“How could preachers get away with false claims, yet, they berate INEC for not uploading results on time to IREV?” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
The events of the last few months have once again opened the possible conversation on the age-long controversies of political prophesy. We are again faced with the question of whether God’s will can be democratized or put differently if the people’s will can be changed by prophesy. It can in fact be extended to whether the outcome of an election in a democracy is a subject of the whims and expectations of prophecies or maybe God’s will still, irrespective of the outcome.
It is still fresh in the mind how an Enugu-based preacher with large followership once castigated a governor of that state and declared more than a thousand times that he would not return for a second term. To cut the long story short, the governor returned and finished his term successfully. The preacher is today still preaching and life goes on.
Only about three years ago, just before the United States Presidential election, many preachers in the United States had prophesied that God told them that Trump would get a second term. But to their shock, Trump did not win, Biden won. In fact, when Biden was initially announced as winner, some of the preachers regarded it as fake and something that would be upturned in no time. Most of them refused to accept that they have erred in judgment. So, they held on to their first error, expecting some kind of miracle that would unseat Biden. Now nearly three years in office as America’s 46th President, Biden is apparently gearing up for a second term election, while many of the preachers who said “God told me Trump would return” have moved on as if nothing happened. Their congregation has moved on. No questions and no answers. After all, God speaking to any man is a spiritual exercise and so, just maybe it goes without any form of accountability.
In Nigeria, towards the buildup to the 2023 Presidential election, many Nigerian preachers had said that God told them that a particular candidate would win. Although the election was not perfect, is the sovereignty of God not sufficient to wither the storms of imperfect election and deliver God’s preferred choice? So, again, we are back to a similar experience in the US. After the election, some Nigerian preachers fumed and talked about the sudden upturn of events that will usher in God’s preferred candidate into Aso Rock. Today, Nigerians who are congregants of those preachers whose prediction failed to materialize, are not asking them why their ‘prophesy’ has failed. Christians generally, always tend to move on instead of being triggered by such events to ask questions. Did God actually speak to them about the election? If God did speak to them, then, can man- politicians- arm-twist God with their schemes? This should provoke healthy debate among Christians and not trigger tantrums here and there on perceived ‘enemies’ of God.
If we just move on, how could it be that preachers can get away with false claims, yet, they berate INEC for not uploading results on time to IREV? This was the puzzle my friend Uzuegbuna Okagbue and I were trying to resolve in a long conversation days ago. Uzuegbuna Okagbue is sternly opposed to the idea of democracy in relation to God. “God has no business with democracy”, he said. Uzuegbuna argued further that what democracy means is the will of the people and not the will of God and therefore, that preachers who are caught in this controversy of failed prophesy made a huge mistake of confusing democracy with theocracy. It does appear convincingly, that those who anticipate God’s disruption of man’s will –democracy-, have not reconciled this expectation with the fact that God allows man his free will. Even more, democracy is not God’s idea of government. An overview of Biblical accounts shows that God’s idea of the administration of human beings is a theocracy. It was from theocracy that Monarchy emerged and eventually democracy which is purely a creation of man for himself.
This is a serious dent in the efficacy of the Christian faith and God
As a concerned Christian, I am worried that preachers can give out prophesies rubbing God into them, only for the same to turn out a failure. This is a serious dent in the efficacy of the Christian faith and God. It is not something that should be ignored or dismissed because; preachers should be accountable for their pronouncements, especially when they say that they heard from God. It is totally fine for people to have preferences in an election. It is okay for preachers of influence to go out of their way to speak for their own preferred candidate, but it is definitely not okay to haul God into one’s personal choice or I should say haul one’s choice unto God. Why must an individual’s will be coated and passed off as God’s will? We are reminded of the words of St. Thomas Aquinas thus, “Faith does not destroy or replace reason but perfects it.”
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
