FeaturesWhen Men of God Get It Wrong

When Men of God Get It Wrong

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February 13, (THEWILL) – With oracular confidence, they tell us what is to come before they happen, to men in power, events big and small and, lately, results of continental competitions like the just-concluded Africa Cup of Nations. Days before the epic clash between Egypt and Senegal, an unnamed man of God told the world an Arab country was going to win. His prediction failed, prompting THEWILL to consult its own Ouija board on preachers/ pastors whose prophecies have been wide off the mark. Michael Jimoh reports….

If there is any man of God in Nigeria today who deserves a medal for failed predictions, it has to be Senior Pastor of Household of God Church, Chris Okotie. Sometime in 2002, the articulate preacher surprised Nigerians with a stunning declaration that God had revealed to him to contest the forthcoming 2003 presidential election. The divine instruction did not stop there. He will also win if he contested.

Of course, Nigerians know very well the outcome of that election.

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If the first prediction failed, was a second one necessary? Once beaten, so the saying goes, twice shy. Not Okotie! The pastor sort of rehashed the same vision he’d seen before concerning his political ambition, another call four years after the first one. God had spoken to Okotie once again and, surer than ever, he will contest and win.

Like the first prophecy, if it can even be called that, this one failed again and the man of God was left to continue his ecclesiastical duties at his church in Ikeja instead of calling the shots from Aso Villa in Abuja.

Anyone will reasonably expect that after these two failed predictions, there would be no need for another. Na lie o. A good eight years after the second prophecy, the charismatic preacher let on what God told him again prompting him to contest the presidential election of 2015.

“I will run in 2015, God willing,” Okotie said at the time. “God spoke to me about my participation in the political process, which was why I took the step in the first place. He has not said anything contrary. I don’t want to talk about our strategy for now, we have learnt from our past experience, we don’t want to talk about it for now.”

Without ever being a councilor let alone member of the House of Assembly, the presidential wannabe lost yet again, making him a serial loser in the history of presidential elections in Nigeria, second only to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari who lost in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

Though he was not a contestant when he made his Delphic pronouncement in 2002, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly also spoke concerning a politician, former president Olusegun Obasanjo. He was more graphic in his interpretation of the vision from God he saw concerning the former prez. Bakare told Nigerians and the rest of the world that he saw the soldier-turned politico tantalized with a crown which was never really placed on his head. The first crown, according to him, was taken away as quickly as it was lowered on OBJ’s head. The second was of death. A soldier who has been to several wars shouldn’t be afraid of death. Abi?

It is doubtful if Obasanjo ever paid serious attention to Bakare’s doomsday warning. Needless to say that OBJ served for eight long years and is now drinking water and, as the Yoruba say, putting the cup down on the table in his house.

Every now and then preachers, prophets and men of God in Nigeria try to outdo one another in the number of visions they see concerning politicians home and abroad. Why it is so is not exactly clear. Nearly all of the prophecies were wise off the mark.

The late General Overseer of The Synagogue Church of all Nations SCOAN, Prophet TB Joshua, added his own prediction to the failed ones in 2016. He cast his gaze on the presidential election in faraway United States and divined that Hilary Clinton of the Democratic Party was going to win against Donald Trump of the Republican Party. The realtor-turned-politician won giving the lie to Joshua’s unsolicited message from God.

Also unasked for was Pastor Samuel Akinbodunse’s vision and declaration in 2019 that PMB will not win the presidential election of that year. Akinbodunse is based in South Africa from where he lobbed his prophetic warning to the president, pleading with Nigerians to caution PMB.

“Please Nigerians, warn Buhari that he is going beyond his boundary,” the man of God thundered. “That the Lord said his tenure is once and not twice. If not, he will not see the election o. If you know him and how to email the Presidency of Nigeria, please write him a text. If he made a mistake to campaign for elections, before they vote, he will die.”

As if to lend credence to his own warning, Akinbodunse insisted he was not fibbing. “And I am saying the truth, I am saying the truth,” he went on. “Tell him the same voice that spoke when people said Jonathan would be the President of Nigeria, the same voice is speaking to him that he must not make that mistake. Let him eat whatever he wants to eat inside sugar that he is now and leave the sugar ‘jejely’. If not, he will die. That is just the message.”

Last November, another prophet had a message for the people of Anambra state during the governorship election. IPOB had been mulling a sit-at-home order so as to truncate the polls. Whether that emboldened Prophet Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere aka Odumeje is hard to say.

In a video that went viral before the Anambra polls, Odumeje told his parishioners that what he saw was violence. “The future I am looking at, everybody will be shocked because there will massive death. I am seeing a massive death. And it shall be gun to gun.”

“I am looking at an election that will come in Anambra state. Be praying. I don’t see elections, I see deaths. I see deaths of guns[sic]. I don’t see the election holding. I have been praying and telling God. Because I am seeing where people kill people. Don’t say I did not said [sic] it.”

Of course, INEC conducted a free and fair election in the state. For whatever reason(s), IPOB called off the sit-at-home order during the polls in Anambra. As for the far-seeing prophet, the “massive death” he saw existed only in his imagination. It didn’t come to pass.

Also failing to come to pass was the 2019 prediction of Bishop Wale Olagunju, Presiding Bishop of Divine Seed of God Chapel Ministries at Ibadan, Oyo state. Shortly before the presidential election that year, the man of God quickly congratulated Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. Olagunju made it clear who the winner was going to be, according to revelations from God.

“Let me congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for winning the ticket of his party, the All Progressives Congress, and let me also make it clear to him that he will lose to Atiku Abubakar,” Olagunju declared with all magisterial authority. “Let me also congratulate Atiku in advance because he will win the next presidential election come 2019.”

In the end, there were no congratulatory messages, not from Atiku to Buhari because he alleged that INEC servers broke down thus denying him crucial votes. It also turned out Olagunju sent a premature congratulatory message to Atiku because he did not win.

Supposed men of God in Nigeria sometimes turn their attention away from politics and politicians and crystal-gaze on something else. Sports is one. They also miss by a very wide margin. Pastor Simeon Ononogbu of Ebonyi state had prophesied that the Falcons of Nigeria – the national female football team – will reach the semis in the Women’s World Cup held in France in the summer of 2019. He also said France will be fifth. Both predictions were wrong.

In a show of contrition, Ononogbu told reporters who met and spoke with him afterwards: “It is a pity that the prediction on the Falcons failed which means that it was not a revelation from God. We have so many spirits that can deceive people and if we are not careful, we will make mistakes such as this.”

Why do men of God make predictions? To shore up their reputation – especially spiritually that they do, as a matter of fact, possess powers beyond mere mortals like us. And what if the predictions never come to pass? Are they to be taken as messages from God?

Of course, no. The scripture is very clear on that because God cannot lie. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD,” according to Deutronomy 18:22, “if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

As it is, nothing suggests Nigerian men of God will discontinue their prophetic utterances anytime soon. Just last week, one Adegbite bee-lined it from Isolo to THEWILL’s GRA, Ikeja office. It was an unscheduled meeting and he requested to see the editor, Olaolu Olusina. He described himself as a pastor of a church – of no specific denomination, though. He went on to say he read something in the newspaper he felt he should respond to and it was urgent, which was why he came in person.

However weird or cranky they come or sound and, out of forced civility, editors oblige such visitors, those with a comment, say, complaint, suggestion, or, in the case of the August visitor, predictions.

In his telling, he saw Atiku and his running mate General Onyeabor Ihejirika, former Chief of Army Staff, winning the 2023 presidential election. It was an urgent matter for which he wanted a direct contact with the former veep.

Of course, the editor baulked and showed the man the door. But he wouldn’t go just like that. He asked to see the editor privately outside the office – probably to ask for a little something for his pains. Olusina disobliged him this time.

The most lesson to learn from those with false predictions/ prophecies can be taken from a favourite George Orwell quip: “lending an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

About the Author

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Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.

Michael Jimoh, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.

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