In the quest for miracles that can move mountains, many Nigerians have fallen victims to fake pastors. It is in fact not surprising since the Bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money is what these pastors pry on. With the promise of a life of immense wealth and endless miracles, they immediately drive miracle-seeking multitude to their church.
One interesting personality in this circle is Odumeje, Senior Pastor of Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention and Deliverance Ministry inc. He came into prominence through a series of videos circulated in the media space, especially those with his grammatical blunders, which earned him the popular name, “liquid metal”. One lecturer who admires Odumeje’s strange strategy says he tends to enjoy his language style because of his bold presentations. He “deliberately” breaks the rule of language and is roundly applauded.
Odumeje has been the centre of many attractions. He does not only break the rules of English language, he breaks all known Christian rules and conventions. His unorthodox and unapologetic approach to spirituality makes him and his ministry unique spectacles. He has trending video clips of his deliverance sessions, which leave people wondering what manner of a pastor he is.
He uses money to pull members to his church, prying on the frail economic conditions of his church members, many who come to his church to seek “daily bread”. He has this routine approach of not entering his church until the auditorium is in full capacity.
How he gets the bundles of money which he sprays periodically on himself and members of his congregation, and even in public ceremonies, remains a mystery.
There’s something inherently strange about his actions that are characteristic of men involved in money ritual. The routine or what can be otherwise called ritualistic pattern, of his many moves, especially in his church service, deserves introspection.
The procedure is always the same for every church service. With a retinue of bodyguards mostly dressed in long black suits, Odumeje takes the lead while his “bodies” come behind him. As soon as he enters, the guards take strategic positions while he takes a mental view of the entire congregation. He then staggers out, looking straight, but to no one in particular.
He would then fly into the pulpit, first kicking his right leg and then release the left one, severally kicking in the blank air. He then stretches his hands forth and back before jumping up nearly two meters high. This would follow a shout from the congregation. Driven by the ovation and endorsements from his church members, he would start his usual acrobatic show, beating his chest in self-praise.
Suddenly, one of his assistants would come out with bundles of cash and hand it over to him, which he begins to spray on his congregation, and the entire church would go wild.
His aides would fetch more bundles of money which they begin to spray on him too, and both Odumeje and his aides would go on a frenzy in the money spraying spree which might last close to an hour or more in the church.
His deliverance sessions which are captured live are essentially queer. Men of God are known to conduct deliverance using anointing oil while invoking the name of Jesus. But this man of God who is no preacher of love, performs wrestling drama to conduct his own deliverance. He would use crutches to flog the lame to perfection.
He also performs several stunts of raising the dead to life after lying straight on top of such presumed dead bodies brought to his church service. This has seen miracle-seeking Christians flood his church.
An Anambra Chief and Politician, popularly called Omoife 1, opined that the government was supposed to have waded in and curtailed Odumeje’s excesses by now. His words: “This must not be allowed to go on, as if we are all hypnotized, including the government and human rights agencies. How long shall we look the other way?
“I have been to hundreds of churches here in the East, and I discovered that 90 in every 100 pastors in Igboland are fake and only very few are genuine and these genuine ones hardly publicize their miracles. It is believed this young man employs this gimmick to mesmerize the congregation to cover-up for his fake miracles.”
Another irony about Odumeje’s ministry is that he confronts traditional worshipers and their venerated festivals. His face-off with the people of Arondizuogu in Imo State where he derided a renowned traditionalist and musician, the late Chief Pericoma Okoye, brought him great popularity. He described the people of Arondizuogu as fetish and vowed to put a stop to the Ikeji festival of the town. He also attacked the people of Awka, Anambra State, describing their popular masquerade festival, “Egwu Imo Awka”, as fetish, saying they are worshiping monkeys, the symbol of the festival. In the video that went viral, Odumeje said if he comes in contact with the monkey totem of Awka people, he would destroy it.
But many see this as a ploy and stunt to score cheap points, and further drive traffic to his ministry. The argument is that Odumeje must have been aware of the several questions and query on his position as a true man of God, which could translate to an end of his prized ministry. So to salvage his ministry and save his face, there was no other way but to oppose strong “occultic” powers and practices. Besides, the Bible says a house divided against itself cannot stand, so this was the perfect move to tell off suspicious individuals that he is on God’s side.
That Odumeje would later go back on his words, acknowledging a people he described as fetish, to be peace loving, is one thing that raises some questions on his position as servant of God. He even described the same Maxi Pericom of Arondizuogu he called fetish as a diligent servant of God.
Humility is a strong aspect of Christianity but Odumeje’s braggadocio knows no bounds. This is a man of God who would go about throwing money in the air. Even in his church, he would gather money on the altar and ask his members to come and “collect their blessings on the altar”. This would see a stampede among the congregation with the “liquid metal”, yelling aggressively that no one should touch his flowers.
This warranted the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) to ask the Central Bank of Nigeria to order the arrest of Odumeje for his serial abuses of the Nigerian Naira and other denominations.
A Christian is expected to be gentle, meek, full of understanding and love, but Odumeje’s rascality and obstinacy for correction knows no bounds. The way he rains curses on people leads to serious apprehension. He himself acknowledges this. While speaking on the criticism of his lifestyle, he said:
“I’m a stubborn man, a radical man. I told you don’t correct me. If I knack (sic) somebody on my chair, don’t ask me man of God, this is not the way we are doing miracle elsewhere. Who born you and where do you come from? What do you know about spiritual (sic)? You talk when a dead man is talking. Who born you, you that comment on my miracles, you no dey fear? You will die recklessly. You don’t enter to my (sic) miracles to talk rubbish. What do you know about earth and spiritual earth? I’m not ashamed of my habit. This is me. I’m a stubborn man, a fireman, a radical prophet, I’m Indaboski, I’m a dabus; I’m a libaduu, the liquid metal!”
While on a visit to popular musician, Flavour, Odumeje said that people are wondering how he came about the name Indaboski, but they should rather wait for the main dish coming:
“In 2020, I told them that I am Indaboski, but before the end of 2020, I am going to bring in another new power called Dabuskabashi. Then, if we are entering the end of December 2020, I will bring Gandu-Gandusa.”
These are names that have a bearing with esoteric powers, and Odumeje has said he is only using the indaboski powers and that he has not moved to the others.
The strange words ‘Indaboski Bahose’ are supposedly drawn from speaking in tongues; a phenomenon, majorly associated with Pentecostal Christians across the world in which people speak words that are apparently languages but totally unknown to the speaker and human hearers.
Although it is believed that speaking in tongues is a heavenly language that ought to be dynamic and not repetitive, an indication that one is not true is the repetitiveness of any supposed tongue which not only implies that it is crammed, possibly learnt or faked, but also crafted for the purpose of deception.
Many pastors have gone on to perpetrate several atrocities under the immunity of “touch not my anointing and do my prophet no harm”. People are equally afraid to speak up about their doubts because of this “religious immunity”.
Many women have fallen victims to evil pastors as they are sexually exploited in the course of seeking special miracles. In Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria, the Pastor and General Overseer of Zion International Christian Church, Idah, simply identified as Kingsley, was alleged to have impregnated an 18-year-old girl, in the guise of delivering her waist and private part from satanic possession.
There was the case of one pastor Chijioke who said he was casting out demons by sucking the breasts of women. Equally ludicrous was the fact that he was justifying the act. According to him, the breasts of some women are filled with all kinds of spirits and when he sucks them, he delivers them of any negative spiritual issue.
The actual problem lies in the sacredness of religion. This is why it has become a tool for exploitation. The sacred nature of religion is why most people are afraid to speak up. They are overly cautious not to offend God, especially when they think or remember that Bible verse that says “touch not my anointing and do my prophet not harm”, even when these prophets are the main ones orchestrating the harm.
Even the bold ones who come out to speak up are shut down. With these attitudes, others who are victims of these experiences are discouraged from speaking up. They accept their sorrows, consoling themselves with the verses that vengeance belongs to God.
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Not too long ago, a South African pastor, Lesego Daniel of Rabboni Centre Ministries, in Garankuwa, north of Pretoria, turned his church members to herbivores by asking them to eat grass for them to be closer to God. Members of his church stoutly stood by him. Defending her pastor, Rosemary Phetha, 21-year-old law student, said: “Yes, we eat grass and we’re proud of it because it demonstrates that, with God’s power, we can do anything.”
Karl Marx defined religion as the opium of the people. He understood the power of religion and how it can be exploited to encapsulate the gullible masses, and even the intelligentsia. Despite offering that definition centuries back, it has so much relevance in our world today.
The same religion was used to keep blacks in slavery, compelling them to accept their fate and that it was God’s will to have the whites lord over blacks. Many years after slavery, religion is still being exploited for subjugation, all with the hope of getting some non-existent miracles. Embarrassingly, African societies are the centres of this sinister trend. Obviously, the enlightened ones still need to do a lot more to salvage those under enslavement of fake smooth-talking pastors.
Piercy Mabel
