Fr., Ebube Mounso’s Prophecy
There is a video making round on social media purportedly by Fr. Ebube Mounso prophesying and criticism of Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo. In the video, Ebube Mounso claimed he saw a vision of Fulani bandits’ attacking Anambra State Government House with the governor in a pool of blood running for his dear life. He also called out the Governor for lack of effective security and waste management.
Governor Soludo’s Rejoinder
This morning, on my way to work, I saw a script of the Governor’s rejoinder vigorously shared online assumedly by the governor’s supporters. In the script, a very long one for that matter (super-professors are known for writing very long rejoinders), the governor made three important points which I will summarize here.
First, he established that he is an orthodox Catholic who doesn’t only submit himself to the authority of the Catholic hierarchy but who also has a lot of deep-rooted respect and reverence for the Catholic priesthood. However, he refused to acknowledge the authenticity of the prophecy on the attack on the government house and on his person calling the prophecy politically motivated. He therefore asked the priest to look for another customer to buy the prophecy because he is not interested. According to the governor, his life is in the hand of God and nobody was going to kill him without God saying so.
Secondly, Governor Soludo accepted Fr’s criticism of the worsening security situation in the state but wondered why the priest didn’t speak out when an attempt was made on his life by the same people causing mayhem in the state. He was also surprised that Fr., is speaking out now when he did not even when his own (Fr’s) local government area was almost overrun by the unknown gunmen. Here again, Soludo felt the priest was not being sincere in his outrage against the raging insecurity in the state. While he welcomed what he called constructive criticism, he was insistent that the effort his administration has made in the area of security should be appreciated.
Thirdly and finally, he also conceded the crisis of waste management system in the state but here again accused Fr. Ebube Mounso of been partial in his criticism. He argued that the priest before launching his criticism should have acknowledged that the situation his administration met on ground was terrible and that he was doing everything possible to improve the situation. That Fr., didn’t appreciate his administration’s effort was yet again a sign that Fr., is biased in his criticism.
Reaction from Supporters
As expected many social media users, especially those from Anambra rushed to these posts to take sides in the issuing fight between the man of God and the Governor. There are basically, three stances. There Soludo’s supporters who attacked Fr. Ebube Mounso calling him a false prophet and describing religion, especially the kind of religion promoted by false prophets like the priest as the problem we have today in Nigeria. Also, there are those on the side of the priest who argued that the priest is a messenger was only saying what the Lord led him to say. These caution Soludo to be careful before he would find himself fighting against God.
There is then the third group who wanted to be neutral. They were partly against Fr., for making the prophecy public. Their argument was that he would have called Prof. Soludo to discuss the matter with him privately. Again, those in this group were not happy with Soludo for attacking the priest publicly. They felt Soludo should have met the priest privately instead of writing him a public rejoinder. Those in third category are presumably mostly good Catholics who felt that since the Governor is a Catholic it would be wrong to be found criticism a priest in public. An attack on a priest they say is indirectly an attack on the Mother Church.
What Matters Most
Fr. Ebube Mounso’s vision is by the way. The only angle to it that deserves caution is the Fulani equation considering the tension and level of ethnic rancor between the Southeast and the Fulani in Nigeria today. Outside this angle, the prophecy doesn’t worth a piece of broken penny. This however doesn’t mean the Fr., doesn’t have a valid message. He might have been speaking in parables, in signs or symbols. Jesus Himself spoke in parables and when prophets speak in parables, there is no law that says that what they say must physically happen as they say them.
Soludo is not a theologian but an economist. If he is a committed Catholic as he claimed to be, then he should have consulted to find out the meaning of the prophecy instead of attacking the prophet. Also, the prophecy was made in the context of prayer and doesn’t require any rejoinder since Fr., never requested the governor attention or intervention but simply told the people what he saw and asked them to pray for Anambra state.
The meat of the issue here is that the young priest is using the most powerful means available to him (the pulpit) to express a general growing sense of inefficiency in Soludo’s administration. As usual, instead of taking responsibility and striving to better the situation, Soludo who sees everything as an academic exercise feel a rejoinder is what is needed. Soludo forget that he who wins all his arguments losses all his friends.
The most unfortunate part of this story is that our people are always emotionally out to defend politicians instead demanding good leadership from them. Fr. Ebube Mounso talked about the rising insecurity. Now, how would defending Soludo better the situation? He said the waste management system in Anambra has deteriorated; does defending Soludo make it better? We chastise men of God for keeping quiet in the face of misrule, why then do we not give those who muster the courage to speak up all the moral supports they need? Soludo has been an academic for almost all his lives and like most academics, he has this delusion running away from responsibilities and thinking that he is always right. We need courageous people like Fr. Ebube Mounso to chastise him where he is wrong.
