On New Year’s eve, fiery Catholic priest and the Spiritual Director of the Adora¬tion Ministry in Enugu, Rev Father Ejike Mbaka, delivered a prophetic message that shook the country. He said President Goodluck Jonathan would fail in the presidential election.
Why did Mbaka say so? He had told the world that the Holy Spirit told him Goodluck Jonathan was not favoured to continue as president going by the state of the Nigerian economy and widespread insecurity, which he had failed to contain.
Soon, a controversy ensued and tongues started to wag about the message of the priest, more so as the First Lady, Dame Patience Jona¬than, had only visited the Adoration Ground in Enugu last November. A confidant of Father Mbaka and Media Chief of the Adoration Ministry, Mr Maximus Ike Ugwuoke, a lawyer, told Sunday Sun that Presi¬dent Jonathan has himself to blame as he took the word of the Holy Spirit delivered by Mbaka for granted.
According to Ugwuoke, Mbaka had a huge burden placed on him after the visit of the First Lady when one of the doves released refused to fly until the message became clear to him that the Holy Spirit had rejected the president.
He said Mbaka made several moves to reach the president so as to see what could be done, but the presidency shut the door at him.
Instead, he said, what the man of God got was a threat to his life.
Ugwuoke said when so many people doubted the fulfillment of the prophecy on grounds that Jonathan would ride on the power of incumbency to defeat General Muhammudu Buhari, Mbaka knew it was all over for him (Jonathan).
The media chief disclosed that on the Sunday preceding the presidential election, Mbaka had burst into victory songs, which he had not sung for a very long time.
Ugwuoke in this exclusive interview with Sunday Sun gave graphic details on what transpired during the First Lady’s visit to the Adoration Ground, the prophecy of Jonathan’s fall, the challenges the prophecy brought to the ministry and why Nigerians should listen to the words of genuine men of God. Excerpts:
On New Year’s eve, Fr Mbaka delivered a controversial message that Presi¬dent Goodluck Jonathan would not be re-elected saying it was a message from God to him. Many doubted his message, but we saw some days ago when the presidential election result was released, that the president was actually defeated. How do you look at this?
Well, I see the election that has just come and gone as a prophecy fulfilled. It is an indication that the real message of Fr Mbaka was actually from the oracle of the Holy Spirit. He said in that prophecy that this Goodluck has become bad luck to us.
Can you explain what he meant by that?
The message doesn’t need much explanation so to say because even in the message itself, he stated why he has to make that statement. I am not here to interpret his message. But I remember him saying that when Goodluck met our oil, the oil became bad luck and poured away. The mes¬sage is already there, I can’t add nor remove. What he meant when he said that Goodluck has become bad luck was looking at the economy, at the differ¬ent areas where people expected him to perform which he failed to perform, he thought it was bad luck and I think that was why he had to make that statement. All he had said in the message will tell you why Goodluck became bad luck.
There was also this demonstration by Fr Mbaka using doves and that of Jona¬than didn’t fly. You were there when this thing took place. What actually hap¬pened?
I was there when it happened, up to a million people were there too and I tell you something, that message was delivered at a time when the minis¬try witnessed the highest gathering being the New Year’s eve. It was during Goodluck’s wife visit, he had actually prayed for the woman and after praying for her, he brought the dove, four pigeons, and said that he was releasing the pigeons to go and fight for Jonathan in the four cardinal points of the earth. He was opening the cage where the pigeons were and I saw some of the pigeons, two or thereabout, left the cage. And there was one that refused to leave. He made everything possible for that pigeon to leave, because the thing flew up to the place where the singing ministry members were. For us it was like a drama. People tried to force the pigeon to fly away but whatever they did, the pigeon came back. So, Father as the priest said that people should leave the pigeon alone. Then later on, he was able, because he sees what I don’t see, he said he was able to discern from the spirit that the spirit told him not to force that pigeon to fly because “I have rejected Goodluck.” That was why immediately after that prayer, he felt that there should be a U-turn. Remember that the man we are talking about here is a servant of God. Let me tell you what I know about Fr Mbaka, he is someone who doesn’t look at faces. When it comes to his prophecy and his calling, he doesn’t want to know whose ox is gored. When he has got that conviction that this is, what the spirit has told him to do, I tell you nothing stops him from doing it. And that is why sometimes people think he’s so controversial. You know as someone who has worked closely with him, sometimes I trace it back to all the significant prophets that we all know. These are people you cannot hold and put back in a particular place. Like all this while, the controversy was raging, that he supported Good¬luck and is now opposed to him the incidents were already there in the scriptures. Think about some¬one like Hezekiah whom a prophet came and told he was going to die. When he went and prayed, telling God that he was sorry for all his sins and all that, that prophet came back and told him that he won’t die again. Think about somebody like Samuel whom after telling Saul that “you are the one that has been chosen to come and rescue Is¬rael”, went back and said David is the man after God’s own heart. Think about even Christ himself whom after telling Peter that “you are the rock on whom I will build the church,” later told Peter in the scriptures that he is a Satan and should get behind him. So, prophetic ministry is not a pas¬sive ministry. True prophets move with the spirit of God and the spirit of God cannot be controlled by man. And at that time, some people were like “what has pigeons got to do with where people are praying?” Some other persons said it was an ill pigeon that was brought. Let me tell you, in Catholic tradition, the use of pigeon in solemn oc¬casion is not something that is not done. Usually, when you have church dedication in the occasions of new churches, bishops normally come there to release pigeons. Even in our social affairs, when you have festivals, people do release pigeons as a sign of peace. Now, if God has chosen to speak to this man through discernment that the pigeon you released is a sign that God has rejected Jonathan and he declared it, what is wrong with that? God can use so many ways to talk to people. Remem¬ber you are talking about a prophet here; the way you look at this book here may not be the way he looks at it. And when somebody has said that God has told him, I think Nigerians were too impatient in attacking Father. That message elicited contro¬versy and attacks. They were too impatient. He said God told him, they could have waited.
From your illustrations from the Bible, you cited some instances where some dangerous situations were averted by God; things changing from bad to good. If the First Lady had come to Father Mba¬ka to seek help, why didn’t Fr Mbaka in¬tercede for her husband to win?
Good. Now you should be able to know that the First Lady visited once and this whole thing hap¬pened at that point in time when the prayer was going on. Now, when the prayer ended, the First Lady left. And if you look at what Father himself said, he said when the message became clearer, the First Lady came around November 9, and Father’s message came on December 31. Now, within the period the First Lady left and when the message was delivered, he must be commu¬nicating with the spirit and the message became clearer. Now, he was trying to get across, but he couldn’t get through. When he called Aso Rock, a particular pastor there picked the calls. Nobody knows what he could have told them, maybe, he could have told them the solution. It became impossible for him to reach them and when it be¬came impossible, maybe the spirit must have told him to go ahead and deliver the message.
After the message, when the contro¬versy was raging, what was the thinking of the church? Were you wondering if the prophecy would come to pass? Were you thinking of the integrity of Father Mbaka if the message fails?
Now, let me tell you, for some of us, somebody like me, I never for once doubted that message. Many who are far from the ministry may doubt it because a lot of things came. Under normal circumstances, you know such message was a prophetic risk. There are some men of God who would see such vision but looking at the impos¬sible situation, you may start to say how can this come to be? But let me tell you the reason why somebody like me and some people who worked closely with Father believed that this message was from God. This is a man who before my very eyes raised the dead, a man who before my very eyes decreed a word about an impossible situation and it came to pass. If you read our papers (Amen Super News) you will see testimonies of people, some of them you look at them you can’t even explain it. Somebody who has been barren for so many years will come and after Father had prayed for her that by this time next year she would be carrying three babies, it will happen. So, if these have been the achievements of this man, by the time he delivered this message, people like us had no reason to doubt him . Let me tell you, at a point, it was as if the fate of Father’s prophetic power to so many hung on the realization of that message. Because I must tell you that once that message was delivered, three groups of people emerged from the ministry: those who believed that the message is not possible, going by the fact that be¬ing the president, Jonathan has the power to con¬trol all the campaign apparatus in the country and he may use it to his advantage to win the election. And Buhari is someone you can’t talk about go¬ing by the fact that he is a Muslim and all that. So, to some people this was impossible. So, people were actually saying that Father was possessed by demons; some others said the spirit told him but not the Holy Spirit. So, a lot of things were com¬ing up in various media. And some people fell out from the ministry as a result of the prophecy. There were also those that were just coming with doubting spirit, those that said let us just be com¬ing if this thing doesn’t work we will look for our way; then we will know that Fr Mbaka is a fake prophet. Then there is this last group, those who believed that this will come to pass judging by this man’s antecedents.
When you were talking about anteced¬ents, I remember people saying that he made a prophecy about former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani that didn’t happen?
Let me tell you what happened to Chimaroke’s prophecy. People were there when Father proph¬esied about Chimaroke. It is not in doubt that he prophesied that Chimaroke will not return. But somehow along the line, this same Father or¬ganised a Mass of Forgiveness for Chimaroke Nnamani. People who were there when he gave the prophecy didn’t know about it, but I knew he celebrated such Mass for him. When prophecy has been uttered, it is God that fulfils it. He even made a public declaration at a time that he has forgiven Chimaroke, he said that severally. Now, let me tell you, if you know God, maybe out of prophetic anger a prophet has said that somebody was going to die, as is in the case of Hezekiah. People who were there when Hezekiah was told he would die but were not there when that same prophet went back and said you are not going to die, will they now say that the prophet is a false prophet? So, those peddling rumour that he gave a false prophecy concerning Chimaroke were those that were not there when he celebrated the Mass of Forgiveness for Chimaroke.
So, why didn’t he celebrate the same Mass for Jonathan?
I wonder. For you to talk about celebration of the Mass of Forgiveness, you should be able to know whether one has offended someone and the steps that the person you are talking about has been taken. For instance, I knew at that time Chi¬maroke was able to pitch his tent with the church hierarchy and tried to address his problem from there. And you know that there are a lot of things that have to do with the Catholic Church which I may not go deep into. For instance, if somebody has committed sin and the person goes for con-fession, it is an onus on that priest to forgive. So, assuming one of those means was explored by Chimaroke in the hands of someone who is highly placed by Fr Mbaka, let’s say the Bishop, and God told him to forgive this man, he has no option. So, now in Jonathan’s case, I didn’t see a similar situa¬tion because remember there was no problem be¬tween Jonathan and Fr Mbaka, right from the time that the wife came up to the time that he delivered that message. I didn’t see any problem between them. Then after that message, there was a prob¬lem. I must admit, there was problem in the minis¬try and most of these problems were problems of threat messages to Father, which your newspaper published, coming from the presidency, threats of assassination, strange movements, Hilux vans trailing his movement, it was as if the whole world was going to fall. In the midst of all these, I never for once heard when President Jonathan came to Father and asked how can we handle this issue? I never for once saw when he came and asked, now that you have prophesied this, how can we handle this issue?. For me, you can’t celebrate a Mass of Forgiveness for such a person. And he had gone to other churches. Did you understand me? He ne¬glected the man’s prophecy and felt it was nothing to write home about. And then again, each time I look at that prophecy, the place that strikes me so much was when he said that those who think they can interpret the destiny of this country are going to make a mistake this time around. That rings a bell. Even myself listening to it wondered how could this be possible but we have already seen it that those who interpreted that our destiny is in Goodluck’s hands have already made mistakes.
What about the negative impact of the prophecy on the ministry because you said there arose three categories of peo¬ple as regards those who believed, those waiting to see and even those who left the ministry. What is the position now?
All have come to see that it is true and like I said few days ago during one of the ministry’s Wednesday programme, the crowd there was something I have never witnessed. That tells you that those people that left are not only coming back but are coming back with other people so that they will also come and witness the truth; that in¬deed this is a prophet of God. So, for us members of the ministry, I don’t think where we are holding prayers will be enough, the ground there, as mas¬sive as it is, will not be enough to contain people that will converge there by the time the ministry resumes its programmes. So, the position now is that those who ran away have come back, those who were doubting have come to see that it is true, and those who persevered and believed it is true have come to see that it has come to pass as well.
What advice will you give to Nigerians who most often doubt prophecies not only from Fr Mbaka but also from other men of God?
Now, I would advise Nigerians to look at the antecedents of prophets before they doubt their prophecies. I, for one, believe Fr Mbaka’s prophe¬cies because I know his antecedents. I know that he is a man who cannot merchandise his anoint¬ing. Of course, we have fake prophets, I cannot tell Nigerians to believe every prophecy because we have fake ones, people who receive money and say all sorts of things. That is why I said Nige¬rians should look at the antecedents of prophets. What is that person’s relationship with God, what kind of life is that man living? Let me give you an insight to Father’s life that people don’t really know. This is a man who lives a life of outpouring to the poor, a man who has devoted all his wealth to the poor. Should I talk about the number of people whose education he’s sponsoring? They’re close to 4,000 people. I am not talking about those abroad. If you go to the Annunciation Hospital and some other hospitals around here, I am telling you that the ministry’s expenditure there runs into millions; the money that Father uses to sponsor people’s medical treatment, both within Nigeria and abroad. This is the same man who shoulders these burdens. That was why when they accused this man of receiving N5 million, I was wondering is it this man who spends close to N70 million to pay workers every month that people are accusing of receiving N5 million. There are some pastors, hungry ones, that could give into such but not the likes of Fr Mbaka. God has blessed him and has blessed him indeed. When you look at the kind of life he is living, when he stands up and tells you that he is fighting for the poor, you will know that he is fighting for the poor. It’s that kind of love he has for the poor masses that made him to deliver that message with passion. So, when this man says that Nigeria’s currency has been rubbished, you need to understand that he is talking from ex¬perience.
When this man says we don’t have medical infrastructure in this country, he is talking from experience. When he is talking about unemploy¬ment, he is talking from experience because I must tell you that this man has about 6,000 Nigerians that earn their daily living with him. This Aqua Rapha sachet water that people are drinking here remains at N5. There is no commodity you can buy with N5, apart from sachet water. And let me tell you a time came when these people manufac¬turing sachet water wanted to form a cabal and told him to join them so that they can hike the price. He told them “know that this water is a free gift from God to man. That water still sells for N5 and does it not bother you, what gain does this company make from that water? There is no gain. The other day he was telling us why he has contin¬ued to do it, that if he hikes the price for instance, a lot of people will resort to drinking polluted water and the effect will be water borne diseases and all that. So, you see that this man is among people sustaining the economy to some extent. When he is talking about the economy, I think he is a mas¬ter. When he is talking about unemployment, he has paid his dues; he can make statements based on that. Those saying he should mind his priestly work, which one is priestly work and which one is humanitarian work? Both are for human beings. That is why for Fr Mbaka, there is no divide. He believes that as he is doing his priestly work, he is also doing his humanitarian work. That is Fr Mbaka for you.
Source: Sun
