There is no form of gainsaying to conjecture that in almost every street in major parts of Nigeria, especially Lagos, a church building/complex can be found.
The rate at which the number of churches in the country have skyrocketed in the last two decades is so high, that Nigerians are now spoilt for choice, when trying to decide what church to attend and/or frequent.
Ironically, as the rate of churches spiked, the number of genuine ones spiralled. Frauds, superficial clerics, phony holy men, show-pastors, and several other charlatans have taken over the house of God and have turned the altar to the platform where they project their schemes, doctrines and end-game.
Church business has become a very lucrative source of quick financial success in this part of the world, and as opportunistic as Nigerians are, they have recognized the trend and hopped aboard the bandwagon.
If in His time, Jesus Christ was against turning the front of the house of God into a marketplace, one wonders how he would feel now, when he looks down and sees that the entirety of the church itself has been grossly compromised, and consequently flawed from the misconduct, actions and inaction of the church and its leaders.
From the Vatican to the neighbourhood church, there has been talks of impropriety, improper conduct, shoddy dealings and several other accusations against the men of God who are meant to lead and guide.
How then can they lead, when they practice what they preach against?
The Nigerian factor
Nigerians are to a large extent, superstitious and highly sentimental people, who attribute many ordinary occurrences to an existential factor.
The majority of Nigerians have from time immemorial, seen so much hardship, injustice, bias, poverty, unfair treatment of the average Joe, and a disequilibrium in the society.
Since inception as an entity, Nigeria has been so unfortunate to have a terrible set of selfish, greedy and uncaring leaders, who have over time put their personal interests above that of millions of citizens of the country.
A large chunk of Nigerians harbor evil, resentment, disaffection, and envy to their fellow man, while many go all out to act on the vile impulses, in order to gain an advantage or have it better than the next person.
A combination of all these attributes and factors inherent in Nigerians, is to a large extent responsible for the mass convergence of Nigerian Christians in churches every given Sunday.
Nigerians are not all that religious as it seems on the surface, instead they have simply found solace in the house of God, when it seems like all else has ceased to work in their favour in the country.
They have collectively, yet unofficially decided to take their grudges against the evil leaders to God, while the leaders themselves and the evil ones, run to God, whenever they have been vile, in order to seek His face for forgiveness.
And He forgives, all the time. Oh what a merciful God.
More salient, Nigerians have recognized that the situation in the nation may only get worse, hence, they have turned to the last resort on all things; God, the creator and master of the universe.
Sadly, the pastors and clerics have also recognized this trend in Nigerians, and have capitalised on it to increase their flock and bolster the church’s coffers.
These so-called men of God have in the last two decades perfected their craft and fine-tuned their doctrines to suit the exact yearnings and frustrations of the average Nigerian person.
In the last 5-10 years precisely, as evil and abnormal norms became mainstream and commonplace in the land, so did the number of churches, church attendance and net worth of ministries grow at an alarming rate.
Different pastors and clerics now appeal to different classes of Nigerians, as they have consciously, sub-consciously or unconsciously created personas to suit the various types of people in our society.
In essence, the pastors have created identities and lifestyles which people can empathize with, hence the attraction and consequent influx of members to their churches.
The frauds in the House of God
In time past, a man of God used to command total devotion, but nowadays, the genuineness of many of them often comes into question, going by the scandals and improper conducts associated with their names, person and reputation.
Nowadays, even the most loyal believer now harbours some semblance of sceptism towards their pastors, especially after his name may have been dragged into the mud.
Many of them appear to be men of God, but beneath the surface, they are the perfect example of an elaborate scam, which is characteristically well thought out, carefully planned, and long term.
Many supposed men of God engage in and employ the services of occultic powers to get their inspirations and their miracles, while others simply master the act of showmanship and oratory to put up a convincing show, to move their congregation.
In recent time, famous and widely revered men of God, who ordinarily seemed sacred and holy have been implicated in scandals, bordering on infidelity, embezzlement, fraud, rape, inauthenticity, occultic affiliation, randy lifestyles, and several other anomalies unbecoming of a representative of the Most High on earth.
While many come out to deny such accusations and allegations, many simply ignore the noise and move on, even when the evidence suggesting their complicity in these matters, appear to be overwhelming.
In spite of this, for some only-God-knows reason, their flocks still attend their churches to pray on altars which have become questionable. That is the unbelievable loyalty of the average Nigerian to his/her pastor.
Another fraud being perpetrated by these churches is that despite the majority of their members being poor, they are asked to pay various forms of offerings, tithes, seeds and many other money-inducing terms/schemes. While a few churches have effective welfare programmes, many others just don’t care, as long as offering keeps coming in.
In another instance, many major churches now have higher institutions, which is ironically unaffordable to the majority of the members, who are mostly poor, and probably feeding from hand to mouth.
The school fees per session is far higher than what many of these church members make in a year. But despite not being able to afford the tuition to send their wards to the church’s school, they never stop paying their tithes and offerings because pastor says its’ the right thing to do.
As it seems, these charlatans have taken over the majority of the house of God, and little by little, they are recruiting and training more of their kinds, to disseminate to the world their selfish doctrines.
At this rate, before long, the entirety of Nigerian churches may soon be filled with nothing but charlatans and sophisticated con artists parading themselves as men of God.
Source :NAIJ
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