The church which promulgates Christianity is today filled with hypocrisy, greed, fraud, lies, pretensions, pedophilia, adultery, fornication, consumerism, and everything else that exemplifies the sorry state of Nigeria today. Thieves are offered the front seats in church; recognition is accorded based on the magnitude of one’s tithes and offerings; pastors now specify the exact amount of offerings they want, and members run over themselves to be the first to make the payments and ‘claim’ their blessings; the left hand is encouraged to see what the right hand gives so that the left-hand feels ‘powered up’ to out-donate the right hand; pastors are in a constant competition to acquire private jets and private universities, and to out-do one another in accumulating worldly possessions; their customers come to church to show off their state-of-the-art cars and clothes; the pastors have peddled the notion, to their own advantage, that prosperity and well-being are determined by how faithfully members pay their tithes and offerings; the amount of material possessions that one has is now perceived to be an indicator of one’s spiritual well-being. Simply put, the church is now a bazaar centre. This is the reality which many Christian adherents are scared of, but the truth is the truth and in most cases, they are usually bitter pills.
Nigeria is generally seen as the most religious country on earth, a cursory look at the number of churches and ‘Christians’ scattered across Nigeria is a good place to start. At the moment, Nigeria has the largest number of Christians in the entire African continent and it even has the biggest church auditorium in the world. Some even call it the religious capital of the world. It is indeed very laughable that all these shenanigans have been built on nothing but deceit. The huge numbers obviously mean huge financial accruals, it isn’t surprising that a recent FORBES ranking of the 10 richest pastors in the world had five Nigerians. The richest on that list being Nigeria’s Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo with an estimated net worth of almost a whopping $170 million! Lazurus Muoka himself is worth at least $10 million. This shows how lucrative the venture is. If these businesses thrive this much, why then are they exempted from payments of taxes to the government? Why don’t they carry out Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR)? The only plausible reason often offered is that they are non-profit making in nature and shouldn’t be taxed given their spiritual or more appropriately religious inclinations, but are Nigerian churches non-profit making? If they are truly non-profit making then why did Oyedepo sack over 40 pastors for being ‘fruitless’? did he even consider that these 40 people are perhaps breadwinners of their respective families? If pastors are required to be financially ‘fruitful’ then Oyedepo and every other stakeholder in the church business should pay taxes.
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In fact, it is no longer a secret that Churches in Nigeria have branched out into profitable activities amongst them are owning expensive private schools, entertainment hubs, publishing houses, and what have you while enjoying their tax-exempt status. With their proceeds which are made by mentally seducing gullible adherents of the faith to part with offerings, tithes, and mouth-watering ‘seeds’ one would expect these merchants to have begun carrying out numerous charitable activities, however, the reverse is the case, they would rather build empires, using revenues from their businesses to purchase private jets and renting out apartments in the church camps, but refusing to pay land use charge to the government. Despite these failings, members of these churches who are actually scam victims or ‘mugu’ as some Nigerians would say in local slangs don’t even care; they justify the profit-making enterprises of their charlatanic religious leaders and even go as far as interpreting the riches that accrue to church founders, pastors, and successful fellow congregants as evidence of God’s blessing. On the flip side, they see their own faith as yielding many benefits, which cannot always be visible in monetary terms.
The church in Nigeria, although a mere business venture that is built and sustained on lies and falsehood has failed even its gullible promoters, it is not entirely out of place to admit that going by some of its ‘preachings’ it was supposed to be a pointer to a safer society by teaching honesty, it is however sad that the same entity is today involved in dishonest schemes which are rampant everywhere. A look at any list of scammers today would show that pastors are now high-ranking members of criminal gangs. It is even more painful to note that in these dubious churches pastors frequently tap into Nigerians’ discontent about corruption to attract followers. Preachers routinely rail against venality even as they attribute their own wealth to the rewards of faith. The docile followers who are being deceived themselves, followers, are always deeply discontented about corruption-induced inequalities but they always bling to the fact that disparities in their own churches are not as the result of exploitation or fraud but as proof of God’s work.
Organised Religion is purely a very bad precedent which shouldn’t have been allowed to even exist in the first place, many have been brainwashed, duped, raped, and even lost their lives simply because they erroneously believed that the solutions to their problems were deeply rooted in Organised Religion – a ruse which doesn’t stand logic.
Lazurus Muoka is a man who has a very ugly past laced with sordid stories ranging from his wiles and romantic dalliances with women, fake miracles, and other forms of profanities; it is rather depressing that most of his ‘customers’ in Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministry see him as a man above mortal foibles and worldly failings but a saint who has promised them non-existent Heaven at last. The ugly tales of his erstwhile church members whom he had shepherded for years, one who was a woman known as Chosen Mopol (real name Mrs. Juliet Eze) and Pastor Nnamdi Ofoegbu, founder, Christ Chosen Generation Revival Ministry are still fresh despite the shameful cover-up game.
Africa Daily News, New York in the process of investigative reportage, recalls a video CD a few years back which showed ‘Chosen Mopol’ and Ofoegbu confessing to what they described as a series of abominable acts being perpetuated by Muoka. In fact, the video was entitled ‘The Naked Truth About Chosen,’ Chosen Mopol who said she initiated the Apron being won by Chosen members across the globe confessed that Muoka is after her life; that she was among those that used to ‘arrange’ miracle testimonies in The Lord’s Chosen which included sitting on a wheelchair and dress like a disabled woman to be ‘healed’ by Mouka; that she had done many dirty things with Pastor Muoka; that members of the church are being hypnotised, among other disgusting allegations which she went further to show video and documented pieces of evidence. The fact that Mouka openly asked his members not to watch the video in order not to attract God’s wrath speaks volumes, instead of debunking the allegations, he found playing the cover-up game more conveniently.
Ofoegbu, a traditional ruler who was into different kinds of businesses before he met Muoka also confessed in the same video that he had been through hell in the hands of the ‘Heaven at last’ crooner. In that video, Ofoegbu bitterly confessed, ‘What I am asking for is the fulfillment of the agreement we both entered, an agreement to invest into the work of God for which there will be profit and returns. We both agreed that I should invest my life savings and that we are going to reap manyfold when the time comes. I believed him and invested all that I had including the one that did not belong to me. When the time for harvest came he started finding faults with me to embarrass and frustrate me out of the church.’ Confirming the authenticity of these claims was too easy as both individuals did not rely on hearsay evidence to make their claims, they tendered air tight documentary evidence which are available for the reading public on the internet, more so, Lazurus Muoka could have easily countered those claims on the factual basis if he was innocent, rather, he chose the cover-up path. Again, for many years, Pastor Ofoegbu and Pastor Muoka have been trading punches in and around Lagos to the consternation of their followers. They have been on each other’s necks over pecuniary issues. Claims and counter-claims by the duo over who erred in the course of propagating the gospel are endless. And for the same reason, they have been guests of the Nigeria Police Force on countless occasions. Quite ridiculous to say the least.
Muoka prefers to insist that his customers wear banners as amulets for protection, while he patronises the best hospitals in Europe and America for topnotch medical care, it doesn’t stop there, he uses well groomed-armed to teeth Nigerian security agents for personal safety. And to even think that these people sometimes part with their hard-earned money to acquire these ‘bullet proofs’ would leave any sane mind concerned. Infact at this point, it is important to state unequivocally that all those miracles witnessed every day in the Lord’s Chosen are staged-managed! Both curable and incurable diseases such as, HIV, Cancer, Diabetes, and many others which have been allegedly cured with carefully formulated testimonies accompanying them are nothing but dangerous lies! It is all about bamboozling people with the intent to prepare their minds to obtain money from them.
Another painful part of the scam is that pastors and members of the ‘church’ are subjected to untold hardship and poverty by Muoka. In some instances, some of these Members are also asked to forfeit all their properties to the church, after contributing so much to the growth of the church, Muoka in his classical style usually abandons them. One of his victims is a man identified as Pastor Emmanuel Ifeanyichukwu Enweremadu whose condition MUST elicit a tear from any conscientious individual.
To be continued!
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
