Peter Obi: My intention is not to malign Peter Obi – Fr Mbaka begs for forgiveness

The spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Enugu, Reverend Father Carmilius Ejike Mbaka, has taken back his scathing remarks about the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi.

The cleric who dismissed the former Anambra governor’s 2023 presidential bid as a failed project because of what he described as the candidate’s stinginess last Wednesday, retracted his position on Friday following heavy criticisms from the public and the Catholic church.

In a statement he personally signed, Fr. Mbaka, whose anti-Obi remarks had also been denounced by the Catholic Diocese of Enugu, in a letter quite generously circulated in the social media, explained that he did not mean to undermine Obi.

Mbaka’s statement read in part:
“I am a servant of God and my intention is not to malign His Excellency, Peter Obi’s image, but to pray for him. May God’s will be done in his life. I pray to God whom I serve to give our beloved people good and excellent leaders who will take care of them and lead them to the promised land.”

“Anyone who God wishes to make our leader is my choice. In this vein, I give my blessings to the supporters of His Excellency Peter Obi. In any way they feel offended by my utterances or however I was misunderstood by them, I ask for their understanding and forgiveness. As a servant of the Most High God, I pray that it shall be well with my people. I am an ardent supporter of good governance, justice, equity, love and godliness.

“At this time our people are passing through the valleys of shadows of death (Ps 23.4), I pray for peace, love and anything that will bring blessings and favour to our people and to our suffering teaming youths (sic). I will always stand with you in all your ordeals. God will take care of you and bless you miraculously for me.

“My intention is not to fight or malign Mr Obi. May God bless him and his good supporters. God’s will be done in his political endeavours (Mk.14:36)

“The followers of Peter Obi are the same youths I am praying for, sacrificing for, fighting for, speaking for and working for their integral well being. What the youths are passing through and their conditions give me sleepless nights. It is for this reason that I yearn for good governance and worthy leaders that will take care of them. We are passing through indescribable, unbearable and undeserved hardship in this country.

“I pray for Divine intervention. I am not in any political party but I support good people and good governance. Any good person that God can give us is my choice candidate. I am a servant of God. For the sake of peace, I ask for forgiveness in any way I am misunderstood. And to Peter Obi himself, I ask God to bless him and manifest his will in his life. When God says Yes, who can say No? And when God says No, who can say Yes? I bless Peter Obi and pray for him. I bless my dear fellow Adorers and pray for them. I bless the people of God everywhere and I pray that it shall be well with you all.

Mbaka also seized the opportunity to announce alterations to his ministry’s programmes.

It will be recalled that Mbaka stirred the hornets’ net last Wednesday when he declared that his apology over his derogatory comments against Peter Obi, prior to the 2019 general elections, was done “under duress,” at the behest of his bishop whom he claimed, indeed, forced him to do it.

Obi, who was Atiku Abubakar’s presidential running mate in the election, had, in the buildup to the election, visited Mbaka’s ministry during which he refused to openly donate money to the ministry in spite of the cleric’s insistence. This stance incensed the cleric who angrily declared, in response, that Obi and his party would lose the presidential election.
Atiku and Obi eventually lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress presidential incumbents, President Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo.
Mbaka was to later apologise to Obi, an action he, in a video that went viral last Wednesday, claimed he did unwillingly, having been forced by his bishop to do so.

He said his apology was a poisonous curse against Obi, going on to describe the former Anambra state governor as “a stingy man that cannot give people his money.”

Mbaka declared that those supporting Obi’s presidential ambition for the 2023 elections were wasting their money because Obi can never become Nigeria’s president.

According to him, “I should not have talked but I saw my video going around everywhere as if Fr. Mbaka wholeheartedly came out and apologised. No, I didn’t apologise wholeheartedly. It was out of duress. I had to obey my bishop; not of my volition. I did it because I am a Catholic priest.’”

Mbaka boasted further: “If he is wise, he should have come here after that apology to say he is sorry but he waited. Anybody supporting him is wasting his money. He is going nowhere.”

He claimed to have helped Obi in his days as Anambra state governor, saying “He is my friend. When he was chased out of Government House, he knew the role I played to bring him back, but how did he pay me back?”

He cited a retired Anglican archbishop of the Niger, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, and one Uga, Anambra state, politician as witnesses to his assistance to Obi at the time, lamenting that he did not receive appropriate reward for the assistance.