Digesting the Obinim-Schwarzenegger Feud

Halleluiah, Halleluiah, Halleluiah, Halleluiah…Halleluiah!

Beloved, it’s another beautiful day the Lord has given us.  We can’t be more grateful than to sing praises for His mercies. Just before we get ourselves all worked up on the job or at school, let’s glance at a few pages of the newspapers or scroll through a news website to hook on to what is in the day’s news.

Something just stopped me in my tracks. Hold it! They say Bishop Obinim is in the news, not to have raised the dead nor did what Korle-Bu surgical specialists do. They also say we need to purchase some more internet bundle for some sizzling hot videos, and it’s urgent. And they say the videos should be watched with parental guidance. Another sextape? Hell, no!

News has it that, founder and leader of the God’s Way International Ministries, Bishop Daniel Obinim has vented his spleen on UTV’s show hostess, Valentina Nana Agyeiwaa; also known as Afia Schwarzenegger. He had also thrown a few scorching jabs at former President, Jerry John Rawlings.

Click here to read the story

What happened? 

Bishop Daniel Obinim and Prophet Nicholas Osei, popularly known as ‘Kumchacha’, are misusing the name of God and exploiting the ignorance of their followers, former President Jerry Rawlings has said. He had described them as deceitful prophets who are making unreal claims. 

On the other side – in a number of episodes on the prime time TV show, Afia the sarcastic woman had apparently criticised the way Obinim goes about his healing methods. Obinim was mad at the mockery of his prophesies on the satirical show, ‘Kokooko’.

So the loud-mouthed lady responded in an explosion! She punched the Man of God abusively hard, in a recorded video and on her Facebook wall.

It was a barter of insults, a trade of explicit words, an outburst of resentment, an eruption of indignation, a wrestle in the gutters and an unsightly exchange of outrage! We have given up on looking for adjectives to describe this hullabaloo. 

Now let us all digest this. 

Playing a very indispensable role in this chemical process is the enzyme, ‘Neutralase’, which will be responsible for ensuring that there is neutrality in this breakdown process.  But if you think that neutrality here means this criticism should be standing in the middle, you will be wrong. Assuming the unbiased, neutral referee stood in the center circle of the pitch the whole ninety minutes, how would he spot a foul or direct the game?

So the neutrality here denotes objectivity – and being objective means we should first and foremost, among other things convict both Afia and Obinim for washing their dirty linen in public, and for copying Samini and Shatta Wale’s formula;  paying no attention to who did it worst.  

  

At this juncture we will go for a short commercial break to allow others catch a glimpse of the two most-trending videos of the year whiles I locate this story in the Bible. 

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‘And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He [Jesus Christ] is possessed by Beelzebub! By the Prince of Demons he is driving out demons.’ – Mark, Chapter 3.

Folks, am I the only one spotting a similarity between this allegation made against Jesus and that which was said about Bishop Obinim?  Please show by hands if you also do. A lot!

Guess what is worth emulating here. The Son of Man did not spew any vituperative slurs at those who questioned his authenticity or genuineness. Need I say more?     

Flashback! Let’s go back in time to World Cup 2014, not to talk about the speedy chartered flight of $3 million to John Boye and the other 22, but to that Muntari-Jones moment of combat during the Ghana-USA match.

After Muntari upended the aggressive Jermaine Jones with a late tackle, Jones sent Muntari to the ground with a scissor leg take-down, which appeared somewhat accidental. The all-angry Sulley pounced on the US midfielder and lifted a fist to his face. And just before Sulley could punch, he exercised restraint, supposedly for the first time. He stooped himself from smacking the annoying opponent.  

 

 

That day, Sulley earned our respect – all of it. We clapped for him for the control of his popular bad temper. But see what he suffered few days later when his bigotry sent him crushing down a member of the Black Stars’ management team, Moses Armah…

Complicatedly complicated complications!

See, there’s a beast in everyone – probably yet to be unleashed. That is why an inhibitory enzyme has been injected into us. In English, we call it CONSCIENCE. In effect, it is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct, impelling us all towards right action. Conscience could have saved us the trouble of witnessing this freaky, muddy, dirty, nauseating fight. Oh yes!

When asked in an interview, Afia alleges that the bishop is pissed off by her refusal to have a romantic relationship with him. Whether this allegation is true or false, it is defamatory and tinges the personality of the man of God. She proceeds to fire ballistic missiles at him, majority landing on Florence Obinim, his wife.

See, you opened the floodgates of scorn for your wife, who barely has a hand in this clash. You gave a good ceremonial kick-off for a show of contempt, disdain, aloofness towards Florence Obinim, a role model we revere to the max. Scorned! Bishop, you see what you caused?

To have referred to Afia Schwarzenegger as foolish, labelled her as stupid, likened her to a dwarf, equated her to a monkey, described her as worthless and to have threatened her with a spiritual haunt was…

 

…a SURPRISE. Honestly, that was the look on our faces, seeing the video.

But two dirty wrongs do not make a right. From the time Adam lost a rib till date, two wrongs have never combined into a right. The interesting thing is that two wrongs which are madly in love can repeatedly have unprotected sex and will still not produce a right!

‘If your wife had my body or my class you will never be the Brand Ambassador for Bacardi Nite Club… If your wife look looked like me, you’ll never sleep with your church members’.

Come on, Afia! That was like hitting your opponent in the groin in the boxing ring. The laws of the game outrightly disqualify you. Instead of grabbing the bull by its horn, you went attacking the innocent. Replying the bishop is one thing, and attacking the innocent wife is another. Afia went over the bar with that free kick. That was unnecessary, period!

‘Jesus has come, and every stupid fellow advertises him’. Now, that’s hyper blasphemous!

To have recorded such a collection of foul statements and dropped it like domestic garbage packaged in overused polythene bag onto the media was not only unladylike, but uncouth. We used to laugh to your jokes and funny sarcasm, but you can check for yourself – this one wasn’t funny at all. 

For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction, plus a social media overreaction. A stir was caused on the media; everyone was talking about it. A section of critics have described Bishop Obinim’s move as repugnant. Some say he behaved unpastorally. His counter-attacks appear more nauseating at the thought of the medium via which he expressed it. That is what they say.

And obviously, the Bishop allowed his emotions to cloud his judgement whiles in front of a congregation he’s supposed to mentor, direct and lead.

These days, the gospel of the Lord Jesus has become a personality cult. The average worshiper has come to believe that the man behind the pulpit has superiority over the word and the world he’s preaching and preaching to respectively. However, our thinking is faulty in this regard. This is evident in the video of Bishop Obinim, where congregants giggle with all their might amidst, echoing ‘Amen’ to every insult he spews.  

The worst part of this is the evolution of hard-core charlatans, self-appointed foot-soldiers who lay ambush, ready to pounce on anyone who criticises the faulting Man of God. 

Having said that, here’s another very important point for your digestion; the people running the ministry of God are like a baby, whose personality is tough to reveal and outcome uneasy to predict. That is why when the evil one adulterated the farm with weeds; the servants who were in a haste to pull them out were stopped. ‘Let them grow together until the harvest’, the master said. 

So folks, you know what? Let’s just say little, without condemning; because God will judge your foul criticisms too. 

A word to the wise is enough.