EBUKA OBI: Championing Renaissance of Cosmopolitan Race

Charles Odibo

Aside from Peter Obi, easily the nation’s most regarded politician, he is indubitably the most outstanding person from Igbo land whose name evokes extreme passions. He is not a politician and does not canvass partisan political views, but he is politically savvy. He has the courage of his convictions—from spiritual to temporal. From his Zion Prayer Movement Outreach (ZPMO) pulpit, he fervently teaches Christians to apply the principles of faith from the Bible to their lives. His ministry is marked by deliverance, healing, exuberant music, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and social justice.

But he also canvasses his passionate positions on the fate of his Igbo people, a cosmopolitan race noted for migration, establishing communities worldwide but maintaining strong ties to our heritage. Listening to him, it is evident that he is pained and burdened by the ironic underdevelopment of our homeland, the eroding of our revered culture and values, but above all, the agony of our numerous diaspora brethren whose children are imbibing obnoxious practices such as the perverse LGBTQ. But he is determined to lead a renaissance and surmount all these through his passionate preaching of God’s words in ways only he can do, his “prophecy with instant solutions”, and a stellar commitment to the common good through his Seraphic Foundation.

Born 44 years ago, as a twin, on October 16, into a devout Catholic family of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Obi, in Ubulu-Ihejiofor, Oru West LGA in Imo State, Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi, now more popularly known as Evangelist Ebuka Obi, is a pragmatic servant of God with a following that is unprecedented across the country and beyond.

In the realm of modern Christianity, few figures have garnered as much attention and admiration as Evangelist Ebuka Obi, whose non-denominational ministry he founded in 2009 and which presently has over 170 branches worldwide.

 His remarkable call to serve God is profoundly similar to that of Prophet Samuel’s call as recorded in the Bible (1 Samuel 1-3). According to Ebuka Obi, his mother received a revelation while she was pregnant (with him and his twin brother, Engr. Chinweike) that she would give birth to twin boys and that one of them had been chosen by God to serve him. At the tender age of 8, he started prophesying, and people trooped to his father’s compound from different places in search of him. Like Prophet Samuel, he was spiritually groomed by the late Reverend Father Luke Odikaemerem, a Catholic priest of Orlu Diocese. Late Fr. Odikaemerem extracted a promise from the young Ebuka Obi that he will not leave the Catholic Church, that he will remain celibate until he marries, and that he will faithfully answer God’s call and not be carried away by material possession.

After his education, he went off to Lagos for greener pastures. He apprenticed and got established in the cable business, but his thriving business could not quench the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in him. One morning, he heard a voice echo in his ears, instructing him to shut down his business for full-time evangelism and that he had the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him. Like Prophet Samuel, there was mentorship, obedience, and surrender to God’s will.

But he continues to have his own share of antagonists and naysayers, most especially from his Catholic fold. The opposition became more strident after he announced and implemented his ground-shaking decision to re-locate his ministry’s headquarters in furtherance of what is commonly known in Igboland as “aku ruo ulo.”

That earth-shattering homecoming eventually occurred between Friday, August 23rd, and Sunday, August 25th, a three-day crusade to close out his ministry’s annual 100-day fasting.

Bible commentators, and social media activists have not been able to find the words and phrases to capture the events, the miraculous spectacle, and the multitude that descended on the sleepy Ngor-Okpala community on the outskirts of Owerri, the Imo State capital, from all parts of the globe to witness God’s awesomeness through His servant, Evangelist Ebuka Obi.

That transformational three-day event stirred an already heated social media that now feasts on this Moses of our time, all in a jejune search for relevance. However, there is no better perspective on the growing impact of Ebuka Obi’s ministry on Christendom, especially to Ndi Igbo and Catholicism, than the illuminating disquisition, “On Ebuka Obi and the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit,” by Reverend Father Stan Chu ILO, a chaplain to the Igbo Catholic community in Chicago, USA. “I will group Ebuka’s ministry under the sub-type of popular piety/popular religion/popular Catholicism. The Catholic Directory of Popular Piety and the Liturgy states that these popular expressions of religiosity are “treasures of the people of God,” a “manifestation of their thirst for God,” and render the “poor and the humble” capable of generosity and sacrifice to the point of heroism in testifying to their faith. Pope Francis teaches, “We cannot demand that peoples of every continent, in expressing their Christian faith, imitate modes of expression which European nations developed at a particular moment of their history, because the faith cannot be constricted to the limits of understanding and expression of any one culture.”

Also, in an apparent affirmation of his fidelity to the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, Fr. Ilo added that “I have spoken with two Nigerian Catholic bishops, one of whom told me that Ebuka’s Catholic identity is not in question. One of the bishops said that Ebuka promotes three pillars of Catholic spirituality: (i) Marian devotion, and encourages the praying of the rosary; (ii) mortification through fasting, virginity, celibacy, and abstinence; (iii) Catholic novenas, divine mercy, and the principle of mediation, bible reading, and liturgy of hours are given a new focus through Ebuka’s insistence that his Zion followers pray at certain times of the day.”

Despite his influence and followership beyond the shores of the country, a keen follower of this forthright crusader for the gospel and social justice will observe that his calling is to restore his race, similar to that of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ after the glorious ascension of Jesus Christ. Peter, Christ’s chosen head of the Apostles was sent to the Jews (Galatians 2:7-8) with a focus on Jerusalem and Judea; and Paul, to the Gentiles (non-Jews), focusing on Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. More than eighty percent of Ebuka Obi’s adherents are our Igbo kinsmen and women across the globe.

So, like Saint Pope John Paul II, Ebuka Obi is also using his unique calling to advance the cause of humanity with charity that begins from home. Saint Pope John Paul II played a significant role in championing the fall of communism in his native Poland.

Ebuka Obi has recently moved the headquarters of his sprawling ministry from Lagos to Ngor Okpala in Imo State, a consequential decision that is set to transform the entire region that has been lately set back by insecurity. He is also using his strong moral authority to encourage other Igbo people to follow suit and relocate their investments back home with a promise to do all he can through prayers, prophetic declarations, and other support forms to ensure an end to the insecurity plaguing the region. He regularly makes the case for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from incarceration.

Through his Seraphic Home Foundation, he is providing for the less privileged, the sick, the mentally deranged, and the homeless in society. Evangelist Ebuka Obi built Seraphic Hospital, a world-class medical and maternity center in Lagos. He is currently constructing a massive old people’s home and a psychiatric hospital in Aguleri, Anambra State, which was scheduled to be commissioned on his birthday. Mentally challenged persons across the Southeast will be taken off the streets and admitted to the hospital. All inmates of the home and patients of the hospital will be looked after and treated for FREE. He plans to replicate this project across the five South Eastern States, Delta North, and Rivers East Senatorial districts, respectively.

Evangelist Ebuka Obi’s life and ministry serve as a testament to the power of dedication, passion, and obedience to God’s calling. Through his teachings and leadership, he has impacted countless lives, inspiring a new generation of believers to embrace their purpose and fulfill their destiny. As his multitude of followers celebrate the life and ministry of this charismatic leader, we are reminded of the enduring power of the gospel and the limitless potential of a life surrendered to God and in selfless service.

I join Fr. ILO in his prayer that the “Church in Nigeria will discern properly, truly, and clearly what God is saying to the Nigerian Church through this popular Catholicism vis-à-vis the unmet spiritual hunger, the suffering, uncertainties, fear, and emptiness of our people that is drawing so many people to Ebuka either in person or virtually from all over the world.”

Happy birthday, Evangelist Ebuka and Engr. Chinweike Obi.

Odibo, a marketing and communications practitioner, is a devout Catholic.