Andrew Edobor is searching for the Nigerian dream but to no avail. He graduated from the University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree but is encountering obstacles in his quest to land a decent job.
Edobor has been applying for jobs and even written several job interview tests in many Nigerian companies, but always falls short of making the list of successful candidates.
So, eight torturous years after his graduation, which he gave his blood, sweat and tears for, Edobor decided that it was time he visited a prophetic church for answers to his frustrating stagnation in life.
His mother recommended a “prophetic church” located in the Iyana ipaja area of Lagos State,
After a lengthy sermon that lasted for an hour and half, the deliverance prayers finally commenced and the prophetess, who doubles as the General Overseer, asked all first-timers to move to the altar.
By that time, praise and worship songs had reached a crescendo in the Ipaja area of Lagos State, where, according to her, “the woman of God in charge there sees visions and hears from God.”
Thus, armed with all the necessary information about the church, Edobor left home in January 2025 to meet with the woman of God and was surprised to see many other miracle seekers – both young and old – who had come to attend the church’s deliverance service.
The atmosphere in the church was turbocharged, so Edobor could not help but notice many young women falling, sometimes violently, under the “anointing”.
One particular lady, as if she was intoxicated by alcohol, spun around so hard that she crashed into some of the chairs in the church. Edobor’s first reaction to the “chaotic scene” was one of surprise.
“I see you travelling abroad,” the prophetess pointed at him as he approached the altar, but she was not done prophesying to Edobor yet.
“They will also call you for a job somewhere,” she continued. “It will be small. The salary won’t be much. But don’t worry, God will promote and lift you up from there,” she added.
After listening to the prophecies, Edobor was all over the moon, considering that the idea of travelling abroad is something he has ever dreamed of.
And before he returned to his seat, the prophetess instructed him to empty his pockets and “drop all the money with him on the altar.”
Edobor did so without hesitation, hoping that his situation would turn around for good.
“Unfortunately,” Edobor said to The Point with head in his hands, “None of those prophecies has come to pass.”
He added, “This is 2025 and I will be 36 years old this year but I still haven’t gotten a job.”
Despite Edobor’s misfortune, many Nigerian Christians still flock to churches where they are told mouthwatering prophecies they stay a lifetime waiting for their fulfillment.
Many more Nigerians also witness “miracles” that God performs in churches, and hear the accompanying testimonies about His blessings in the lives of His children, but wonder whether the same God was deaf to their own requests.
A current affairs analyst, Alex Nwadike, told The Point that many Christians are aware that some prophecies, miracles and testimonies could be fake, yet they consider their pastors to be “authorities” on every matter, to the detriment of their (members’) mental health.
Nwadike said, “It worries me a lot that some pastors use fake prophecies, miracles and testimonies to tie many Christians down and subjugate them.
Some ignorant Christians will even wait all their lives for the fulfillment of prophecies spoken to them and die in the process.
“The saddest part of this unfortunate situation is that many Christians know that such prophecies and miracles could be fake, but because they consider their pastors to be authorities on every matter, they exalt these prophecies and miracles above God, to the detriment of their mental health.
“And do you know that some Christians can become lazy and lackadaisical because they were told in a prophecy that breakthroughs would come their way? These gullible Christians believe that God will miraculously make the blessing to come their way and so they stop making an effort to better their lives”
“And do you know that some Christians can become lazy and lackadaisical because they were told in a prophecy that breakthroughs would come their way? These gullible Christians believe that God will miraculously make the blessing to come their way and so they stop making an effort to better their lives.”
Unfortunately, the exaltation of prophecies, miracles and testimonies has also led many Christians to put a big question mark over their relationship with God.
This is because when some Christians listen to the prophecies that are directed to fellow Christians or see others receiving miracles but no “divine intervention” is coming their way, they quickly lose hope in God.
A clergyman, Emeka Onwuachu, said of this worrisome situation, “Don’t get me wrong, prophecies are good but they should not define who Christians are.
“I know of many Christians who have come to ask me why they have not received the answers to their prayers.
“Now, imagine these set of Christians in a church where such supposedly answered prayers were masterminded by pastors.
“The innocent Christians would feel bitter that others were getting all the attention from God.
“It would make many others think that they are not worthy before God and that could lead to depression and disaster.
“And then look at what happened in a popular church where a sister came to give a fake testimony that she bought a N500 million worth of mansion.
Think about how the other members of the church felt when the so-called testimony was going on.”
The incident Onwuachu was referring to happened in a popular Lagos church, Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, where the founder of the church, Ebuka Obi, is now enmeshed in a fake miracle scandal.
Obi’s “trouble” started after he prophesied during his daily online prayer programme, Night of open heaven, that God would favour a woman called “Loveth.”
Although Obi emphasised in his prophecy that he did not know who Loveth was, he assured his congregation that his prophecy would be “played” when Loveth was in the church to give her testimony.
A woman who said her name is Lovett Aluu later came to the church and narrated how God had blessed her business after the prophecy.
She even went the extra mile to share a video of a N500 million worth of mansion she bought following the growth of her “business.”
Obi was ecstatic and even asked the lady, albeit jocularly, whether he could propose marriage to her. He then urged members of his church to connect themselves with her testimony so that theirs could materialise.
Unfortunately for Lovett, her fabricated purchasing feat had made her a recognizable person.
Obi’s programme has a huge following in the South East, and soon enough, Lovett was fished out selling drinks at a small shop in Enugu State.
By this time, too, a video clip, which she used as “proof of purchase” and presented in Obi’s church, had attracted the attention of the real owners of the mansion, a real estate company, who did not think twice before they arrested Lovett.
She confessed that the house was not her own and that she had gone to the house with an individual who was posing as a client and secretly made the video there.
Obi has washed his hands off Lovett, saying she lied, not to him but before God and his altar. And even though he said he would get to the root of the matter, many Nigerians continue to blame him for performing “fake miracles” to get his members to make monetary donations.
Among the Nigerians who berated Obi is the Convener of Take it Back Nigeria Movement and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore.
The pro-democracy activist said that “big churches” were lying to Nigerians about miracles taking place in them.
Sowore said, “I have never seen a church that made a cripple walk. So forget about all these big churches lying to you.
“The reason why religion is thriving in our society is because the government does not exist, otherwise if you have great governance today in this country, your prayer points would change.
“Go and ask people who travel abroad. Some of them have forgotten about which churches they attend in Nigeria.”
A popular Enugu State catholic priest, Kelvin Ugwu, also used the fake N500 million mansion brouhaha to remind his followers that being Christians does not make them rich.
Ugwu also said that prophecies about material acquisitions and “juju” are in the same category.
“Christianity does not make you rich. Prophecies about getting visas, cars or buying houses are fake.
“The same way juju is fake, that is (also) how those prophecies are,” he said.
