Fr Mbaka: "Why I Rejected Jonathan’s Dollars"

The media, ever ready to drink from the well of the charismatic and loquacious, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, has folowed him to his new parish in Njinike, Abia state. Mbaka spoke to journalists on a host of issues, including the claim that he rejected a cash gift given to him by former first lady, Patience Jonathan, when she visited his Adoration Camp ground in Enugu.

On his posting, he said it hit him hard, but “God is wonderful. You can see that I am smiling, filled with cheer and the joy of the Lord. I have the feeling that God’s hand is in my going out of GRA. No matter what caused it, no matter how it was caused, I am seeing everything as the will of God. When I remember that my providing God is with me and for me, I am filled with joy and comforted. The
ways of God are divine and mysterious and at times when he wants to do a thing, we humans may not understand it. We may be seeing the external but God who sees the future planned and packaged everything for us.

”When we were leaving the GRA on Saturday, the worshippers in the Adoration Ministry were filled with mixed feelings. I was also filled with thoughts of where to keep the Ministry’s assets because this is a ministry God has blessed. I am not talking about my personal assets which basically are books and clothes.

”But I am happy that, I am here, although the place am posted cannot contain the assets of the ministry, but we have to get going. As it is, I am joyful and the vision and passion have hiked, the vibration is all over and I want to tell you that starting from now, it is no longer going to be the Adoration ministry that people knew before now in Jesus name, Amen.”

Here is what he said about his relationship with the Jonathan family and how it went sour. He had initially blessed Goodluck Jonathan before suddenly changing positions in a fiery New Year message last year. He defended his about-turn this way: ”Prophetic area is a life that is spiritual, Holy Spirit controls that atmosphere. The Holy Spirit who gives you life now can take it one minute after. He does not make mistakes and because you are living last night and died in the morning does not mean he has made mistake. He is unchangeable God that can change circumstances. Remember what happened in the book of Isaiah 38. The same prophet who told Hezekiah that you are going to die; Hezekiah knelt down and prayed to God that he doesn’t want to die. Isaiah had not even walked one minute when the Holy Spirit told him to go back and told the same Hezekiah that he would be added fifteen more years. But before then, many people have heard that God told Hezekiah through Isaiah that he is going to die and many of them heard again that the same God said he would live again.

”Prophet life is a gift. God has been using me to prophesy since my days in the primary school and all of them have been true. In my primary three, even when I knew nothing, people will come to me and say, tell us what you know about me. I don’t see it always and I don’t know any particular thing that I do and I begin to see it, but when it comes, I will speak it like that and it will be true.

”So the case of Jonathan and the wife, God in heaven knew that apart from the offertory the woman gave at the Altar, (which amount I knew), I took that amount and put in the bag that one of the aides of the former President brought (it was a small bag filled with dollars in appreciation). But the Holy Spirit said, send back this money and I returned the whole money plus the one she put as offertory. All of them were returned back. There is no one kobo of Jonathan or Mrs Jonathan in my hand. The Holy Spirit rejected all of them. When the saga was going on, I put my hands on the altar, swore an oath that if I ever touched Jonathan’s one kobo, may he win the election and that if I never and am being accused of it, he will fail the election. I demanded the phone number, not for any personal encounter, it was so that if any message comes that we could give to him privately, we will do so. Some prophecies should not be made public, but when the person that should receive it privately inhibits the opportunity of receiving it, God may force you to air it publicly. It burns like fire in your heart. I don’t take bribe from anybody. God blessed me.”

The pastor claimed that he does not live by offertory. “Throughout my stay in GRA, I was never fed with one kobo of offertory money. I am a musician; I have Music worth multimillion naira. I don’t know how to write solfa notation, it comes by inspiration and it is a gift from God. But I swore an oath that whatever God gives to me will go for charity, to help the poor and less privileged, the church and ministry.

”The type of church I am talking about is the interdenominational and even inter- religious. When I want to do charity, I don’t look at who is a Moslem or Christian, it is global. So why would I take money from Mrs Jonathan for what? If I need money from them, I know what was offered me but I don’t need that kind of money. At that time people were saying five million naira, but if I tell you what I was offered, you will drop what you are holding. Two senators were there when I returned the money, one of them, said if he was in my shoes, he will take the money and be prepared to die. He said a normal man of God cannot return it and I said then, I am not normal. I left the money there and came back. So when they could not give me their number, they asked Kennedy Opara to give me his number. So I will call Kennedy that we were praying for them to win the election. I did not prophesy the day the woman came. I was praying for them and then on December 31, the prophesy came undiluted, just like the prophesy of 2013 that Nigerian oil boom time will turn to oil doom, that Jonathan should wake up and diversify our economy, that in distance time, our naira will have a problem, our oil will fail in the market. The warning was for us to maximize the boom time and wait for the doom period. The analogy given was Joseph quoted from Genesis chapter 49. Nobody listened; many men of God started criticizing me. I never criticized any man of God because of his message.

“I would say that the prophecy was that Jonathan will not win the election and he didn’t win it. What else do we need to do to know it is true? The accomplishments, the fulfillment and realization of prophetic utterance prove the reality. If it is God, it must come to pass, if it is not God, it must not come to pass. God cannot fail and if he had authored a prophecy, he will finish it. So the issue of Jonathan and his money, God in heaven knows, none of their one kobo was given to me. Why are people even making noise, before Jonathan came, the prophecy came that the next president will come from Niger Delta, so why are they making noise. The day Abacha died, prophecy came a week before (Wednesday before the Monday he died), that the president will die next week. Instead of his aides coming to ask about the solution (because most of the time, when God gives me a prophecy, he gives the solution). Instead of asking how it could be averted, they pursued me; even my mechanic was almost killed that time. They continued to witch hunt me. I ran into the bush, from Thursday morning, Friday, Saturday and on Sunday came from the bush to celebrate mass and the message kept coming that Abacha’s death was imminent and the next day, I was in the chapel when the message came that Abacha was no more. So that is it. I don’t know how it came. That I am a priest does not mean I am not Ejike Mbaka. So there is nothing fake or political about my prophetic life. I don’t say things to gain anything.

”Even President Buhari, when it was prophesied that he was going to be the president, I had never seen or known him then. When eventually I met him (Buhari) when I went for prayers at Aso Rock (not the day people saw me shaking hands with him); what I demanded from him is good governance for Nigeria. I didn’t ask him to give me one kobo. One kobo of Buhari has never entered my hand. So when Abacha eventually died on Monday, people shuddered. I ask people to respect God and respect his words and ways.”