By Vincent Ujumadu
Anambra-based Charismatic priest, Rev Fr Emmanuel Obimma, popularly called Ebube Muonso, is the founder of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Idemili North local government area of the state. He is also the Parish Priest of Blessed Iwene Tansi Parish, Umudioka, Dunukofia local government area of Anambra State. Fr Obimma has been an ordained priest for 15 years, even though his popularity appears to be larger than the number of years he has worked in the Lord’s vineyard.
In this interview, Fr Ebube Muonso talks about his ministry, his life in the seminary and how he finances the numerous educational institutions he runs, both within and outside the country.
Some people say you were a stubborn person in the seminary. Can you narrate your experience during your formative years?
My actions in the seminary never negated the norms of morality and I have never gone against the will of God. My actions helped me to grow to become who I am. In some of my reports during my formative years, they would write ‘stubborn seminarian but he is open’. I don’t hide my feelings and I don’t know whether this is a good attribute or a negative one. I say things the way I feel and so, formators might have seen me as someone who wanted to grow or someone who wanted to improve. One thing about me is that I don’t tell lies and I carried it into the seminary. I would always own up to whatever I did and it has been my lifestyle right from my childhood. If my parents wanted to know about the truth , they would always ask me.
The only regret I have is that I would have given more time to learning more languages. Now that we are carrying out evangelism across the world, we are limited by language barriers. For instance, when I travel to Spain, I speak in English and someone has to interprete in Spanish. Same thing when I travel to some African countries, like Cameroon or Togo. In such situations, I say to myself, how I wish I could speak all these languages.
What was the driving force towards the establishment of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry?
It is providential. When I was a newly ordained priest, I didn’t have the intention of starting a ministry. My vision was to be a classroom lecturer. My intention was to obtain a PhD and continue teaching to become a professor because I love teaching. But when I was posted to St Dominic’s Church, Uke, the place was very dry. There was no motorable road. They had electricity which usually came after a long period of darkness. As a newly ordained priest, I was just excited that I had become a priest. Because of the life I cultivated as a theologian, I don’t visit people. Normally as newly ordained priests, we loved enjoying our new cars and visiting friends.
But because I started driving cars from my Philosophy years in the Senior Seminary because I have successful brothers who bought me a car, I was never moved by such material things. Even during my ordination, they gave me Honda Acura jeep and I was the highest in our set. Before becoming a priest, I also had other cars. After the ordination, I was posted to Uke and the only thing that gave me joy was to stay before the Blessed Sacrament to pray and read the word of God.
When people discovered that I usually stayed behind to pray after the morning Mass, they started joining. During holidays, people would come to join me to pray and after a while when I turned back, I would still notice that many of them were still there to adore Jesus. I read the word of God and prayed for them and sprinkled the holy water.
One day during our prayers, a little girl who was deaf and dumb started speaking. When the miracle came, the girl became excited and ran to the market. Her mother was in the market and she started calling, Mama, Mama, Jesus!. Her mother was shocked and her sister, and other people started trooping to the church. I didn’t even know what happened. They were like an angry mob coming into the church and when I saw them, I ran into the alter. They carried the girl and they were glorifying God. Before I knew what was happening, the news spread.
There was another one at Borromew Hospital, Onitsha where I was called to pray for someone who was sick. By the time I got to the place, the man had died and was being carried to the mortuary. I consoled the family and, as I was leaving, I had a voice that said, but you didn’t pray for him; go and pray for him. It was so jarring to my ear, So I ran back. That was on a Friday and the Borromew Chaplaincy was conducting stations of the cross.
I was with my bible and I shouted on the mortician to wait. I approached the coffin and hit the Bible on it and said get up in the name of Jesus and the young man sat up. When members of the family started shouting, the people doing the stations of the cross were distracted and everyone rushed to the scene to see what happened. I couldn’t stand the scene and after sprinkling holy water, I ran away. When people started hearing these things, they started coming to Uke.
So don’t listen to those who say there is no miracle. Because of the kind of things happening now, many disgruntled elements are dragging the name of God and the body of Christ to the mud. If you come to the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry on daily basis here in Nigeria, America and across Europe, you see the power of God. People say that miracle happened in the old, no, the miracle of the old is little compared to what is happening now. God is indeed a miracle worker, but He is looking for a vessel who has that faith. Don’t listen to anybody trying to trivialize the power of God because He is a miracle worker. In fact one of the things that makes me to pray more is when I see evidence of God’s blessings.
There was also this miracle at Heathrow Airport two years ago where we arrived for a connecting flight and there was this couple that went for a honeymoon and the young man slumped and the wife was crying for help. Nobody was disposed to assist and as a priest, I couldn’t just pass him just like that. The young man had lost breath and I prayed to God to come and do something again. I opened his mouth, put breath on him and called on the Holy Ghost and he woke up. Those around were looking at us from afar and after a while policemen appeared and someone said that if the man hadn’t regained consciousness, I would have been in trouble. I thanked God for what happened.
How do you fund your projects in the ministry?
People would just approach me and say they are ready to contribute. I have had someone drop a cheque of N1 billion and we have some projects springing up. For instance, we are building an international hospital and a school of nursing at Uke. I have in mind of bringing some Indians into the country to assist in running the hospital. I travel a lot and anywhere I see something good, I try to bring it here for the betterment of humanity. Once that hospital starts functioning, it will minimize the rate at which Nigerians travel out for medical treatment. Those sophisticated treatments will soon be handled locally at highly reduced cost.
Is there a possibility that you will be allowed to concentrate on your ministry work, instead of being transferred to parishes?
I am a Diocesan priest and it is left at the discretion and direction of my Bishop. I took the vow of obedience and once the Bishop posts me to any place, I will obey and pack my things to the new place of assignment. So I am a priest under the Archdiocese of Onitsha under the direction of my Bishop.
Do teachers in your schools have opportunities of receiving further trainings while working?
The church is in continuous formation which grants the priests the opportunity to learn more to give them more value to be able to meet with the signs of the time. I also adopted the same strategy in line with the church’s principle. Those who returned from abroad bring the template which we adopt and other teachers will key in. For instance, by December, some of our teachers will be traveling to United Kingdom for a conference that will expose them to modern educational systems. We spend millions to ensure that they acquire this knowledge. I believe that the moment one stops reading and learning, he becomes stagnated. That is what our counterparts don’t know. You have to spend to get results and when you get the result, you recuperate. In our schools, there are many foreign students.
You also run a scholarship programme. How many people are the beneficiaries?
Every year we write scholarship exams and as of last year, we have about 580 students on our scholarship in our schools. There are many others in the various universities. Our American members are helping us a lot to sustain these scholarships.
How do you handle criticisms that come with running a ministry of this nature?
To the glory of God, I have never been associated with any scandal. Most often, people give interpretations for the things they don’t know and there is no need wasting time to explain to such people. A canal man can never understand the things of the spirit. And I owe nobody any explanation. The things of the spirit are different from the things of flesh. Criticism will not stop and most often when you check those critics, you find out that they are doing it to be relevant. Such people are usually idle. A man you are criticizing is busy planning his next outreach and daily activities. Those people are merely looking for Facebook money.
Some people say that church is a scam. What is your opinion on this?
Church is not a scam. When you check the background of those people, they are already on the ground and they are people who have no value in the society. They are charlatans. Those who have myopic mentality are easily deceived. It is true that the passion to worship God has diminished, but there are still authentic radical believers in Europe and America. If you watch most of the visits by the Pope, the arena is always filled to capacity. Those people who say that the church is a scam are only looking for a way to console themselves.
There is also the saying that poor people contribute money through offerings to build schools, but their children cannot afford to attend such schools because of the exorbitant fees. What do you say about that?
Don’t mind such people. Church offerings cannot build one primary school and cannot even pay workers. If you see anybody running big ministry, he is not servicing the ministry from the offerings of the congregation. The offering cannot even fuel the generators used to run church programmes. Some Catholics, for example, send their children to Pentecostal schools and pay millions because they want the best for their children. If you reduce the standard of the school, you won’t see them.
There were people who were crying of money and we cancelled their fees in our schools, but to our greatest surprise, when these children finished, their parents sent them to the costliest universities in Nigeria. In fact, the highest philanthropic organization is the church. Anything you cannot get from the church, you cannot get it anywhere else. Many priests are living for the church, including my Archbishop who is highly subsidizing education.
What is your view about the allegation that some men of God arrange fake miracles?
Some men of God, in trying to be relevant, falsify things. But I am not sure that a validly ordained Catholic priest would arrange miracle. In the Catholic Church, there are massive miracles. Even if that priest is not into a prayer ministry, once Jesus Christ is enthroned and you go and pray, the miracle will come. Maybe some of those people may have seen one or two things, but some of them are defeated in life and are only trying to see an avenue to vent their anger and grievances somewhere else.
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