2023: The spirit speaketh expressly

BY CHRIS ANYOKWU

Chris Anyokwu, PhD, a dramatist, poet, fiction writer, speaker, rights activist and public intellectual, is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and has joined Business a.m.’s growing list of informed editorial commentators to write on Politics & Society. He can be reached via comment@businessamlive.com

Religion and politics, some would argue, are essentially two sides of the same coin.  Politicians in these parts love to mouth Scriptures to validate their policies and programmes and pastors and prophets also love to act as partners-in-progress with the men of action.  Speaking of which, prophets have, down the years, acted as watchmen to nations; as the ‘Eye of God’.  In the African experience, for instance, in the pre-colonial era, emperors, Kings and Queens used to keep prophets and seers and soothsayers in their royal courts.  These royals never did anything, whether on marriage, war, festival, or coronation, without seeking to know what the gods thought about the impending event.  Since the reading of the Mind of God was beyond the ken of royalty, prophets, seers and soothsayers earned their keep simply by divination, by telling the future.  Woe betides, therefore, that hoity-toity king or emperor who presumes to denigrate and downplay the vital office of the prophet.  Whether it’s in the royal courts of the emperors of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, Songhai Empire, Mali or Benin Empire, the office of the royal diviner/seer was highly revered. Emperor Sundiata of the old Mali Empire, for instance, had his seer just as his father before him did; Isanusi was the supernatural emanation who usually materialised before emperor Shaka the Zulu in moments of stress and storm.  The Ifa priest used to come all the way from Ile-Ife to the ancient Benin Kingdom to read the mind of the gods to the Oba (see Ola Rotimi’s Ovonranwen Nogbaisi).  By the same token, Baba Fakunle, the blind seer, in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame, is at once indicative of the customary practice of soothsaying in pre-colonial times in Africa and an Africanisation of the ancient Classical Greek practice of divination. (see The Delphic Oracle and Sophocles’ King Oedipus).  Thus, Tiresias was to the king of Thebes what Baba Fakunle was to King Adetusa and King Odewale in The Gods Are Not To Blame.

What the above analysis underscores, therefore, is that the ancient world was run and ruled from behind-the-scenes by the prophetariat, a highly revered cult of grizzled gurus steeped in occult lore and traditional spiritualities. The Holy Bible itself is replete with prophets and seers such as the pre-Exilic, Exilic and post-Exilic prophets who were, to all intents and purposes, Yahweh’s mouthpiece.  Even so, those that dabbled in necromancy, horoscope and clairvoyance also held their own even in Bible days.  Recall that King Saul, when he was caught betwixt and between, sought the counsel of the Witch of Endor rather than that of a notable prophet. The nexus between power and prophecy demonstrates the fact that human beings always desire to have a handle on things, to be in total control of affairs and reduce the sway of happenstance to a minimum.  “Chance”, says Jocasta, “rules our life, the future is all unknown” (King Oedipus).  The future might be “unknown”, but it is not unknowable. This twilight zone, fraught and tautened with uncertainty and, thus, high tension, is where the Vates, seers and prophets function.  What does the future have in store for me?  Ask Ifa-Orunmila; consult the epigones of Apollo; ask Yahweh’s prophets; ask the “larger than man” (Sophocles’ Oedipus the King).

In Nigeria, the prophetariat has always tried to hold its turf, although internal schisms and deep divisions remain. Babalawos, for instance, are scowled and scoffed at as unbelievers (whatever that means!)  by seers and prophets of the imported, exogenous persuasions. Regardless, this motley crowd of diviners, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, seers and prophets still manage to do their duty by the politicians – the iron men of power. Needless to add, the politicians themselves are in the habit of consulting mediums, familiar spirits, witches and wizards, marabous,  the Tarot Lady, and ouija boards.  These “seers” and “prophets”, palm-readers and diviners of all stripes are wont to avail their highly-placed clients the benefits of and insights from their occult science.

Yet, some church leaders, pastors and men and women of God, equally love to hug the limelight and dominate public discourse by vouchsafing what they love to convey to the credulous herd as “Thus saith the Lord”.  You hear proclamations and declarations such as: “If I am called of God”; “If I be man of God”; “If I have the Anointing on my head”;  “As the Lord liveth and I as His Servant,” and “As an ordained prophet of the Most High”.  Now, who are you to doubt the Most High’s mouthpiece?  Who are you to doubt what the surrogate “eye” of God has seen through the mists of Time?  How dare you cast aspersions on the “revelations” from Heaven delivered via the Man of God (MOG). Does the Bible not tell us: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established, believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2 Chronicles 20: 20)? But what happens when what the so-called “eye” of God claimed to have seen turns out to be false?  What do we do in the likely event when “revelations” are merely projections of disturbed minds and warped visions of compromised eyes? Again, the Scriptures illuminate: “And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken” (Ezekiel 22: 28, KJV).

As 2023 hurtles towards us, social media has been inundated with sundry “prophecies” regarding who is going to be Nigeria’s next president, post – Buhari.  It is a development that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.  Both heavyweight Men of God, General Overseers and prophetic undergrowth, thirsting for sun-light are all full of passionate intensity, personalising Deity.  They come in different and divergent categories: (i) the self-cancelling seer.  This type declares in the morning Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC will win the presidential election in 2023 and by night fall, he reverses himself and says it is the PDP’s turn; (ii) the ethnicist salesmen of Emilokancracy or Awalokan rabble-rousing. These proxies and lickspittles, like hawkers of contraband products, like to bludgeon even God Himself into endorsing their rococo idols.  The irredeemably flawed argument is that “The candidate is from my ethnic group, therefore he must rule”; (iii) The prophet as gambler: prophesying as gambling or educated guesswork is, to be sure, the standard fare in today’s Nigeria.  Recently, a so-called prophet and pastor of a large congregation declared that the ASUU strike action would be called off in a matter of days.   University students all over the country rejoiced in hope, hailing the seer as God’s Chosen.  When his prophecy failed to come to pass, he went on the offensive, saying that even Prophet Isaiah failed in some of his prophecies!  Can you beat that? Hear what God says about him and his ilk: “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie…” (Hebrew 6: 18 KJV).

This hit-and-miss political wager has already assumed an incredibly popular pastime in Nigeria.  Journalists love to visit seers and prominent prophets, especially on New Year’s Eve, to ask them a variety of questions regarding global and national events, for example the upcoming presidential election. Some folk go to church not so much to hear the undiluted Word of God as to listen to pastors and prophets talk politics from the pulpit rather than dissect old-time religion. (The way-of-the cross-leads-home kind of message!) Nah! The happening guys and babes hate that!  Talk to them about Putin, Joe Biden, PMB, BAT, ATIKU-lated, Obi-Dient Movement.  Or, better still, regale them with soccer stars of the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the American NBA. The prophet-pastor can also spice up his performance with some stand-up comedy stunts, for good measure.

As 2023 approaches, our prophets and seers go to battle among themselves. They “see” their political idols in Aso Rock in 2023. Take it or leave it!  It is no longer Thus saith the Lord. Some of them compete for attention with (hated) politicians. Arising from this, the prophetariat has splintered into rancorous camps, some rooting for BAT, others for Atiku and the rest, favouring novelty, for Peter Obi/Datti-Ahmed.  This war of the Traditionalists versus the Revolutionists mirrors the cleavages in the larger society.  But if you ponder the matter a little bit more deeply, you will realise that what goes under the label of novelty is tradition draped in new apparel.  Accordingly, what is unravelling before our eyes in Nigeria today is a repeat of Biblical events.  Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah had visited Ahab, the king of Israel to discuss the strategy of recovering Ramothjilead from Syria after a three-year détente.  Both kings decided to enquire from 400 prophets of the likely outcome of the war.  Predictably, all 400 of the seers divined a resounding victory for the kings of Judah and Israel.  But one prophet called Micaiah differed. He prophesied humbling defeat for his nation. Now, for the rest of the story, listen to the Word itself: “And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.  And he said, Thou shall persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so… And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and  carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son.  And say, Thus saith the king, put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me.  And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you” (I Kings 22: 22, 26-28).  Long story short, “the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria” (verse 27).  What the foregoing scriptural anecdote underscores is the fact that the prophetic vocation is extremely risky and dangerous. Even one who ostensibly communes mouth-to-mouth with God cannot be too sure of himself. Ask Ahitophel!

Now, politicians and their associates visit seers and diviners, bearing bags of gold to purchase favourable prophecies.  We know that merchandising visions and commercialising the Word are as old as Time, but the truth stands adamantine like the Rock of Ages.  The rank of seers is swelling by the day with new entrants desperate to get in on the act. Thus, the vatic landscape or the visionary space is so capacious that it has become a rowdy arena of babblers and conmen.  What are the requisite qualifications for a career in sooth-telling? (1) A good knowledge of local and global events, topical matters, etc.; (2) An abiding interest in politics as a whole, (3) Being an active surfer on the www; or a good netizen, otherwise you are dismissed as a dinosaur;  (4) Like the children of Issachar, you must know the times; follow the ebbs and flows of popular opinion, including celebrity gossip, Big Brother Scopophilia, international sport, trade, especially the U.S.-China trade war and military sabre-rattling; Climate Crisis; International Terrorism and its local franchising;  (5) a shallow and cursory  understanding of the Bible but enough rote knowledge of Scripture to leaven and over-lard your “revelations” with the odd verses. (6) In this business, a la The Trial of Brother Jero, “packaging” is everything. Therefore, get yourself an ecclesiastical get-up: cape, mitre, sash, gown, rod, etc.  You may be clean-shaven or heavily-bearded. You must cut a sacerdotal figure after the Order of Melchizedek. Even if you sometimes offend with your pharisaical exhibitionism, no matter.  Nigerians love it!  It adds a layer of anxiety and high drama to the political theatre.

Since Nigeria has got the rotten luck of being led by her worst, her fourth Eleven, the appeal of political prophecies has become even greater.  The masses are waiting with bated breath for their next Messiah; will it be Tinubu, Obi or Atiku?  Just as the prophetariat is divided, most of them seeing who they want to see rather than what God is saying, the electorate too is deeply divided, shunning common sense and reason for sentimentality and sheer stupidity.  This being the case, 2023 remains a huge, life-and-death gamble and this begs the question: Who is Nigeria’s next president?

• business a.m. commits to publishing a diversity of views, opinions and comments. It, therefore, welcomes your reaction to this and any of our articles via email: comment@businessamlive.com