[size=20pt]Fr Mbaka and the Prophetic Voice in Nigerian Politics[/size],

By Stan Chu Ilo

When I think of how far Fr Mbaka has come from our time in the seminary in Owerri and from his early beginnings from the humble family of Mbaka in Ituku, it is simply a testament to how much God can do with simple people, who in humility and total trust place their entire life and ministry in the hand of God. I have been with Mbaka several times and remember over ten years ago when we went for a short stay at a lodging facility run by the DDL sisters. We had a good and engaging long evening and went to bed late. However, I woke up the next morning and saw him prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament, clutching his Bible with tears in his eyes. He was in that posture for more than two hours and I really regretted making that journey with him because I wasn’t prepared for such long prayers or having to fast the whole day. I do have a very deep respect for Mbaka and thank God for the work which has been accomplished in him. He is a very deeply spiritual and prayerful priest who meditates daily before the Blessed Sacrament, a lover of the poor, and a friend of God. I have never seen anyone who has devoured the bible and committed it to memory as Mbaka except perhaps Bishop Eneja. Mbaka has always been a man in love with God’s Word.

What Mbaka says of the ruling party at the federal level is true! It is only in Nigeria that $20 billion will disappear from the national treasury and go unaccounted for and the people will be dancing on the street for leaders who preside over this rot. It is only in Nigeria that 100,000 barrels of our oil wealth will be stolen everyday for the last ten years totaling a loss of over 35 billion dollars and people will be praising the ruling party. It is only in Nigeria that military barracks will be sacked by insurgents and hundreds of our boys and girls are being kidnapped, killed, and married away and people pretend that all is well. It is only in Nigeria that the unemployment rate of Nigerians under 30 years of age will reach 50% and we are claiming that we have a democracy or a government.

Our country is very sick and we need prophets like Mbaka to remind us of how sick we are just in case our social conscience have been dulled by the tokens which we receive from governments in election years. As a prophet, Mbaka should simply read the signs of the times and proclaim as he has done that the present situation in Nigeria today is not from God and needs to be changed. However, whether the PDP or APC can change this unacceptable situation is an open question because we have a deficit of leadership, character, vision, and integrity across both aisles? Nigeria has an unworkable and deadening dysfunctional moral and spiritual deficit and it is a serious albatross to us all whether at home or abroad. No prophet has a mandate to compel the conscience of the people; prophets can only stir the conscience and steer the wills of the people to embrace the ways of God by by rejecting anything in their lives and societies—economic, governmental, religious, cultural or social—which is contrary to the reign of God.

Professor Stan Chu Ilo is a Research Fellow at the Center for World Catholicism and Inter-Cultural theology, of DePaul University, in Chicago, USA.

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=166513

Somebody should remind me about the senate report on the missing $20million that went missing?