7th July, 2019
It was time well spent for the audience on Sunday, June 30 when they had intellectual jousting with the academic, Ebenezer Obadare. The Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas, US, and Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa, was in town – Nigeria, to read from his latest book, ‘Pentecostal Republic’ published in 2018 by Zed Books/University of Chicago Press.
Sunday’s event at Page Bookshop, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos was the first leg of the Nigerian reading from the work as Obadare, a journalist turned academic also read in the nation’s capital, Abuja, on Sunday, July 7.
For almost two hours, the researcher and the audience engaged in a robust engagement on the book and the emergence of Christianity, particularly the Pentecostal brand, as a significant factor in Nigerian politics. While the enlightened attendees, including poet and polemicist, Odia Ofeimun, Executive Editor of TheNews/PM News, Kunle Ajibade, MTN Nigeria’s Funso Aina and political consultant, Wale Adedayo, among others, probed with questions, Obadare’s responses, gave further useful insights into the work and the Pentecostal phenomenon in Nigeria.
However, it wasn’t the usual reading. Because ‘Pentecostal Republic’ is a non-fiction work, the banker and newspaper columnist, Ifeanyi Uddin, who moderated, dispensed with asking the author to read excerpts from the work before taking questions from guests. What Obadare did, instead, was to read a prepared statement that encapsulates the arguments of ‘Pentecostal Republic’ to rejig the memories of those who have read it and whet the appetite of those who haven’t.
“This is the first installment of an anticipated trilogy on the impact of spirituality, especially Pentecostalism on democracy and democratic politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic,” began Obadare any of whose profound statements Uddin had asked the audience not to applaud because “applause wastes time and invite soundbites.”
He continued: “Pentecostal Republic’ advances two complementary ideas. First, I show that on the cusp of the transition from military to democratic rule in 1999, Pentecostalism got into pole position as the dominant expression of Christianity in the country. Second, I argue that having become denominationally triumphant, Pentecostalism pioneered a new attitude towards politics, leading to a transformation in the historical dynamics between theological agents and holders of political power. The very title of the book, ‘Pentecostal Republic’ is an acknowledgement of this transformation and a specific salute to the deep and continuous impression made on politics and the political process in the country by Pentecostalism, not least its increasingly influential cult of pastors.”
The author of ‘Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria’ added that: ‘Pentecostal Republic’ is “a culmination of my years-long research and writing at the intersection of religion, politics and civil society in Nigeria, and the core conceptual content, is consistent with my broader intellectual interest in state-civil society relations, particularly how in a democratising context like ours, the interplay of interest and potentials between theological and political forces, generate alliances and configurations that reshape our political contestation.
“I have been tracking this dynamic since the early 1990s when I was a political reporter during one of the most historic moments in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. Among other incalculable professional benefits, my work as a journalist positioned me to witness how political and religious lines continually crisscross in ways that often confound the traditional divisions that are the bread and butter of academic, social science, and all in the context of an ever-shifting socio-political landscape. As an academic, I’ve carried over the intellectual obsessions triggered by my vantage as a reporter, and I’ve asked two salient questions in my work: how are analysis between political and religious agents generated in the context of the struggle for power? How does a focus on the dynamics of such alliances, deepen our understanding of the democratic process, politics, civil society and secularity?
“Pentecostal Republic is an attempt to answer these and other vital questions about the mutual interplay of political and religious forces, using materials from the chequered history of Nigeria since the return to civil rule in 1999. What makes it different from similar efforts by other scholars who have examined religious politics in Nigeria within the same time frame, is my insistence that Nigerian politics in the Fourth Republic and some will say the society itself, cannot be adequately understood unless refracted through the light of Pentecostalism.
“Pentecostalism, I argue, not only provides the engine that drives politics, the modalities, performances and proclivities of power continue to betray the influence of Pentecostal forces and ideas. In the book, I cite numerous examples to validate this assertion. Although ‘Pentecostal Republic’ is primarily about religious politics amid the competition for state power in Nigeria, I believe that its conceptual ramifications are such that it affords the general reader with interest in religion and politics in general an insight into how, especially against the backdrop to the steady advance of secularisation, religion continues to maintain a grasp on the social imagination.
“Conscious of accusations of inaccessibility that all academics face, I have tried to write a book that the average reader will find approachable while at the same time being mindful not to sacrifice concepts, insights and ideas from the relevant social science literature that will make it palatable for the social scientist.”
The first intervention was by Odia, who remarked that Obadare needed to launch the book properly to make more Nigerians aware of it. He said, “The intent of the writer and the implications that the book has for further discussions on the way we organise our society and our politics is such that one of those properly literate pentecostalists should be the reviewer of this book. Using it as a basis for self-analysis and showing us perhaps a different way forward from what the book says. It does not have to be organised in the Nigerian way that only moneybags enter the picture, but if they enter the picture in my view, that will be quite proper because they did not influence the writing of the book. Now that the book is written, it does not matter if it’s the devil that wants to buy it.”
Odia also recalled that 30,000 copies of Professor Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Man Died’ were bought overnight when it was published. “People bought it partly as a matter of status and to show the world that they are abreast of what’s going on in the country. ‘Pentecostal Republic’ has such a chance. Let’s prepare for the big day,” said Odia to applause from the audience who flouted Uddin’s only ground rule.
Responding, Obadare, who taught at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, before relocating abroaddisclosed that he made all efforts to get a Nigerian edition of the book published but that things didn’t pan out. He said Bankole Olayebi of BookCraft and Mrs LadiOlorunyomi of Premium Times tried their best to get the Nigerian rights to the book to make it accessible to all, but the arrangements failed.
On whether Nigeria has, at last, experienced its Fukuyama Moment, especially with the civil society movement against leading Pentecostal and Senior Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Biodun Fatoyinbo accused of rape by Busola Dakolo, Obadare said he wasn’t sure Nigerians are ready to hold men of the cloth to account yet.
He said, “To the extent that what I think I’ve observed over the last 20 years is a particular sensibility, I wouldn’t say we’ve turned a corner yet. I think it’s a sensibility that has become so dominant, so pervasive, so embellished that it’s going to take a while if ever, we are going to get out of it. I understand what you mean by the response to the COZA pastor, and I think it warms the heart to see that people have started to push back but again, ask yourself is anything going to happen to Pastor Fatoyinbo, I’m going to say no.”
Obadare explained further that his scepticism arose from recent experiences with Pentecostal pastors who appear to get away with all manners of infractions. He cited the building collapse at Prophet TB Joshua’s Synagogue of All Nations where several Nigerians and foreigners died with then President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State going to commiserate with him instead of getting him (Joshua) prosecuted.
On Wale Adedayo’s observation that Pentecostals reached an agreement ahead of the 2015 and 2019 general elections but still didn’t secure victories for the agreed parties and candidates, Obadare said: “One thing I try to stress in the book is that the fact that there’s a Pentecostal constituency does not mean there’s a Pentecostal Vote. In the US, you could talk of an Evangelical Vote. If you press the right buttons, the majority of Evangelicals will vote for you, but I don’t think we are at that point yet. In 2015, Pentecostals didn’t vote for a single candidate because they are, after all, Nigerians who re torn among different identities. They are Pentecostals, but they are also Yoruba. Their regional affiliation, their ideological tendencies, there are people in a government they don’t like; there are people in government that they like. It’s always very difficult to put Pentecostals in one box in regards to that. People don’t always vote the way Pastors want them to vote.”
The author’s response to Kunle Ajibade’s question asking about the exertions he went through researching the book, and if there is anything in the metaphysical experience that is lending itself to the growth of the Pentecostal republic in Nigeria was lengthy and illuminating.
“In 2006, I published an article in ‘The Review of African Political-Economy’ titled ‘Pentecostal Presidency?’ and this was about Chief Obasanjo, 1999-2007. The basic argument I was making in that article is that Obasanjo went to prison as a mainstream Christian, a Baptist and came out as a Pentecostal. He wrote the book, ‘This Animal Called Man’ He started presenting himself as a Pentecostal and that when he got into office, he was first attending service somewhere in Central Abuja and then built a chapel in his office. He made appointments consciously based on whether people were Pentecostal or not.
“When I asked if I had a manuscript I wanted to publish, I said no. I think I attended a conference of the African Studies Association in San Diego. I had a meeting with the Acquisitions Editor, and he said ‘you still haven’t got back to me’. I said something has been brewing. Let me sleep over it. Maybe I will get back to you. After about a couple of months, I did. I wrote a proposal. It was in the process of writing a proposal that the idea formed in my mind; that it’s not just the Pentecostal presidency, but as I argue in the book if you look at the totality of the Fourth Republic, it’s the Pentecostal Republic. This is why the order of succession of chapters in the book has Obasanjo as Pentecostal Presidency; Presidency 1, and there’s what I call The Interregnum of Yar’Adua. Then Pentecostal Presidency 2 and then the Buhari Administration, while not Pentecostal Presidency 3, at least has the mark of Pentecostalism on it with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
“Something is exciting in that. Buhari won at the fourth time of asking. The third time, he must have noticed that something had changed in the water. That was the first time he appointed a Pentecostal to be his running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare. Also, as I argue in the book, the next election, he still knew that the Pentecostal influence was strong, so he went after another Pentecostal in Pastor Yemi Osinbajo. Between 2006 and 2017, the book gradually formed itself in my mind so that when I began to write it, it took me about eight months. As I started writing it, because I had also published several articles on religion and politics, it occurred to me that there was something else to write. So, the next book is ‘My Pastor Says’. It’s about politics and sexuality, and Pastor Fatoyinbo is going to feature prominently in it. I wrote a journal article last year published in ‘Citizenship Studies’ on what I called ‘The Charismatic Porn Star’, and he’s one of the people that I referenced.
“Is there anything in metaphysics that licenses this? It’s a question that you could ask about the mix of the theological and political everywhere, but I think what has happened over the last 20 years, and I’m giving away some of the arguments in the next book is that sociologically something has happened to Nigeria that we need to take account. Let me banalise this; if you picked up the early Guardian. There was a time that if you were a member of the intelligentsia, nobody missed The Guardian. There was a point in Nigeria where the intelligentsia was dominant in terms of shaping the dominant ideas in the universities, in think tanks, the general literati. My argument in the next book is that over the last 20 years, a consistent process of degradation has happened such that the flight of intellectuals from the universities abroad, the creation of a Diaspora abroad, taken together have created a vacuum in the social space in Nigeria. It is that social space that all these pastors and other charlatans have stepped into. Ordinarily, they should be non-entities, but because the intelligentsia has vacated the social space, these people have stepped in. The task for us is to repopulate that space with ideas; not just ideas that are contrary to theirs but ideas that are superior to theirs and to bring back the tradition of critical thinking in our universities.”
Agreeing with Bamidele Johnson’s comment that critical minds that have retreated from the public space needed to be brought back, Obadare stressed that, “We need to return to the argumentative culture. I can’t think of any developed society where universities have not been the drivers of ideas, discussions. We are suffering from the degradation and complete evacuation of our universities; our focus will have to be on taking our universities back and repopulating them with the right personnel, and re-orientating our university.”
Obadare disclosed that he coined the term ‘Charismatic Islam’ while responding to FunsoAina’s remarks about its emergence and the puerile argument advanced by ex-presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati that his principal had a daily quota of Amen he could say following a Pastor’s prayer for regime change with Jonathan in his church.
“I was the one who coined Charismatic Islam. I wrote a paper about four years ago titled ‘The Muslim Response to Pentecostal Resurgence in Nigeria; Prayer and the Rise of Charismatic Islam’ The whole idea was to look at ways in which being very jealous of the success of the Pentecostals, the ways Muslims were responding. They started to pray on Sundays and hold night vigils too. It looked at how they are imitating the repertoires, the devotional strategies of the Pentecostals.
“Given that I started the book with an anecdote about Abati, it would have been an over-kill. Then, when you are writing, certain things are bound to fall through the cracks, but you can always bring it back. I have asked my Secretary to look for it; it is waiting for me in my box. I will use it in the other books.”
On the use of the colourful phrases, ‘Pornographic Piety’ and ‘Ostentatious Modesty’, in work, the researcher on religion and politics, civic engagement, and citizenship in Africa said he was describing Dr Goodluck Jonathan. “He was the very embodiment of self-abjection. He prostituted himself to every religious agent he could find, and it was sickening. I coined Pornographic Piety to make a distinction between piety that is genuine and piety that is for show. Also, he was always kneeling, pray for me your son. I’m a poor Ijaw man; I had no shoes. That’s Ostentatious Modesty, and Jonathan was guilty of that.”
Obadare refused to pass judgement when one of his journalism mentees, Ademola Adegbamigbe asked if Pentecostalism has any positivity or it’s an unmitigated disaster. “I hope that people don’t misread my intent in this book. I’m not looking for the correct version, interpretation of Pentecostalism neither am I interested in the wrong version. That’s not my aim. I’m not a theologian. I’m interested in the impact of Pentecostalism on the social spaces,” he said.
On the reception from Pastors, while collecting data for the book, the author elicited laughter from the audience with his recall of the process. Being that he shares a surname with the late renowned evangelist, Prophet Timothy Obadare of the Christ Apostolic Church, he disclosed that the name was a double-edged sword for him. When he sent a text message requesting an interview to Pastor Daniel Olukoya of Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministry, he got a reply asking if he was related to Obadare instantly. However, after replying in the negative but that they are from the same town, Olukoya clammed up.
He also disclosed how he had to send airtime to the Assistant of another Pastor to have access to him and how he requests for interviews with clerics when they are on the same flight. The heartbreaking development for Obadare, however, is that some Pastors have “metamorphosed into the equivalent of a political big man. What you are dealing with is deep-seated, and again there’s a sense in which the existential situation of the country sort of drives that. Economic insecurity, political insecurity; the fact that people don’t know almost literally what tomorrow would bring; where’s the next meal going to come from, and this sociological agent comes in and says I have got a solution. He’s saying this in the context of the state having abdicated every responsibility that it has to the lives of the people. They are going to believe him.”
The reading spiced generously with hilarious anecdotes throughout, ended on the same note with Obadare thanking the audience for coming and inviting them to the Abuja reading. “If you come, I’ll buy you lunch,” he said tongue-in-cheek before signing autographs.