The Travails Of Fr. Ejike Mbaka

GWIYI SOLOMON

He was invited by the authorities of the Enugu Catholic Diocese, specifically by the Lord-Bishop, Calistus Onaga. And upon his arrival at Bishop’s court, he was striped of his communication gadgets and the priest became incommunicado. 

However, while in isolation, which he was lured into without anybody foreseeing such circumstance, his driver was said to have slept outside the Court’s gate, while waiting for his principal to come out from a supposed father-to-son interaction with his host. 

But that was not to be. From his incarceration, he pleaded to be allowed to address his congregation but was turned down. He further appealed to send another priest to officiate his weekly adoration prayer (scheduled to hold same day) Wednesday, having known his followers would have besieged his prayer ground, to receive God’s messages for the week; but was yet again spanked.

Instead, he was told he would remain indoors for one month, a period that would allow him pray and meditate over his activities. Haba, my Lord-Bishop!

It was while the priest underwent through series of indoor interrogations as regards his activities and possibly, his political altercations with the FG in the recent times, especially the version that included his call for President Buhari’s resignation or removal by the National Assembly over abysmal performance, that his followers decided to heed the scripture, by showing their faith from their work. 

In the book of James 2:20, the Bible has recorded, “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” And from this passage, his hundreds of worshippers took to the streets of Enugu. And when they got to Bishop’s court, they began to tear down the walls of ‘Jericho’; and from there, they headed to Holy Ghost cathedral, where the unpredictable could have happened. Then, Bishop Onaga had to let their Priest “GO.”

It was while this anger raged and tempers rose that Fr. Mbaka was released by his superior to address his people. From thence, nerves began to calm, and the priest too, acknowledged while addressing his gathering that his incarceration could have lasted longer than this if the worshippers didn’t crawl from their cocoons.

For the records: I am not one of his admirers. Not anymore. Yet, you cannot take away the place of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s declarations in the nation’s political navigation. And this is not subject to your acceptance or rejection.

I had parted ways with Fr. Mbaka when he barefacedly made mockery of His Excellency and former Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi, right before his mammoth worshippers, for not making Public cash donation in support of His projects, prior to 2019 general elections in the country.  Fr. Mbaka did not just mock Mr. Peter Obi, he further predicted that my then candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will lose same election and the Turaki lost lost it. And I lost my admiration for the priest. One, one. 

Then and again, I was taken to the medieval age when from nowhere, his message filtered the airspace that from last position, Hope Uzodinma will become governor of Imo state, and hope did. And without double thoughts, I totally erased Fr. Mbaka’s image from my heart. 

Yet, this does not take the bravery and courage of a lion from father Mbaka. And for speaking out now and very loudly, against a smelling and putrid condition in which our country has found itself under president Muhammadu Buhari, Fr. Mbaka has won my heart over and does not deserve his present travails and persecution from the church that owes a responsibility to speak out and protect the gullible in the society. 

Meanwhile, while the church may still be considering workable means of clipping Fr. Mbaka’s wings, let it be known to them that religion to the fanatics is an end itself; not a “means.” And this is sole reason wars fought on the basis of dogmas can hardly be waged. 

To put it more succinctly, our Lord-Bishop shouldn’t have dabbled into the father Mbaka recent debacle; because he did not do so when similar measure was used against Good Luck Jonathan in 2015 and repeated against Atiku in 2019. But now that the bishop has done so, I want to urge him to further devote more of his time into reading reactions from comment boxes of his followers on social media, and he would come to terms with the understanding that the church of Christ has moved from what it use to be in the 80s to what it should be in the 21s century. Good Luck, my lord-bishop as you do this in good conscience.

I am sure, you will be shocked in the end. 

– Gwiyi Solomon wrote from Enugu, Enugu State.