 1.39 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2024. It is among the world’s oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.” It didn’t do that by just pulling crowds to venues and shouting slogans; it built institutions and people.
These churches should not be dedicated mainly to money making through tithes, seed sowing, first fruits, offerings, and other donations without which 99.9 per cent of them will fold up. They should truly help the developing countries get out of their quagmire as the Catholic Church did to Western Civilization.
That’s my take on these two as they grow.
I wish them well.
