Faith or Fraud: Troubling trend of divine merchandising in religious centres – Guardian editorial

In recent times, the idea of faith-based merchandise has surged in Nigeria, with many seeking miraculous solutions to their personal struggles.

As a result, the intersection of faith and commerce has become increasingly pronounced with many individuals visiting religious centres in the country, where they are offered different spiritual items for solutions to their challenges. In this report, GBENGA SALAU scrutinises these practices by religious centres, questioning the true cost of spiritual hope as well as the complex relationship between belief, desperation, and financial exploitation.

Adebukola has been visiting a Christian centre in Warri, Delta State, in the last five years for a solution to her inability to conceive after a decade of marriage.

And within the last five years, she has visited the centre at least once in two months from Lagos, but no solution yet. This is aside spiritual exercises she was made to undergo every time she visited that included washing of feet at N100,000.

She was also made to buy church branded oil, soap, as well as ‘I must carry my Samuel’ t-shirt and blanket, at a price, that is, sometimes, about 500 to 1000 per cent higher to a similar item in the open market.

For instance, a bottle of 25cl miracle water is sold for N3000 when a 75cl bottle of water is sold for N200 in the open market.

Everything sold within the church premises are special including the fruits, for those seeking solutions to one ailment or the other, though there is no difference in terms of quality of the merchandise except for the church branding them to make them look sacred.

Although Adebukola has not given up on getting pregnant through the centre in Warri but many Nigerians, who have patronised such religious centres and bought their items often do not get disenchanted after trying out those with no result.

Most times, they move from one centre to another, as the spiritual leaders often put the blame on them for not having the appropriate dose of faith to receive their miracles.

However, a recent incident that has generated a lot of buzz online and offline is the controversy around the sale of faith-based items by the founder and head prophet of Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry, Delta, Jeremiah Fufeyin and a social media influencer, Martins Otse, popularly called VeryDarkMan.

Fufeyin, who during a Facebook live session titled ‘The importance of spiritual items of God’, launched miracle soap, perfume, spiritual shirt and mustard seed, disclosing that each of the items has healing potency to many ailments and lives’ troubles.

Speaking specifically about the miracle soap, the prophet said it is so powerful that it could cure any disease aside from delivering those facing disappointment, failure, and delays in achieving their life goals.

“This soap, I call it miracle soap. The book of Psalm 50, verse 7 says that there are some people who, when they visit their helpers’ houses, after entering, the helpers soon avoid them. When a baby is born, it emits a more pungent smell than anything else. Our mothers traditionally use water and oil to cleanse them, which is physical cleaning, but they overlook the spiritual aspect.

“When somebody has body odour, you don’t like to stay with the person. People are now being rejected by their helpers because they have never considered the spiritual aspect of washing their bodies. Now, with this soap (miracle soap), all you need is to back it up with the word of God. The handkerchief, the olive oil you see that people were using, and the word of God that backs it up matter a lot. So, some people need to wash their bodies, which smell against their destinies. Many people use all kinds of creams but still emit an odour spiritually,” Fufeyin said.

But days after Fufeyin unveiled the new line of spiritual items, Otse called him out, questioning the efficacy of such items to deliver on what the cleric claimed.

Thereafter, Fufeyin threatened and instituted a court case which he withdrew, but before the matter was discontinued by Fufeyin, Otse also called on the regulatory agency, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to perform its oversight role on the matter.

Worthy of mention is that the religious centre founded by Fufeyin is not the only one offering spiritual items. There are many religious centres in the country offering one faith-based item or the other for solutions to human ailments and life struggles to visitors and worshipers at exorbitant prices because they are marketed as having solutions to all problems.

While some of them are audacious like Fufeyin offering their products on social and traditional media, especially on radio, many others are not, but they do it through words of mouth and leaflets, which are distributed within communities.

While the regulatory agency, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has shown interest in the case of Fufeyin, there are many religious centres still engaging in the practices of unregulated act of offering faith-based merchandise to people.

Commenting, a resident, Deborah Adebanjo, said her friend often travelled to Warri to purchase anointing water for large sum of money.

According to Adebanjo, despite this, her friend has not received answers to challenges that drive her to Warri, “she even tried to convince me to join her in visiting the spiritual place, pledging to defray the transport and other costs that would arise.”

Adebanjo disclosed that her friend informed her that she usually pay gate fee to enter the church for those coming from outside Warri, they also pay to stay in the church hostel and expected to eat in the church cafeteria.

In countries where governance’s failure is very evident, many often see religious centres as places to receive healing for different forms of ailments instead of visiting hospitals. And this is more prevalent in third world countries including Nigeria.

Commenting on the growing prevalence of this act among clerics, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji of University Baptist Church, Gwagwalada, Abuja, said that the commercialisation of miracles and healing has become an issue because of the social media.

“We have those who see ministry as a business and this is not peculiar to Christianity alone. Every religion has fake or those who are playing on the gullibility of the people. Those who are patronising them are ignorant of the scriptures. The government shouldn’t be dragged into the matter otherwise it will lead to government’s intervention or monitoring.”

Oladeji stated that the relevant security agencies can only intervene if these centres engage in unlawful practices or criminalities.

Also speaking on the issue, Convener, Apostolic Round Table (ART), Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi, noted that the very sad reality is that charlatans without skills and education have found a means of survival within Christendom.

“It is a general knowledge that our economy took the downturn since the 1980s, same season has witnessed an influx of all kinds of people into the Christian ministry.”

He stated that it is almost difficult to tell those who are truly called by God from those who heard the voice of instinct for their survival.

“Members of this latter group are the oil, handkerchief, soap and anything sellable proponents. The gospel message to them is never enough.”

Akinyemi also agreed that it is an unfortunate trend with many caught by the snare of materialism and need more than just the gospel to sustain their craving.

“Both the organised institution of the Church, like Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), among others, and the government must sit down to find a solution to this unpleasant situation.”

Akinyemi, nonetheless, noted that there have always been false prophets since time immemorial, but their operations were strictly spiritual.

“We all agreed that the economic downturn has led to a rise in the activities of false prophets and teachers whose activities are commercial in nature.”

He, however, argued that the failure of government has worsened the situation, especially as the collapse of health facilities in the country has left people with such options as patronising spiritual materials for their cure.

The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) is one of the umbrella bodies for religious centres in Nigeria. The National Public Relations Officer, Bishop Emma Isong, was asked why it seems the PFN seems not bothered to rein in on clerics involved in the activities of selling faith-based items to worshipers and visitors to receive miracles.

Isong maintained that aside that every incident affecting religious centres must be treated in isolation to avoid false generalisation, there are thousands and millions of diversities of dogmas, practices and doctrines of different charismatic, Pentecostal and orthodox churches across Nigeria.

He added that those idiosyncratic characteristics of practices and differentiality of beliefs cannot be tied down to one answer. “Therefore, everybody goes to eat in his mother’s kitchen. And most churches often called Pentecostal churches are not members of the PFN.”

He further said that because those churches do not belong to PFN, they cannot be regulated by its medium of control as it applies only to member churches.

He also stated because there is freedom of religion and practices, there is a little that the PFN can do to caution some of the churches.

“The constitution gives freedom of religious practice; that means you can worship stick, stone, moon, or star. And the same constitution also gives somebody human rights to defend his practice.”

Isong, nonetheless, maintained that despite the constitutional provision, what the PFN believes in is that if Mr. A or B breaches the constitution, it should be treated as a civil/ criminal issue, and not as a religious issue, because it is no more a religious practice.

“If it is a criminal affair, the religious leader must be prosecuted in the light of the relevant provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“In developed nations, the laws apply to everyone without prejudice to religious, traditional or social biases. For instance, if Bishop XYZ rapes a six-year-old baby, it is no more because he is Bishop XYZ, it is no more a religious issue. No! It is treated as a criminal case, the state versus Bishop XYZ. It is the same thing if a lawyer rapes a child. It is never an issue of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA). We must stop using religion as a cover, or using religion as a target to attack.

“It is purely a government and legal issue that has to do with the jurisdiction of the law. Nigerian laws are sufficient enough. Criminal courts are sufficient enough to prosecute any criminal despite his religious, traditional, or doctrinal prejudices.”

Isong insisted that members of PFN don’t practice merchandising of spiritual items and if a member does, such would be identified for rebuke or discipline.

“But if non-members of PFN practice those things, we don’t have the authority of the law to jump out of our jurisdiction. Or else, the PFN can be sued for unlawful interference. So, it falls back to the law and the government.”

On his part, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Dada Oyinloye, stated that the pastors of ministry engaging in such activities lacked the true understanding of the fundamentals of the Christian ministry.

He further said that the Christian ministry is not a money-making venture but for soul winning for the Lord.

On ways to curb religious leaders engaging in such activities, Oyinloye argued that neither the government nor the church can stop these practices as long as there are gullible adherents ever-ready to consult these charlatans.

“The only way to address this problem is to go back to the Bible. If you know the truth, you shall be set free. Teaching the truth of the Word of God is the only remedy because ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge’ that is the knowledge of God’s word.”

Also speaking, the Chairman of Lagos State Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bishop Stephen Adegbite, said that there are two types of ministers, there are pastors that call themselves, while there are others that God called.

“If God called you, you would do the will of God. But if you call yourself, you would do your own will and wishes. So, for anybody to be selling things in the house of God like water, or having a well, soap, and offering different things for sale as healing items, those ones are not men of God. They are only looking for what to eat

“And they can never make headway with it, because God that called you is a God that his name is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our provider. He is the one that will provide for you if truly He called you. And you do not need to be smart with God. God knows your end from your beginning.

“And you cannot find all those nonsense and madness in the Orthodox churches. We dare not go into such. But all these one-man churches, there is nothing they cannot do. And it is not that CAN is not taking any action on them. But it is only people who are members of CAN that there activities can be regulated by CAN. But if you are not members of CAN, which some of them, it is not even some; most of them are not members of CAN. So, there is nothing that CAN want to do with them. Because they are the almighty in their churches, they are the one in all and they are the all.”

Adegbite added that many of the religious centres allegedly practicing the offering of spiritual items for a fee for healing and miracle are thriving because Nigerians are gullible.

“That is why they capitalise on their psyche. And they deceive people to exploit our people. Because salvation is free, miracle is free; you do not need to pay for it. The bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, every other things shall be added onto you. It is not will, but it is shall be added onto you, it is commanding and very strong word.

“So, if you see anybody selling anything, those ones are not members of CAN, they cannot try it if they are members of CAN because we have a way to reprimand such individuals.”

Adegbite said that CAN will continue to speak against such act whenever they meet and in the society, so that people will know that CAN is not keeping quiet.

“But we have a limit to people and the so-called churches. I do not even believe that they are churches aside that they are not members of CAN. They are just making money in their homes and religious centres. If it is a church of God, it will reflect the tenets of Christ and Christianity, but if it is not, anything goes.

“However, Nigerians are gullible. They will go to where they have fake miracles, where they stage-managed miracles. And they will be given whatever in the name of healing and miracle. But for us, we will continue to do our best to sanitize the body of Christ by the special grace of God.”

On the claim by some Nigerians that government failure contributes to why some Nigerians patronise these religious centres for treatment and healing for their ailments that could be treated in hospitals because the country’s healthcare system is in parlous state, Adegbite disagreed.

He said that many who visit the spiritual centres often pay more to get treated than if they had visited healthcare centres.

“Some of them pay more money in churches than in hospitals. If you go to a church, it is what the prophet tells you, you will do now. I want to tell you the number of things these people are made to buy are much and expensive. You will then discover that if you go to the conventional hospital, you won’t pay as much.”

Adegbite further said that there is a need to educate the people to use the hospital to get treated, as not everything that happens to them is a product of spiritual attack.

“It is a very bad philosophy that once some Nigerians have an ailment, they link it to spiritual attack. And I tell people, somebody has cancer, you say it is an attack, which attack. You should go and treat the root of cancer. So, don’t label any sickness or illness to be an attack from the family or from the mother.”

The CAN Chairman said that many of these prophets are deceitful in the bid to proffer answers to people’s challenges.

“They will tell you that the person that is behind your problem is not tall or short; not fair or dark in complexion. So, what is the size now? What is the colour? Thus, people should know that they are just playing on their intelligence.

“But that will be for a while. You cannot fool all the people all the time. You can only fool some people for some time,” Adegbite maintained.