Silhouette of a preacher

By Bola Adewara

Recently I went to have an interview with a ‘pastor’, somewhere. One of his members lives in my vicinity. Seeing E-life magazine that I edit, he said I should please give his pastor some publicity and the pastor will bless me spiritually, materially, financially, etc.

The issue of a pastor blessing spiritually, materially, financially put me off. I declined the request. But his wife is a close friend of baby and they prevailed on me to do whatever I can, blessing or no blessings. So I went to his shrine, sorry his church.

On entering his office, as a journalist, im trained to first observe and scrutinised the environment. On his table were some bottles of water. Looking closely, I saw tags on the bottles with name like River Jordan, Omi Okun, Omi Osa, Dead Sea, River Niger, River Benue, Osun. On the left side of his table were assorted types of anointing oil. Almost ten different bottles, big, small, medium of different shapes. What of Bibles? Almost seven different sizes. Candles dey dia too. The first thing that struck me was a question: is this a pastor or a babalawo?

I shifted on my chair and my head told me to leave this place immediately. But my spirit said wait and probe his mind. You must not run from him. When he sat, I said let us pray. Before I could start, he began to speak ‘in tongues’. I didn’t close my eyes and my spiritual antennae was high, so conscious of the environment.

When he finished speaking in his tongue, I said I want to pray and I began with the name of Jesus, taking authority over every foul spirit around, commanding them to bow to the name of Jesus, that light will shine during and after this interview and the devil and his demons would be put to rout. I didn’t close my eyes as i prayed, almost shouting. Didn’t the Bible say watch and pray? Throughout my prayer, he did not say amen.

When I finished he said
“Mr. Bola, can we postpone this interview? It’s like i am hungry. And I have to travel in some minutes. Can we see next week please?
I said any how you like it. Mr. X, your church member said you are ready today, that is why I am here.
He said ‘OK. I will fix another day with him and get you informed.
I stood up to go. He dipped his left hand in his pocket and stretched some naira notes to me. I declined it as I walked out of his office. There is nothing journalists eyes no go see for Nigeria.

Come to think of it, some people go to this ‘church’ every Sunday. They call him Papa, Daddy, Prophet. They bow for him. He anoints them. This is the criminal someone said would bless me. Thunder fire him one million times.

These people are not Pastors. They are sorcerers. Babalawo. Dibia. No one should call them pastors. Christians, please, shine your eyes.

*Bola Adewara, is a preacher, journalist and  publisher, Elife magazine
Twitter: @bolaadewara