Former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, has advised the Catholic church to transfer Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka to the Sambisa forest, the alleged Boko Haram headquarters.
He said this in response to the cleric’s reaction to his transfer to serve as assistant priest in another parish.
In his latest article entitled “Mbaka: Priest, politician or renegade?” Abati wondered why Mbaka was complaining about the posting instead of quietly abiding by the decision of higher authorities.
Mbaka had lamented thus: “I’m going to suffer because I have no place to put my head. I am going to suffer because I have no place to keep the Adoration Ministry’s assets…The Adoration Ministry is passing through suffering right now even though I’ve accepted that it is the will of God. Is the will of God through suffering? It is a mega suffering.
“The quantum of the assets of the Adoration Ministry is the only thing I am bothered about for now. Where am I going to keep them? I am going to stay in one small room that has only one small bed, one small table, little toilet and bathroom. So where am I going to keep all the Adoration assets?”
Abati, noting that the priest talked as if had been sentenced to a jail term, described Mbaka as all-round entrepreneur in church garments.
Continuing, “Mbaka’s transfer to a smaller parish should remind him of the essence of his priestly vows: humility, simplicity, obedience, sacrifice, as well as commitment to the good of the church rather than individual heroism, values which can truly make him a priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
“Let him therefore, suffer if he must, and let his suffering be a blessing upon the poor and the Church, and if he as much as whimpers again, let him be posted post-haste to Sambisa forest, where the poor are in urgent need of miracles.”​