THE Nigerian Church is in turmoil, but the body of Christ is at rest. The foundations of the Church in Nigeria are quaking, but Christianity is not. After all, it is widely accepted that God does not live in buildings. Rather, as John said: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”(John 4:24).

What has turned out to be the biggest crisis in the Nigerian Church with its very integrity questioned, has been over four decades in the making. That was when the great American televangelists began to preach the gospel of prosperity, rather than salvation. The Gate to Heaven which was traditionally said to be narrow and rugged, was now presented as a modern American highway: smooth and broad with multiple lanes, provided at various points; you pay the compulsory tolls which are “seed offerings” and tithes.

Actually, the teaching that money can buy salvation or even purchase a guaranteed place in Heaven is neither new, nor American. The Catholic Church sold Pardon or forgiveness of sins to those who had the means to pay. A sort of willing-buyers-willing-sellers market. After over 20 centuries of this trade, a German priest, Martin Luther on October 31, 1517 posted 95 theses why the sale of Pardon was wrong. He argued that when Jesus gave his disciples the authority to forgive sins, he did not make it conditional on payment. 

The Church and priesthood in Nigeria had been modelled after Saint Francis of Assisi, the young Italian priest who in 1205 gave up all his wealth and earthly heritage to the poor. That was the mould of priests like Samuel Ajayi Crowther and Ayo Babalola. The pioneer priests shunned wealth so much that the church became a simile: to be dirt poor was to be “as poor as a church rat”.

Then, the American prosperity flavour began to take over the Nigerian space in the 1970s. By the early 1980s, Archbishop Benson Andrew Idahosa, founder of the Church of God Mission International, Benin City, who famously said: “My God is not poor”, had become a public symbol of this trend. He taught his followers that: “The wealth of sinners is in the hands of the saints.” So they were told to give generously to the church and pastors, if they want to be wealthy. Idahosa instructed his pastors: “Go back and preach prosperity. Prosperity is from Jesus.”

However, there were pastors who cautioned that the essence of Christianity is salvation, not prosperity. In the late 1990s, I was close to one of them, Professor John Moyibi Amoda, who had his church in Anthony Village, Lagos. As I read him in the newspapers back his position with Biblical references, I knew his church would not grow much. The multitudes were searching for miracles and wealth, and he was preaching salvation. To worsen his case, he had the courage to mention a name like Daddy G.O., Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the highly revered General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Amoda was widely condemned for allegedly working for Satan. The hordes did not counter his arguments; he was simply found guilty of spreading Satanic verses.

My concern at a point was not about the prosperity pastors becoming so wealthy that they competed on who had more jets, but their convincing their followers about “faith healing”. That if they are sick or have diseases like HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis, and seek healing in the church, they do not need to take medication again as their faith would heal them. So, many died. In my March 11, 2011 column titled: “Crimes of pastors masquerading as doctors”, I called out pastors like Temitope Joshua and Chris Oyakhilome.

But now, the tides are beginning to turn. Just as Martin Luther came from within the church to cause a seismic shift, so has Dr. Abel Hankuri Damina, the Senior Pastor of Power City International, Uyo emerged from the bowels of the prosperity movement to redirect the Nigerian Church towards Christ-centred salvation. Armed with the Bible, uncommon courage, two doctorate degrees in Philosophy and Ministry, and a prodigious knowledge of ‘Historic and Apostolic’ Christianity, he has taken on the hordes, including leading GOs and threatening protesters.

Damina’s mental capacity and alertness is captivating. When Pastor Adeboye who had made outlandish claims like God changing the United States winter season for him, claimed that he had tea with God, Damina quipped, what brand of tea?

Damina bases his teachings on the Bible, while his critics base their attacks on his person. Some GOs are so contemptuous of him that they find it distasteful to even mention his name. So they only make references to him. Pastor David Ibiyome, Founder of the Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, calls him “the short man from Uyo”. Pastor Paul Eneche of Dunamis International Gospel Centre calls Damina, whom he tried to deny as once being his spiritual leader, an uncomplimentary name.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Founder of Latter Rain Assembly, now renamed Citadel Global Community Church, referred to Damina as one who “can’t even sustain one marriage.” Bakare who had claimed that God revealed to him that he would replace Muhammdu Buhari as Nigerian President, in reference to Damina and his supporters, vowed “to send the concubines and their children out of the church”. A leading GO refers to Damina as a “mad man”.

To be sure, Damina is a ‘troublesome’ pastor who, suggestively, called his television programme, Righteous Invasion of Truth, RIOT. He preaches that going by Genesis 1, God does not live in Heaven; not only Christians will make Heaven, and that the cassock and choir uniforms are not biblical.

He does not take ‘prisoners’. He took Prophet Jeremiah Omoto Fufeyin, Founder of the Christ Mercyland  Deliverance Ministry, to the cleaners for “merchandising” the church by selling ‘salvation’ soap, perfume, keys, fish hooks and other items that would guarantee them Heaven.

When some of his fellow GOs mocked him for not having a large congregation or private aircraft despite being in the ministry for 40 years, Damina replied that the success of a minister in the Gospel cannot be measured by earthly possessions.

Many GOs preach that people will not receive salvation, be wealthy or might die young if they do not pay tithes, Damina responded: “That is a lie!” He said Jesus, Peter and Paul neither paid nor received tithes. He added that the sermons on tithes and “First Seed” are meant to scam people. He argued that just as salvation is freely given, so should people give of their free volition rather than pastors making it compulsory by creating fear and guilt in them.

Whether the Abel Damina revolution succeeds or not, only the truth shall set us free.