Nigerian Youth, Prosperity Gospel, and Sundry Quests for Magical Wealth

(By Abimbola Adelakun) – Nigerian youths after prosperity gospel  

Some years ago, while Nigeria had abundant money from oil revenue, the prosperity gospel and motivational speaking also reigned. The prosperity gospel is a theology that promises divine blessings of material wealth and good health to the one who sows seeds of financial contribution to the church, a sacrifice that must be worthwhile enough to move divine transcendent power on one’s behalf. Motivational speaking was a similar message, except that the transformation it promised was connected to more secular tactics. 

        In that era, charismatic preachers made good. Their lavish lifestyle made their message self-affirming. A lot has since changed. The validity of the prosperity gospel has been contested in various ways; prosperity preachers and motivational speakers are now treated with the same derision. We have seen instances of people demanding a return of their seeds from pastors when they did not get the expected miracle and in one instance, someone even reported their pastor to the law enforcement agents. Even before Daddy Freeze (Ifedayo Olarinde) began to publicly spar with renowned pastors on the issues of tithe as a route to prosperity, the public had begun to raise questions. Even worse, social media platforms commissioned an army of sceptics who have become the nemesis of the media-savvy pastors.

Pentecostal Prosperity in Nigeria: Who Prospers?

(By Ife Otegbeye) – Who prospers from prosperity gospel in Nigeria?  

On a cool Friday evening, thousands of worshippers congregate for a monthly vigil at a popular Pentecostal church along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Tonight’s theme? Unlocking Your Divine Destiny. 

        The congregation sing and dance for a few hours, and, finally, a few minutes before midnight (the “hour of prayer”), the pastor, dressed in a flamboyant suit and crocodile-skin shoes, mounts the stage. He reads Luke 6:38, “Give and it shall be given unto you.” 

        At the same time, ushers distribute envelopes among the congregation. They, along with the satellite viewers, are reminded that they can also pay via POS terminal or bank transfer. The pastor proceeds to explain to the congregation that giving to God is the first step towards unlocking one’s divine destiny. The message is simple: once you give, God will attend to all your needs. The vigil concludes with miracles, deliverances, and prayers against demonic attacks and the curse of poverty. 

        This is the prosperity gospel. 

        Strongly affiliated with Pentecostalism, it is a form of Christian teaching that emphasises God’s will for the prosperity of all believers, to be attained through faith, devotion, tithing, and positive confessions.

Nollywood Horror Movies and Pentecostalism

(By Kingsley Charles) -

How Pentecostal Preachers and Satanic Panic Helped Launch Nollywood 

Nigeria’s homegrown film industry has always loved horror. Its early occult films sprang from a surge of new Christian movements in the country 

    Down on his luck, Andy Okeke, a middle-class Nigerian trader, is desperate to make money and improve his impoverished circumstances. When a bogus investment goes awry, Andy slips into near-depression. Merit, his wife and the breadwinner of the family, remains an infinite source of encouragement. Walking down the road one humid afternoon, Andy stumbles into Paulo, his friend from high school, who pulls up in a yellow Mercedes-Benz. Andy’s frumpy suit contrasts sharply with Paulo’s flowing white agbada, the traditional robe of the Yoruba people. As the old-time pals exchange pleasantries, they drive in Paulo’s pricy car to a posh restaurant, where Andy bares his soul to his friend. Listening to Andy’s miserable tale, Paulo reassures him, “I’ll show you how to make money and how to spend it, but you must promise me that you will be strong-hearted.” 

    Andy does not grasp the full import of Paulo’s statement until he is brought, weeks later, before a satanic cult whose members sacrifice their loved ones in exchange for fortune. Once initiated, Andy is commanded to sacrifice his gracious spouse for “inexhaustible wealth.” After a foiled attempt to use a commercial sex worker as a decoy, Andy grudgingly submits his wife, whose blood is drawn with a large syringe into a calabash gourd and shared among cult members, including Andy. Finally rich, Andy becomes a major importer and exporter, dealing in designer belts and suits. But his newfound fortune sets off a sequence of disturbing events — occasioned by Merit’s apparition — that lead to Andy’s eventual insanity.

Of Delta-Igbo and Complex Identity Configurations

(By Moses Ochonu) – Of all the identity configurations and complexities in Nigeria, I find the Delta cluster to be the most fascinating and most complex. 

    In Delta, you have ethnicities that have a multiplicity of influences--Benin, Yoruba (Lukumi), Igala, and Igbo. 

     The Itsekiri's affinity with Yoruba is clear. The Urhobo's cultural proximity to Benin is equally conspicuous. And there are several communities who have gradations of connection to their Igbo neighbors across the Niger. 

    To add to the complication, some ethnicities who have been influences by multiple political and linguistic currents insist on and emphasize one of these influences over the others, even though their names may point in a different direction. 

    You might see a Delta person with the name Chukwuma Anielo, but he'll fight you for calling him Igbo. He'll educate you on his and his community's Benin origins even though his language, though an amalgam of different languages, has a dominant Igbo or Igboid inflection. 

Ned Nwoko, Anioma State, and Politics of Igboness

(Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe) - I AM MORE IGBO THAN NED NWOKO—ANIOMA-SOUTHEAST CONTRAPTION A POLITCAL SCAM DEAD ON ARRIVAL 

        Although several prominent Anioma interest-groups and personalities have defined their opposing positions against Senator Ned Abdullahi Munir Nwoko’s solo, wretched and narcissistic Anioma State creation mission, I have waited for the ultimate opinion of our revered traditional rulers, which consequently was delivered recently. 

         What most people don’t know is that unlike Southeast States, among Anioma people the opinion of the traditional rulers which often originate from the people through their ancestral heirlooms stand above the opinions of our mostly fraudulent political leaders. In other words, Anioma traditional rulers through their customary network of consultations with the people hold the ace in such matter as the creation of Anioma State. Senator Nwoko did not consider our traditional rulers noteworthy in this regard. 

        However, the cautious yet pungent position of our revered traditional rulers in their recent meeting over Senator Nwoko’s solo vainglorious political promenade clearly spoke the minds of Anioma people without the least equivocation. In part of their five-point communiqué signed jointly by the Chairman, His Majesty Obi of Owa Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor 11, and Vice Chairman, Obi of Ubulu-Unor, His Majesty Dr. Henry Kikachukwu 1, the revered Royal Fathers subtly hit Senator Nwoko, who incidentally was present in the meeting as uninvited observer, below the belt in the following words: 

“We should stop washing our dirty linings in public. Senator Ned Nwoko, who is representing Delta North in the National Assembly and other elected representatives of the people, political class and other critical stakeholders should work together and engage the people to know what they want, rather than embark on what is perceived as personal aggrandizement.” 

Rethinking Unoka in Things Fall Apart

(By James Eze) - Is Unoka the Unsung Hero of Things Fall Apart? James Eze 

        “No artist of any art has his complete meaning alone,” argues T.S Eliot in his epic essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” 

        Nothing in literature reminds me of Eliot’s declaration with as much vivid clarity as the complexity woven into the character of Unoka in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” Unoka is so intricately constructed that he leaves the unwary reader wondering if Achebe had the complete meaning of this character alone. 

        Achebe tells us that Unoka is lazy, imprudent and incapable of thinking about tomorrow. He is a spendthrift, a debtor, a failure, and a loafer who can barely feed his family or pay his debt. Perhaps, worst of all, he is a coward who cannot stand the sight of blood. He is a lover of “the good fare” who, even as a boy, often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely against the blue sky, which was regarded in Umuofia as a precursor for the return of the dry season with its heady festivities and merrymaking. 

        Had Achebe left things that way, everything would have been just perfect. He didn’t. In a way that only a genius could contrive, Achebe redeems this effeminate character with the story of the clever rescheduling of his pile of debt to Okoye, a fellow artist. Lending nuance to this otherwise simple character, Achebe made Unoka remind Okoye, with all the histrionics to boot, that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. Gently, the reader is offered a rare insight into the labyrinth of Unoka’s mind… a character whose depth is concealed by the veil of laziness and his love of the good fare. 

Guarding Against the Delusion and Illusions of Superstition

(By Dave Okorafor) - In my private chart of 34 criteria to consider before choosing a spouse, degree of superstitiousness is a premium point. Why is that so? 

    I was once in a relationship in which literally every conversation centred around spiritual dangers, ancestral curses, and evil machination and manipulation of lives and destinies. It was exhausting, believe me! 

    I knew myself; none of that was my thing. I wasn't going to be ready to combine spiritual warfare with the exhausting economic struggle in Nigeria. For how long would a man do that? 

    Show me the human with his w3apon before my physical eyes and let me f.i.ght or flee, but to pitch me against the wind to conquer, I'd rather be a coward. 

     In my family, we don't have demons troubling us. Our ancestors didn't curse us. Nobody plotted to steal our destinies. If we're not rich or advanced in education, we know the reasons. 

    So, I persuade you to never deliberately immerse yourself in the ocean of obsession with unseen things. It's like fighting the wind. You're not sure what you're dealing with, and you can hardly win. 

    I dissuade you from getting entangled with people who are always worried about di.a.bolical manipulations;

On Jagun Jagun: A Historian's Take

(By Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi) - On Jagunjagun: No Comment 

    Yesterday, a friend asked for my views on the new movie in Yoruba language, Jagunjagun, and I did not hesitate to state that it was loud on costume and artistic expressions, most especially alliteration, and low in historical value. 

     I am a historian and movies purpotedly Yoruba movies, are of interest to me. I look for how they mirror reality or exaggerate it. I look for life lessons and values they espoused, etc. 

     In relation to Jagunjagun, here is the summary of what I shared with my friend. Off the cuff, there were two instances in Yoruba history when bands of terrorists constituted themselves into menace, terrorizing societies in ways reminiscent of what was depicted in Jagunjagun. Both related to the 19th Century Yoruba wars. 

     The first was led by Toyeje of Ogbomoso who allied with Afonja, the Are Onakakanfo to destroy Old-Oyo. Toyeje and Afonja and their terrorist groups orchestrated the destruction of over 3000 Yoruba villages and towns, leading to refugee flows towards the dense forest areas on Yorubaland. The relics of these villages and towns are still standing today at the Old Oyo National Park. 

     The second was a band of rough boys that constituted themselves at Eba-Odan, now Ibadan. They knew no other job than stealing, pillaging, and terrorizing people. 

     In both, what could be effectively called terrorist groups band themselves together for their parochial interests. Toyeje's group was a terrorist group and the alliance between Afonja and them resulted in the destruction of Old-Oyo and the ultimate Fulani take-over of Ilorin. 

    The Ibadan ruffians later became warriors and stopped Fulani advance at Ikirun, thereby saving the remaining part of Yorubaland from Fulani take-over. 

    None of the two instances in Yoruba history compare in reckless and senseless killings with what we see on display in Jagunjagun.

Igbo Writers: Centering Igbo Culture and Language

(By Chika Unigwe) – “Why We Centre Igbo Culture And Language In Our Writing” 

    Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian professor and author of Igbo descent. To accompany the launch of Service95 Book Club’s August Book of the Month, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun, Unigwe explores the importance of Igbo identity – a central pillar of the novel – and explains why Igbo writers past and present celebrate the Igbo language and culture in their work 

Kasimma Okani, the author of the short story collection All Shades Of Iberibe, insists on including her Igbo ethnic identity at the end of her biography. Wherever her prose appears online, there is always a line stating that she is an Igbo writer. For her, and for many of us Igbo writers publishing globally in English, there is an intentionality to centring our Igboness in our narratives. 

     However, it would be impossible to talk about our writing, our use of Igbo words, and our narratives as portals into the Igbo world without referencing the Igbo Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe, AKA the father of African literature, and Flora Nwapa, its matriarch.

Owerri & Bongo Music: A City & Its Distinct Sound

(By Chimezie Chika) – What is Bongo’s True Identity? 

The cultural identity that Bongo music wears makes it distinct and, indeed, delightful, but it may also be its greatest albatross in the march to international visibility… 

A City and its Music 

Owerri is the city of enjoyment, the city of sin, of passion and recklessness, the Las Vegas of the Igbo heartland, or at least that is what it seems to be in the general view. In the confines of the city, in its clustered streets and throbbing avenues, in its showiness, there is the determination to take the consummation of life to its most passionate extremities. As you drive or walk through its streets, its clubs, its many hotels, you hear — not surprisingly, for all such cities possess an inner music — a beat. It may seem rather too brazen at first, if you recognise it, but this is the free character of a city in possession of a heart. Some say its debauchery and the tendency to take life less seriously; others say it’s Bongo. 

    Bongo is not a person, though, as you will find out. It is not a fashion trend or an invisible man-about-town catching the sensuous imagination of a city. Bongo is, simply put, the music of a people — the kind of music that has become the embodiment of a people’s values — and their own expression of their worldly outlook. “It is our music,” Chigozie Opara, a friend and Owerri native, tells me. “You won’t hear it anywhere else.” Bongo is to Owerri what Calypso is to the Caribbean islands or Jazz to New Orleans.

Oliver de Coque: Highlife King, Egwu Ekpili Exponent, Guitarist Extraordinaire

(By Chimezie Chika) – Oliver De Coque’s Swansong: What is the Legacy of the Fabled Nigerian Guitarist? 

What Oliver de Coque started is being used in new ways, with new musical alliances, and new expressions. These experimentations are incipient, but it is clear that Oliver de Coque’s riffs are finding a second life in Afrobeats… 

The People’s Musician 

During the 1970s and 1990s, when the People’s Club of Nigeria (PCN) held sway in Nigeria’s social circles, one of the musicians who helped to popularise their activities was Oliver Sunday Akanite, known by his stage name, Oliver de Coque. There was a raft of Igbo Highlife musicians in those years—many were directly affiliated with the PCN—who sang about the famed social club and its wealthy members. Some of these musicians included Osita Osadebey, Oliver de Coque, and Morocco. 

    Oliver de Coque’s song, “People’s Club of Nigeria,” dedicated to the PCN, is perhaps the most popular of the lot. The song is typical of his style: a mixture of patterns of egwu ekpili panegyric, Highlife instrumentals, and accomplished guitar play. Oliver had learnt to play the guitar as a young man. He began making music at the age of 11 during his early years in his hometown of Ezinifite, where he would sing or play the ogene during festivals. In his teens, the local bands he followed sometimes went to hotels and tried to secure gigs. During performances, Oliver, usually the vocalist, often felt let down by the guitar players. Some years later, he met the famed Congolese guitarist, Piccolo. An immensely influential figure in the early years of Highlife in Nigeria, Piccolo had either taught or absorbed many of Nigeria’s Highlife maestros, still finding their feet in the 1950s and 1960s, into his band. During practice sessions in his band, Piccolo taught Oliver to play the guitar. 

Osita Osadebe: Maestro & Virtuoso of Highlife

(By Chimezie Chika) – What We Speak Of When We Talk About Osita Osadebe and Highlife Music 

    As a musician, Osadebe seems to have come to music fully made; in a journey through his discography, it is hard to find a bad song. 

The Pioneers 

When Stephen Osita Osadebe became a household name in the 1980s, few people outside Igboland knew his story. He had become interested in music in the early 1950s while attending secondary school in Onitsha, where he lived with his parents. In 1956, aged 20, he moved to the city of Lagos, Nigeria, to work and pursue further education. In the fledgling Lagos of the 1950s, vibrating with the rhythms of a country gradually acquiring its own distinct character, Osadebe left education and intensified his musical activities. He joined E.C. Arinze’s Empire Rhythm Orchestra and began to upgrade his musical skills. E. C. Arinze was a pioneer of Highlife in Nigeria — a contemporary of Victor Olaiya, Chris Ajilo, and Bobby Benson — and one of its early practitioners who had drawn inspiration directly from the genre’s Ghanaian originator, E. T. Mensah. 

    Empire Rhythm Orchestra, as with most Highlife bands in the 1950s and 1960s, played in hotels and nightclubs. Early in his career, Osadebe’s foray into music was met with strong opposition from his father, who believed that education was the way to go and that nothing good came out of dabbling into music. In a video interview that introduced his album, Kedu America (1996), Osadebe narrates how his father, upon learning that his son was dabbling with music, sent a message to him in Lagos, informing him that he was about to die. Osadebe quickly rushed down to Onitsha, only to find the old man reclining in his easy chair. His excuse: I will not be alive and see you while away your time in the name of music. 

Mike Ejeagha: Folklorist and Storyteller

(By Chimezie Chika) – Storyteller and Gentleman: What is the Measure of Mike Ejeagha’s Influence on Highlife Music in Nigeria? 

    Folklore rules the mythical landscape of Mike Ejeagha’s music; his lyrical calibrations are more about the prosody of folksongs and folktales; his language of the music is Igbo, and the purpose is didactic… 

Ejeagha, Storyteller 

Akuko Mike Ejeagha. Mike Ejeagha’s story. This was the Igbo phrase that trailed any indication that a person was telling tall tales (or long tales, as the case may be). In that moment of recognition, the person being told the tall tale would say, “I na-akoakuko Mike Ejeagha” (You are telling Mike Ejeagha’s kind of story). But the real Mike Ejeagha’s tales were not lies; they were mostly long-winded morality stories infused into the veins of his music to make a point. Using this technique, the singer, Mike Ejeagha, popularly identified with the prefixed sobriquet, “Gentleman,” built a legend that has gradually transitioned into common idioms in every day interactions. Akuko Mike Ejeagha. Mike Ejeagha’s story. This piece is not a tall tale — though it is Mike Ejeagaha’s story in a more literal sense — but what manner of influence would a singer have to make his musical technique widely identifiable and become part of modern Igbo idioms? 

    Born in 1930 at Imezi Owa in Ezeagu Local Government Area in Enugu, Mike Ejeagha, grew up in Coal Camp in the city of Enugu. His mother was an accomplished folk dancer and singer. After basic education, he started his musical career in the late 1940s, but it was not until the 1960s that people began to the notice his guitar-rendered folksongs. Growing up in Coal Camp, he had come into close contact with the street music of the time.

Celestine Ukwu and His Musical Philosophy

(By Chimezie Chika) – Celestine Ukwu’s Musical Philosophy: Is This the Sweet Spot of Highlife? 

    Among the older generation, there is a reverence for the music of Celestine Ukwu, the young man from Abor, who coloured the 1960s and ‘70s with the mellow power of his music… 

The Early Years and the ‘60s 

Celestine Ukwu’s hometown of Abor, in Udi Local Government, Enugu state, Nigeria, which is located on the old road to Nsukka, is only 22 miles away from the city of Enugu by car. Perhaps it is this closeness to the city (and the open world) that influenced Ukwu’s early wanderings and observations about life. Born in the year 1940, in the days when the blackened coal miners of the Iva Valley Coal Mine—tired from the day’s work in the dark tunnels—emerged unto the last grey light of the day and flooded the bars along railways and roads of Enugu, seeking drinks, evening small talk, and mellow music. The sound of the banter and evening music must have thrilled the young Celestine Ukwu. Uwamgbede music is often a feature of Igbo social life; it is not surprising, then, that early Highlife musicians incorporated it into their music. 

    Ukwu was born into a musical family. His father was a music performer, often playing Igede, Okpa and Ode. His mother was the lead vocalist and dancer in a local women’s Egwu Amala musical group. His grandparents were eminent folk music performers, and his grandfather played the ekwe odo (xylophone) during the Igodo Odo festival in Abor.

Oke Ite: Fraud in the Name of the Gods

(By Fr. George Adimike) - ‘Oke Ite’ Charm: Fraud in the Name of the Gods

     With the ‘oke ite’ phenomenon, an unimaginable fraud goes on in many cultures in Nigeria in the name of the gods. Under the pretext of cultural revival and the renaissance of the traditional religion, fetish ritualists masquerade as ministers of the local deities and exploit their clients with false claims to power. They invented the fetishistic ritual pot of charm (oke ite), a concoction generally prepared with human parts, animals and herbs gathered in a mud pot, as a panacea to all challenges and as a key to unlocking key to great fortune. But in effect, these charlatans are doing a great disservice to Nigerian cultures and traditional religions with evil practises that are neither good culture nor good religion. Though by conceptual origin ‘oke ite’ is exclusively Igbo, in reality, the practice is also found in other cultures of Nigeria. If true lovers of African culture do not rise to say NO to the destruction of our rich cultural values and expressions, African culture will be corrupted by these fetishistic practices and ritual killings. African culture is not, and cannot be, about ritual killings; the ‘oke ite’ ritual is only a corruption of culture and a fraud. 

     Even in their crudest groping and religious expression, the African traditional religions served the religious needs of our forebears and satisfied their thirst for meaning and quest for God. In those years, many Africans who practised the African traditional religions (ATR) worshipped and served God through the mediation of local deities and localised gods to the best of their religious awareness and convictions.