By Jude Atupulazi
How often you must have heard the above expression in Nigeria by Nigerians. Loosely translated, it says that Nigeria is a country where anything goes and life continues. A lot of things happen in this country, I tell you, which portray Nigerians as people who never learn. This is why many are scammed and keep being scammed. And nowhere do you find these scams as in religion and politics.
When I say religion, I am not referring to that concerning the traditional churches like the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and other older, established churches. I’m basically talking about the so-called new generation churches one sees in Pentecostalism. This is not a hate speech; it is just an attempt to put things in their right perspective.
The truth is that there is so much deception among the Pentecostals, mainly because they keep proliferating. In some streets you may come across up to five different Pentecostal churches. When I see such proliferation and preponderance of these churches in every nook and cranny, I pity God in heaven who must stay wide awake and have large ears to listen to the prayers coming from all these churches.
Coming closer to what I want to write about, I want to say that many false prophets have hijacked the Pentecostal churches. They were able and are still able to do this because of the penchant of our people to seek miracles and their extreme gullibility, plus greed. Just perform any contrived miracle to these people and you own them for life. They will do anything you tell them, including handing over their property.
My present topic was actually influenced by what I read on the social media about a young woman who was scammed two thousand dollars by the pastor of her church who had told her that she would become super rich if she gave all her savings to the church. Because she was probably greedy to reap what she didn’t sow, she succumbed to the tales by moonlight and gave all her money to the church, abi pastor. It was after that she discovered that she had even become poorer and no magic money came in. let’s listen to her tale of woe before we continue.
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“I still regret giving my life savings of $2,000 to a Church after they told me That if I gave God my ‘Last Card,’ he would bless me in hundred folds,” lady says.
A young woman recently shared a cautionary tale about her past religious favor, revealing how she once donated her entire savings to her church.
According to her, she had been led to believe that “sowing a seed” with her last money would result in a miraculous, hundred-fold blessing from God. Moved by this promise, she donated $2,000 worth of B¡tcoin, her entire savings, and handed it over to the ministry.
Reflecting on the experience now, she admitted to a painful shift in perspective. She stated that she eventually realized God’s blessings do not operate like a transactional scheme or a spiritual lottery.
Expressing deep regret, she noted that while her intentions were sincere, she had been misled by predatory teachings. She now advocates for a more grounded approach to faith, emphasizing that financial wisdom and personal responsibility are just as important as spiritual devotion.
Now, it can be seen that many people who get scammed are greedy or have an element of greed in them and once the scammers sense this greed, they work on the person to rip them off. Imagine a young girl believing that giving her entire savings to a church, in this case, pastor, would yield her much more money as though it was some magical act. Like many others, this young woman had fallen prey to the sweet tongue of emergency pastors or men of God. Indeed, anyone whose faith is not fully grounded is likely to fall when they are sweet-tongued by these merchants in priestly robes.
Imagine how they were able to convince our friend that if she gave all of her last money she would get more. May be she wanted to compete with Dangote by sacrificing two thousand Dollars. Just like that? You may ask; but that is what we see all day long today in Nigeria.
Because of hardship, many no longer think straight. They are looking for eldorado where there is none. But then, if this young woman is truly angry and serious let her disclose the name of the church and the pastor that scammed her. At least that will go some way in curbing the excesses of others like this pastor.
Still, even after doing that, many more people will keep falling prey as long as things are difficult in this country; for is it not said that na ejiro anya ocha aga uka Sabbath? (Loose translation: hardship pushes people to do things they won’t normally do). There was a woman who gave the car bought for her by her husband to her pastor, prompting the husband to storm the church to retake the car. For such a woman, the pastor is infallible and any command he gives to her is meticulously executed.
It is said, indeed, that the women who usually fall prey to these pastors are those desperately looking for husbands or those in desperate need for the fruit of the womb. They can travel to the land of the spirits if it is where they will get what they desire.
Many of these pastors are business men in spiritual garbs. They have sweet tongues and can seriously confuse the unwary. They are there to make money and all they usually preach about is tithing. If they are not urging you to sow your first seed, they are exhorting you to sow your last card. I hope they won’t soon start to tell them to sacrifice their children too.
This makes such pastors very dangerous to families which they have wrecked many times with false prophecies. Mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and other close family members, are always witches; while every neighbour should be avoided. Yes, there are bad people, but when everybody is made to look like a devil that should be avoided at all costs, the person being told this should be very watchful as the devil may actually be the one advising them. Perhaps, the Anambra State Government should consider watching these pastors and their churches more closely. There may not be much difference between them and the Akwa Okukos of this world.
Another area where Nigerians fall mugu (become stupid), as they say, is politics. The case of Nigeria is especially intriguing. You see people suffering and dying under bad leadership and still defending such leaders, simply because they come from same tribe or share same religious belief. The case of the northerners is astonishing. Despite the long years of the north in the corridors of power, their people remain the worst in the country in terms of development, mentally and materially.
They have not progressed much despite their people being in power the longest than any other people in Nigeria. The other day I was reading the cut off points in Unity Schools for the various states. While Anambra has the highest, over three hundred, some states in the north have just one or two as their cut of points; yet, when it comes to employment or filling important positions, those with one or two cut off points are favoured. Naija na cruise, indeed.
In Nigeria, quota system is applied only where the north is disadvantaged. They think they are helping their people but don’t know they are actually killing them. This reflects in the quality of life of their people. In the north, there are only the rich and the poor; no middle class. The rich manipulate the poor to attain their evil and selfish agenda.
Thus they will never allow them to see the light or be liberated. Yet, during elections, those being manipulated travel back by any means to go vote for the very people oppressing them. A time was, when just before presidential elections, all the beggars in the south who were from the north would disappear. Where did they go to? They had gone home to vote for ”their people”, little knowing they were signing their death warrants.
The north has the highest number of beggars in Nigeria and their greatest exports are indeed, beggars and shoe shiners. You then ask what they have benefitted from their people occupying the power corridors for ages in Nigeria. No be juju be dis, as they will say? But this is Nigeria where some people often mistake their friends for their enemies and their enemies as friends.
Nigeria is really a big theatre of the absurd where the unwary are ensnared and life goes on. Naija? For Naija, na cruise we dey catch o.
