are persuaded that the transfer was routine. They encourage him to stand strong and defiant, and ask him to continue what they describe as his prophetic ministry. Fr. Mbaka himself has revelled in predicting things and is determined to give his followers and converts many of the spiritual offerings they have come to depend on and expect. He knows he has caused a lot of distress to the church and his superiors in particular, but he sees his loyalty to God as priority, and to his supervisors only secondarily. In the foreseeable future, he will, therefore, sustain his outspokenness, keep the tap flowing on his prophetic offering, and exercise defiance whenever the occasion demands it.
While his supervisors eye him warily and squirm as he jauntily darts crosses the boundaries between prophetic ministry and political ministry, they will be even more at a loss what to do with him. To keep him is becoming to them an almost sheer impossibility; but to dispense with him entirely, assuming church rules make it expedient and easy, is even more challenging. Should they hope he would make an ass of himself one day with a spectacularly misplaced prophecy, they would still worry that the collateral damage to the church could be unbearable. When mega churches such as the Catholic Church deal with an unorthodox and possibly obstreperous priest, they find themselves caught between the rock and a hard place. They will of course recall with anguish the famous case of Martin Luther, the German-born Christian reformer. They will also not be unmindful of the fact that Fr. Mbaka seems to retain a lot of respect in and out of the Catholic Church.
That respect may, however, begin to fade soon as Fr. Mbaka haughtily transcends the divide between religion and politics. He has belaboured Igbo irredentists in terms that are unexampled and unflattering, even describing them as evil and illogical. The various irredentist groups in the Southeast have responded in kind, advising him to drop his cassock and play full-time politics if he has the courage and the conviction. The more he abandons federal politics, which he fulminated against so popularly and effectively under Dr Jonathan, for local politics, a strange and unfamiliar ground to him, he could get ensnared. Even heavyweight Igbo politicians have been careful not to directly and irreverently oppose either the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Fr. Mbaka has shown no such sensitivity or even discipline.
More, the priest could soon get into trouble with the wider public as he starts to allude to factors and sentiments that are either illusory or indefensible. Fr. Mbaka got away with murder, so to speak, when he assailed a deeply unpopular Dr Jonathan in the run-up to the last general elections. It is not clear that his fawning sentiments about President Buhari will continue to resonate as clearly and richly as he hopes and presumes. Will he recant sometime soon when that epiphany hits him? In March last year when he alleged that the Goodluck Jonathan family was after his life, the former president and his wife simply hissed and moved on. The First Family recalled that he had fawned over them in their early days in office, almost as if he was after certain patronage, according to their surmise. So when he began to rail against them, they first tried to blackmail him by releasing video recordings of how he praised the First Family. When that failed to unnerve the faithful who thronged his ministry grounds, the president and his wife simply ignored him.
Fr. Mbaka will be sensible an sensitive enough to know he cannot play ducks and drakes with the affections of the mercurial President Buhari. The president has a reputation for not taking prisoners; but in addition, he has enough agencies and aides who do not balk at using state power in seemingly transparent manner to disembowel any upstart or critic, no matter how highly placed, or of whatever colour or religion. Fr. Mbaka is sucking up to the Buhari presidency now. He had better stand pat, for if the Nigerian cultural standard is anything to go by, he may be incapable of living or ministering above suspicion to escape the arm-twisting the Buhari government is becoming famous for.
But above all, the Catholic Church cannot because of the fear of consequences continue to indulge Fr. Mbaka’s crass politicking. They should rein in their priest as they know how best to do in line with experience garnered from centuries of interaction with difficult political situations and upheavals. Priests have a voice in any social and political environment, especially as the Catholic Church knows in terms of the so-called liberation theology. And they can express those opinions brilliantly and within the context of the scriptures. But open and unadulterated partisanship is another thing entirely. If Fr. Mbaka will not caution himself, and the state is too intoxicated by his panegyrics to ask him who is planning to assassinate the president, the church should step in and do what is necessary to restore normality and decency.
