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Sorry Nigeria, But This Is On You. Zimbabwe, You Too!

I think it was around 2008, and I was still an unbeliever, although I sincerely thought myself a “Christian.” My big sisters had taken me to an overnight church service somewhere in town. It was the first time that I knew there was something called an “All Night Service”. In fact, everything about that church was new to me. Starting with the fact that the leader himself was referred to as “man of God”, than the regular pastor that I was used to. It didn’t take me long to notice (through his accent) that he was also from outside the country. Throughout his preaching, he occasionally mentioned his mentor, back where he came from, with the term “overseer”, another word which was new to my vocabulary. Everything in that church was a wonder to me, especially the way this leader was adored by the whole congregation as the “man of power.” Even the message was not about going to heaven, as I had known church to be about, but this was about healing, marriage breakthroughs and unlocking the financial fortunes locked by generational spirits. I immediately felt at home.
 
Long story short. Years later, after I had moved on with my life, I heard that Pastor Josh, and his “prophetic church” had collapsed, he was now divorced, all because of his multiple scandals with women in the church. His home country was Nigeria.
 
We all know that America is the sewage source of a lot of the weird things that are happening under the umbrella of the African Church, all thanks to the satellite TV channels such as TBN, Daystar and GodTV. When that bad Christianity touched the African soil, it was repackaged, rebranded and re-exported to the rest of Africa. And the culprit? It’s Nigeria.
 
Now, before I go far, let me be clear that there is a lot of good that has come from Nigeria, in fact, I personally know a few believers who are Nigerian and are out to spread the true Gospel out of pure motives. Thank God for those souls! Yet, at the same time, there is no hiding the fact that Nigeria is the hub of most, if not all of the rubbish that we are seeing in the Church in Africa. All these “prophets” that have emerged, preaching heresies, spreading weird practices and abusing women, including the false prosperity gospel – it all came from our brothers across the Black Land.
 
How many so-called “men of God” in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, have their “spiritual fathers” in Nigeria? Some of these men even regularly travel all the way across the equator to “tap into” the spiritual powers of their “overseers”. Have you also noticed how many Naija celebrity “prophets” are all over social media these days? I might be wrong in this but I think Israel is the most visited nation, in terms of religion. Second on that list? Look no further than that West African country. If I were to exaggerate, I would say that Nigeria has more “prophetic” churches than it has shops. Despite all of this, that country still has a 90% poverty rate (according to the Macrotrends website). With all the “great men of God,” who have “godly wisdom for financial breakthrough”, yet they still cannot improve the living conditions of their own people, even worse, they are the ones fleecing these hungry bodies the last of their hard-earned coins. Even more frustrating to me is that they are exporting that damage to the rest of Africa.  It’s sad, but it is also true.
 
Zimbabwe
The nation of Zimbabwe – equally a poverty nation – has become the new Nigeria in terms of exporting religious nonsense and false prophets that are making noise and causing damage across the whole continent to the world. And I have the audacity to mention the names of these false prophets such as Eubert Angel, Passion Java, Emmanuel Makandiwa and Jay Israel among many more – all proudly Zimbabwean! I can tell you that many young men in Zimbabwe right now have discovered a new way of living, that is, wake up in the morning and pronounce yourself a prophet, then open a ministry and the crowd will follow. Just like their Nigerian counterparts, Zimbabwean false prophets are useless to the residents of that nation. Citizens continue to languish in poverty, despite being promised “financial breakthroughs” and "the abundant life" by these prophetic gurus. If anything, these spiritual conmen are the ones well connected and rubbing shoulders with the corrupt political leaders at the expense of the suffering masses.
 
Conclusion
Friends, I know that I may have hurt some feelings with this issue. As much as I sympathize with your emotions, I am bound to say that these issues are not about your feelings, but it’s about truth. That is what is at stake here. Hence, sooner than later, we must all rise above our feelings and get our emotions in check. Then we come back to the round table and honestly discuss the reality of what is happening on the ground, until we come up with a solution.
 
I hope you understand that I am not laying the entire blame on these two countries, after all, each man is responsible for his own actions. Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon and Kenya among others have also contributed their fair share of damage to the African Church. Regardless, Nigeria is the root of most of it, and Zimbabwe is currently building upon that foundation. It’s bad and it has to stop.
 
Sinothi Ncube


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