Controversial Catholic priest, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, who has predicted Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the last year presidential election, has some influence on politics in Nigeria. He also at several times publicly spoke against former president Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience.
Timothy Enietan-Matthews in this piece tries to understand is Father Mbaka a priest or a political soldier.
President Buhari and Father Mbaka
The transfer of Rev Father Ejike Mbaka
These, indeed, are interesting times when Nigerians are treated to different forms of absurdities on daily basis. A lot of things that happen, no matter how odd or insane it may be have come to be viewed as normal in Nigeria.
One of such incidence is the transfer of a priest, Rev Father Ejike Mbaka by the leadership of the Catholic Church. An exercise which should have been a normal internal administrative process, soon became a national discourse, with the priest and a section of Nigerians, even a political party accusing the Church of having an ulterior motive.
Father Mbaka loves controversy and the attendant media attention and hype it gives him. He courts controversy in a rather unusual manner for a priest, especially of the Catholic Church, which is usually viewed as being conservative.
And when his posting came, an otherwise normal action in the Catholic Church, Mbaka’s reaction was a clear indication that he has other things on his mind asides priestly work. It also shows his level of loyalty and commitment to the Catholic Church, given that the Adoration Ministry under which he makes most of his pronouncements is his private ministry, and does not belong to the Catholic Church.
The priest, who was posted to Our Lady Parish, Emene from Christ the King Parish, GRA, Enugu, had busted out, in what was seen as a betrayal of his true motives, saying his transfer was meant to make him suffer.
“I know we are going to suffer within now and few months to come. I am going to suffer and suffer; I know that. 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. I know I’m going to suffer,” the priest said.
What the priest means by “I am going to suffer and suffer” remains to be understood. Does it mean that the parish he was sent to oversee does not have a mission when he said I have no place to put my head? What does it take to keep the assets of the adoration ministry? And in any case, should Mbaka’s private businesses be the headache of the Catholic Church, which has actually been liberal by allowing his personal ministry overshadow his primary duties as a catholic priest?
APC joins Mbaka in attacking the church
In yet another display of oddity, the South East zone of the All Progressives Congress, APC, joined Mbaka in attacking the church over the legitimate exercise of its administrative process.
The party, in a statement, accused Bishop Callistus Onaga, Mbaka’s boss of being manipulated by external forces to transfer him.
The APC statement clearly gave out the priest and the party, exposing potentially, what many Nigerian may not know about the pact between the two parties. Or in what way does location affect the efficacy of prophesy? When did administrative process of the Catholic Church become a political issue, requiring the intervention of the APC?
Reacting to Mbaka and APC’s allegations, the Catholic Church, simply clarified that nobody is out to punish anybody but that the priest is being sent to where he can be more useful to the church, in the exercise of the legitimate powers of the Bishop.
Reverend Father Ralph Madu, General Secretary of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, in an interview, described transfer of priests as a normal procedure in the church.
Those who know will readily testify that the priesthood environment is a regimented one that those who cannot cope have the option of opting out! Father Mbaka has the option of toeing the path of honour by throwing in the towel and leaving the Catholic Church instead of running foul of the rules and bringing the church to disrepute over unnecessary controversies.
With this, he can concentrate of his Adoration Ministry and also be resident in a city of his choice without anybody taking ‘punitive’ actions against him because of his political views, or inclination.
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