The Jonathans and the bird that didn’t fly: Our problem with Mbaka – Enugu monarch
The last appears not to have been heard over the Enugu Catholic Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s new year message that President Goodluck Jonathan should forget re-election for lack of performance.
The traditional ruler of Egali Amalla autonomous community in Udenu local government area of Enugu State, Igwe Patrick Eze (Waziri), has berated Catholcompriest Rev Ejike Mbaka for dabbling into political frontiers.
For the monarch, Mbaka overstepped his priestly duties in his controversial New Year message, which was headlined by his call on President Goodluck Jonathan to resign for non-performance.
incidentslly, the priest had before then been an ardent supporter of the president who said was being vilified by those who did not want him to complete the good works he had enunciated.
The Igwe described Mbaka as a politician in the cassock, urging him to make a choice between remaining in his priestly duties or going full scale into partisan politics.
He said, . “It is better for Mbaka to join politics, contest election to have a taste of power other than calling people names, asking the president to resign. Who actually made Fr.Mbaka a judge that determines who should be entrusted with power. Rev. Fr. Mbaka should resign as a priest and join politics since he has shifted from God’s vineyard to politics.
“The name Mbaka is an identity and not the human as there is nothing so special, simply because he is a priest in Catholic.
Let him face the Catholic faithful, evangelize to win souls for God rather than tongue lashing the president as being corrupt.
The Catholic preacher ought to have devoted more time, fasting and praying for the release of the Chibok girls than apportioning blames for insecurity”.
The traditional ruler also dismmissed the claim by the priest that he had been receiving threat messages since the new year message in which he asked Nigerians not to re-elect Jonathan.
His words of advice for Mbaka, “If Gen Mohammed Buhari, with the APC presidential ticket, was Fr. Mbaka’s choice, let him campaign for him through his sermon and pull over 30,000 worshipers of the Adoration to the APC. The January 4, 2015 message to the congregation was meant to discredit Jonathan’s transformation agenda (TAN) of openness, fairplay justice, honesty and accountability
“The clerk delves into politics in the name of God. During the era of erstwhile Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, Mbaka vowed to drop his cassock should Chimaroke win election for second term in office but failed to keep his words when Chimaroke was re-elected.
‘’During the time of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as National Chairman of the PDP, he preached a message titled, Nsukka Ndo nu (meaning Nsukka sorry) to slight the teeming population of Nsukka.
“It is only in Nigeria that you see men of God that predict what will happen in other countries both in the air and under the sea but would not predict the collapse of their churches. We expect men of God to preach messages of salvation and repentance, pray for the survival of the nation rather than delving into politics to gain cheap popularity.
“Most of the men of God crave for recognition and that is why they mount the pulpit to attack those in the authority in the country. If Mbaka feels threatened, let him seek police protection but he should equally remember that he has laid his life for Christ on the day of his ordination.
he urged the electorate to not to be carried away by propaganda but to exercise restraint in their choice of candidates.
On the state governorship election, he urged all those who are in court opposing the candidature of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to pull out thier cases and support Ugwuanyi, who was the consensus candidate of the People’s Democratic Party.
He praised Gov Chime for fulfilling his promising of ensuring that zoning formula in the state, which gave the governorship slot in the state to Enugu North.
He said, “May I use this medium to advise all PDP guber aspirants litigant to sheath their sword and join hands with the consensus candidate, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who was anointed by Gov. Sullivan Chime, the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, and Enugu State stakeholders who described Ugwuanyi as the most popular and acceptable candidate to fly the flag of the party in the state. The sweetest part of Chime’s administration was fulfilling his avowed promise of giving the guber ticket to Enugu North unlike his predecessors who made similar promise but reneged.
“Governor Chime stuck his neck for Nsukka to produce the next governor of the state and that is the more reason all the litigants from the zone in the PDP should wind down and join hands with their kinsman, Ugwuanyi, for effective governance. The zoning formular that played out in Enugu is now a template for continuity. God has been merciful to the people of Enugu through Chime. I believe Ugwuanyi will deliver as expected. He is my subject and I knew him from birth to adulthood. He should be mindful that his predecessor left big legacies which need to be improved upon.”
