David Eboh

The ship called Nigeria has lost her navigational capability and it is sinking at sea with loads of sin weighing her deep down in the waters. There is the political sin, professional sin, academic sin, media sin and matrimonial sin. But the most terrible of these presently is the evangelical sins, which is quite unique and difficult to comprehend because it involves the pseudo men and women of God (or gods) and defenceless children who are the victims of their atrocities. It is like a horror movie story set in Akwa Ibom State where some over-ambitious pastors that claim to have the power to detect who is a witch see visions and prophesize that some children of the voiceless parents who best fit the description of a witch due to poverty or physical look are named as witches. The children are subjected to extreme torture until they confess to what they do not know about or matured enough to understand. They are burnt by kerosene fire, nails are driven down the head of some, many are slashed by cutlass (machete), others are starved and some are given unidentified chemicals mixed with pastor’s blood and mercury to drink or have herbal preparations instilled into their eyes and ears. Others just get murdered. A child only managed to survive having been pulled out from the grave where she was buried alive.

These pastors have so hypnotized the population such that it is almost impossible to question the power they claim to possess from God. Sceptics are unable to make forceful challenge in order to avoid the avalanche of these very wealthy and highly connected preachers who are prepared to do anything to prove that their God or “ god” is alive and working. A voice against their evil activities could be undermined even by those with political power that attends such churches as any statement of objection to their preaching and drive is quickly turned to mean an opposition to God. So the saints are termed as sinners and they the agents of torture against helpless, defenceless and innocent children are regarded as the holy ones who many of us have now accustomed to worshipping. Many lies are told as truth and the bible has become a ‘cash cow’ for some churches and pastors.

When lies roar from under a shadow authority of the Bible, the truth is frightened of the stage. False prophecy and blind vision are vibrated from loudspeakers into the eardrum of people traditionally conditioned to believe that every unpleasant life experience has a supernatural cause.

Witchdoctors and magicians who propelled the belief for many years across Africa, are presently being phased out of business by the expansion of missionary work as well as increasing foreign socio-cultural influences and education.

Sadly in Nigeria, the engine for sustaining and improving knowledge, social re-engineering, community development and self-empowerment grinded to near complete halt by the ideology of greed, selfishness, misuse of power, abuse of position of authority and survival of the fittest. The manifestation of these is obvious in the growing number of churches, speaking in tongues, prophecies, miracles, healings, financial breaking-through and deliverance. It is also evident in many other aspects of our professional and political ambitions with many of the most empowered people undermining, squashing or eliminating the weak and vulnerable others. As a people and a nation, we are sacrificing love, honour, integrity, conscience and even faith for the sake of wealth and power.

For some of the reasons so highlighted, a massively wealthy country like Nigeria remained classified among the poorest countries in the world. Some military dictators, politicians and pastors promote self-worth, personality, affluence and oppressive power against the common good for social collaboration and national development. Our social values degenerated into politics of innuendos, rumours, persona vendetta, vindictiveness and lies from the remotest community to the entire federation.

Over the years, we have watched our own people run down public institutions and so create mass deprivation, disempowerment and dependency. The dependency is not on the institutions of government, but on individuals; real or corporate that can simply make a promise to provide anything, whether fulfilled or not, with or without the possibility of realisation. Without a government for the people, the law serves very narrow purpose, which is simply to protect those that bully their way into the corridors of authority. This is where some business pastors come to take advantage of what Karl Marx called the “opium” of the people, which is religion. So far, no one has been bold enough to publish a research or comment on the advantages or disadvantages of the growing spiritual and Pentecostal evangelical ministries on Nigeria and Africa development so far.  

We are constantly enveloped in mountains of fear, hope and faith, which only prayers and fasting can resolve according to the academic sermons of many pastors who have tactically distanced salvation from the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. While it is not my place to comment on who is real or fake pastors, I am happy to say that the population have become greatly detached from their power to make the government meet their earthly needs that could bring comfort, security and enjoyment of life in a country they should be proud to call their own. We are differentiated on who we follow between the pastors, the politicians, the 419ers, or any other that can provide a day’s value of meal while removing the opportunity for three happy square meals for tomorrow and the future.

 In respect to the above, the ordinary people with no power to make any demand have their rights forced out of them and their children are denied a decent future. This is the reason public schools are being replaced with private ownership, healthcare reform is suggestive of privatisation that look set to enlarge inequality of access and affordability, reversion of pipe borne water supply to sources from wells, river and individual bore holes. Others include electricity that is generated by individuals’ own air and noise polluting plants.

Bible teaching about heaven and hell has been seriously manipulated and we have become unduly dependent on God and pastors against dependency on the brain, will and physical strength that God so graciously endowed us with so that we can develop our society through Arts and Sciences. God will never come down from heaven to sow for us to reap and pastors are mere mortal beings that should not be playing god in the minds of the vulnerable people. They have become the tool of the oppressors both in politics, career professionals and many others.

The wave of gospel movement started like the historical scramble for Africa by colonial adventurers. Just like Africans were physically enslaved by that invasion, many modern day preachers have violated the Gospel message of the Bible and are on a mission of enslaving the minds and senses of their followers with advanced marketing strategies that advocates miracles as a solution for everything; from poverty to resurrecting the dead. Many Nigerians are becoming lazy on each day that passes by or are diverting their natural intelligence into wrong causes as becoming wealthy is no longer on a merit of hardwork or justifiable investment.

Today, what I consider as born-again are many groups of pastor worshippers and church-goers who are not after salvation but for solutions to their problems or greed. Many of them journey through different churches and across ‘babalawos.’  They believe in statement that promises automatic transformation of status and as a result become demotivated and powerless to think for themselves. This is the reason the majority of the pastors are into seeing fake visions and making false prophecies that supports the misplacement of development opportunities in our country. This explains the reason the rest of the world are advancing in science and technology, and we cannot sustainably manufacture any tangible thing apart from plastics with imported technology. And while foreign universities are the foundation for the research and development in other countries technological advancements; with huge government and private funding, our universities are subjected to perpetual degradation and decay where lecturers and researchers are both marginalised and ignored. With the degeneration of the public funded universities, pastors are again stepping in to building schools and universities where they charge prohibitive fees that favours only minority segment in the society. Although this could be argued to be an advantage, it is in reality in opposite of what missionaries of old brought that gave many of us the opportunity that we would otherwise not have had.

People go to the churches to receive pastors’ prayers during ill-health when they should go to the hospitals to see a doctor. Some people will keep all night vigil and fast for weeks in order to pass exam or get a job but will not spend time to study and apply for a suitable employment. Others will demand from pastor’s own god for positions they do not have the training or experience to be in without any effort to achieve the requirement for climbing that high. And many pastors will encourage some to increase their fasting and prayers to have the faith that can raise the dead even at a time when they need better food and medicine. Some pastors and churches have become a joke and a mockery to God in Nigeria where every next door has been turned into a church or a modernised babalawo’s shrine.

The dependence on God cum Pastor has made it impossible for the population to depend on the government. Without any responsibility being demanded from the government, it has become normal to have children to be hawking on the streets instead of being in the classroom, easier for police to kill rather than make arrest, for people in authority to use public money to educate their children in priced private schools or far away at overseas; and their wives and close family members travel abroad to deliver their babies or get treatment while the rest of the population endures their pain and hopelessness.

The current revelation and the main core of this article is about the subjection of Nigerian children, our free citizens who are sinless, innocent, weak and unprotected to the most atrocious dehumanization, neglect, abandonment, torture, suffering and murder. This is happening in the modern day Nigeria under civil governance and democracy. And they are happening due to the failure of government to accept or be forced to accept its statutory responsibilities to provide the necessities of life for all and protection of the weakest and most vulnerable in the society. These children are mainly those born to families with little or no income and may or may not have any education. Their predicament follows the vacuum which is occupied by the pastors and for which some of them have seized the opportunity to exploit the children and their families. They see visions and prophesize that the children are witches and are responsible for all the problems in the community and society at large. With no protection from anybody, and on the instruction of the evil pastors many of the children are murdered, maimed or abandoned on the streets due to stigmatization of witchcraft by the unholy pronouncements of the unholy evangelists. Now, it has become difficult to distinguish the good Gospel from Satan’s-spell.  

Recently there was a TV documentary of the activities and abuse of children in Akwa Ibom State which was shown in the United Kingdom and broadcasted worldwide. It can be read and watched on the internet from (www.channel4tv.co.uk/dispatches, Search for saving Africa’s witch children). It is important not to concentrate so much on Akwa Ibom because it is a general thing in Nigeria. This matter should not be a challenge for the Governor of Akwa Ibom State alone, but also for the Senators and Representatives from the area who should be seen to be doing something at the national level. They should make themselves accessible to those from their constituencies that would like to discuss their experiences about such abuses.

In that TV documentary, a pastor who called himself Bishop confessed to have killed 110 children because they are witches and he is walking free as the law remain silent. He also stated that he charges up to N400,000 from parents and guardians for prayers that would cast the witchcraft off the children. The other called Frank Udoeyo proudly revealed that some of the girls kept captive by him and Cecilia his wife serve him in his bedroom, which literally means that he might be sexually assaulting underage children.

How could the law be so mocked and silenced in situations like this? And how could the good pastors allow the evil ones undermine God with so much arrogance? It reminded me of a poem that I read in secondary school titled “Least we should be last”  by Kwesi Brew, where those trusted to be Christians and followed completely and blindly were found by their converts to be the least of the unbelievers.

The female pastor among them called Helen Ukpabio whose film that was neither based on fiction nor any biblical research presented the behaviours on which a child could be stigmatized as a witch. Her depiction of children characteristic behaviours, which in my opinion are applicable to every child including her own children and mine, have led to many vulnerable children being named as witches. Even a baby of about four months was reported on that programme by the locals to be responsible for the pollutions of the rivers and death of fishes in them. Many children are abandoned by their families and their communities threaten to kill them.

Helen’s outburst in the TV interview with Gary Foxcroft, the English man that highlighted the suffering of the children, which Sam Ituama was dealing with in silence, exhibited her anger on a concern that the ‘cat is about to be let out of the bag.’ She compared her film to the work of J.K. Rawlings, author of “Harry Portter.” She woefully failed to acknowledge that J.K. Rawlings made many children millionaires as well as gave knowledge and empowerment to millions of others across the world. Harry Portter did not stigmatize children or led to the wanton abuse of them. Harry Porter did not create the impression that the film has anything to do with children having peculiar behaviours for which they could be identified as witches. People all over the world were entertained by the Harry Potter books and film series.

Religion which was principally responsible for many riots in Nigeria and a root to regional socio-political differences has now become the background for abuse, abandonment and complete deprivation of children. If life on the street is tough for adults, a child will not survive without care, love and support.

Jesus teaches us to love one another and not to do harm to a child. He said that for people to achieve salvation they must bring themselves to the innocence of the child. Neither Christianity nor Islam advocates harm for a child and our pastors must be stopped either by proactive law or social revolution from continuing on this part of evil against innocent, sinless and harmless children. Families need unity and protection; they need love to flourish and not the prophecy of the evil pastors that disunite, fracture and stigmatize families and voiceless children.

Politicians should be seen as advocates for the ordinary man for their voice is supposed to be authority for the good of the general society. The government should be seen to take responsibility for mass reorientation of the people already enslaved by opium of miracles that is being given as a solution for all the difficulties that government has power to solve. Air and water pollution and the problems of agricultural productivity in the South are not due to child witches, but to the poisons dished into air and water by oil exploration, car and electricity generators and industrial fumes, unmanaged human and animal waste products etc. Illnesses and deaths are caused by micro-organisations like bacteria and viruses which thrive in the humid heaps of refuse dumps and dirt all over the country, especially the southern states , careless life styles, obesity and high blood pressure, bad vehicles on extremely bad roads, and diseases that runs in some families, such as sickle cell, diabetes, asthma etc. Presently there is the problem of HIV and AIDS which if condom is used or people who know their HIV status remains faithful to their known sexual partners can be prevented from being acquired.

If at all witches exist, prayers should be directed at helping them to use their given mystical talents for the good of the community and country. Life is a sacred gift and no one should exercise arbitrary power to deny anyone that right.

Finally, there are several demanding challenges about law and order that the police and institutions of government should pay attention to, many of which are highlighted in this article. Police cannot be seen to be inactive while some people arrogate on to themselves the power to torture people especially the children. Under this circumstance, it is appalling to read and hear that federal government resources and the state security agencies were deployed to cause confusion at a graduation ceremony with the sole aim to harass one of the most respected and hardworking Nigerians whose record of achievements is well acknowledge beyond the borders of the country. We must resist the misuse of pastors and political power, as well as the badly rooted desire to punish the good people while evil ones enjoy freedom and fame. 

 Each time one wish to debate about the country moving forward, someone does something which demonstrates that we do not know or understand what our priorities are. Certain things done by law enforcement agencies simply demonstrate that we are neither learning nor making effort to learn. For a society to function well everyone must be accountable for their actions, and this includes the pastors, the government and responsible individuals both at home and abroad.

May God direct our wisdom! Amen

Should anyone wish to engage on a debate on the issues raised, please feel free to contact me so that we can arrange a mutually convenient medium to do so. Objective comments are welcome and should be posted to davideboh@aol.com, or deboh@mebodmanagement.com

Robot  # 1 | 07.12.2008 09:01

David Eboh The ship called Nigeria has lost her navigational capability and it is sinking at sea with loads of sin weighing her deep down in the waters. There is the political sin, professional sin, academic sin, media sin and matrimonial sin. But the most terrible of these presently is the evangelical sins, which is quite unique and difficult to comprehend because it involves the pseudo men and women of God (or gods) and defenceless children who are the victims of their atrocities. It is like a horror movie story set in Akwa Ibom State where some over-ambitious pastors that claim to have the power to detect who is a witch see visions and prophesize that some children of the voiceless parents who best fit the description of a witch due to poverty or physical look are named as witches. The children are subjected to extreme torture until they confess to what they do not know about or matured enough to understand. They are burnt by kerosene fire, nails are...Read the full article.

Dewdrops  # 2 | 07.12.2008 14:00

=Robot;297779> Today, what I consider as born-again are many groups of pastor worshippers and church-goers who are not after salvation but for solutions to their problems or greed. Many of them journey through different churches and across ‘babalawos.’ They believe in statement that promises automatic transformation of status and as a result become demotivated and powerless to think for themselves. This is the reason the majority of the pastors are into seeing fake visions and making false prophecies that supports the misplacement of development opportunities in our country. This explains the reason the rest of the world are advancing in science and technology, and we cannot sustainably manufacture any tangible thing apart from plastics with imported technology. And while foreign universities are the foundation for the research and development in other countries technological advancements; with huge government and private funding, our universities are subjected to perpetual degradation and decay where lecturers and researchers are both marginalised and ignored. With the degeneration of the public funded universities, pastors are again stepping in to building schools and universities where they charge prohibitive fees that favours only minority segment in the society. Although this could be argued to be an advantage, it is in reality in opposite of what missionaries of old brought that gave many of us the opportunity that we would otherwise not have had Hmmmmmmmmmmm. The beauty of an imported cultures. Thank God for education.

charles4u  # 3 | 07.12.2008 14:14

mumu oponu ode akidanidani pastor, Okotie number 2

Danmeka  # 4 | 08.12.2008 08:09

In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has encountered the supernatural or the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. In Christianity, they are often referred to as "seers" according to 1 Samuel 9:9. Christians share the Jewish belief that a prophet is a person who speaks for God, in the name of God, and who carries God's message to others.A a prophet is seen as a person who is selected by, and speaks as a formal representative of God, and the intention of the message is always to effect a social change to conform to God's desired standards. In Hebrew, the word traditionally translated as prophet is (navi), which means "spokesperson. Some Christians also believe that the title "prophet" encompasses others than those who receive visions from God. A more modern definition of prophet is someone who spreads God's truths.Certain people come to mind such as Anthony Olubunmi Okogie,Tunde Bakari,Peter Akinola and others who speak with boldness about the ills of society. But the late 20th century the appellation of a 'prophet' has been used to refer to individuals particularly successful at analysis in the field of economics, such as in the derogatory 'prophet of greed.Such people such as Ukapbio and associates come to mind, their gospel has become tyranny,fear,greed,resentfulness,telepathy and false hope.Their churches have become Gospel Greed plc with fantastic and misleading names to lure and deceive people.