Father Mbaka, just sit down

 

By Joseph Edgar . . . .

The newspaper headlines have been screaming about his recent transfer and his subsequent wailing like a baby. His tears have not touched me, but seriously have only gone ahead to irritate me to say the least. That he would be leaving his duplex to one room is the tiniest of the problems he has caused for this country with his unguarded statements.

Our men of God are usually very quick to forget the ethos of their calling. The priesthood to the best of my knowledge is a call to servitude. A service laced with humility and entwined with anonymity in selfless sacrifice to humanity. The priesthood should stay clear of earthly politics while providing a platform to both or even all sides of the divide who at some point will need spiritual guidance and strength.

This Reverend Father had long forgotten this. Regularly throwing himself into the pit that is politics, coming out of it with soiled garments but not minding as he continues to enjoy the spoils of his decision. I hear he is a serial entrepreneur, from recharge cards, to pure water manufacturing amongst others, this is a Reverend with a difference.

His pronouncements went a long way to decide the political fortunes of some prominent people and this was unfair since we have all come to the realization that the good father had his positions which was usually tied very closely to some selfish gains.  I read somewhere that his prophesy that Jonathan would win the election. After he failed to reach his wife for two weeks, immediately, the prophesy changed and moved towards Buhari who was more accessible.

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The Catholic Church has done well by half. They should not only have transferred him they should have sent him back to the Seminary to learn once again the rudiments of priesthood. This baba has long forgotten those earlier teachings.

No priest should ever again be allowed by the Catholic Church or any other church to grow this big again. It remains very dangerous to mix politics with religion. You see what we are going through with Islamic extremists who do things in the name of Allah despite the fact that Allah is proclaimed as the merciful.

Father Mbaka used his pulpit to garner the kind of influence that even veteran politicians could not and everybody bowed for him. All the presidential candidates made their pilgrimages there and if my memory doesn’t fail me, he had once wrestled a sitting governor to a standstill.

If you ask me, this is good riddance and he should just quietly go into the sunset of his chosen career and be a priest in every sense of the word. If he wants to be a politician, then he should drop the cassock and climb the soap box, instead of hiding behind the highly revered pulpit to play politics.

So sir, stop crying and go to your new parish, you have done enough and we are grateful. Thank you.

 

 
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