Buhari never gave me money, Fr Mbaka says

Catholic priest and founder of Adoration Ground, Enugu, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, who endorsed the candidacy of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on January 1, says he never received money from the retired general.

Mbaka, who launched a scathing attack against President Goodluck Jonathan during a New Year sermon, said in a clip posted online on Sunday night that he was speaking under divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying that he had never met Buhari before nor did he receive money from any politician.

The cleric had been criticised by Jonathan’s supporters for condemning the President, not long after the priest had in November last year hosted Jonathan’s wife, Patience, at his church where he prayed for her husband’s re-election.

However, Mbaka, at the recent sermon said a lot had changed since he prayed for Jonathan’s victory.

He said there had been instances in the Bible where God endorsed people but later cast them out due to their misdeeds.

He said Nigerians, under Jonathan, had been experiencing the harshest living conditions ever occasioned by the slump in oil price, high unemployment rate and inflation due to the devaluation of the naira.

He said someone else would be needed to turn around the fortunes of the country as Jonathan had run out of ideas.

He said, “Some people said the APC people and Buhari had given me money but I have never seen Buhari before; I don’t know him. Buhari’s one kobo, as I talk to you, has never touched my hand. I don’t know him; God in heaven is my witness. I am just the voice of the voiceless, the sorrowful and the cheated and frustrated Nigerians

“He (Jonathan) says it shall be well but until when? Is it until you die? If my message will stir them into action, thank God it has achieved its purpose. I am not a politician; my job is to raise my voice from the sanctuary here. The same God that helped the Israelites to cross the red sea, did he not punish them in the desert?”

He urged his congregation to stop praising government for doing its job.

“Nobody should praise any government for constructing roads because that is the job of the government. If you come to my church and I give you Holy Communion, is that an achievement?” he asked.

He said the rate of unemployment in the country was alarming and it would cause a high rate of crime, saying “this should be the focus of any serious government because there can be no prosperity amid chaos.”

“It is the duty of a mother to breastfeed her child; it is not an achievement,” he said.