A FALSE MESSIAH AND THE PROBLEM OF GOD IN NIGERIA – THISDAY Newspapers

Noah Udoffia writes that we cannot rise as a nation until we bring God back into our society

For the majority of long-suffering citizens, God seems to be absent in Nigeria. Three concurrent signs imply the loss of divine presence in the nation: One, false prophets (those who predicted Buharis messianic reign) and false prophecies (unfulfilled predictions that Buharis policies will solve the nations problems) proliferate; two, false prophecies beget a false messiah (yes, Buhari) who reigns supreme in the land; three, the false messiahs policies inflict horrendous suffering on the masses. The void of divine absence has brought out the worst in human nature across the nation. Carnage and death abound. We cannot rise as a nation until we bring God back into our society. I am not implying a religious state; simply that individuals and communities must return to God in an authentic way before they can return to a stable state.

The fallen state of our nation is blatantly apparent. Everyday children are abused, and in the midst of plenty, millions go to bed hungry; young boys and girls are smuggled and sold for sexual exploitation and organ harvesting; school children are kidnaped for ransom with impunity; drug addiction and substance abuse among the youth is an epidemic; women and men are sexually assaulted and raped indiscriminately by politicians, professors, pastors, policemen and other people in power; and mass killings, criminal cults, organized banditry, general insecurity, disorder, distrust, corruption, poverty and inequality are pervasive. Right now, our natural environment has been degraded. Toxic pollutants in the air we breathe are killing us. Marine life in our rivers and streams have been destroyed and farmlands polluted by big oil.

In this depraved land, the wages of sin are wealth for a few and death for the suffering masses. Sodom and Gomorrah pale in comparison to the debauchery and injustices experienced by ordinary Nigerians under Buharis false messianic reign. It is no surprise, therefore, that the country is morally, economically, politically and socially bankrupt (for evidence read my previous essays published in THISDAY

Nigeria After Buhari: Healing a Divided and Traumatised Nation (2)

Noah Udoffia President Buharis Record of Underperformance As Nigeria sinks deeper into the abyss and politician

). None of these should be taken to imply that President Buhari is the root of all evil afflicting the nation. These problems have been endemic for years. Notwithstanding, President Buhari was recruited by the people to solve them. But his policies made them worse.

Nigeria has become a society in which ordinary citizens, roiled by bottomless sadness and nihilism, question their idea of God. This doubtfulness prompted many Nigerians who were interviewed for this essay to ask: one, How could God, in all His goodness, give us President Buhari in all his depravity? Two, If God is omnipotent, why does He allow the profound sinfulness rooted in the criminal and immoral acts of some religious leaders, politicians, professors, the police, traditional rulers, judges, businesspeople, soldiers, government officials, etc., to go unpunished here and now? Three, like the biblical Job they lament: Why is it when we, the poor, ask so little of life in Nigeria and live morally to the best of our ability, we are punished so severely by a morally perfect God while those who loot the nation wallow in their ill-gotten wealth and abuse power everywhere you look?

To the suffering masses, these salient questions define the paradox of God in Nigeria. It must be stated at the outset that this essay is not an argument about the existence of God. God exists. Nor is it about the love or care of God. God loves. God cares. Broadly conceived, ordinary citizens are struggling with these relevant questions of theodicy to better understand God in contrast to their lived experiences juxtaposed to their faith in God as all-knowing, all-powerful, and morally perfect and just. When a society separates itself from God, when divine absence seems apparent, when false prophets beget a false messiah and the nation fails, and citizens suffer, these questions demand broad and thoughtful inquiry.

Accordingly, this essay explores why false prophets and their false prophecies deceived us and why a false messiah reigns, inflicting horrendous suffering on ordinary Nigerians of all tribes, regions and religions. The essay takes on signicance and urgency in the light of the on-going political process to replace President Buhari in 2023. Without doubt, the current situation in Nigeria is an existential crisis the nation can no longer ignore. As such, understanding how we got here will inform who we elect as our president to avoid reoccurrence of the Buhari reign. Our people have suffered long enough.

With this morose and horrific description as background, and based on analysis of published reports and interviews with clerics and citizens, lets attempt to address some of the questions raised by ordinary Nigerians.

Lets address the foremost question of why God, in all His goodness, gave us President Buhari in all his depravity. As previously stated, one of the significant predictors of divine absence is the proliferation of false messengers who claim to speak for God. As you might remember, several self-professed messengers of God prophesied that God Himself appeared to them and revealed that Buhari was Nigerias chosen messiah, the new redeemer, and the only anointed leader to save the nation, stabilize and unite the tribes, secure its citizens, bring peace among the tribes, and let prosperity flow to all the tribes of the nation. They quoted scripture and boldly proclaimed Buharis election as ordained by God. They promised that Buhari would restore Gods ideal world, here and now, to alleviate the suffering of poor Nigerians. Prominent among them are Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Prophet Christopher Owolabi, Prophet Ekong Ituen, Prophet Emmanuel Omale, Bishop Kayode Williams, Prophet Joshua Arogun, Pastor Sunday Adelaja to name a few variously reported by media outlets.

They wove incredible tales of Gods direct revelations to them into a mythology that made them demigods. As such, they attracted followers including politicians, business executives, and the poor. These charlatans influenced politicians and business elites who championed and nominated Buhari for the presidency, despite his well-known personality flaws, leadership liabilities and divisive political-religious ideology. Further, they commanded millions of followers to vote for candidate Buhari if they were to avoid Gods wrath. And so it came to pass that Buhari was elected president. Triumphant, these false prophets claim their prophecy was fulfilled to the glory of God. It is reported that the administration rewarded them richly. False prophecy became profitable, and the land was rife with charlatans and frauds who traffic in lies.

However, one validation of true prophets is that the word of God, spoken through them, is fulfilled. Six years into President Buharis tenure, the prophecy of a rebirthed nation, peaceful, prosperous, united, and blessed by divine providence is blatantly falsified. President Buhari has presided over one of the darkest chapters in Nigerian history. He has been widely criticized for dividing the nation and being responsible for some of the most horrendous sufferings perpetrated on ordinary Nigerians since the war.

It is no small irony that as the Buhari government began to fail, these counterfeit prophets continuously adjusted their prophecies to perpetuate their claims of divine favour. Some have now claimed, after-the-fact, that Satan deceived them by muddling the message from God. Notice what this nonsensical rationalization suggests. What they are implying is that their Buhari prophecy was either from the devil, or that God allowed His message to be corrupted, which He cannot permit. But this admission then concludes that their prophesied messiah was not of God, but of Satan.

As further evidence of their hypocrisy, instead of giving to the poor to alleviate poverty as preached by Christ, these wolves in sheeps clothing are interested only in their own wealth accumulation while preaching a debunked prosperity gospel and promising the poor masses a reward in heaven. These false prophets gain social recognition and become popular among followers by offering an optimistic, if not opportunistic, preaching of get-rich-quick gospel. They base their pretended insights on a selective and literal interpretation of the word of God, pleasing followers with their sweet talk and performative dark arts engineering fake miracles and sham healings.

Rather than serve as the religious and moral conscience of the nation and its people, these flamboyant, egotistical falsifiers of Gods message deceive their followers, worship money, status, power and popularity. They turn the church into a political-commercial institution. They build large religious-industrial complexes to make more money, not to save souls. They are among the wealthiest in the nation, live in opulent mansions, own high-priced private jets, drive the most expensive cars and have no sympathy whatsoever for the poor. For evidence, six Nigerian multi-millionaire pastors (in USD) made the top 20 ranking of the richest pastors in the world in 2021 according to Forbes.

In sum, it doesnt take much to see that, with the void of divine absence, authentic religious tradition became infected by politics and corrupted by money and power. Pastors became great promoters of politicians and guardians of the status quo. As we now know, false prophecy undermines the electoral process, and as such, a serious threat to our democracy. While we cant undo the consequences of heeding the false prophecies of the Buhari election, the 2023 election gives us an opportunity to learn from our mistakes.

I am an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church and have been an adult Sunday school teacher for over 30 years. At the core of Christs teachings is a plea for us to know God, build a relationship with Him, and change not only into a better person but also help to build a better society. Despite our apparent departure from God, I hold steadfast to the strong conviction that God has not forsaken us, and that He is still what He has always been, even if we feel His absence today. What has been absent in our nation is not God, but Godliness and morality. A nation devoid of morality may feel divine absence when in reality they feel the influence of evil perpetrated by those in power. We have, it seems, a problem of depravity rather than a problem of God in Nigeria. This is not to suggest that those Nigerians who cried, Lord, where are you when we need you, are mistaken. This lament indicates that, despite the pernicious evil suffocating this people, some still have the faith to seek God. As Peter Berger and Amlie Rorty have noted, the presence of evil is not the absence of God.

We have a way out of our problem of depravity. God is merciful as well as just. He was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were only 10 righteous persons. We must take collective action to realign with God on a personal as well as societal level. But we must also deal with those who have led us away from God and allowed evil to proliferate all around us, in our culture, schools, and public spaces.

For the false messiah, his reign will be over when we elect a new (and hopefully) moral and effective president in 2023. But Buhari seems to have set the standard for many of his devotees. For example, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (guess what, hes a pastor!) is already being prophesied as Redeemer 2.0. We must not forget that he embodies everything we know (and much we dont yet know) to be wrong with the Buhari administration. Osinbajo will likely be the second coming of Buhari. Similarly, Pastor Tunde Bakare who was Buharis VP candidate in 2011 and had the audacity to self-prophesy his own election as the 16th president in 2023 (he is quoted to say God revealed: I will succeed Buhari as President of Nigeria; nothing can change it.) must be rebuffed. The latest prophecy is by the General Overseer and Primate of Christ Revelation Church of God, Bishop Ayodele Ipinmoroti, saying that God revealed Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be the next president in 2023. For context, we must not forget Tinubus devils bargain which enabled the ascendency of the false messiah Buhari. Prophet Joshua Arogun is at it again. His recent prophecy vaguely revealed Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, an ex-convict, as President Buharis replacement in 2023. We must reject every Buhari 2.0 candidate claiming divine right.

What should we do with the false prophets who prophesied Buharis failed messianic presidency? Every one of them should be prosecuted for bearing false witness and crime against Nigerians for aiding and abetting a false messiah whose policies have had horrendous consequences on the lives of millions of Nigerians. There is nothing in the Nigerian penal code that grants immunity of prosecution to conmen and counterfeiters. False prophecy is not protected by ecclesiastical privilege. We must bring them to justice or else others will follow, seeing there is no downside to promising salvation and delivering only evil.

However, it will require moral and creative wisdom to discover what it means to rebuild a nation in which awareness of divine presence is the foundation of being. Both Islam and Christianity, the dominant religions, have teachings that disapprove of false prophets and false messiahs, immorality and illegality. God stands waiting at the door. We must develop and internalize the moral qualities we expect of our leaders and fellow citizens. Only by doing so will we have the power to break the vicious cycle of false prophets, false messiahs, and mass suffering. God only feels absent in Nigeria because evil pervades. If we remove the evil, we can feel God again. Only then can we expect to welcome God back into our society.

nudoffia@gmail.com

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A FALSE MESSIAH AND THE PROBLEM OF GOD IN NIGERIA - THISDAY Newspapers