A media report which raises red flags has emerged – it’s on how Pastor E.A. Adeboye allegedly made Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki win re-election. A most recent other is the popular “Angels from Africa, Nigeria and South America coming to secure a re-election for Trump” by Paula White-Cain. Among others, these show that Nigeria is one of the most religious countries in the world.
Thus, it is not surprising that religion, spirituality, voodoo, talisman, among several other diabolical things, feature prominently in the country’s elections. The Edo September 19, 2020 governorship election signposted the interconnection between religion and elections in Nigeria, although with a different pattern as our “Christian, Islam and Herbalist-practising governor (chrislamherb Governor) is wont to have us believe that spirituality was more significant in the actual voting decision of Edo electorate on the Election Day.
I had thought, just like other rational humans, that the Governor’s antecedents, his political party, campaign promises, party manifestoes and agenda, record of performance, if any, should take precedence over religious considerations but governor Obaseki proved us wrong. He claimed he was destined to win and not an increasingly sophisticated electorate directed the voting pattern.
I think Obaseki misquoted Daddy G. O, when he claimed that the respected man of God told him he would win re-election. I also think a prophesy should not come from the alleged beneficiary but from the messenger himself. I am certain and convinced the governor misquoted the clergyman or that he misinformed him of the true political situation in the state when he visited the man of God – it could as well be both.
When I read the governor’s account of his testimony, the first thing that struck me was the picture of a lazy, superstitious and easy-going lucky man whose disregard for hard work cleaves at superstitious means for success including visiting the witch of “Endor”. Of course, he claims his name is “Godwin”; hard work or not, he superstitiously believes his name works for him – how lazy and easy-going our governor could be!
I had thought he would explain the circumstances surrounding his controversial academic records to the man of God and why he has approached the Appeal Court in Abuja to stop the pre-election case at the High Court or it’s the governor saying that the man of God knew of this but angels from Africa or Nigeria were taking charge of that?
This man who claims to be a Christian was alleged to have visited a certain witch doctor (herbalist) who equally told him to take a bath at the Ikpoba River, so as to guarantee his electoral victory just as some Islamic Sheikhs also allegedly told him to embark on the sharing of beans cake (akara), acquire and distribute rams and salt before the election. In addition, immediately after the election, this alleged Christian and his deputy among others reportedly carried out a spiritual cleansing of Benin City in the guise of environmental sanitation while carrying out some act of voodooism. When then, will the “Superstitious and Easy-luck” Governor give the herbalists and Islamic Imams their deserved credits?
Or, when will the governor also give credit and glory to the witch doctors over the midnight bath, the leaders of the tax collectors party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some other unseen forces who diabolically aided him for re-election? Isn’t this a sign of ingratitude? Or he plans a secret thanksgiving visit to them?
I think the governor is only being cynical that he sneers at everything that would make life difficult and demanding – before the elections, he embarked on blackmail and propaganda and just now, religious sympathy thinking it would avail him opportunity to escape from the hearing of the on-going case at the courts over his controversial academic records.
Not even Angels from Africa or Nigeria would help him – as this attitude depicts that of a lazy, half-baked, ignorant, superstitious and cowardice black actors and actresses in mainstream Hollywood films – Magical Negro at its basest. This blackmail politics has been taken too far even into the house of God and am glad Nigerians have called out the governor.
Referring to this spiritual electoral victory, how is it that Christians in Nigeria and in Africa haven’t seen the need to make one of their own, for instance, fiery Pastor Tunde Bakare of Later Rain Assembly or Pastor Chris Okotie among others presidents? So, we have these powers to make a man who refuses the court to hear a case of forgery and perjury against him governor but unable to make our Church state overseers across the states of the federation governors of such states?
This weird and baffling posturing resonates more with Matthew W. Hughley’s film theory in the understanding of race relations and racialized fantasies where the term Magical Negro is much more loaded. Succinctly put, this simply suggests that such persons who rely on diabolic means are “unsophisticated people that desire an uncomplicated life”.
In Hughley’s construction of blackness, you would see the picture of this “chrislamherb” governor – a compulsive behaviour like a child-like demeanour, a lack of mental capacity, a poor work ethic and a desire to exploit – the judiciary, the church and society for unearned reasons as opposed to intelligence.
As a leader who’s well travelled, one least expected him to degenerate to issues of spirituality, fortune and misfortune while attempting to dispense and massage his battered political life and electoral soul-healing advice from the innocent man of God.
What then were the governor insinuating and advocating, if not the promotion of magical powers – the deployment of voodoo, charms and spiritual powers in contemporary electoral contest? For the governor, having spiritual powers to win elections is a positive attribute but for me, what those abilities suggest is far from positive.
So, the next time you hear your governor speaking in like manner, watch him – he must be a lazy, superstitious and easy-going lucky man.
(Culled from johnmayaki.com)
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