Guardian

ACT one. Scene one.

They are dressed in white. From their clothes, beads and slippers to the staff in their hands, it is all white.  They are representatives of ifa olokun asoro dayo. While some of them are transfixed somewhere, praying for those who needed a change in their situation, others harass passers-by with their begging…

Act one. Scene two.

His name is Pastor Phillip. He does not preach, he prays. Though he does not collect money from people for the prayer he offers, the people who want answers to their prayer make a commitment and pledge of N100 each…

On this trip from Mile two to Oshodi, which is the second time The Guardian came across ‘Pastor’ Phillip in a bus, he started talking about the wonders of God. Thereafter, he went to vein glorification of how he travelled to London, US and South Africa to evangelise.

Yet, in this bus, he did not preach.

All he did was to criticise pastors who drive sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and have local churches. His popular phrase was: “Jesus went about preaching, he never owned a church or rode in expensive cars. Yet today, many pastors drive in SUVs, have big churches and they see themselves as being superior to those who do no ride in big cars or do not have a big church building.”

After saying this, he went on to ask, “what is the difference if I preach in a molue or in a church?”

Perhaps, out of pride, he went on to tell everybody in the vehicle that he did need their money to preach the gospel, as God will provide for him. But he soon reached moment of anagnorisis, when after his prayer, he could not get 14 people to contribute N100 each to finance his transportation to Iseyin for ministration.

Unlike our first encounter when he got more people above the 14 he wanted, this time around, there were just seven who gave out N100 each. Not reaching the 14 he wanted, he changed tactics and said that he would want more people to benefit from the grace. He kept lowering his ‘cut-off point’ until he got to N20. 

BEGGING is the calling in the country today, so to say. People have adopted begging as the Holy Grail. And it is a thriving business! In a bid to survive, everybody adopts different strategy to make a living. Nigerians now think up new ideas and means to make money. You doubt? Go to the streets and major bus stops and you’ll get the corporate, ‘mama’ and young beggars. Creativity is deployed. And like Obey Boderin’ noted, they are all fine bara.

In the past, beggars move from one place to another in twos or threes, with bowls in their hands, soliciting for alms. People with one form of challenge or the other — visually and hearing impaired, physically challenged and those with speech impediment — were involved. Then, it was mainly people from a section of the country.

In those days, beggars went on strike like Aminata Sow Fall noted. Reverse is the case these days. It is not restricted to any section of the country, neither is it the prerogative of physically challenged nor visually impaired.

And like law, journalism, banking and accounting, some Nigerians have made begging a profession, but with no professional certification. These are people who claim to be representatives of God and gods. They are clerics, pastors, evangelists and priests of local deities.

They claim to have been called by God to preach the gospel in the bus. These people move from bus to bus evangelising. Though they have not chosen the seaside or bar beach as venue of their evangelism, like the prophets in Wole Soyinka’s The Trial of Brother Jero, they are prophets by birth and by inclination.

Bus evangelism came about when churches, in their bid to ‘depopulate’ hell, created different ministries, especially evangelism, with the bus section emerging from such arm.

As a result, churches send out people on evangelism. The mandate is to move from bus to bus evangelising, preaching and win souls for Christ.

Most of these people preach in buses when they are either going to or coming from work or on work free days.

After preaching, they give out tracts and books to help build the spiritual life of those who have received the message. They do not ask for contribution to keep the ministry moving as the local churches that they represent cater for their expenses.

But today, many now move from bus to bus preaching the gospel with no church affiliation. They claim to be commissioned bus evangelists, so, they have no specific congregation and church building.

The passengers in the buses they join are their congregation. After sharing the word of God, they call for offering to keep the ministry moving.

When the idea of collecting money after preaching in buses was condemned, they changed tactics. They started giving out tracks or small booklets that were usually received free from bible societies abroad. They then ask people to donate towards the book project.

They claim that in order to get more, they need financial support. The books usually have no fixed rate and there are times they tell people to give generously so that they can get more money to buy more for others.

OTHERS who beg in the name of gods, but do not move from bus to bus are traditionalists. There are usually two categories, the masquerades and those who are usually dressed in all white or red.

For the masquerades, they move in groups requesting for money from passers-by. In local parlance, masquerades are heavenly bodies (ara orun) that have or should have limited interaction with mere earthly mortals, but today, they walk the streets begging for money and even giving balance to people who needed to collect them.

Some of these masquerades are very violent in their approach. They move around with long canes and sticks, compeling everybody to give money. On a daily basis, you can find them at Mushin Busstop and its environ.

For those women dressed in white, the pedestrian linking Oshodi and Ilupeju is usually their base.

Another group are those who claim to be Islamic scholars. They usually go to mosques to say they are on spiritual journey, but stranded, and thus, they need financial support.

According to Femi Ige, he does not give out money to any of the groups because he would be encouraging laziness. Ige said, “many who claim to be bus evangelists do not believe what they preach.” He added that he was surprised to see the man who preached in a bus he once rode days after in a drinking shark. “God, I couldn’t believe my ‘bus pastor’ was in an ogogoro joint.”

For Ige, “many of those who claim to be bus evangelists are doing so because they do not have a living or lost their jobs or business, and so, only use the bus evangelism to survive.”

Deborah Akide, however, does not see anything wrong in that. She said, “if you believe what they preach, then give them. They are not forcing out money from anybody’s pocket. It is a free will giving.”

Pastor Amadi Iheanacho also shares Ige’s opinion. According to him, he does not give money to bus evangelists let alone those who claim to be representatives of deities. He said that most times, he does not listen to the messages from these bus evangelists because he does not believe them.

According to him, preaching in buses should be a calling and a step towards fulfilling the commandment of God that all saved souls should evangelise. “If any chooses to go out to preach, he should not ask for offering or any support because it is not a church,” he said.

Narrating an incident he witnessed recently, Iheanacho said, “after preaching, the evangelist gave out a leaflet with an envelope inserted to passengers in the bus. One of the passengers took the leaflet, but returned the envelope without putting money in it. This made the bus evangelist to be annoyed, wondering and querying why the man returned the envelope empty after picking the leaflet.

“If you chose to be a bus evangelist, then you must have a source of finance that will help you promote the calling. But if somebody preaches in the bus and you are touched and decides to voluntarily give the person money as sowing a seed is a different scenario.”

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Management Services, University of Lagos, Prof. Duro Oni, commenting on those who claim to be representatives of gods and go about begging for money, said that it is a bastardisation of what the culture stands for.

“People should get creative at what they do and not use culture as tool for begging because it gives outsiders the wrong signal about our culture whereas our culture is a much richer tool in terms of material and non-material.”

On steps to check these activities, the theatre arts teacher said that it requires enlightenment especially from the grassroot.

The former DG of CBAAC said that traditional rulers and community leaders should discourage people from engaging in such acts.

Mr. Segun Adedeji, a born-again Christian, said that every true Christian is an evangelist because that is the commandment from God. He further said that anybody who goes about preaching outside the church is only fulfilling why he is called a Christian. This to him is why nobody should claim to be a full time evangelist but when a person is, such should be sent by a church to engage in full time evangelism, which should also cater for all the logistics.

According to him, the church should rise up and check the activities of people who are painting the church in bad light in the face of other religious bodies.

To him, many who are not Christians would wonder what the religion has turned to.

Adedeji said that though such practices are in other religions but the one that is perpetrated by those who claimed to be Christians are worse off and ridicule the faith that should be the guiding light.

He called on the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) to partner with government to stop the act.

On her part, the President of International Congress of Orisa Congress, Lagos State Chapter, Ebun Osunnike, condemned those who claim to be traditionalists and go around town begging because it is against the tenet of the religion.

“True, there are some people that go about parading themselves as Orisa worshipers. They are dressed in white and they sit in public places begging for money. These people are not part of us. It is not Yoruba Culture to beg for money. It is not even in the tenets of Orisa worship. It is completely unacceptable.

“You don’t beg for money. You work with you hands. This is what the Orisas instruct us to do, though there is a certain deity that instructs his followers to go and ask for money and pray for those who give. However, this comes up at a particular season and when that season is past, you cannot continue to do it as if you are a beggar.

“It is totally against the religious inclination of Orisa Worship to turn oneself into a beggar and be begging in the name of religion. I have trained several priestesses. You cannot find them begging for money. Those who are doing that have deviated from tradition,” she said.