Emmanuel Ifeanyi 
New wave
A new wave is blowing in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria. For the past 100-150 years, people’s records showed that the majority of the traditional worshippers were made to abandon their old system to embrace Christianity brought by European missionaries. For years, Christianity has struggled to penetrate many Igbo communities through different denominations, especially the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Seventh Day Adventist and so many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches.
With their different doctrines and dogmas said to be centred on one God and one saviour, these churches over the years keep growing either by the birth of more children within their memberships, by preaching to members of their rival churches that they are the best and equally by telling traditional worshippers to abandon traditional practices (Omenala) and join them in their churches which they call repentance. New Telegraph can report authoritatively with evidence that the game is gradually changing as Christians are now repenting and going back to Omenaala. Most of them said they are no longer comfortable with what they inherited from their parents recently as a system of worship, therefore, they return to what their ancestors were known for which is “Omenaala”, their traditional way of life devoid of foreign beliefs.
Religious effect
This wave is currently blowing seriously on social media with a new generation of traditional worshippers openly staging crusades online and openly educating people on what they termed a religion of mental slavery brought by the Europeans which according to them has made black Africans the headquarters of ignorant people on earth. New Telegraph took a step further to the busy commercial town of Nkpor, in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State where the new Omenala religious wave is blowing hot and ready to change the existing status quo to the consternation of those who underrate it and wave off the impending religious turnaround.
They dress gorgeously in their normal African native wear, caps and most times the usual casual dress, and gather every Sunday at their worship centre along Onitsha-Nkpor-Enugu Highway to worship the creator, Chukwu Okike Abiama (God Almighty) in the ancient ways of their ancestors devoid of any European practice. Anybody familiar with Nkpor will know that the town is too close to Anambra State’s commercial capital, Onitsha that one can hardly separate both and may never find separation at all except through street numbering. This situation places the Omenaala wave in the heart of Igbo’s most vibrant commercial city after Aba.
The initiator
Led by Mazi Ejiofor Ezeaku, founder, Igbos Love Themselves Charity Foundation and a popular businessman from Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area in Nsukka, Enugu State, the new generation of traditional worshippers said that they are armed with the truth, pieces of evidence, medical and scientific researches that they said have all proven that their parents and some generations past were lied to by the Europeans who brought them Christianity. Speaking on why he began the mission he titled “Omenala bu uzo eziokwu na ndu, Aru kwusi n’ala Igbo,” (Tradition is the way of truth and life; evil stop in Igboland), Ezeaku said he took his time to study the misinformation priests, pastors dished out to Africans especially the Igbos which has brought about many avoidable deaths, brought poverty and all manner of ignorance before he decided that enough is enough. “After I founded the Igbos Love Themselves Charity Foundation, I started receiving a whole lot of sick people.
I saw a whole lot of our people dying because of kidney failure, liver failure and all manner of sicknesses. The issues became too much that I had to employ up to seventeen people to work as members of the staff in the foundation. “This gave me the opportunity to establish the NGO in the five states of the South-East. We have lists for different sicknesses like fibroid that we apply the only true method of handling it which is by taking them to professional medical doctors in renowned hospitals to handle their cases and do the necessary surgeries which we pay for. “We keep doing things that way whenever it gets to anybody’s turn because they drop their names, details and go and we call them when it’s their turn. A whole lot of people die without getting help because it cannot get to everybody at the same time.
Shocking inputs
“What shocked me most is that whenever these sick people are coming to my office, they’ll come with Olive Oil, Handkerchiefs, Bottlewater, Stickers and all manner of objects, symbols and insignias that they told me they purchased from one Reverend Father, Pastor or Evangelist. “They said they were told that the Olive Oil and water they sold to them heal them. I took my time made strong research with Europeans and Americans and I discovered they rely more on medical treatment than any form of spiritual healing which are all lies. “That was when I started warning Christian leaders in Nigeria to stop killing our people indirectly through their wrong teachings. How can Nigerian pastors be telling our people that Jesus healed the sick, and the blind in all manner of healing stories yet nothing is working for those here in Nigeria?
“I’ve taken many patients who have eyes problem to reputable hospitals and they regained their sight. When I looked at that, I carried out more re- search to see if there could be anyone I’ll know who anybody can identify was blind and was healed through prayers except what they show us on their television and I found out that all were lies. “This made me very angry because they are deceiving our people. I even challenged them to show me such a person they solved his blindness through prayer in the name of Jesus and I’ll give them N1 million and a plot of land here in Anambra State, but nobody showed me anybody.
Global dimension
“I got so annoyed when I see even pets in Europe like dogs, cats etc going to hospitals to get sound treatments while my people are erroneously been told that Jesus will heal them.” Ezeaku said that when he told many people that prayer does not heal any sickness, even most of the sick people got angry with him. He however said that religion all over the world is being practised according to what is suitable for a people and more clearer to them. “When I was a small boy, I thought it was the Europeans that thought our people about God. Later after studying well about these issues, I discovered that from Japan, China, Israel, India and many countries of the world, they have their own way of worshipping their creator of which ours was Omenala before the white man came here,” he said.
Significant decision
Ezeaku said what baffled him most when he delved more into Omenala is that there is no single teaching rooted in Igbo Ontology, Igbo Cosmology or even the general Igbo Worldview that states that a certain deity or spiritual being can cure sicknesses. He said that such teachings do not exist except that it is the ideas of either some filmmakers or some dubious witch doctors who use such to tell their stories or extort money from people. Ezeaku stressed that what Igbos know as sources for treating illnesses are herbs and roots which the European World has worked hard to advance into modern medicine while a majority of Africans are busy praying for spiritual healing without going to the hospital for proper medication.
He linked the multiplicity of churches all over the East to the high level of misgovernance, stressing that the church owners are capitalising on the failure of government to deceive the less exposed people that Jesus is capable of giving them jobs, healing them and changing their lives in a society where the government does not care about anybody.
Role
Ezeaku said that he does not see any future for Christianity in Igbo land be- cause very soon, the truth about what he termed many years of lies will be getting to various homes and people will begin to question certain teachings that have kept them confused. “Without mincing words, the Nigerian version of Christianity has killed more people than Boko Haram. They killed with their wrong teachings. How can someone tell you that Jesus is the greatest doctor and will heal all your diseases in an area where there’s no single well-equipped hospital? “Christianity in Africa is the first “Yahoo Yahoo”(fraudulent business) that is ever known or introduced to our people.
How can a full-grown African close his eyes sometimes in the day and night for four hours calling on Jesus to provide jobs while Chinese that don’t believe in Jesus are printing the Bible for them to read and making their money. “A Chinese who doesn’t believe in Jesus will produce a Bible, but a black man in Anambra State who doesn’t have any industry where similar Bible will be produced will open the Bible made by a Chinese who doesn’t believe in Jesus and begin to search for a job opportunity inside a book made in China.
“How can one be opening the Bible in search of where it is written that he can be rich when there are no jobs for him to do to earn salaries? Our people are not productive at all, so how can there be jobs here? “These people have damaged how we reason. In the small village where I come from, we have 52 churches with zero factories that can employ two people at once. But every last Friday of the month, they gather my people in all those 52 churches telling them to pray away poverty. “These people are telling even those we call graduates to pray away unemployment and poverty through fasting and prayers. How can our graduates allow these pastors and priests to make them believe that Jesus can give them employment in a community where there’s no industry? Where will the job come from?
Is it acceptable?
“It’s known to the whole world that industrialization is the main key to tackling unemployment. Another issue that will make people realize they are fake is that over the years our people have been told that Jesus is the healer and will heal their diseases, how many persons have they seen Jesus heal that they can point to? “All we hear is our people dying send someone will say they were killed by one innocent uncle or that they’ve gone to heaven. These are all lies. What they do in their crusade ground is drama. Our people will watch such well-rehearsed drama and believe Jesus will heal them until they die and even when they die, they will still demand money from the mourning family before they come for burial. “See how our roads are death traps.
Instead of Christian leaders to say that the cause of accidents on our roads is as a result of the government’s failure to construct motorable roads, poor driving techniques, lack of enforcement of traffic laws by officers in charge and other obvious administrative laps and human errors, they’ll tell you that it is as a result of witches, wizards and our ancestors who did one sacrifice or the other. “These things make me angry. Advanced countries monitor speed limits, drunk driving and all manner of recklessness. “Instead of Nigerian Christian leaders to stand bold and tell the people that their problems are centred on government and their failure to provide motorable roads and enabling environment for investors to come in and create jobs, improvement in healthcare etc, they’ll turn around to print apron, stickers, olive oil, and handkerchiefs telling our people that the God of Israel will protect them when the same Israel they’re talking about has a government that has invested a lot in security and health,” Ezeaku said.
Ezeaku said that with the pieces of evidence, he is giving out together with other people working with him, people are beginning to see that no spiritual being can heal them, solve their problems or guarantee their sound health when they have not taken their destinies in their hands. “I was born a Catholic and I began the transportation business at a tender age. Whenever one of my trucks had an accident, I’ll go on a visiting day to visit my Reverend Father and after he will write a Bible quotation; from the book of Psalms and advise me to go home and read it so that the attack on my truck will not come again. “That priest made me believe that there is one person somewhere causing the accident instead of telling me the truth that either the roads are too bad, or the truck is not standard.
Instead of exposing me to the truth, he channelled my mind to somewhere that there’s a spirit somewhere manipulating me. “These types of evil teachings are also among some fake people within the traditional practices. All those magicians claiming to control poverty with magic are fake. Pure tradition is what we’re practising and we’re going to propagate. When you’re sick, you go to the hospital. “I’m gathering our people to join this movement so that we can be a force. If there’s where the bad road is killing our people, we’ll go there peacefully and call the attention of the government to it so that our people will stop dying and not covering the roads with the blood of Jesus.”