Dear Nigerian Church,

Greetings!

Nigerian Church is at traffic circle. From the world go I admonished the church not to preach the gospel for money. But there are always two sides to the same coin about the church in Nigeria: It is staged with lumps of economic interests, and fragile gospel.

Clergies, especially of the Pentecostal folk, have never seen anything bad in collecting money for prayers and deliverance. The kind of economic advice you give to your followership has culminated in making the church a place of prosperity sermonisation instead of salvation. You have turned the eyes of your followership to believe so much in you instead of in me. I hear them call you, “Daddy”, “Mummy” and so on, because you brainwashed them to be seeing you as Lords, instead of servants. One of you even has four aircraft. For what!

I know that every country has got its own predicaments, but the Nigerian case is more than frightening. The Nigerian church is hardly doing anything to the looting of public treasury in Nigeria by public office holders. Rather, the clergies are walking the corridors of power for “special prayers” to politicians. You have become more of kleptomaniacs, using my name to hoodwink the general public. This funny habit is appalling. Your circumstances are beyond measuring up to, heading to entirely stopping to preach salvation, while espousing this ‘prosperity’ lunacy.

But I warn you that it is only a lazy child that calls for the rain to fall on the day of farming as an excuse not to go to the farm. If other people's businesses, relationships, schooling, marriages, journey etcetera failed, are they enough excuse for you to allow my gospel to fail for your selfish prosperity sake?

Take care, till I meet you again.

Jesus Christ

(Delivered by Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media Consultant, Motivator, Founder of Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), and the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV), based in Rivers State, Nigeria.

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