This truly gripping novel could easily have been titled ‘The rise and fall of Prophet T. C. Jeremiah’. The prophet was one of the best known, prosperity-preaching, miracle working, crowd pulling men of God in the land. So renowned had he become that Prophet Jeremiah’s spiritual counsel was even sought after by no other than the Head of state, General Idoti, a brutal military dictator. The man, who held his country captive in a suffocating stranglehold and was brutally raping her to death through an orgy of massive looting nevertheless harboured deep seated fears and insecurities within the confines of his fortified presidential palace.
Thus, he sent his emissaries to the man of God in a quest for further spiritual protection and immunity against the evil machinations and scheming of his many enemies. Of course, the man of God was not to turn down such a golden opportunity to make a fortune. He consented and was soon a guest of the strongman at the Presidential Villa. Having promised his powerful client who had now become his captive, the benefits of his perceived mystical prowess, Prophet Jeremiah smiled away from the Villa with a N20 million cheque in his pocket.
But then, life had not been this rosy for Prophet Jeremiah. Indeed, at the beginning of this enthralling novel, ‘In the Name of our Father’ by Olukorede S. Yishau, a multiple award winning Associate Editor with The Nation, Prophet Jeremiah is the lowly Alani Atotonu, a cleaner in a supermarket. Hunger was his constant daily companion. His one-room apartment was prone to flooding when it rained. “Olodumare, I see wealth around me, above me; I see the good things of life. I see abundance of them. But why? Why can’t I possess them? I’m tired of this beggarly existence…” was Alani’s routine pathetic lamentation at this stage of his life.
To compound matters, Alani soon becomes a fugitive from justice following the death of his girlfriend, Tosin. She had died at the hands of a fake ‘medical doctor’ in the process of trying to abort a pregnancy. The embattled supermarket cleaner had not always been poor. An only child, Alani once lived in comfort as his father was a wealthy cocoa farmer. But all that ended with the death of his father and the destruction of the family’s large cocoa farm by fire. A life of misery and want became Alani’s lot.
Within a space of six months after meeting his childhood friend and secondary school mate, now the popular and wealthy Pastor David, there is a remarkable transformation in Alani’s life. He becomes the now spiritually and, more importantly, materially born again Prophet T.C. Jeremiah. In his captivating narrative style, the novelist depicts Jeremiah’s new status: “Happiness. Joy. And great spirit. Those could be the apt words to describe what time had brought the way of Prophet T.C. Jeremiah. A smile was etched permanently on his face. Things were just too good to be true. The month was January. A mere six months before he was a nobody, a struggling soul. And now within a relatively short period of time, he had a church of his own, three state of the art cars, a house of his own, a retinue of staff, including body guards and lots more”.
The narrative continues: “Hardly had he returned from the India trip than the high and mighty in the society started visiting him, asking for one spiritual assistance or the other. Of course, they never came empty –handed. They were the sources of his cars, house and new building hosting the church”. And what kind of spiritual help did most of those who flocked to Prophet Jeremiah want? Was it to receive grace to move closer to God, to lead more holy and righteous lives or be a source of blessing to others? Not on your life.
Rather, the author writes, “Usually their desires bordered on getting one contract or the other, or getting one political appointment or the other. The morality of helping them realize those kinds of desires had never worried him. He was ever telling his conscience that he had suffered too much to begin to bother himself about morality and stuff like that. All he wanted was money and more money. Of course, he was not afraid of fame too”.
But how did the former Alani Atotonu, an insignificant and anonymous member of the teeming poverty-stricken urban underclass transmogrify into the prosperous and charismatic televangelist, T. C. Jeremiah? What dark secrets lie behind his liberation and translation from the land of humiliating squalor into the thriving kingdom of blissful opulence and awe-inspiring mystic powers? You must, dear reader, discover the answer to these questions by getting a copy and reading this book.
There are many interesting characters in the novel. One is the prophet’s wife, Rebecca, a former call girl the man of God rescues from the streets and marries. After two years of marriage, she has had no less than ten miscarriages. What is the link between these abortive pregnancies and the source of the prophet’s powers? What desperate measures does Rebecca resort to in a bid to overcome the societal stigma associated with her barrenness?
There is Nkechi, one of Prophet Jeremiah’s serial adulterous partners who conceives and claims that the pregnancy belongs to the man of God. How do Rebecca and Nkechi get to be aware of each other and how does Prophet Jeremiah end up losing both women as well as Nkechi’s unborn child, which it turns out belongs to anoher man? How and why does Jeremiah’s spiritual powers begin to wane and his world disastrously crash around him? Again, dear reader, I cannot ruin your fun when you read the novel by divulging these details. The thrill is for you to undertake the exciting literary journey personally and experience the delights of its unexpected twists and turns.
Incidentally, the novel is a double offering. It is also the no less intriguing story of the narrator, a journalist who has just written a novel exposing the dark secrets of a popular man of God. The journalist, Justus Omoeko, is mysteriously roped into a purported coup plot, tried and jailed by the military dictatorship and subjected to brutal torture. What is the relationship link between Prophet Jeremiah, Justus Omoeko and the military dictatorship? Your discovery will surprise you. It is not difficult to make the connection between the major characters in the novel and recognizable actors in Nigeria’s contemporary history.
Olukorede Yishau’s novel is a vivid depiction of the disheartening moral, spiritual, political and socio-economic wasteland that is Africa’s fabled giant with feet of clay. The all too familiar story of the journalist, Justus Omoeko’s excruciating experience provokes the following crisp poetic gem from Evelyn Osagie, another award winning and multi-talented writer, poet, artist and photographer with The Nation in her fascinating reflections on the novel published in this newspaper last Saturday:
“That smile of yours I must borrow
To wipe away my sorrow
When they plan to take my biro…
Borrow me your smile”.