By Reuben Abati
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, stating 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.