Date Published: 01/26/10

PASTOR BAKARE’S PROPHETIC BLUNDERS By Ihechukwu Njoku

I feel obliged to write this piece based on an article I read in ‘The Nation’, entitled ‘I was wrong about Yar’Adua, says Bakare’ (Monday 25 th January 2010). The title says it all I guess. On the waves of several public demonstrations and passionate calls for Yar’Adua’s resignation and handover of power with Latter Rain’s Pastor Tunde Bakare at the forefront, it is pertinent to remember that the same Bakare had proclaimed Yar’Adua as Nigeria’s coming messiah upon his crooked assumption to office in the ridicule we called an election of 2007. “We have been ruled by base men, but now a servant-leader has arisen,” declared Bakare of Yar’Adua. “I have fought every leader since 1979, but now I will stand and watch over the president, that no evil shall befall him. I can’t stop blessing him, because I believe God has prepared him for the good of the nation.”

The tune has now changed. “I deceived myself and I shouldn’t blame anyone,” Pastor Bakare is quoted to have said in his church on Sunday 24 th January 2010. “When they brought Umaru, I danced here before you. You know I prayed for this man; you were here… We sang because they said he did not steal from where he was coming. That he left so much billions behind. I got excited. I said wonderful. I was not thinking well. The best of men are still men at the very best. It is better for me to admit – I was not thinking well… They didn’t put all the cards on the table for us. I danced useless dance, I have taken my dance back. Even my prayer I’ve withdrawn it… I was wrong. I’m only human.”

With the admission that such opinion presented in the guise of divine proclamation was formed purely from hearsay and incoherent reports, it casts a deep and worrisome aspersion on the other words the man has purportedly revealed from the Almighty. Don’t get me wrong or misunderstand this to be a blind vendetta mission. I respect and admire Pastor Bakare’s fiery stand against corruption, injustice and hypocrisy in our land, a belief I share whole-heartedly with him – but there is a huge difference between the words of a zealous activist and an anointed prophet. My problem is not in advocating your stand, but in using God’s name to present these personal opinions under the appellation of sovereign prophecy, confusing and misdirecting many followers in the process. God cannot lie, is not induced or influenced by current conditions nor does He change His mind at whim.

As The Sun’s Femi Adesina said on the issue, “Tunde Bakare, the man, has a right to take a position on the state of the nation. It is his fundamental and constitutional right. He can go back and forth on any issue for as many times as he likes, it is his inalienable right. But can Tunde Bakare, the prophet, do the same? No. That is incompatible with the office of a prophet. Prophets hear from God, and deliver the messages to we lesser mortals for guidance and instruction. And because God watches over His words to perform it, such words are not frivolous, not flippant, not something you take with levity.”

It is also of note to remember that in 1999 Bakare said he ‘eavesdropped’ on a conversation in the heavenly realms regarding Nigeria where Jesus Himself had said, “Obasanjo is not your messiah. He is King Agag and the prophetic axe will fall upon his head before May 29.’ ” If we held his words sacrosanct, it would appear as though the Lord had erred.

Good intentions, inspiring sermons and noble principles aside, the scriptural standard is very clear on this issue: “You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”(Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

Durability, consistency and accuracy confirm the words of a true prophet. It has nothing whatsoever to do with preaching prowess or political persuasion. A prophet is a communicator between the seen and unseen, the visible and invisible. Declarations ending with ‘Thus saith the Lord’ leave no room for even the most miniscule of errors. When such appears, it merely points to the fact that they were of human origin from the very onset.

Ihechukwu Njoku – London, United Kingdom