Senator Hope Uzodimma, winner of the 2019 Imo governorship election, one
name that rang so loud in the aftermath of the judicial pronouncement
was Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, the fiery, youthful Catholic priest of Enugu
diocese. Fr. Mbaka was no party to the contest as he is not a
politician, though PDP members who have been at the receiving ends of
most of his political predictions deign him as one. He cherishes his
calling as Catholic priest and when he delivers his predictions, he
always signs off as a mere messenger that merely delivers the message he
was sent to deliver and nothing more.
As I said, there is no love lost between Mbaka and PDP members because
most often, his predictions have successfully sawed through the party’s
arrogance and petulant feeling of invincibility. They therefore spare no
insults in addressing his predictions. They are not alone in insulting
Mbaka. CAN, Christian Association of Nigeria, which has so often
pandered to the whims and idiosyncrasies of the PDP has joined in the
fray and partakes in the plot to take down this messenger of God.
Fr. Mbaka’s stint as a leaf reader of Nigerian politics (let me not call
it prophecy) started during the earlier parts of this democratic
dispensation when he came out boldly to say that then Governor of
Anambra State, Chinwoke Mbadinuju would not be re-elected during the
2003 election. With the awesome influence incumbent office holders wield
then over their re-election prospects, this seemed over-reaching of this
priest. But lo and behold, Mbadinuju was the only governor then that
lost his party’s nomination for re-election and he lost the governorship
of Anambra State subsequently as his effort to run under another party
failed.
Next, Fr. Mbaka predicted that then Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim
would not be re-elected Governor of Imo State in the 2011 Imo
governorship contest. This seemed audacious because by then, Ohakim had
defected from his party to the PDP which wielded immense power over the
country’s electoral process as the ruling party. With his incumbency
power, it seemed Mbaka had struck his end in political prophecies but
come April 2011, Ohakim was bested by Rochas Okorocha in the gritty
contest for Imo Governorship.
Nigerians woke up on a sultry new year day in 2015 with Fr. Mbaka
delivering what seemed like a tornado when he told tens of thousands of
congregants in his Adoration Ministry Enugu that then incumbent Goodluck
Jonathan would lose the 2015 presidential election to now incumbent
President Muhammadu Buhari. For those who have grown to hate Mbaka’s
scruples, this looked like a death knell to his impudence in correctly
predicting the outcome of elections. All hell was let loose as all
manners of politicians, religious leaders, regional interests, ethnic
groups and sundry interests who feathered their nests in the Jonathan
presidency and the PDP came out smoking and took to arms against this
fiery priest. All manners of scurrilous umbrage were unleashed against
him. All manners of insults and counter-predictions were hurled at the
public space to counter Mbaka. What more, Mbaka seemed to be riding
against an entrenched interest that has never seen an incumbent
President lose re-election in the history of Nigeria. By then, there was
no prophecy or prediction aligning with his own queer prediction that an
incumbent with the treasury and all apparatchiks of power under his
armpit will lose to an opposition candidate that had lost same election
three times before then. But in the midst of this cacophony of tirades,
Mbaka was to shell out defiantly some weeks later to re-inforce his
prediction so the stage was set for his demystification, which those who
railed against him promised.
A shell-shocked nation was struck by awe when Buhari comprehensively
defeated an incumbent Jonathan in the 2015 election, marking the first
time an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in Nigeria.
That singular act of history was to raise the respect, awe and reckoning
of Mbaka among Nigerians and marked a humiliation to the legion of
prophets and seers sponsored to counter him. While his reputation and
profile soared, those of the prophets of Baal plunged and there was no
doubt that even as they bit their fingers in shock, they secretly feared
Mbaka.
In November 2018, Fr. Mbaka raised dusts again when he told Peter Obi,
then Vice Presidential Candidate to PDP’s Atiku that he and Atiku will
end up in shame with their ambition to win the 2019 presidential
election. Predictably, PDP war farers, sponsored seers and interests
took up arms against Mbaka but come February 2019, Obi and Atiku were
humiliated by Buhari in the presidential contest. That marked the fourth
time Mbaka was hitting the bull’s eye in political prediction; to the
chagrin of the chariots and horses of Pharaoh who prayed fervently for
him to hit blank so they would have the chance to scoff him.
But perhaps the most audacious and trickiest prediction of Fr Mbaka was
the one he delivered in his New Year Adoration service of January 2,
this year when he said thus;
“Many things are going to happen in Nigeria this 2020 that will shock
countrymen and countrywomen, but all would be to God’s glory.
“In spite of all the hard time that would happen this 2020, there is
hope.
“In Imo State, there is hope. Hope, hope, hope … hope in Imo State!
“Imo people have suffered but God is raising a new hope that would be an
agent of salvation for them.
“He’s coming with a new flag to restore the dignity of that noble land.
A new leadership that will break barriers and there would be joy in the
land of Imo.
“Lift your candles as I bless Hope Uzodinma; and I empower him to,
spiritually, to take over. How I do not know.
“Please, if you heard that there would be a new government in Imo and
you don’t like the message; if I say, Hope, you can say hopeless but do
not fight me.
“I am saying this in respect of those who may want to come after me
because of the message. If you do that, the God of Moses, Elijah and
Elisha will deal with you. I am only a messenger of God”.
This was enough to set the roof on fire. PDP members, supporters, horses
and men, commissioned religious leaders, including the ubiquitous
Christian Association of Nigeria with its thinly disguised subservience
to PDP interests and all manners of angry political militants rolled out
the drums of war against Mbaka. They railed, they swore, they abused,
they insulted, they threatened and vowed that this fiery priest has
clearly crossed the bounds and that he must fail. I said this prediction
was tricky because Hope Uzodimma he was predicting to unseat the
incumbent Emeka Ihedioha was announced by INEC to have come a distant
fourth in the 2019 governorship election. It seemed impossible that by
whatever means, he would leap-frog three other candidates to get the
governorship. Again by the time the prodiction came, Uzodimma, like the
second and third candidates in the election, had lost both at the state
elections tribunal and the Appeal Court (though he got a minority Appeal
Court judgment). Again, he was up against an incumbent that had been in
power for seven months so it seemed remote that Mbaka’s prediction would
score this time around and all the prophets of Baal gathered in great
numbers and mobilized to humiliate him in the obvious case that he
failed this fifth time.
But on Tuesday, 14 January 2020, two weeks after Fr Mbaka’s latest
prophecy, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous ruling that not only
affirmed Mbaka’s prediction but led to the declaration of Hope Uzodimma
as Governor of Imo State. That was too much and was so strong to become
an Mbaka victory. That was the ultimate climax of Fr. Mbaka’s astuteness
and a depressing humiliation to the forces that gathered and readied for
his humiliation. Nigerians didn’t miss that opportunity to celebrate
Mbaka and scorn his worsted traducers as the airwaves went viral with
how Mbaka has triumphed once again and his enemies emphatically
vanquished. It was too much to bear for the prophets of Baal and their
worshipers. To be made to kiss the humiliating dust at the feet of this
priest again?
Fr Mbaka and his triumphs remind of the experience Elijah the Prophet
had with the prophets of Baal commissioned by Jezebel to bring him down.
Elijah found a permanent counter to his resolve to deliver the messages
of God to Ahab and Jezebel in the unrelenting efforts of Jezebel to
mobilize the prophets of Baal to humiliate him at every turn. But each
time they tried, they failed woefully. That exactly is the same fate
with Mbaka. He had triumphed emphatically over all efforts by those that
were handed the shorter ends of the stick by his predictions and this
had bolstered his profile tremendously. But the prophets of Baal and
their patrons are unrelenting. Each time they kiss the dust, they manage
to recover and with fear and trembling, expect the next prediction from
Mbaka, unleash their counter0prophecies, insults and threats and
eventually get humiliated. It does not matter to them that they fail
each time they are commissioned by their distressed patrons to go after
Mbaka in the same way that Baal’s prophets never got tired of plotting
against Elijah.
One good thing about this youthful priest is that he understands these
Baals’ prophets very well. He suffers their frustrations and anger
gladly and as such, he has not refrained from shelling our boldly and
fearlessly any time he gets a message to deliver. He knows his traducers
and the whole compliment of Baal’s prophets fear him so greatly even as
they try to mask their fears and frustrations with insults and threats.
This is why he always comes out to reinforce his messages anytime the
prophets of Baal eat their gall over his predictions. He knows their
weak states of minds which is why he never retreats to his shell any
time the anger of Baal, its prophets and worshippers run over as a
result of his predictions. He strokes their frustration with pleasure
and has lived to watch as the legion of Baal’s prophets, worshippers and
their sponsors kiss the dust humiliatingly over and over at his feet.
Fr. Mbaka knows that as the prophets of Baal ranged against Elijah never
vanquished him, the distressed prophets of Baal who sweat and drool each
time he releases his message are powerless, frustrated legions that can
never stop him from sending the messages he is always given to send.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com