Nigeria is supposedly a country where her citizenry make bogus claims as regards having full knowledge of God, and being closer to Him. The country comprises basically, Christians and Muslims. However the ratio of Christians supersede that of the Muslims. The country has uncountable number of churches ranging from kiosk sizes to cathedrals littered on every nook, and cranny of her streets as well as all kinds of individuals masquerading as pastors or “men and women of God,” as they are usually called by their followers. These so-called men and women of God who are simply nothing but merchants operating business centres or ventures labelled churches with all sorts of enticing names like, ‘Anointing of God Church,’ Spirit of God Ministry,’ ‘Mountain of Liberation and Prosperity Miracle Centre.’ Some of the marauders are in the Catholic or Anglican denominations as clergy men where they defile their oath of celibacy, throw caution to the wind, to sexually abuse minors.
They arrogate themselves special messengers of God without flaws who ought to be revered, and their words unchallenged. They cleverly create the delusion in their followers that they are divinely anointed people, and by extension carry an uncommon grace, and anointing. And when they flagrantly abuse the law or err, they try to escape the consequences with the Biblical verse in 1 Chronicles 16:22-25, which says, “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.” And I ask, even if they were truly anointed, and called by God, is that a justification for them to commit atrocities?
In the so-called churches where the poor, and the destitute ignorantly run to for succour, and hopefully expect their conditions to improve, they end up most times leaving these business centres known as churches milking people, because the churches give them a clear message that they are not welcomed. How do you expect a poor man who comes to church to cry unto God to take away his poverty, to feel comfortable, and remain in the business venture, when these swindlers masquerading as pastors start asking for financial donations, and the marauders begin to ask the congregants to stand up or come to the altar with their donations which they call, “seed?”
Usually, you would hear the marauders, after they must have heard their own voices, say, “The Lord laid it into my heart that everybody here should come to the altar with a minimum of ten thousand naira seed, to tap into the prophetic blessing, 100,000 naira for extraordinary anointing in business, 200,000 naira for advanced business strategies, and $1000 for those who desire to take their businesses to the international level and earn in dollars. If you don’t have the money now, it is fine, just make a pledge, and redeem before next Sunday. You can write cheques in the name of our ministry, or give via POS. This is a must for everybody here, the Lord said so.” (1 dollar is equivalent to 365 naira presently in Nigeria. Currently, in the country minimum wage is about $80 for one month of work. And this should give one, who is not familiar with the harsh economic condition in Nigeria an idea how terrible things are).
With that teleguiding, everybody in the congregation hurriedly rushes to the altar to give their hard earned money, and the marauders will pour olive oil on their fore heads muttering some abracadabra in the name of ‘speaking tongues.’ It is pertinent to know that, because of churches in Nigeria, Goya olive oil has made quite a good fortune.
The gullible followers who have given their money with the confidence, or faith which is nothing but delusion that they would become the Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffetts, Mark Zuckerbergs of this world. And a rational mind just wonders how much tithe those great minds mentioned here paid to churches before they became filthy rich.
