BY FRANCIS IGATA

The furore generated by the transfer of the firebrand Enugu-based Catholic Priest, Fr Ejike Mbaka, a fortnight ago, threw up questions that pricked the minds of many so much so that the Catholic Church, renowned for its traditional conservative trappings, has been unduly in the public domain over issues considered as political. The routine transfer of priests in the Enugu Diocese which led to Mbaka’s   January 30 exit from Christ the King Parish,CKP, GRA,Enugu where he had been the parish priest since 1996, sent shocking chills down the spines of his flock.

Rev-Father-Mbaka

The decision to transfer Mbaka,culminated in centrifugal and centripetal forces that queried the rationale, even though he was posted to Our Lady of Rosary,OLR,Emene,Enugu considered as an outskirts merely 8 kilometers away from CKP that is about 10minutes drive. Having established the famous Adoration Ministry at the CKP with over 20 years of existence in healing,charity,health and pastoral efficacy,the news of exiting the parish jolted Mbaka and his flock.

On leaving CKP on that fateful day, Mbaka said,”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. Fortunately, it is going to happen in the month of lent. So, I am going to use my exit here as a Lenten observance but Jesus said it all in John 16:20 to his apostles that you will be sorrowful and the world will be rejoicing but very soon I will turn your sorrow to joy.

“But for now I know you are going to suffer. 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? My clothing and books I can keep in the car or  somebody’s house but where will I keep these assets that I have given to the Catholic church of Enugu? But I say may God take the glory and whoever that has offended me, I have forgiven. 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. The baby is born, there is no going back. We are moving out. We have been doing it and we will do it again. Moses was going out with a rod in his hand, Mbaka is moving out with his bible and this nobody can take away from me”.

Decrying what he described as “attempt by some persons to politicize the church”, by feeding the Bishop falsely, he noted: “ I am giving God the glory and I welcome the church’s choice and action with absolute acceptance and obedience. So there is no negation to what God has approved and what the church suggested. Nobody should see me as a recalcitrant priest. I am not. I have taken an oath of obedience and I

stand on it. I pray God to bless all of you who in one way or the other have supported the work of God here and those who have sincerely allowed God to use them for the jobs we did here all these years. God will bless the people of God here and reward you according to your labours. The parish is not going to collapse, the church that will continue to grow”.

He told the members that their journey to OLR, Emene where he has been posted as Resident Priest serving fewer than two Priests should be seen as the, “journey of the Israelites out of Egypt”.  “God has planned a future and hope out of disaster and where I am going, He will go before me to level mountain. The bible says that He will deliver me from all evil; He will keep my going out and coming in both now and forever… I am praying that God will keep his church and my fellow adorers so that our journey to Emene will be a journey

of Israelites out of Egypt. Some of them were grumbling leaving Egyptian soil because they were having the phobia for the unknown, but I am telling you people as a courageous leader, do not be afraid. We  are moving and in no distant time, you people are going to smile”, he told them.  The Catholic faith   is renowned for its conservative disposition in all its affair. The Bible tells us that God is ubiquitous. It therefore means that God is in the toilet,room,on the road, everwhere. And that He hears and knows our hearts. That is why you hardly can see a catholic priest indulge in prayers that can be considered a shouting match.

The traditional catholic priests,simply bow down their heads and pray quietly. Although the contemporary priests in the same catholic faith tend to mimick the Pentecostal model of praying as a fallout to retain followership   for the many in search of miracles and wonders. In all, you hardly can find a core Catholic priest that prayers to the hearing of the person next door.

Before Mbaka’s efficacious advent, the likes of late Fr. Njoku and Fr. Ede of Upper room,Emene and Holy Ghost Fire Ministry respectively who had similar attributes were never at the centre of any national political storm. Mbaka’s perceived uncontrolled outburst that he claims is prophetic led to his declaration in the days leading to the 2015 general election that former president Goodluck Jonathan would lose the 2015 presidential election after he had anointed the Mrs. Patience Jonathan as the next first lady.

Although he had clarified that prophetic messages are to be left for people who receive such spiritual messages which the Holy Spirit can at will direct, hear what   Retired Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Diocese, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, said then: “Any serious priest will not speak the way he, Mbaka, spoke. I am not saying that he is not serious. I will not agree with the things he said. According to what I read in the newspapers, a few weeks earlier, the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, visited his Adoration Ground in Enugu and he prayed for her. At that occasion, he was said to have lambasted the opposition party, APC, and now to turn around overnight and start lambasting President Goodluck Jonathan shows that there is something wrong somewhere. Personally, I felt bad because it is not the place of a priest to go to that extent. He can have his personal opinion, but to go to the extent that he went is abnormal.

“I want you to know that he wasn’t speaking for the church. He said he was moved by the spirit, and I wonder what kind of spirit was that. He, Mbaka, said he was under the inspiration of the spirit. If he was under the inspiration of the spirit, I wonder if the spirit is that of God. I don’t think the spirit he’s referring to is the spirit of God. He must have been under the influence of another spirit. He must have been listening to a wrong spirit.

“Indeed, it is. But I must say to you that he was not speaking on behalf of the church. No! No!! No!!! Anybody with such opinion is in error. The man cannot hold brief for the church. Pardon me, but how can I say you are bloody fool and anybody takes that to mean that all journalists are bloody fools. It’s very funny. Well, the Catholic Church is structured in such a way that there are dioceses where each priest belongs. This particular priest happens to come from Enugu Diocese, so it is left for the bishop in charge of that diocese to discipline him. If the priest fails to obey the discipline, then the bishop is obligated to report the matter to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN.

“You may have heard the Bishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, who said that if the priest,Mbaka, were to be in his diocese, he would discipline him straight. But he is not in his diocese. The best anyone of us can do is just to advise him that he had gone too far and he is free to take our advice and he may not. God gave every one of us a free will and we are at liberty to use the freewill as we choose.

“As It is, it depends on his Bishop Callistus Onaga. You cannot dictate for his bishop. Don’t forget that this same man was at loggerheads with a former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamanni, and it was the same Adoration Ground in Enugu.” In all, when Jesus Christ healed, his position was go and tell no one. He never made noise about it. That is the stance of the ever living Roman Catholic Church. Why would Mbaka’s prophecies be bordering on sensitive national issues like wining or losing of presidential elections? Clearly, he has made it clear that no material attachment follows his prophetic declaration which we believe. But why transmute to a talking point as a priest that swore to selflessness and service to God.

But some people are asking questions.

When Father Mbaka hosted Patience Jonathan, prayed for her and said that she would likely return to Aso Rock as the first lady, the bishops did not complain. But they did when Mbaka recanted and said that Jonathan would lose in the election and that he had so mismanaged the country that Goodluck had turned to bad luck to Nigerians. Were there some double standards in the reaction of the Catholic bishops?

Catholic Secretariat’s reaction

In a reaction through the Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria,Abuja, Reverend Father Ralph Madu, said the posting was not meant to be punitive but a “normal church procedure.” According to him,   “Mbaka’s transfer   is not an exception; the Bishop has the right to post any priest wherever he feels his service would be more useful to the church. “His posting should have been a privilege, not a punishment – which the Bishop can do because he has the power.

“If he (Mbaka) says it’s a punishment, then it’s open for further investigation. Posting is a regular thing, a priest can be transferred after two, three, four, or more years. It depends on the discretion of the Bishop.

“That ministry (Adoration Ministry) is his private ministry. It does not belong to the church. Overseeing a parish is a full time job. Overseeing a ministry is a bigger task. If the church decides to take him somewhere where he’ll have more time to carry out his ministry, how is it punitive? That should not be the language.” He said: “He is supposed to be a missionary. What if the Bishop had closed down the ministry , which is within his power to do? Sometimes, transfers can be for the good of the priest as something can be going wrong which he might not be aware of. The Bishop is free to move any priest at any time, it is his prerogative.”