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Tag: Father Mbaka

  • AYEEN 2018: How to overcome challenges in  entrepreneurship

    By Abeeb Alawiye

    “When I see business proposals in which people claim they passed through a lot as entrepreneurs, their journey, challenges,  I laughed knowing fully that I have passed through that same thing while starting as an entrepreneur.”

    The above statement was that of Mr. Summy Smart, President of Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs (AYE) at the just concluded AYEEN 2018 entrepreneurship program.

    The event which held recently at the Pistis Conference Center Lekki, Lagos was attended by over 1,000 of Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs was an opportunity for participants to network and learn from some of Africa’s leading business moguls and dignitaries from various walks of life.

    Some of the dignitaries present at the 5th Annual AYEEN Convention were billionaire and the Chief Matron of the Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs (A.Y.E), Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, Billy Selekane from South Africa, Professor Patrick Lumumba from Kenya, Olatorera Oniru of Olatorera.com, Tonye Cole of Sahara Group, and Music producer Don Jazzy of Mavin Records amongst others.

     Read also: Race for 5G revolution

    The Vice President  of Africa’s Young Entrepreneur (A.Y.E), Miss Ibadah Ahmed started the programme in an interactive session with the panelists to help give insight and words of encouragement for young entrepreneurs on how to go about their business, the challenges, keynotes and possibly what they need to do in other  to become a successful entrepreneur.

    APC gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, who was one of the panelists, talked about the challenges young entrepreneur are likely to face starting up business and what they should have in mind to the face challenges. Once they are able to identify the challenges, Cole said they should take cognizance of the principles to become a successful entrepreneur such as keeping “your vision, believe in yourself, hold on to those who will pull you up  and stay focused.”

    “Once you are in your comfort zone, make sure to get out of it,” he said.

    A member of the panel, music producer and C.E.O. of Mavin records, Michael Collins Ajereh, better known as Don Jazzy said in relation to music scene, “the people around us don’t actually tell us the truth about what we are good at” For him, he said he discovered that at a point, performing on stage was not actually the best for him, so he opted for producing artistes.

    “I think people only need to get to know themselves and ask people around them to say the truth about what they are good at”, he said.

    In her opening speech, Nigerian businesswoman and philanthropist, who is also the Chief Matron of Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, noted that the collective effort of the organisation and its partners has expanded AYE to over 21 countries in Africa, U.S.A. and the U.K.

    Mrs. Alakija advised young entrepreneurs who admire successful business people to always look out for their biographies and read in other to learn from their mistakes, build on it in other to take themselves to the next level.

    “No use looking at the glory, you must know the story and learn from it. I would like to remind you that it is God that gives wisdom even for the business,”, she stated.

    AYE President spoke about how the idea behind the establishment of the organization was born out of business frustration despite the fact that he is a creative person with a lot of ideas.

     

    “ Starting AYEEN was never an easy thing to put on because back then we had a lot of issues right from gathering people and finding the right team until God sent people who had the same idea as me and that was the most amazing team one could wish for.

    “You can copy business, ideas but you cannot copy vision even if you have billion to back it up.  It’s simply impossible for you to do that.

    “ We encounter some certain issues and challenges when we have more than enough people who applied for A.Y.E programme, but the organization was able to empower few. It makes it look as if the organization doesn’t have the plan and unable to state clearly it’s vision and mission, but recently there has been a new development as the organization launched an A.Y.E Trust fund Application where entrepreneurs can apply for loans to start up their businesses.  

    “We urged people to come and join us.  That is why we say if you can achieve this much more alone, how much more can we achieve together”.

     Presentation of Awards and cutting of AYEEN 5th convention cake

    The entrepreneurship program is aimed at helping young entrepreneurs to get the required equipment, funding, mentorship, training, and exposure they need to build thriving businesses that would go on to create millions of jobs in Nigeria while also shaping the future of the African continent.

     

  • Father Mbaka’s controversial pronunciamentos

    Father Mbaka’s controversial pronunciamentos

    EJIKE Mbaka, a reverend father and Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministries in Enugu, is always scathing both when he praises and when he criticises. First he exalted former president Goodluck Jonathan; then he took him and his restless and overbearing wife, Dame Patience, to the cleaners. Later he rhapsodised then Candidate Muhammadu Buhari, and now he has all but taken him to the cleaners. Accused of being a courtier, pilloried in acerbic language, and assailed by his superiors in the Catholic Church, Fr. Mbaka has kept faith with his own peculiar brand of liberation theology, almost like a modern day Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, a former and now late Archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua.

    It is a mistake to think Catholic priests know only the scriptures. They know politics too, as Cardinal Obando said in the years when he intervened vigorously in Nicaraguan affairs, particularly trying to restore peace during the Sandinistan insurrection. Said the cardinal: “We (the bishops) as a hierarchy feel that we can’t be active in party politics, but we are active in politics in the broader sense, and the broader sense means looking out for the people’s common good, trying to orient them. In the broad sense, we’re active, even as a hierarchy we’re active. Who isn’t active in politics in the broad sense? Everyone is! What we believe is that we shouldn’t be actively involved in party politics.” Fr. Mbaka is probably conversant with Cardinal Obando’s legacy.

    But conversant or not, Fr. Mbaka is undoubtedly active in Nigerian politics, and perhaps hopes to play a very colourful role in making and unmaking presidents, a little like Cardinal Obando did to ex-president Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua when the latter lost the presidential election to Arnoldo Aleman in 1996. No one forgets the searing criticism Fr. Mbaka levelled against Dr Jonathan in January 2015, nor his definitive pronouncements against the first family that foreshadowed their electoral debacle in that year’s election. Nor can anyone forget how imprudently but unequivocally he composed a doxology in favour of President Buhari’s election. But whether in denouncing a president or elevating another, the controversial, fire-eating priest always prefaced his prophecies with God’s imprimatur. Now, as everyone knows, the most difficult thing about prophecies is determining beforehand whether God truly spoke or not.

    Fr. Mbaka’s Adoration faithful do not doubt their priest hears from God. The Catholic hierarchy may be less taken in by his periodic fulminations and bombasts, but they have no doubt how influential the priest has become, nor how sometimes unerringly his prophecies cum judgemental political assumptions have turned out right. In his latest pronunciamento, Fr. Mbaka dismisses President Buhari’s anti-corruption war as barbaric and archaic, his style as indolent and ineffective, his presidency as entrapped by a cabal, and that, by his selective punishment of his opponents, he has become a purveyor of moral corruption. Then curiously, by a deft use of poetical statements, he admonishes the president to ‘change or be changed’. While leaving a little room for the president to change and presumably salvage his presidency, he also bizarrely discloses that God asked him to advise the president not to seek re-election.

    It may never be known where, in all his diatribe against presidents, God stops and Fr. Mbaka begins, whether prophecies are at play in his verbal and prophetic explosions, or he is merely voicing his own private instincts. He has used some words that cannot be described as godlike, and he has passed on messages that make him appear to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. But whether it is his messages or instincts, he had in the past proved a somewhat accurate and deft reflector of the feelings and aspirations of the public. President Buhari is of course not popular in the Southeast and South-South, and his following in the Southwest is greatly tested, if not altogether unnerved. If Fr. Mbaka is simply mirroring these realities, he seems to be doing a good job of it. He, however, takes care not to ever burn his bridges when he conveys God’s messages, regardless of the extremeness of his prophecies. Indeed, his New Year’s Eve message is unlikely to have been influenced by the president’s New Year shocker which virtually shut the door against political change, whether it is called devolution or restructuring.

    Fr. Mbaka will still speak before the general elections, either to reiterate God’s message, as he describes it, or to countermand or modify it once he sees which way the cat is jumping. The country has definitely not heard the last from him. But notwithstanding the discomfiture his superiors in the Catholic Church experience over his hard prophecies, or the trusting naivety of his Adoration faithful, the priest will remain active in politics, as Cardinal Obando surmised about liberation theology in 1996. The nimble Adoration Ministry priest will always leave himself enough room to be wrong and ample room to bask in vindication. In a county that has tragically become a gymnasium where promises and manifestoes do triple summersaults, Fr. Mbaka’s pronunciamentos will walk a tightrope gingerly, expertly and remorselessly, sometimes  impassively right, and at other times far-fetched.

  • Cleric condemns pro Biafra protests

    Cleric condemns pro Biafra protests

    A Catholic Priest in Enugu, Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka has condemned the recent agitation and protests for Biafra nation describing the action as `evil.’

    Mbaka made the condemnation in Enugu on Saturday in a sermon at his weekly Adoration Ministry.

    The cleric urged youths in the South East and South-South to go back to their business as the protest could lead to their death.

    “Locking up your shops and disrupting economic activities will not add any naira to your pocket, whatever grievance you have could be resolved through dialogue,’’ the cleric said.

    He lambasted those leaders that were behind the agitation and protests, saying that they should use their children for the struggle.

    Mbaka commended President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing ministers from the zone and assigning them with good portfolios.

    “President Buhari’s action has proven that the South East has not been marginalized. I would have reacted if no minister emerged from the zone,’’ he said.

    He said that the five states in the zone had minister each as prescribed by the Nigerian constitution as well as other key security and protocol officers that serves under president and his wife.

    The reverend father attributed the recent free health screening initiative by the Wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Buhari, in Enugu to her love for the people of the region.

    He blamed the Igbo leaders for not living up to the expectation of the people in the area, adding that past governors, National Assembly members failed woefully in discharging their mandates.

    “President Buhari is not the cause of poor roads, unemployment and other decay infrastructures in the south east, we should blame our leaders.

    “Most of the roads had been awarded but our leaders squandered the fund, even the university teaching hospital in Enugu is a no-go-area and our leaders are not concerned about it,” he said.

    Mbaka called on the new Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to use his office to employ youths in the zone, adding that it would stop what he called another Boko Haram in the south east if not curtailed.

    He praised Buhari’s war against corruption, saying it had enthroned due process and sanity in governance.

    The cleric, however, urged Nigerians to be patient with the president as he had good plans for the country.

  • Parable of Father Mbaka

    Parable of Father Mbaka

    The signal tear is his poster photo. It glistens a narrow line down the right side of Father Ejike Mbaka’s face. It makes him a sort of modern day Jeremiah. The word Jeremiad arose from that Old Testament prophet’s molten tears over the iniquities of his time.

    But whoever watched the video or read the full text of the Catholic cleric’s crossover night sermon of December 31, 2014 will know that his was not only a jeremiad. It was also a fiery rebuke. Father Mbaka had been around, but he only now gained national traction because of his pious perorations against the failings of the Jonathan administration.

    In the Southeast, he had always been a phenomenon. The Igbo always knew him, whether it was when he twisted the ribs of the swaggering “Ebeano,” Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, or when he ripped open the hypocrisies and vanities of Governor Sullivan Chime, or even when he was much younger and fulminated against the barbarities of the Abacha junta. His shrill voice, like John the Baptist’s, ruptured the wilderness of sin in the east. Now, in this harmattan season, he has poked the Jonathan government out of joint.

    So intimidated is the PDP hierarchy that a sulky silence is the only reaction to the less-than-an-hour bombshell from the pulpit. Olisa Metuh, who often bursts out of control, became a wimp and responded with a whimper of conciliation, almost begging the man. And President Goodluck Jonathan, who has now lost decency in his campaign speeches, could not bait the righteous tiger when he visited the neighbourhood of his lair at the Adoration Centre in Enugu at the weekend.

    The only hefty voice who objected to Father Mbaka was Cardinal Archbishop John Onaiyekan, and he appealed to the inviolate supremacy of the Catholic hierarchy. But the gentleman cleric deliberately forgot that Catholic priests of Mbaka’s stripes do not bow to the Onaiyekan school of docility. He comes from the tradition of liberation theology that began in the 1950’s in Latin America. That brand of theology sees the gospel through the plight of the poor, and harangues a society that preaches the love of Christ when wealth and inequality lash the back of the weak and lowly.

    With such stalwart priests as Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of Brazil and John Sobrino of Spain, the Catholic Church was jolted out of its elitist and tyrannous torpor. They probably had read of the exploits of Martin Luther who thrived on the ideas of Erasmus and Peter Abelard in the Scholastic era that led to the rise of the protestant movement. But these Catholic priests of liberation did not want to break out of the Church. They galvanised it as a platform not only to humble it but turn it into the way for the poor. Since then, some Catholic priests have pitched their tents with the downtrodden, and compelled the pope to recognise the poor. The present Pope Francis is the first modern Pope to exercise this radicalism with his emphasis on the poor and attack on tyranny in the world. While an Enaiyekan may frown, Pope Francis will cheer on his priest.

    The effect of liberation theology coined by Gutierrez has ricocheted throughout the church around the world, especially where poverty and oppression are palpable. The priests see the word of God as a sword and latch on to scriptures like Paul’s that noted that Jesus was poor so that we might be rich. It resonated in the communist era, especially in Poland when a Catholic priest, Jerzy Popieluszko, found common cause with the Solidarity Movement that buried communism. Or in South Africa where anti-apartheid forces formed groups to rail at racism. In Nigeria, we have seen a few. Olubunmi Okogie, now greying at the temple, once ruffled the army brass. Outside the Catholic Church, we have seen a few do it. We cannot forget what Reverend Mbang did in the Babangida era when top officers sat in cold comfort in the church as the cleric tore them apart on network television. The irony of Catholic defiance is rooted in the history of the church’s cohabitation with tyrants, whether in the Ancien Regime in France before the revolution and even in the Napoleonic era or during Nazism or under Mussolini or the Sawdust Caesar’s regime. Perhaps that is why they throw up upstarts and rebels in the name of the Lord. They are contrasts to the Pentecostal order who tend to either distance themselves from or preach partnership with authority as we witness in today’s Nigeria. They don’t cry out against the sins of social injustice.

    References to such scriptures as Roman 13 that call for obedience to temporal powers are self-serving. God cannot ask his people to obey rulers that lack the fear of God. Paul who wrote that fought against the order of his day and was beheaded, a radical of his day. Did Moses not rise against Pharaoh, or Daniel against the king? What of the trinity of Shredrack, Meshack and Abednego? Did Herod not pursue Jesus into a manger? Would the Lord have been born if Herod had his wish? Did Jesus not die a rebel?  Did Prophet Nathan not rebuke King David? That is the logic of Mbaka, and the liberation theology. They know that the kingdom of God suffers violence.

    So those who say that Mbaka once endorsed Jonathan should have listened to the sermon and the parable of the birds. He said, in his recantation, that Jonathan the bird did not fly in his vision, and he had to turn. The anointed Peter in the Bible, and whom Paul called Cephas, once had to reverse his position when he was rebuked by Paul. Those who know little about the lives and working of priests criticise him. They should know that the path of the just is a shining light that shines more and more to the perfect day.

    Rather than flay Mbaka, why not probe the content of his sermon. He said Jonathan has failed. He said the Southeast has not enjoyed his service in spite of the Igbo support. Is it not true that President Jonathan has recruited the Igbo elite, plied them with positions and contracts, and neglected the common Igbo man? He has conned the Igbo with promises of bridges and roads and economic progress that never happened. Jonathan is a psychological booster to the Southeast, an Ojukwu reborn in a phantom Biafra victory. Hence he calls himself Azikiwe during elections and becomes Goodluck thereafter. His victory benefits only the top Igbo acting like the warrant chiefs of the colonial era. This is political 419.

    President Jonathan is enemy number one of the Niger Delta. He rose on their back to power, and he has done nothing significant. For all their mediocrity, the military under Hausa-Fulani soldiers built refineries, petrochemical plants, major schools, etc. What can Jonathan say he did other than pursue Ijaw agenda? Even at that he has only energised a few of them. The Ijaw are some of the most pauperised in Nigeria. They sit on black gold and look like rust. The number two enemy is Chief Edwin Clark, an elder who is not elderly, and plays the role of interloper in the politics of the region. His age-mates now take the back seat because they have done their best and are tired. He is either saying un-elderly things or doing them.

    We should heed Mbaka’s parable of the four birds. It mirrors the classic novel, The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski, about a bird that was isolated by other birds because of its colour. It was an attack on prejudice, especially during the Nazi era. If the healthy bird in Mbaka’s parable could not fly, the Jonathan administration should heed it, and so should his apologists. If not, Jonathan is the Judas who betrayed the Nigerian people. And, as the good book says, “his place let another take.”

  • In search of Father Mbaka

    In search of Father Mbaka

    Fiery Enugu-based Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, has gone underground since his controversial sermon last year. Edozie Udeze, who was in Enugu, could not track him down, either in his home or at the Adoration Ground.  In this report, he traces the reverend father’s history as a fearless preacher who uses pulpit to hit at Nigerian leaders. 

    IN Enugu State and some parts of the South-East, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka is seen as a man of God who does not mince words.  Since his ordination about fifteen years ago, he has never shied away from hitting the nail on the head. He is so direct with his sermons on the pulpit that most public figures in the country do not see eye-to-eye with him.  He preaches by telling the rich and leaders to let the common people be.  But most often, his style of audacious preaching does not go down well with those who his messages have direct impact on.

    Since December 31st last year, when he delivered his New Year sermon at the Adoration Ground, Nike, Enugu State, all has not been well with the fiery cleric and his area of operation.  A visit to his parish house located at the old GRA Enugu showed that the heat generated by the sermon which hit hard at President Goodluck Jonathan, asking him to resign in place of General Muhammed Buhari (rtd), the presidential candidate of theAll Progressives Congress (APC), he has not been seen in public.

    Out of sight

    “He is not to be seen carelessly outside the parish house,” was how one of his domestic staff put it while the reporter visited the place for three consecutive days, hoping to see Mbaka, all to no avail.

    “In fact, I cannot tell you precisely where he is right now,” the security man who stationed himself permanently at the gate said.  Asked if Father, as he is fondly called, does not live there any more, he retorted, “it is only when I see him that I will be able to answer your question. He may be outside of this place or inside, but we have not seen him drive in or out for some time now,” he quipped.

    A close observation indeed showed that Father Mbaka has chosen to stay away from the public glare.  A lot of well-placed Nigerians are not happy with him for the contents of that sermon where he, among so many issues, advised Nigerians to vote out President Jonathan for his inability to fix the country.  Mbaka’s problem is compounded by the warnings sent to him by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria.  In the message catalogued by John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Catholic Bishop of Abuja Diocese, he has been warned to stay away from making strong political statements or comments especially as it relates to the current socio-political configuration in the country.  Part of the warning stated that strong political observations, as it obtains in the Catholic Church, are usually prerogative of the church hierarchy.

    The situation has obviously made Mbaka to retire into seclusion.  As at the time of this report, no one outside his inner circle knew his whereabouts. While waiting to see him last week, a fellow Catholic priest was not allowed to do so.  The priest who was in his white cassock had been calling Mbaka’s number non-stop for the over five hours that he waited. While calling was not enough, he sent several text messages which were not acknowledged.

     Living like a hermit

    An inside source said that since Mbaka lives alone with only a few staff, it would be difficult to know how to track him down now. Besides that, the source further hinted, he does not meet people one-on-one to attend to their problems.  “Yes, it is only on Wednesdays that he attends to people with all sorts of problems.  The programme is called E No dey. It is for healing and to attend to people who need deliverance.   However, it is during the morning mass that he uses prayers to solve these problems. Unfortunately, this last Wednesday the programme did not hold and no one seemed to know why the Father did not come out.”

    On Thursday the following day, the situation was not different.  Those who could not attend the previous day came again to see if they could by any chance see him.  One of them was a blind man who said he had called his mobile number several times without reply.  Asked why he didn’t get any reply, he starred quizzically towards the two-storey residential building and said, “Eh, someone told me father is not happy the way Nigerians, especially political leaders, have turned his message to a political weapon to hunt him.  Not only that, they seem to forget that Father is a fearless preacher and he often hits any leader he feels is not doing well.”

    It was noted, however, that almost all the messages of the adoration which takes place every Friday of the week is devoted to lampooning Nigerian leaders for their nonchalant attitude towards the betterment of the society. “You see he takes care of over 500 of us.” The blind man said, “And since this is the beginning of the year it is usually appropriate to see him to know what he has in the offing for us.  I am sure he is undergoing a personal retreat and he does not want to be disturbed.  He will emerge when this storm is over with more attacks on those who have refused to give the common man his due in this country.”

    To him, Father Mbaka is not the problem of this country. The problem are those he has been telling the truth  those he has been telling what to put in place to put smiles on the faces of the people. Today, those leaders have decided to turn his messages into political campaign weapons for their selfish end.

    This is not the first time Father Mbaka will be facing serious threats since he began his priestly calling.  He had serious issues against former governor Chimaroke Nnamani, whom he accused of misrule.  He also, not too long ago, criticised Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State when he doled out what he considered ‘outrageous’ wedding gifts to musician 2Face Idibia.  He had in a special sermon criticised that action, saying that the governor should not have used taxpayers’ money as if it was his personal savings.  That criticism; as was expected, earned him a few knocks here and there but he went on to point out that leaders who had access to public funds shouldn’t waste them on irrelevant things.

    He has also attacked Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on a few issues he considered anti-masses.  He criticised him for allegedly not keeping most of his promises to the people.

    Owing to the style of his preaching, which has earned him both friends and foes, most public leaders in the society, especially in the South-East, only consult him when their political and social standing are in peril.  This is so because he spares no one.  He does not see any of them as permanent friends or foes.  His concern primarily,   is to say what he sees that are going wrong in the larger society.  After the 2002 adoration strategy at the Government Technical College ground in Enugu, when 11 people died during the tenure of Nnamani, Mbaka decided to establish a Catholic parish where he is today.

     On new ground

    With tim,e however, he moved to a neutral prayer ground.  Now the place is about 30 kilometres out of town. Located in a remote village called Umuochi Igbo in Iji-Nike, Enugu East LGA of the state, the ground occupies about 10 hectares of land.  A visit to the place showed that even though it is still undergoing massive construction in some parts, the Adoration Ground itself can conveniently accommodate about one million people and sit about 800,000 people.  It is a large expanse of land located between Enugu and Ebonyi State, with massive farmlands stretching far afield on all sides.

    Even though the adoration programme is on New Year break for now, some of the workers said the resumption will be first Friday of next month.  They were seen relaxing in some of the spots and stalls in the premises.  A lady by name Grace  told The Nation that the one month break is part of the tradition of the programme to enable workers have some rest.

    She said, “Soon after every New Year message for the nation, we normally close so that we can resume a month after.  So, this is not new; people have been saying that Fr. Mbaka did it out of fear.  Fear of what or who?  He has given his message.  Let the people concerned go and repent and do the right thing to make us happy.”

    She went on to ask: “Is this the first time he would be attacking them, telling them to change? He is not here to talk to please man but to tell the people the voice of God.  If he has told the people and their leaders what is wrong in the society, why do they want to kill him? And they think they can get him? I only wish they will leave him alone to say more if that will make Nigeria move forward.”

    Even though Mbaka spares no one, when he is in the mood to speak against religious and political misdeeds, they still throng his adoration service, most Fridays, to listen to him.  Before the last New Year message, however, it was gathered from impeccable sources that he had told his congregation at his usual morning masses that he would release a bumper New Year message for the people. He said, “Go tell whomsoever you care to tell, that many things will happen on that day.”

    The source also revealed that few days to the sermon, December 22, 2014, many trailer loads of rice were delivered to him from Abuja.  The message accompanying the rice read, “it is for you Father to distribute to widows as Christmas and New Year present.”  Even though he was reluctant to accept, he was assured that he was the only person who would distribute them without recrimination.  He was said to have told his flock: “this will not stop the message from God. Let them wait and receive what is in the offing for them.”

    A native of Ikiti in Awgu LGA of Enugu State, Mbaka is the only son of a herbalist father. Before he became a priest, his father was reluctant to allow him but having been encouraged by his mother, he went ahead to become a priest fifteen years ago.

    His New Year message still rankles. This has led to many avoiding to make any comments for or against it. In fact, most of the people approached for comments politely declined to talk, while those who did pleaded anonymity.