The prophet is simply defined
as God’s spokesman or
woman. In the Old Testa-
ment Bible, as mouthpiece
of God, the prophets were concerned
with social justice. From Amos,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel down to John the
baptist and Jesus, this role remained
recurrent.
The prophets, therefore, do not
shy away from politics, because the
functioning of the society depends so
much on it. The prophets are, simply
put, the guard flies of the society, for
both the leaders and the followers.
They do not just foretell how the
mighty will triumph over the weak or
vice versa. They are not just like for-
tune tellers who predict lotto results.
We notice that the role of Prophet
Nathan was not to foretell that David
will kill Uriah and take his wife Bath-
sheba or that the son of Bathsheba,
Solomon, would become the future
King of Isreal but rather to condemn
the sinful acts of David.
John the Baptist did not just proph-
esy that Herod will kill his brother
Philip and possess his wife. His mis-
sion was to condemn the wicked deed
of the king.
The duty of the prophets is to weigh
every human action, revealed or not,
in the scale of God’s justice and love.
If actually Fr Mbaka saw any
revelation, like he claims, his duty
should have been to see the revelation
in the light of God’s justice and to
have warned those concerned on the
consequences of injustice, wickedness
and sin.
Prophets are God’s spokesmen and
women and not allies and mouthpiece
of politicians. A prophet reveals the
will of God to the people and does
not sanction the evil plans of dictators
who disrespect and hijack the will of
the people for selfish, partisan or tribal
interests.
In the Bible, prophets who do this
were called the false prophets.
“And her prophets have smeared
whitewash for them, seeing false
visions and divining lies for them,
saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when
the Lord has not spoken.” Cf. Ezekiel
22.28.
One of such false prophets was
named Hananiah. “Then the prophet
Jeremiah said to Hananiah the proph-
et, Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not
sent you, yet you persuaded this nation
to trust in lies.” (Jeremiah 28:15).
Rather than anointing Buhari as
God’s chosen one, a prophet like
Jeremiah would have warned who
ever that might be victorious on the
consequences of injustice, corruption,
nepotism and hate.
An Ezekiel would have seen the plans
to remove Emeka Ihedioha from the
prism of the people’s mandate and
equity because Nigeria practices a de-
mocracy and not a theocracy. It is the
people who chose their leaders. They
are not imposed by God.
The role of the prophet in a demo-
cratic dispensation is to insist that vote
counts, that the will of the people is
not hijacked.
The duty of the prophet in an elec-
tion marred with rigging, thuggery,
violence, over-voting, under-aged vot-
ing, corrupt electoral body, corrupt
judiciary, arson, and killing is not to
predict who would be able to out-rig
the other or bulldoze his or her way
through but to draw the attention of
everyone to equity and fair play.
A prophet should therefore not
anoint or favour one candidate
against the other.
His duty is to consistently, even at
the risk of his life, in all things and
from everyone, demand for justice
without which peace, progress and
establishment of God’s Kingdom on
earth would be unattainable.
