Catholic priests in Nigeria have always captured
the public imagination, some of them have served
in government positions, some were prominent in
the fight and struggle for democracy, some of
them have proved their mettle as poets, teachers,
musicians, social critics, and public affairs
commentators, but Rev. Fr. Ejike Camillus
Anthony Ebenezer Mbaka is a cut above the rest,
not necessarily in terms of intellect or persona,
but in terms of how he has been able to use the
pulpit to acquire a rock star status.
It is therefore not surprising that everything about
him is with a touch of the histrionic. This is
exactly what happened when he was transferred,
last week, from a parish where he had served for
20 years: from Christ the King Parish, GRA Enugu,
to Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Umuchigbo,
Njinike, Enugu. Characteristically, this radical
priest and social activist turned what should be a
routine administrative posting by his Bishop into
a melodrama and an assault on the authority of
the Church. You would think he had been
sentenced to a jail term, the way he whined and
wept and appealed to sympathy.
“I’m going to suffer because I have no
place to put my head. I am going to suffer
because I have no place to keep the
Adoration Ministry’s assets…The Adoration
Ministry is passing through suffering right
now even though I’ve accepted that it is the
will of God. Is the will of God through
suffering? It is a mega suffering. The
quantum of the assets of the Adoration
Ministry is the only thing I am bothered
about for now. Where am I going to keep
them? I am going to stay in one small room
that has only one small bed, one small
table, little toilet and bathroom. So where
am I going to keep all the Adoration
assets? “ I couldn’t believe that this was a
Catholic Priest.
His pain was so palpable. He even took a shot at
the Church:
“I won’t fight anybody or even dream of
battling anybody. If anybody allows the
devil to use him, the same that advised you
to make a mistake will laugh at you when
you cry over the error.” This was a clear
suggestion that the devil was using his
boss, the Diocesan Bishop of Enugu, His
Lordship Calistus Onaga, against him,
Mbaka and the Adoration Ministry. Rev Fr.
Mbaka further spoke with a touch of vanity
about how he single-handedly built the
Christ the King Parish, Enugu, with
proceeds from the sale of his music
albums. This priest is certainly special. He
objects to suffering even if the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose disciple he is, is the
embodiment of sacrifice and suffering. He
talks about assets in a capitalistic sense,
and yet his reputation rests on his
commitment to the poor. He finally says he
accepts the “suffering”, sounding like a
victim.
Mbaka’s melodrama was nothing short of an act
of protest and incitement. It didn’t take long
before a mob-like group trooped to the GRA,
Enugu to help him move his things to the new
church where it is said he will be an assistant
priest. If his followers had laid their hands on the
Diocesan Bishop, only God knows what they
would have done to him for allegedly demoting
their hero.
It also didn’t take long before the spokesperson
for the All Progressives Congress (APC), South-
East Caucus, Osita Okechukwu issued a
statement alleging that Mbaka was being
victimized because he is pro-Buhari and pro-APC.
Okechukwu‘s intervention was a needless
busybody act. He only stopped short of asking
the Diocesan Bishop to reverse himself or get
labeled as an enemy of the government of the
day. Nor did it take long before the Catholic
Church also put its feet down, staing clearly that
no priest is above the Church. Mbaka definitely
needed that reality check. But he had succeeded
in politicizing his transfer and dragging the
Catholic Church into mainstream, partisan politics
with the Church holding the short end of the
stick.
It is perhaps for this reason that the Catholic
Bishop of Abuja Metropolitan See, Cardinal John
Onaiyekan once asked that Rev. Fr. Mbaka should
be sanctioned. He actually accused him of talking
“rubbish” when he openly condemned President
Goodluck Jonathan and insisted that the
electorate should vote for Muhammadu Buhari,
then Presidential candidate of the APC, who
according to him, was destined to win the 2015
Presidential election.
“I do not believe in my mind that the way
things are in Nigeria, any Catholic priest
has the mandate to decide which of the
political contestants should be voted for… I
don’t believe a priest should be doing
that...If he was in my archdiocese, I will
have sanctioned him long ago for the kind
of utterances he makes.” Archbishop
Ignatius Kaigama. President of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), also
similarly disowned him. Even with those
protestations, Mbaka remained
untouchable. He is on record as having
declared in a secessionist mood, for
example, that the sovereignty of Nigeria is
not sacrosanct. “If we must be one Nigeria,
let it be one Nigeria, but if it can’t be one
Nigeria, let us divide…let us tell ourselves
the truth.”
He has also since the 2015 elections, made a high
profile visit to the Presidential Villa to see
President Buhari. He was actually shown arriving
in a private jet, waving to the crowd as if he was
on a Papal visit to the seat of power! How did
one priest, out of over 30 million Nigerian
Catholics, become so powerful and untouchable?
Rev Fr. Mbaka’s seeming invincibility lies in his
significance and relevance. His Ministry is a loud
comment on the relationship between the Church
and the congregation. Mbaka is the founder and
Spiritual Director of a Ministry within the Catholic
Church known as Adoration Ministry Enugu
Nigeria (AMEN). Gifted, creative and clever; he is
without any doubt a liberation theologian.
He runs a prophetic church, a church that believes
strongly in the power of the Eucharist, and which
in every sense is a church of the poor. His source
of inspiration must be those liberation
theologians and other radical priests who have
proven that for the church to be relevant, it must
be relevant to the interests, concerns and
expectations of the congregation, particularly the
underprivileged poor.
More than any other catholic priest in Nigeria,
Mbaka has taken the Catholic Church beyond the
confines of liberal conservatism to the ordinary
man in the market place. He speaks the poor
man’s language, he appeals to their imagination.
He is the bridge between the Pentecostal
churches and the Catholic Church in Nigeria.
He has mastered the tricks, the rhetoric, the
antics and the persona of the former, and he
applies this with a touch of sassiness that is
original. He urges members of his ministry to
“Pray Until Something Happens” (PUSH). In an
overtly religious and superstitious country like
Nigeria, there is never a shortage of persons who
are ready to push until the impossible happens.
He organizes vigils titled “E no dey again”. That is
precisely what the people want to hear. They
want to hear that problems, disease,
unemployment- “e no dey again!”. Mbaka also has
a Foundation, the Multi-Life Savers Foundation.
Note the emphasis on the saving of lives! He
pays hospital bills, he gives out cars, he builds
houses for people, he pays school fees, he
sponsors events.
He sings. He dances. He is not your typical
Catholic priest. He is rich. He talks about assets.
Other priests go to him for financial assistance.
He is an all-round entrepreneur in church
garments. His Ministry performs miracles, signs
and wonders. He makes the lame walk, he opens
the eyes of the blind, he cures diseases; he
spreads wealth and opportunities. He creates
jobs. He provides hope. With all this, Fr. Mbaka is
far ahead of his bosses within the Catholic
hierarchy. Persons of other faiths and Christian
denominations troop to his Ministry to seek
spiritual counseling. Politicians seek his
endorsement.
He controls the mind of multitudes. The Catholic
Church is probably in need of reinvention, and the
seeds of that process may well lie in the example
and eclecticism of Mbaka and his likes in other
parts of the Catholic world.
The plain truth is that the average church-goer
today is looking for something different which the
orthodox churches and their mode of worship do
not offer. The poor who make up the
congregation are as impatient as the politicians
who have made them poor. They want immediate
salvation, practical solutions to their problems;
they want their blessings here and now, not in a
world to come. Mbaka and the Pentecostal
pastors understand this and so they bring the
church closer to the people’s needs. But there is
a flipside and it is hubris.
Hubris is risky and pernicious. It is what makes
Fr. Mbaka appear so contradictory. It is what has
distanced him from his original vows as a priest,
making him talk of cash and assets as if he were
an investor on Broad Street. It is what makes him
complain of suffering and see his transfer as a
punishment, rather than as an opportunity for
further evangelism of The Word. He must have
started out as a humble priest, but today, he has
mastered the use of the media for self-projection
and he is not contented with being a priest, he is
now enjoying the life of a celebrity, hugging the
limelight, seeking personal glory.
He runs a ministry of miracles, of wonders and
signs and he sees visions of possible
assassinations, either of himself or the politicians
that he supports. No one should be surprised if
this Pentecostal Catholic priest goes about with
bodyguards. He shares this hubris with many
other religious figures who seek to share power
with politicians and co-govern Nigeria. They see
visions about everything: from elections to
diseases and foreign exchange rates. They have
created a New Order under which they command
the electorate, political parties and governments.
It is this hubris that has blinded Fr. Mbaka to the
fact that the souls to be won for Christ are not
only in GRA, Enugu, but in all places as well. His
transfer to a smaller parish should remind him of
the essence of his priestly vows: humility,
simplicity, obedience, sacrifice, as well as
commitment to the good of the church rather
than individual heroism, values which can truly
make him a priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
Let him therefore, suffer if he must, and let his
suffering be a blessing upon the poor and the
Church, and if he as much as whimpers again, let
him be posted post-haste to Sambisa forest,
where the poor are in urgent need of miracles.
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