Father Mbaka’s year -end homilies

At his end of year sermon in Enugu he drew attention to the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan not only turns blind eyes to acts of corruption, he in fact go out of his way to court corrupt people. In a sermon he gave at this Adoration Ministry, Enugu, entitled “From Goodluck to Badluck” Father […]

At his end of year sermon in Enugu he drew attention to the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan not only turns blind eyes to acts of corruption, he in fact go out of his way to court corrupt people. In a sermon he gave at this Adoration Ministry, Enugu, entitled “From Goodluck to Badluck” Father Mbaka highlighted the president’s fondness for wining and dining with corrupt people, people who would have been better off thrown into jail and the keys thrown into the sea!
Father Mbaka also upbraided the president for not being able to provide security for Nigerians, noting that up till now “nobody knows the where    about of the Chibok girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram…” Now, Reverend Father Camillus Mbaka is not just an ordinary priest, a fact made obvious by his outspokenness. His Adoration Ministry, according to accounts, is a spiritual ground where the high and low visit for benediction and spiritual guidance, so an endorsement or otherwise from him could galvanise his huge followers and other people who routinely attend his church services and sermons to follow his directives.
Father Mbaka’s year-end homily packs a powerful import, particularly at this time of self serving cant, chicanery and overweening tendency by influential people– among them religious leaders- to ingratiate themselves to power and officialdom for mere potage, rather than speak truth to powerful people about their failures. So, Father Mbaka’s intervention serves as a ringing example to his brothers in religious robes that at a time when leaders grossly underperform to the extent that it endangers the polity or, to paraphrase the father himself, when leaders act in ways that encourage inclination to malfeasance, it is the duty of the religious leaders to lead the charge to restitution by speaking to power about the impropriety of their action or inaction. His intervention becomes even more poignant when it is considered that he was able to see and bemoan what his more elderly, more visible and vocal colleagues could not see or saw and decided to keep quiet, preferring, as they say, to see and hear no evil, as long as their pockets continue to be lined. Thus, the Rev. Father has shown what the proper duty of religious leaders should be at a time of moral morass—to call to order wayward leaders.
In the 1980s, South America, a continent with an overwhelming Catholic population was in the throes of dictatorship and authoritarian rule. At that time many countries including Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and even Brazil were all under one form of military rule or the other.
The junta that ruled over Argentina at that time was so ruthless that it put to death many Argentines whom they considered a danger to their rule. So horrendous was the act that up to now members of the junta are still being tried and sentenced for offences committed. In many of these countries credible opposition groups were traumatised and silenced. This caused the priests to rise to the challenge to call the generals’ bluff and by so doing, they filled the gap left by the hundreds and thousands killed and buried incognito or driven into exile. So potent was their opposition to military rule and the existential material poverty that resulted from it that the notion of liberation theology was born. The notion underscored the fact that the priests did not limit their work to ministering to their flocks in the churches; it also included leading demonstrations to raise awareness about the injustices racking their societies.
The gesture of priests championing social action for change began to gain momentum. Their action was not without repercussions however, as many had to suffer death in the process. Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed by the Salvadorian regime while celebrating mass. But a fate like this did not deter the others. Father Camillus Mbaka’s outspokenness may not exactly be compared with the herculean altruistic selflessness of the Latin American priests; still it evokes the memory of that era. At least, his boldness put into bold relief the attitude of others who played ostrich and buried their heads in the sand and saw nothing wrong with the hideous corruption that has been ongoing in government all these years.
A governor’s unfortunate utterance “If you are talking of honesty or morality, go and become an Imam or a pastor…”   This was part of the unfortunate utterances of the Niger State Governor, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, alias Chief Servant while inaugurating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship campaign committee. He told the committee that there is “no morality in politics”, adding that politics is all about lying and if you cannot lie, then get out and find another vocation.
I grant that Governor Aliyu’s speech may have dwelt on more salient issues than was reported which reporters chose to ignore and instead highlighted the segment about taking honesty and morality out of politics. But that is as far as I would go in playing his advocate. Even allowing for devious and cynical reporting, and I doubt if that was the case because as I write there has been no complaints or rebuttals from the governor’s quarters which indicates that he stands by his sad comments on politics.
It must be said though that he was not the first to express such distasteful views about politics. Some 4 years ago, a similar view issued from former President Olusegun Obasanjo calling on his party men and women to do everything to win the 2011 election in a “do or die,” all hold barred fashion. Of course, the 2011 elections had been won and lost, except that in retrospect we are all witnesses to the bitter fruits they have brought forth, to our chagrin.
What could have happened to Babangida Aliyu that caused him to renounce the ethical garb of the “Chief Servant” he robed himself with when he assumed office as governor some 8 years ago? By promising servant leadership, he staked his reputation on riding on the back of politic to power in order to serve the good people of Niger State selflessly, diligently and judiciously. It is too soon to know whether or not he measured up to his own standards because he is still in the saddle.  Still, one cannot help thinking that when he dubbed himself the Chief Servant and propagated the notion of the servant leadership, he was aiming to emulate and give expression to the science and quality of leadership that had been demonstrated by sages across the ages, personified in our time by Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and our own first republic leaders like Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo etc, who used politics and power to improve the status of their people. And when they left the scene, were judged to have found no need to enrich themselves at the expense of the government they had run.
Power for them were not a means of cutting corners, nor a soulless avenue of self-enrichment therefore there was no need to attain it through devious means. Flowing from this premise therefore politics devoid of morality and rules of engagement; as in everyone for himself and the devil takes the hind side, can only be an invitation to mendacity, chaos and destruction. Certainly, that couldn’t have been what the chief servant aimed to achieve when he won power to govern Niger State 8 years ago?