So…a church in Onitsha, Living Christ Mission Inc. really had a prayer walk to bombard heaven with prayers, not for an end to the pandemic, not for better governance in Nigeria, not even for something as ambitious as world peace but for Donald Trump to be re-elected president of the United States of America. Most Reverend Professor Daddy Hezekiah aka The International Mayor of Peace (all one man!) led his congregation – grown men and women- through the notoriously bad roads of Onitsha in the heat to pray for the election success of the president of a foreign country.
There are many remarkable things about this bizarre march. The most obvious is that it took place barely two weeks after EndSARS protests saw fellow Nigerians injured and killed. Onitsha was still reeling from the aftermath of thugs and hoodlums hijacking the protest. In fact, a search for Onitsha on Google on the day of the prayer walk led me to an article in the Vanguard with this headline: “Aftermath of #EndSARS protests: Daylight robbers terrorize Onitsha residents.” Yet these passionate prayer warriors did not think it prudent to dedicate their prayer walk to their city rather than to the benefit of a wanna-be dictator president (who did not even acknowledge the chaos in Nigeria). However, more remarkable is that they broke every safety protocol to protect themselves from a deadly virus. They gathered in a crowd. They did not wear masks. They sang. They willingly made themselves the perfect petri dish for coronavirus. What is wrong with our people, biko?
Ironically, on the same day as the march, the man they were sacrificing themselves for, Donald Trump, was at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. In the course of a true to form dawdling speech about how much he was loved (more than Reagan), how strong he was (Superman), he also casually dropped that “when you’re president…you have a doctor for every single part of your body…” And when he got COVID-19, he had 12 doctors, “all really talented people,” who got him back on his feet. Even if he had not been president, had he just been a citizen with good health insurance in the United States, he would have still had access to quality health care. I do not know any of those Onitsha marchers, but when a man you are exposing yourself to a disease for has better access to healthcare than you and will not help you out should you get sick (how can he?) it’s maybe a sign that you need the prayers more than he does.
There have been speculations that the church’s march was sponsored by some pro-Trump Christian organization in Nigeria who donated the Trump2020 t-shirts and the brightly shining banners. Folks have also said that someone might have been promised help with getting the elusive American visa (slippery as wet soap) and that money might also have been involved. So many stories jostling with each other to be kind, to explain away the ridiculousness that was the march. I almost hope that these stories are true, that Living Christ Mission Inc. only did this because they were gaining something material from it. Or had been promised something. But then what sort of church trades its soul (and good health) for t-shirts and visas? Maybe these stories aren’t being kind to Daddy Hezekiah and co. after all.
If, on the other hand, their motives were truly altruistic and they really wanted a Trump victory, what sort of a church aligns itself to white supremacy? What church aligns itself to a man whose rhetoric is so divisive and racist? A man whose ego is so huge he cannot take defeat gracefully? As I write this, it is the weekend after the elections and Trump is trailing (thank God) but rather than accept this, he is throwing wild accusations of rigging around, inciting his base to violence ( from which, like the coronavirus petri dish in Onitsha, he’d be insulated) and mounting a flurry of frivolous election lawsuits. What vision of heaven has been offered you, Daddy Hezekiah, to make this make sense?
In speaking to evangelical Christians, they are drawn in by Trump’s pro-Israel, pro-life policies. On the former, I’ll just note that 70% of Jewish Americans voted Biden. On the latter, my question is: of what value is a pro-life policy that disenfranchises the most vulnerable and is not rooted in the principle of responsibility and care for every human life? If Trump ever claimed to be pro-life, his response to health care access for all and to the COVID-19 pandemic which, by the day he was gleefully boasting about his 12 doctors, had killed over 200,000 Americans prove that he is anything but.
When next anyone gives you a banner or ‘the spirit’ moves you to make a public mockery of yourself and your congregation supporting a presidential candidate in another country while your own backyard is on fire ( and you haven’t finished getting that fire under control sef), and particularly if that candidate is someone who does not wish you well, biko, I beg you, Daddy Hezekiah send that spirit back to sender. There are better things to do with your time: titles to collect never finish. Your fellow Onitsha pastor, Prophet Pastor Indaboski Bahose the Lion Liquid Metal Odumeje also has an honorary doctorate from a university for “his services to humanity.” Don’t you want one too?
