On Peter Obi And Mbaka

By Longinus Arinze

Your life will change the moment you stop pleasing people, bending your boundaries and hoping that everyone will like you.

One of the trending news circulating everywhere is that of Fr. Mbaka and Peter Obi.

The cleric had criticised the former governor ahead of the 2019 presidential election, when Mr Obi, then a vice presidential candidate, declined the cleric’s request to make a donation to the ministry.

When has declining to making donation turned to be desecrating God’s altar?.

There are several things that the story of the widow’s mite teaches us. First, God sees what man overlooks. Second, God’s evaluation is different from man’s. Third, God commends giving in faith. Plainly the woman was noble who in the divine judgment was found worthy to be preferred to all.

Giving isn’t about what percentage of the church’s budget you support, but what amount of your budget you use to give margin to yourself so that you know you belong to God.

The original reason why God instituted “sacrifice” was because it was supposed to mean something spiritual. Sacrifice is intrinsically valuable, and giving to the church as a sacrifice is a way to mold your own heard to the desires of God. It is an objective and public first step in conforming your own desire for power to the desires of God for mercy and for relationship.

The purpose of giving is to change the giver and to resource the kingdom, not to create a comfortable bubble. Generosity is a moral quality that God desires in his people, not just an action that he requires to be repeated arbitrarily and without a heartfelt sense of mission.

God always wants to bring together those who need and those who give. People want to be led, not driven. They want to be influenced positively, not persuaded to perform. Pressure tactics don’t work.

If it all Mbaka as claimed helped Obi years ago in retaining his seat as the then governor of Anambra state, does this current trash on Obi calls for public show of shame and loss of value, respect and priestly sanctity on the part of Mbaka?

The best gift as i know comes from the heart and are given from the hands. Gifts from the heart are always the most valuable gifts—they can almost never be bought or wrapped. Ego-centered gifts are gifts (material or non-material) that satisfy an ego craving. An ego craving is the feeling of wanting praise or recognition when giving a gift.

Was Mbaka expecting Obi to have done that with his influence as a priest or what? Some questions are still left unanswered. Even the video clip captured where obi asked to be shown the project for a dialogue thereafter. What could be his pain? No return is more acceptable to God than the offerings of piety. Whatever took place amongst them supposed be settled amicably.

Their longstanding antagonism is manifested in frequent scuffles and shouting matches which is unhealthy for Mbaka as a priest. He is supposed be seen as a model.

How tragic the plight of so many who had given up on God, Christ and the Church because of something that a priest said or did that offended his conscience.

How difficult it is for any person to control his or her temper, but when a priest indulges himself in a temper tantrum, the spiritual shock waves are enormous. And he can never recover the loss of his position regardless of what he may say or attempt.

An ancient proverb puts it thus: “An ill-trained doctor is a threat to life; an ill-trained priest is a threat to faith.” when a lay person sins grievously, even to the extent of losing his place in God’s kingdom, there is a loss of one in heaven, but when a priest falls, he takes a hundred or more with him.

I very well know that priests are human and not perfect, but I think a priest should be a role model. They shouldn’t use foul language or yell at someone for doing wrong. A priest is someone you can look up to.

Mbaka should should focus on his mandate of propagating the gospel and impacting morals, instead of confusing the political space. The Catholic Bishop of Enugu must caution Fr. Mbaka now.