If it is true that pastors got bribe from govt, then we don’t have to look far for why the altars are cold
Although some things are done or accepted differently in different parts of the world, others are universally permissible, irrespective of people’s religious persuasion or colour. I learnt that among some tribes, for instance, the best way they appreciate their male guest is for the host to occasionally dedicate his wife to the male guest for the number of nights he would be with them. But if a guest messes up with his host’s wife in Yoruba land, southwest Nigeria, that guest may crow like cock thrice, after which he falls down and dies, like someone under the spell of the ‘fall down and die’ people. Well, some people have argued that there is nothing like that, and that people who die in many such circumstances die of exhaustion or overexcitement.
I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in finding out whether this is true or not because, apart from the fact that society frowns at such in this part of the world, it is too risky to do a thing one may never live to regret. Yet, in Igboland, machetes may have to come to the rescue of the host whose guest decides to sleep with his (host’s) wife. So, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. But then, there are some things that are universally adjudged bad and they cannot be given any other name, irrespective of creed, colour or time. Stealing or corruption, for instance, is frowned at by any religion that I know or has heard of.
It is in this context of universal badness that I see the allegation, first by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, to the effect that some Christian leaders in the country were given N6billion by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to campaign against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari. Amaechi, who spoke at the party’s governorship rally in Emohua Local Government Area of the state early last month, said: “Some pastors collected N6bn and they are circulating document and telling you not to vote for an Hausa man; not to vote for a Muslim; that they want to Islamise Nigeria. Tell them to return our N6bn”.
When Governor Amaechi initially made the allegation, I deliberately refused to be dragged into the matter. It is not that I believed or disbelieved him, or that it was not weighty enough; it is just that I wanted to avoid it, if possible. In the first place, some of the pastors linked with the alleged bribe are too rich to fall for such temptation; at least so I thought. I was somehow tempted to join the fray when Borno State-based pastor, Kallamu Musa-Dikwa, more or less confirmed that the allegation was true. Again, somehow, the allegation was overtaken by events. This is a season when things are happening in the country at an alarming rapidity. Before you make up your mind on what to comment on, many other things have reared their heads, (usually ugly heads) begging for attention. Of course, both the PDP and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) through which the bribe was allegedly disbursed have denied the allegation, no one expected them to do otherwise.
However, with the insistence by Pastor Musa-Dikwa last week that what the PDP gave was N7billion and not N6billion as alleged by Gov. Amaechi, it dawned on me that I could not run away from the matter perpetually. Moreover, from the pastor’s account, he said he fell out with the national body of the CAN when in 2013, some clerics from the United States (Christian Association of Nigeria-Americans) visited Nigeria and donated $50,000 to the victims of the Boko Haram in Borno State. He said rather than the CAN to disburse the money to serve the purpose it was meant for, the victims were only given a paltry N100,000. If he is correct, what happened to the balance? Indeed, one other thing that made it compelling for me to intervene now is the one billion Naira difference in the two claims.
First, this probably shows that there cannot be smoke without fire. In other words, money probably changed hands. Second, the possibility of the common thing in government whereby people given money to share to others suddenly become ‘editors’ who also ensure that what is delivered is less than what was allocated, is high in this instance, too. So, it is possible that while editors are at their various desks editing stories, some government officials are ‘editing’ millions, perhaps billions, into their pockets. Recall the different claims over what was given to the Chibok mothers when they visited Aso Rock last year.
But, to be fair to the Jonathan presidency, this ‘editing’ did not begin with it. Indeed, the matter reminds me of a story of something that allegedly happened in the military era when the then head of state was said to have sent a senior public official to give some money to some traditional rulers in one part of the country. The man left and returned to tell the head of state that he had delivered as instructed. Somehow, the head of state got to know that he ‘edited’ the money so drastically for the owners to notice. I think one of the beneficiaries called or wrote the head of state to thank him, stating the amount given to him. That was how the head of state got to know that what was delivered was far less than what he asked the executive messenger to deliver. So, he called another senior government official and gave him some amount to give to the same people. That one went and delivered only half the amount and pocketed the remaining. But when he returned, he reported himself to the head of state who only smiled broadly and remarked that at least he was honest enough to deliver ‘a whole’ 50 percent of what was given to him to deliver, and to also report himself!
It is true that the Bible says we should touch not God’s anointed and harm not His prophets. I do not intend to do either. But I do not think pastors can hide under this canopy to escape criticism when they deserve to be criticised. After all, they are human beings, too. As a matter of fact, that is the point I always stress whenever some people want us to see the men of God as some super humans. The point is, the way and manner some of them have exalted prosperity over and above salvation makes them susceptible to corrupt tendencies and practices. It is not beyond people who do this to take the kind of bribe that Governor Amaechi and Pastor Musa-Dikwa have alleged because such people are not likely to see any money as ‘haram’. To them, such money, even if it comes from Satan, is manna from heaven and whatever is impure or unholy about it disappears the moment it is sanctified! Perhaps the cleansing process is complete as soon as they take tithe out of it and pay it to the tithe account.
The truth of the matter is that there is hardly any difference between the secular and the spiritual in many churches today. Indeed, most of these churches are spiritually “poorly lit”, as a friend of mine said in a book that I reviewed for him about a decade ago. Virtually everything has been ‘funkified’ in many churches today, from gospel music to the mode of praying and even mode of dressing. A message posted on Facebook by one of my readers says it all: “Those who subverted the wish, aspirations, and desires of millions of people by rigging elections later went to the church for thanksgiving, stood in front of the congregation, raised their hands and shouted “Halleluyah”. HA!!! The Church in Nigeria has become too cold; the fire has gone out! Thieves, rogues, fraudsters, election riggers, treasury looters, murderers, and all manner of criminals are comfortable in the church. In fact, they are given special reception, recognition, and special seats, what a pity…what a shame.”
It is because the pulpits and altars are too cold that many of these politicians go there for thanksgiving. I doubt if they would ever go before the gods of Iron and Thunder (Ogun and Sango, respectively) and feel comfortable the way they do in the churches. Yet many of our pastors cannot see that something is wrong. As a matter of fact, when I see such politicians sitting comfortably in the church or dancing towards the altar, I feel sorry for the church because the men of God in some of the cases know the truth but the truth has always failed to set them free because of the fat envelopes that such politicians drop at the end of the service.
Now, if such a huge amount was said to have been given to the Christian leaders and only about N3million was given to each state chairman of CAN, as claimed by Pastor Musa-Dikwa, isn’t it obvious that another serious ‘editing’ has occurred? I doubt if all the angels can exonerate CAN from this peculiar mess. But that is what happens when neither the taker nor the giver is anxious about receipt for ‘transactions’! There is God o!
