By Promise Adiele
The governor of Anambra State and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, means several things to many people. His reputation resonates across the country in fragmented decibels, making his persona available for different interpretations. For some people, he was the CBN governor who orchestrated one of the most effective monetary policies in Africa during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, which contributed significantly to the economic revival and stability of that era. To many people, he is the politician who campaigned with the slogan “solution” in his quest for the Anambra State House, but failed woefully to transform the state into Dubai as he promised.
Yet, other people conceive him as a governor whose political behaviour thrives on puerile pettiness and infantile indulgences amplified by unwarranted and unprovoked attack on Peter Obi. Some criticize him for aligning with a Federal Government many believe is insensitive to Anambra’s needs, while others praise him for abolishing the sit-at-home order and taking action against spiritual practices considered exploitative. This crackdown on spiritualists is the central focus of this essay, questioning its rationale and broader implications.
All over Nigeria, in Africa and in most parts of the world, different people adopt various methods of spirituality to relate with the otherworldly, supernatural realm. Spirituality affords people a specific way to express certain convictions about existence and subjective experiences. Indeed, many people believe that the spiritual realm controls the physical realm, therefore in order to catalyse events in the physical realm, humanity must necessarily devise a way of controlling the spiritual realm. Spirituality is deep, quite deep. Unfortunately, many people do not understand it. They erroneously perceive it as being holy through abstinence or the denial of certain bodily gratifications.
To put it simply, spirituality is the determined personal search for the existence of a transcendental being whose essence is beyond the physical realm. The understanding and orientation of such a transcendental being can aid growth, discernment and higher cognition of the world. Some people in their spiritual search for the Almighty God have attained higher insights into the physical world. Besides God, there are lesser transcendental beings too who are beneficiaries or recipients of the diffused power from the Almighty God through what is generally referred to as polytheism.
While some people directly access the Supreme God, other people indirectly access Him through smaller deities and gods. Indeed, in this part of the world, given the desperation of many people to uncover the future and take control of their destinies, they become gullible and submit to charlatans like Soyinka’s Brother Jero, who pretend to possess the power of prophecy. These charlatans are found in every religion, including Christianity, Islam and traditional African religion. Therefore, there are fake pastors and prophets, fake imams, and fake traditional worshippers who exploit the gullibility of the naïve to make money. Many fake pastors and prophets claim to possess the power to make people rich or attain material glory. They see their members as customers, just like Brother Jero referred to his prospective members as customers.
Many imams do the same, and many worshippers of different deities and gods also do the same. Many of them aid spiritual wickedness and inflict multiple harms on other people through various spiritual practices. They manufacture spiritual devices for business success, instant riches through rituals, quick marriage, love portions, protection, child conception and many more. While some of the powers work, some don’t work. Of course, there are powers, and there are powers. Today, many people, out of desperation, have fallen victim to these fake spiritual practitioners.
Recently, Professor Chukwuma Soludo decided to crack down on spiritualists in Anambra State who purport to possess one form of power or another. He invaded their shrines and destroyed all their appurtenances of spiritual fame. There is the native doctor called Chidozie Nwangwu, popularly known as Akwa Okuko Tiwara Aki (The egg that broke the palm kernel). His alias underscores the invisibility and omnipotence attached to his practice because it is practically impossible for an egg to crack a palm kernel. Chidozie paraded himself as a powerful young man who had the powers to do the unthinkable, including making people rich, granting them success embassies, giving them powers to win elections, conjuring powers for business success, and many more.
Expectedly, many people, both old and young, patronised him with varying degrees of success and failure. Gradually, the young man became a household name in the whole Southeast. His reputation spread like wildfire, and he carried on as a demigod. That was until Soludo remembered him. He was arrested and charged to court. After back-and-forth legal proceedings, Chidozie pleaded guilty to misleading the public through magical means. He was sentenced to two years in prison with his two disciples.
There was also John Paul Ezenagu, popularly known as Mmuo Mmili Afulu Anya (The sea deity seen by all). He was arrested by Soludo’s men in his shrine-like abode, where he received his customers. Ezeagu was purported to worship a mermaid spirit that manifested in the form of a crocodile. Through his trade, he was famed to make people rich, become successful, travel abroad, win elections, win court cases and attain other glorified heights celebrated by commodified, sublunary consciences. Before his arrest, Ezeagu was believed to possess the powers to invoke a crocodile which appeared from a small stream and spoke to him. However, when men of the Udogachi security outfit in Anambra State apprehended him, he insisted on the superiority of his spiritual powers.
He was asked to demonstrate his powers by invoking the mermaid spirit to appear in the form of a crocodile. In what could be termed a reminiscence of what happened to the prophets of Baal in the Bible, Ezeagu tried in vain to call out the mermaid spirit. After several attempts accompanied by his mysterious bell, the crocodile failed to appear. He gave up and apologised to the security outfit, Soludo and the entire people of Anambra State. He was promptly taken into custody and will be charged to court soon.
On the heels of what happened to Chidozie and Ezeagu, many spiritualists in the state have disappeared and destroyed their shrines for fear of Soludo and his men. Following the two incidents above, many people in the Southeast have praised Soludo for his foresight and drastic measures to rid the state of spiritual entrepreneurs. But the big question remains – when will Soludo extend his crackdown to many churches that purport to exercise the powers of the Supreme God to deceive people in the guise of miracles? If Chidozie and Ezeagu had built a church, given it a name and used the word ‘miracle’ instead of ‘magic’, would Soludo have invaded their churches and destroyed them? Many magicians and spiritualists hiding under the name of a church with beautiful modern architecture have done worse things than Chidozie and Ezeagu. When will Soludo crack down on them?
If Ezeagu was arrested and taken into custody because he could not successfully summon the mermaid spirit he worshipped, then many pastors in Nigeria performing miracles ostensibly with the name of God will also go to jail because they cannot call down the essence through which they perform their miracles. Many fake prophets and pastors have led people astray, forcing their followers to participate in rituals that do not correlate with Biblical practices. Spiritual deception in any form, under any religion should be condemned and the perpetrators arrested.
Other governors should emulate him. Spiritualists, prophets, imams, and worshippers of different deities should be investigated and brought to the book. All the beaches in Lagos should be combed, and the weekly sacrifices that go on there should be stopped. There are many churches in Nigeria where parents are encouraged to kill their children because they are suspected of being witches and wizards. Soludo should go there immediately. There are some churches in Nigeria where animals are buried in their altars. Soludo, over to you, sir. Let us rid Nigeria of marabouts, fake pastors, fake prophets, fake spiritualists and other such people who claim to serve God while serving the devil.
Lastly, Soludo should quickly arrest a certain prophet who said that Donald Trump will lose the US election. The prophet claimed that he heard directly from God. Trump won. The prophet heard from Satan. Soludo and his men should act immediately. There is another prophet who claimed that Nigeria’s footballer Ademola Lookman would cause Nigeria huge embarrassment during the just concluded AFCON and advised the coach to drop him from the squad. It turned out that Lookman was one of Nigeria’s stand-out performers during the tournament. Soludo should arrest the prophet immediately because it is obvious he communes with Satan. We must rid our social spaces of devils and Satan in human form. Soludo should extend the crackdown.
Dr. Promise Adiele is of the Mountain Top University. He can be reached via promee01@yahoo.com: X: @drpee4
