By Banji Ojewale
It has been claimed that an archetypal Nigerian politician’s perfect pastime is preying on poor people in their milling millions. When he invites the manacled, malleable and mesmerised masses to the campaign grounds, all the politician offers is a table of yet more death-dressed promises that drug his listeners to buy into his boast that he could construct concrete castles in the air. Opiated, ossified and overpowered, the citizens believe him and cede their loyalty to the vote-hunting orator: their world is trapped in the man’s bottomless pocket.
*W.F. KumuyiNow, it isn’t inconsiderate to put a good number of some of our religious leaders in the same cage as those politicians, given the cognate experience in history and in our clime. They pull crowds to draw the world back to the age of Johann Tetzel, the 15th Century German friar notorious for raising money for a church building in Rome. He sold to the gullible people so-termed relics and souvenirs of departed saints like Peter, John, James, Paul etc. and claimed that if you possessed those items you were excused from temporal punishment for your sins. Supported by the Church leaders of the day, Tetzel called his merchandise, Indulgences. There is a tradition, disputed though, that Tetzel also held that these Indulgences could secure peace for friends and relatives who had died in rebellion to Heaven.
But we can sharply contrast our powerful politicians and charismatic clerics with another Nigerian great, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, who, for six straight days in late July 2021, addressed huge local and world audiences to market, not himself with sweet talk for personal gain at the expense of the people as would Nigeria’s typical religious and political personages, but messages of hope and comfort to a troubled globe.From July 22 to July 27, Kumuyi, leader of the
Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, was in Calabar, capital city of Cross
River State, in Nigeria’s south-south, hosting a world-wide crusade that had
the theme, Signs and Wonders for the Needy. The churchman got an ideally complete setting that had the world
at his feet. For, from that metropolitan point, he connected, via every
strategic social media platform, to every part of the planet. He reached far-flung
cities, towns and villages in Nigeria and Africa and beyond to the Americas,
Europe, Asia and Australia to preach his sermons.
Each evening, over a period of less than four hours,
Kumuyi climaxed the day with a teaching that addressed the needs of his
audience. He would start by saying that man has lost his peace and joy because
he first lost his link to his Creator. This bereavement is colossal and grave,
he would argue sternly. According to the pastor, the alienation between the
creature and his Creator has ripped into man’s institutions and environment and
brought in a correspondingly toxic culture: revolt against all what God stands
for, the summary of what is known as sin. The pastor would then go on to break
sin down in liquid lingo: murder, lying, stealing, cheating, corruption, sexual
and marital perversions, atheism, idolatry, antisocial activities like
kidnapping, embezzlement, man’s inhumanity to man etc.
If all these stole our peace, argues Kumuyi,
renouncing them would, superfluous to say, restore what was lost. He would then
announce an ‘altar call’ requesting those desirous of receiving pardon and the
peace of God to step forward. A simple two-way prayer would follow and tens of
hundreds of new converts would be ushered into the Kingdom of God after
accepting Christ as their Lord and Saviour, sin, self and Satan no longer
ruling their lives.
That signifies a reconciliation between God and
man, leading to man’s return to his lost glory manifesting in victory over the
devil and his works. Kumuyi then proceeds to rest on this new-found triumph to
pray for the crowd. There follows a deluge of miracles: the blind begin to see;
the deaf and dumb are freed from their plights, while the lame jump up from
their wheelchairs and crutches are thrown away, never to find their way back to
their old owners. There are also testimonies to confirm these prodigies.
What happened in the Nigerian city of Calabar
enjoyed real-time transmission across the planet, enabling ecstatic crowds in
distant lands to watch Kumuyi’s crusade through satellite projection and a host
of social media handles. It was an interactive show that allowed online
congregants to send feeds of their own testimonies and activities back to Calabar
for global viewing. They witnessed the ministration of Deeper Life Bible Church
choristers in polytheist India, indicating the church now has a foothold in the
subcontinent. There was animating surprise from Communist China, a nation that
disavows God and Christianity, as the country feasted the crusade with Chinese
Deeper Life choristers who acknowledged the reality and sovereignty of God.
For many, these were the ultimate miracles, the
landing of Christ in a populous idol-honouring nation, and His acceptance in another
globally influential community that had for decades outlawed Jesus Christ. Although
Kumuyi agrees, he adds that it’s not enough to stay rooted to these signs and
wonders from Heaven. He says these supernatural acts are expected to point to some
more significant phenomenon. In one of his sermons at the event, the man of God
said signs and wonders lead man to a haven of new relationships with his
Creator Who is only using miracles to make a statement.
The statement, according to Kumuyi, is simply
that if man is moved by the razzmatazz and glamour of signs and wonders, the
real goal is to draw his attention to the supreme ability of a Power to tame
the forces threatening to overwhelm humanity. If He is the unseen Finger behind
His servant raising the dead, calming storms, healing long-standing ailments, overthrowing
godless cultures, feats that confound man, can’t He also be trusted to overrule
the reign of fear and insecurity on earth?
Therefore, in holding the crusades, the international
evangelist is saying that it is the contribution of the Church of Christ
towards solving society’s challenges, not only in Nigeria, but also all over
the world. It is the reason Kumuyi does not talk about distracting and divisive
denominations at the events. Sectarian religion has failed its votaries.
Breaking from its train, Kumuyi is concerned about the state of the fallen man.
If he’s drawn from the mud, he will be useful to himself, family and society.
In Kumuyi’s cosmos then, the first port of call
in the quest for peace, is man’s soul. He believes that’s the breeding ground
for all the evils that account for insecurity. So he gathers people to teach
that it is futile to combat our wild nature using the equally unruly structures
it gives birth to.
We must address the missing God factor in our
midst. It is what will offer the integrity input required to eliminate the
beast in man. The ancient Chinese who built The Great Wall of China several
centuries ago to defend their homeland against nomadic Mongolians
underestimated the power of personal rectitude. The bulwark was massive,
constructed to be impregnable. For decades, it kept invaders off. But later,
repeatedly the fortress was breached when the enemy stopped attacking the wall
and assaulted the probity-deficient souls of the military commanders who
collected bribes and let in invaders.
That’s what Kumuyi will be teaching again as he
heads for Enugu State for another six-day crusade beginning on August 26. When the
masses return to his feet during that period, the cleric won’t keep them there;
he will, predictably, turn them over to their Creator, Who alone can rescue
them and their environment from the gory grip of godlessness that is slowly
strangling us.
*Ojewale is a writer in Ota, Ogun State.
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