‘BIG-MANISM’ OR VIP SYNDROME INSIDE NIGERIAN CHURCHES

NOTE: First published on August 10, 2020. The “Published” date on the tab is the date that it was uploaded on this new site. Though some issues in this piece may still be current (depending on…), this is to avoid mistaking this piece as current news.

This is “No Bullshiting,” by Harry Agina.

Folks, this blog was intended for yesterday, which was Sunday, but, I was too lazy to do anything. It was a day of eat, watch movies, sleep, wake up, eat again, more movies for me…no wahala at all. So, let’s just call this a belated Sunday blog.

The first time that I spoke out on this subject was in 2017, when a story broke out about a Chaplain in a church in Lagos. The church was/is owned by Lagos state government, and, the story had it that one Venerable Taiwo was sacked from his office as a Chaplain. I retorted, Whoop-de-doo! Millions of people get fired from their jobs every fucking day. So, tell me something new, meeeeeeen!!!

And then, my attitude quickly changed when I heard who sacked the Chaplain, and what was SAID to be the reason for sacking him. It was said to be instigated by the wife of the then Lagos state governor, Ambode. And, the reason? “She was not accorded proper respect” in the church by the chaplain, by not according her VIP recognition in the church during an event.

I emphasize the word ‘said’ above to bring in that the Christian umbrella organization, CAN, made a pronouncement that they supported the sack of the chaplain. CAN bluntly denied that it had anything to do with Madam Ambode’s alleged ego-tripping in the house of God. Mind you, in its press conference account tha I read, can conveniently failed to tell us their “real” reason for the sack of the Venerable Taiwo. It hid under what may be called an excuse, that “the matter should not be discussed on pages of newspapers.” I’m like…Oh yeah? Why the fuck not? If you could discuss the matter enough to discredit Taiwo, why the fuck can’t you discuss the rest of the matter, huh?

Let’s face this in my no-bullshitting bluntness; shall we. When I was growing up, I would not have doubted CAN’s pronouncements on the matter, because, then, I believed in the integrity of the clergy. It’s a different story today, Christianity is now a money-making franchise, Plc. I mean, you know me already, and my chronic belief that too many evil things happen in Nigeria these days based on money changing hands…too many evil hypocritical pronouncements, and such like, meeeeeeeen!!! I won’t be surprised to find out that CAN’s leadership was paid by the State House for their statements, to save the governor and his wife from further embarrassment about her said VIP ego-tripping to compete with God in His house.

And, even if I could trust CAN’s pronouncements not to have been induced by some financial favors from the state house, I still can’t help but wonder about the old saying that there is no smoke without fire. Is it true that it was just mere coincidence that the chaplain was fired at the same time that Madam Ambode was said to be offended that she was “disrespected” during a church event?

In any case, not long after the Madam Ambode episode, I heard about another similar incident. This time, it was a very reliable source that nobody can refute. A friend recounted an incident in a church in another Yoruba state (Ondo, I think). Some idiotic security aids of one Commissioner of a state Ministry, had the audacity to sack some of my friends from their seats whee they sat together, to make way for  their small gods, their boss and his entourage. It was during a farewell church service for the late mother of one of our friends.

         My friends called me right after they discussed the fact that I would have told the security idiots and their Commissioner to go to hell, if I was in that church with them that day. I would rather die, than yield the seat to the idiots. My friends knew my view that anybody who enters the house of God has to leave his fucking human power and ego outside the door before entering the church, period! I am in church to venerate and praise and worship God, and any motherfucker who comes in there with his/her fucked-up vanity of class distinction and expects me to share the veneration and the worshiping between him and God, will not find it funny with me at all. You want to be worshiped, then stay the fuck in your fucking office; don’t bring it to my father’s house, the church, meeeeeeeen!!!

Another similar recent story of ego-tripping in church by the so-called VIPs triggered this blog today. Some of those idiotic ego-maniacs don’t ever stop to consider that God could easily, instantly, visit them with a stroke, or lightening, for competing with Him in His own dedicated house, meeeeeeeen!!!

And, guess what; the fact that several churches in the contemporary Christendom actually allow this bullshitting ego-tripping veneration of the so-called VIPs inside a church, is one of my reasons to stop going to church in Nigeria. I have chosen and frequently professed a couple of classifications for my Religious Ideology and Spirituality. You may call me a Practicing Christian; or a Godian, whose object is purely to seek Righteousness or Godliness (the fear of God). But I do prefer the option of Practicing Christian, because I do believe in Christ and his teachings as a way to God. This basically means that I try as much as possible to practice the teachings of Christ on righteousness, which encourage me to obey The Ten Commandments of God.

This is in line with my blog on the Sunday before the last, that neither God nor Christ is interested in whatever name we choose for religion or spiritual ideology, as long as the true object and practice are to venerate, fear, and worship God, all of which, ultimately, result in being righteous, to the benefits of humanity.

In my ideology, if you are a Christian, the teachings of Christ set you on the right path to the Godliness and righteousness that I speak of. And, if you are a Muslim, I dare say that the teachings of Prophet Muhammad are basically similar to the teachings of Christ. And, they are all derived from God’s Ten Commandments, which He issued long before the advent of Christianity, Islam, and the other known religions of today.

Seriously, does it make sense to you that Nigerians actually go into church services to flex muscles about their “VIP” positions in the society? And we know that some of the wealth are ill-gotten, in the first place. Is it right for an ordinary mortal to go into a church to virtually compete with God for recognition? I don’t know about you, but I believe that it is the height of bullshitting vanity, upon vanity, upon vanity, meeeeeeeeen!!!

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