The self-proclaimed holy man has always been a favourite figure for satirical treatments in literary works. The Jero Plays by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, readily come to mind here. But then if you have laughed off Brother Jeroboam’s modus operadi in The Trials of Brother Jero as crude in its entirety, the joke might actually be on you now for this incredulous reason: Today’s progenies of that fictive “Beach Divine” are actually laughing their way to the banks, especially in Lagos.? OLAOLU OLADAPO writes on the multimillion naira ‘Spiritual Service Industry’ booming in the nation’s commercial capital:
Given that a Holy Book records a foremost spiritualist, healer and prophet as detailing his disciples not to ask for any material compensation while sending them on a healing expedition – “You received free, give free,” Jesus said – there is something rather unsettling about today’s spiritualists charging a fee for their ‘services.’
It is all the more incredulous – on both the side of the ‘service provider’ and of the ‘service subscriber,’ that is – when one considers that God who would bring about the much-sought miraculous solution to the seeker’s problem, will do so freely and does not spend naira and kobo anyway!??
Incredulity or not, there has been an upsurge in the number of spiritual healing homes in Lagos as residents increasingly seek spiritual solutions to economic, family, marital and health challenges, among others.
The ‘spiritual service providers’ cut across the three major faiths, namely Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion, even as their patrons are not strictly delineated along these religious divides.
Mr. Daniel Olorunyomi, the presiding Shepherd of Celestial Church of Christ, Ikorodu Parish 5, Lagos, has a clientele base that cuts across all strata of society and beyond the state.?
“All I can say is that people come around, especially my church members, to seek one spiritual help or the other from God and HE has been using me to help them out of their afflictions,” he told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND.
But Olorunyomi denied that his ‘practice’ was a profit-oriented trade and stressed that he does not charge a fee. According to him, all what his patrons need do is to buy some materials needed for their spiritual cleansing like candles, incense and soaps.
However, a patron whose prayer has been answered after the shepherd’s supplications to God, he added, might be moved to show his or her appreciation to the spiritual home in several ways, including but not limited to offering a monetary gift
Unlike Jero’s makeshift, weather-beaten beachfront haunt, these spiritual homes in Lagos are found in well apportioned plots across the state, including upscale neighbourhoods like Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Victoria Garden City (VGC) and Lekki. Patronage is also good and on the upward swing as for fatigue to set in on the spiritual caregiver.
“They usually keep coming and I have to oblige them. My doors are open to them. This is what I was ordained to do and I will continue to do it,” Olorunyomi said.
And whenever fatigue sets in or he needs to attend to pressing family matters, Olorunyomi would take to the inner recess of the sprawling edifice housing the church cum healing home.
“And as soon as I am fit again, I will come back to the people waiting for me,” he explained.
Preparatory to their scheduled spiritual cleansing activities, LEADERSHIP WEEKEND saw some of the spiritualist’s patrons buying materials worth thousands of naira from the nearby kiosks. They all declined to be interviewed for this piece.
Alfa Opeyemi Abdulganiyu is an itinerant Islamic spiritualist based in Ilorin, Kwara State. However, he travels far and near to meet the spiritual needs of his ‘clients’.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND met him at Ojota bus stop, Lagos shortly after he alighted from an incoming Ilorin bus. He was returning to Lagos just two days after he left the state – summoned back by another high profile client who needed his services urgently
“I usually come to Lagos and other towns in the South West to consult with my clients who need my spiritual help,” Abdulganiyu said.
According to him, clients who need his services would call him with their specific requests from their base and he would leave Ilorin after reaching terms of engagement with the patron and a fee paid in cash into his bank account.
“As a rule, I don’t usually sleep in a client’s house but he (the host) would have to provide accommodation for me in a hotel. The reason is that I don’t like distraction when I am performing my duties,” Abdulganiyu said.
The Alfa disclosed that his ‘practice’ has brought money and fame owing to constant referrals his numerous clients made for him.
His words: “I am satisfied. I have cars, I have built houses and my children are in good schools. One of the people that patronise my services even sent my firstborn to (the United States of) America for further studies.”
Abdulganiyu said he did not bring his car along on his current trip “owing to the hazards involved,” as he had been travelling to various places in the last few weeks, adding that “I am also not sure when I am going to leave but it won’t be very soon.”
Asked to throw more lights on his clientele, the Islamic spiritualist said: “I have a lot of them, low and mighty. They include politicians, businessmen and contractors. Some live in Agege while others live in places like VGC and Magodo GRA Estate. If they want me to come, they would book a hotel for me in their areas.”
And, a native doctor, diviner and herbalist, Adigun Abolorobere, told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that people would continue to seek unorthodox solutions as they are pummelled by the vagaries of life.
Abolorobere, who is also based in Lagos, stressed that “the practice is not peculiar to Nigeria because other nationals are doing it.”
To him, “the practice of native divination and preparation of herbs have undergone some important and positive changes from what they used to be. In the days of our forebears, things were not written down and there were no measurements with which materials were recorded. But all that we have now.”
The native doctor argued that indigenous ways of worship had “only diminished in prestige but not in importance from what they used to be.”
In a startling disclosure, Abolorobere added: “Though those who brought Islam and Christianity to Nigeria did a lot to instil the fear of traditional religious practices in the people, yet people still come here from those two faiths to seek our protection and guidance.”
Asked to justify the high fees spiritualists charge their patrons, Abolorobere said: “This depends on the magnitude of the problem for which solutions are being sought. Spiritual problems are multiple and multi-dimensional, the higher the magnitude, the more the materials needed for the cleansing.
“In those days, our progenitors got most needed materials free of charge from people but in the contemporary world, importance is attached to many things. Things have really changed and so whatever one needs now, one has to pay for it now.”
Expectedly, fraudsters smell a kill here and are about the city, even the country, preying on the gullible; lowly and highly placed. A Lagos State High Court before Judge Morenike Obadina recently sentenced a fraudster masquerading as a spiritualist, Mr. Gabriel Ogunniyi, to 55 years imprisonment for defrauding a woman of N20.7 millon.
Ogunniyi pleaded guilty to the charge of obtaining money under false pretences preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
He allegedly promised one Mrs. Sike Fadare to solve her “business and spiritual problems” using his purported powers of “invocation.”
Also, a suspect, Mr. Adewale Salami, 35, is currently standing trial for alleged fraud before an Oshodi Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.
According to the charge sheet, one Yinka Kayode allegedly approached Salami to perform some spiritual work that would terminate the lives of his employers so that he could take over the firm, a task Salami allegedly agreed to take on only if Kayode parted with some money.
Kayode allegedly paid the suspect the agreed sum of N11 million in instalments at Salami’s Aviation Estate, Mafoluku, Oshodi residence.
However, after the payment, Kayode’s employers did not die as Salami allegedly assured him. In fact, the company sacked Kayode, prompting him to ask Salami for a refund, which the latter failed to make, hence his arrest and on-going trial for alleged fraud.
But stressing that fraud was not peculiar to his calling, Abolorobere absolved traditional diviners of quackery and allied scam, even as he admitted that fraudsters claiming to be spiritualists were on the prowl in the state and elsewhere.
He said:? “We have a union that government recognises and we meet from time to time. We don’t have quacks in our union.”