Oyakhilome’s Miracles: Real or Fake?

New wave preachers continue to hold Nigerians spellbound. But do you believe Pastor Chris Oyakhilome can really heal the sick? Check out the facts

By Geoffrey Ekenna

Chris Oyakhilome, pastor, Christ Embassy church and president, Believers Love World relishes miracles. He believes that it is through miracles that the word of God is given credence in the practice of Christianity. That perhaps explains why he is more popular among television watchers across the country with Atmosphere for Miracles serial through which he highlights the miracles he has performed in the course of his pastoral work.

On Easter Sunday, March 31, Oyakhilome told an excited congregation that Atmosphere for Miracles  would now  be running in television stations in Europe and America . The church recently signed a contract with an unnamed television station in the United States of America for the programme to be aired, according to him. Already, the programme is on air in some television stations in the United Kingdom . Oyakhilome told his congregation that despite criticisms that may follow the “AFM,” the programme would be running in all television stations across the country.

“No matter what they say, we will be on air. We use AFM to give colour to what others preach. When they say that Christ healed somebody then, we show you real healings now. Any television station without AFM is static, it is colourless, it is a black and white station,” he said, adding, “is there any station today without AFM? It is the stationary ones.”

A student member of the church who came from the University of Calabar told Newswatch that the church had also concluded arrangements to set up its own television station which will be on satellite through DSTV. Oyakhilome told the congregation that the setting up of the television station was not just a matter of planning but a “must.” The station will be used to spread to the whole world the “message of miracles” which God is performing through Oyakhilome who regards his forte in the ministry as “miracle- working.”

That pronoucement from the pastor came just a day after he pulled out all the stops and staged his Total Experience programme in Lagos . The programme which held at the mainbowl of the National Stadium, Lagos , attracted hundreds of thousands of miracle seekers from across the country and beyond. It is from “miracles” that happened at the Total Experience crusade that the AFM would be prepared and broadcast. Like all other programmes which he has held, “miracles, signs and wonders” took place with the lame walking, the blind seeing, the deaf and dumb hearing and speaking and the paralysed jumping.

Oyakhilome’s “miracles” go beyond the easily provable. HIV positive, impotent men, barren women and even people with full blown AIDS equally testified at the crusade of instant healing.

Testimony periods actually marked the high point of the two-day crusade. At the end of each prayer session for the sick, the possessed and others, Oyakhilome usually awaited for the miracles which he was sure would happen. On March 29, for instance, when he mounted the podium at about 5.45 p.m. he proudly professed: “Tonight is a night of wonders.” He said that the church must be able to take away the frustration and pains of the people. He told the congregation that at the end of the day, miracles of different dimensions were going to take place in their lives that night. “Place your hands where you need the miracle. If you came with a sick, place your hands on him. In the name of Jesus Christ I come against you demons of ....”

At the end of the prayer session, he told the “healed” to just get in touch with the ushers and walk up to the platform for testimonies.

After the prayer session came the testimonies. “Pastor” bellowed the solid male voice of John, a junior pastor in the church whom Oyakhilome had called to come and “tell me what is happening here tonight.” “We have fantastic miracles here tonight. This woman has had stroke for three years.”

The woman was said not to be walking and was brought in by her daughter. She burst into praise singing  in Igbo, “Imeela Chineke,” thanking God for saving her.

Another man who came from Kaduna said he had been suffering from acute arthritis for five years. He testified of receiving instant healing. The man is 55 years old. He said he could breathe properly now. A little boy was also brought to the stage for a testimony. He was said to have become blind two years ago after taking some medication. He received his “sight” that night. A man who came in from Akwa Ibom State equally said he received healing. He said he was paralysed for 14
 years but he started walking that night. The man reported that he followed up the “AFM” on television before coming to the crusade. He said he woke up one morning and found he couldn’t walk.

Also, there was a 25-year-old man who testified that he received healing after being born deaf and dumb. “I can now hear very well and speak,” he said in a slurred tone. A man who claimed to have been crippled also walked up to the stage to testify. He had in fact, abandoned the improvised scooter he came with and climbed the steps of the podium to the admiration and jubilation of the congregation. Another woman who claimed to be diabetic for nine years and could neither see nor walk properly also claimed she was healed as she could now see and walk well. Her husband said that a series of tests had failed to ascertain the problem, hence they opted to come and receive miracles at the crusade.

A 62-year-old woman came on the second day and said that she was healed of cancer of the cervix by Oyakhilome’s prayers. Another man who was alleged to have been mad for 10 years also claimed to be healed. He was brought to the crusade by his brother. Another woman who claimed to have come from Benin Republic , and was suffering from “blocked tubes” claimed that she was healed after the first day.

There were many other similar miracles, which ranged from physical to internal cures of diseases and afflictions. It is such miracles that make Oyakhilome a showstopper anytime. Wherever he holds his programme, such “miracles” follow him about.

But one thing that bothers many Nigerians is the validity of such miracles. Not a few wonder if they are actually miracles or magic.  This is judging from the frequency and the near secrecy in which the miracles are shrouded.

Oyakhilome is not the kind of pastor open to the media. He hardly grants interviews to reporters. He does not invite the press to his programmes like many other churches do. Even the “miracle” recipients are often shielded from public enquiry immediately after the testimony period. When Newswatch sought to speak with some of the “miraculously healed” people March 30, at the National Stadium, a woman who was recording the testimonies told Newswatch reporters that they won’t be allowed into a room where the  people were kept unless with a “pass.” At one of the gates leading to where they were kept, armed mobile policemen and corporate guards were busy battling with a surging crowd who wanted to see the healed. Nobody was allowed to see them except the interviewing and recording crew of the church itself.

A Newswatch reporter who dared speak with one of the healed had her tape recorder seized. It was only released when security details of the church were satisfied that she did not record any interview with the healed people.

The same thing with photographs. No photo-journalist was allowed to take pictures of the healed ones. A source told a Newswatch photographer that various cameras were seized by the church operatives.

Another area where people doubt the genuineness of the miracles is in the manner the pastors seem to advertise them. Oyakhilome cuts the image of an actor whenever a testimony is going on. He could demonstrate a healing by jumping, running, clapping ,singing or  any other way he might choose. These miracles are often “advertised” in the AFM programme everyday on the various television stations where he features. Many Nigerians wonder why such miracles are publicised, whereas in the Bible, Jesus Christ often told anyone he healed to go home quietly.

Tunde Bakare, pastor, Latter Rain Assembly, does not believe in the advertisement of miracles. He told Newswatch March 16, that they don’t actually validate anybody’s ministries. He said that miracles were part of the commissions of Christianity but should not be used to prove anything, however genuine. He believes that miracles are divine intervention in the affairs of men.

“But they are not to be employed to advertise ourselves and to make a name for ourselves. All the miracles Jesus did most of the times, he would say, go and tell nobody about it. There is no miracle-worker except the Holy Spirit and whenever a person becomes a miracle-worker, then I suspect his source of power,” Bakare told Newswatch. He, however, said that there was no true Christianity without miracles.

Innocent Ifada, pastor, Divine Grace Gospel, Ikeja, does not see anything wrong with advertising miracles on television for people to know what Jesus is doing and what He can do. He said that since those programmes were testimonies of those whom the Lord had favoured, it was important to create awareness on the work Jesus was doing. Ifada cited the gospel according to John chapter 2, where the turning of water into wine at a marriage ceremony by Jesus manifested his glory and made his disciples to believe him.

Banjo Oladele, a student of the University of Lagos who came to the crusade said the miracles looked too good to be true. He told Newswatch that he doubted the authenticity of the claims. “It could be stage-managed by the organisers of the crusades,” he said.Oladele had come to the crusade with his brother, a cripple. He did not receive healings. They went home disappointed. Many other people who came to be healed and were not, went home disappointed.

For those who brought people who received healing, it was an entirely different experience. Samuel Ojo (not real names), usher at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Abuja , who hails from Kogi State told Newswatch that he brought six people who were healed. They were an impotent man, an HIV positive, an infertile woman and a student with a spinal cord injury. He told Newswatch that while he needed medical examination to test and confirm the other cases, that of the man with the spinal cord injury needn’t much proof. He identified him as Jonathan.

Newswatch was able to identify Jonathan, March 31, at the interview session conducted for the healed in the church’s camp at Alausa. About 50 people who claimed to have been healed attended the session which started immediately after the church service by 1.00 p.m. and lasted up till 5.00 p.m.

Jonathan told Newswatch that he was feeling better even though he still had pains all over his body. Jonathan hails from Benue and was a part three student of accountancy at the Benue State University , Makurdi, when he had the problem in the year 2000. Although he did not say the cause of his problem, he said that he wasn’t walking when he was brought to the church from Abuja . Newswatch observed that Jonathan was walking but not yet steady enough. But a pastor in the church explained to the “healed” that it could take them sometime before they become fully strong.

Ojo also confessed to Newswatch that he had seen people healed by Oyakhilome, who were truly healed. He cited an example of one “Moses,” a Benue indigene who was healed of HIV last year and he was tested and proved to be negative since then.

Eze Enebelie,  22, testified to being healed of madness. His sister-in-law who brought him told Newswatch that Enebelie had been having the problem since he was five. She explained that until that evening, he was always in a delusion, giving wrong answers to people who talked to him. That evening, however, he seemed to have come to a right state of mind. He answered questions from the church counsellors as well as from a Newswatch reporter. The counsellors told the sister-in-law that the boy would still be subjected to more prayers and surveillance.

Mufu Shukurat, four, was born deaf and dumb. Her mother,  “Iya Mufu” who brought her was praising God when Newswatch met her. Mufu could not speak but the mother said she observed the little girl could hear after prayers by Oyakhilome. She said when she clapped into her daughter’s ear, she responded. To her, that was an unusual situation. She, however, told Newswatch that she was optimistic that by the time she went to church with her daughter, she would be totally healed.

Yet other people question how Oyakhilome comes about some of the visions he claims to see. While preaching or praying, it is not unusual for him to delve into the spiritual realm, proclaiming that there is one man or woman here whom he has seen with one ailment or another. This could be serious ailments like kidney disorder, breast cancer, cancer of the leg or HIV/AIDS. “The Lord has healed you,” he would say on such situations. He is never specific or direct on the person involved.  Rather, he leaves it open so that it could be anybody.

Oyakhilome’s miracles are at times intriguing. Some of the miracles are at best unfathomable. For instance, a woman walking up the podium and testifying that she was pregnant for two years. The “pregnancy” which was at her back protruded to the front as soon as Oyakhilome prayed. “As the pastor said the word, I said God has finally located me today,” she said. That was after the pastor had delved into his visionary moods and proclaimed that there was a woman “here” who has been pregnant for two years. He told the woman to come out.

In year 2000, at the Total Experience programme, held at the indoor sports hall of the National Stadium, a woman was reportedly healed of partial blindness. Oyakhilome said that the woman who saw through one eye “never knew she was blind but was praying for a job because she was born like that. However, she received a healing and her eyes opened.”

Uche Nwagwu, an economics student of the University of Benin , who claimed he witnessed the miracle told Newswatch that the woman in question came from Rivers State . He said that it was after her eyes opened that she knew that something had been wrong with her since birth. Like most members of the church, Nwagwu believed that the miracles were real and not questionable.

There are, however, silent fears in the church and among the miracle recipients that the “miracles” may just be temporary. Ojo told Newswatch that he had seen people who received healings and later went into “a worse state” while others are permanent. He said that he hoped that the people he brought would have permanent healing.

However, not oblivious of this fact, the church teaches the “healed” the ways of retaining their healing. After the interviewing and counselling session, copies of  a book, Keeping Your Healing, written by Oyakhilome are given to them. The book prescribes standards for which the healing could be permanent. Some of the conditions include going to church always, having a positive confession, abstaining from sin, and ignoring symptoms of the ailment.  Newswatch, however, found out that some of the healings do not just take place. A member of the church who would not want his name in print told this magazine that there were different processes involved in healing. The afflicted would register in the emergency section of the church with reports from different hospitals where they had undergone treatment, according to him. The doctor’s report would also indicate how long the illness had stayed and how far it had been handled. After that, it becomes a matter of faith. The person could be healed as fast as his faith could work.

He told Newswatch that there was no specific period a patient could expect a miracle. “It could happen in a few days or weeks. It depends on the faith one exhibits during the healing sessions either in the church or at the crusade grounds,” he said.

Stella Uyi, a female member of the church said that those who did not receive miracles lacked faith. She explained that the key word in the issue of miracles was faith. “With faith, an impossibility becomes possible no matter who is involved,” she stressed.

She told Newswatch that there were many afflicted persons who had been visiting the “Embassy” for months without receiving any miracle. She advised such people not to lose hope since “God works in a miraculous way.”

For Oyakhilome, it has not been an easy affair. He has had to battle many odds to remain stable in his pastoral work. He received a blitz of bad publicity late last year following a visit he allegedly paid to TB Joshua of the Synagogue. Chris Okotie, pastor of Household of God who incidentally is Oyakhilome’s neighbour and rival kicked up the furore. Despite attempts by Oyakhilome to clear his name, the situation deteriorated to the extent that the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, decided to estrange him, even though he claimed not to be a member. PFN said Oyakhilome shunned all entreaties made by it to resolve the matter amicably.

“We have only one option, to leave him to the Holy Spirit to deal with him as He pleases. We also want to pray that the Holy Spirit reveals the whole truth to the youths and all in Christ Embassy such that their souls are well preserved for rapture. We pray that the truth shall reveal every hidden agenda that may affect their destinies spiritually to the glory of God, such that they don’t miss heaven,” said Mike Okonkwo, president of PFN.

The PFN action made Paul Adefarasin, pastor, House on the Rock, to remove Oyakhilome’s name from speakers in the church’s Believers Bible Congress held late last year.

When Oyakhilome visited Aba for his Total Experience programme, December last year, rumours were rife that the PFN was making efforts to destabilise the crusade or stop it from holding. Okotie gave credence to that rumour when he told Newswatch editors while on a visit to the organisation, February 26, that the PFN was making efforts to stop Oyakhilome from holding the Lagos crusade. But some other pastors Newswatch spoke to said they were not privy to such a plan.

But the alienation made sure that only Oyakhilome, his pastors and foreign friends featured in the Lagos Total Experience programme. No pastor from any other church participated, at least, publicly.

A big blow was dealt on Oyakhilome late last year when the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, decided to stop the airing of his Atmosphere for Miracles on its stations. NTA, which questioned the validity of the miracles said it was acting on a directive from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission that all religious programmes with “unsubstantiated miracles” be struck off the stations. The station received letters from members of the public who complained that Oyakhilome’s miracles were  “insults to their intelligence,” according to Oduntan Kehinde Ogundimu, head, corporate affairs and international relations of NTA.

Oyakhilome does not, however, show signs of a worried man in the face of these problems. In the heat of the problem with Okotie and PFN, he had insisted that he didn’t need anybody to validate his ministry. He said that misunderstandings and misconceptions were not strange to people involved in healing ministries like himself. “If you are involved in the healing ministry, there would be persecutions. The people will be forced to misunderstand you because they don’t know and understand that,” he said.

Whatever plans that were made to destabilise his crusade evidently fell flat. The thirst for miracles, signs and wonders by some Nigerians overrides other interests. That was why the National Stadium was filled to capacity and overflowed with people for the two days the Total Experience lasted. Miracle seekers came from all parts of the country.

The miracle seekers were there to receive various miracles ranging from healing, promotion, improvement in business and a better life. For instance, Gilbert Akubueze, 24, a trader in textile materials at Agege told Newswatch that he was at the crusade to receive a miracle in his business. He said that he was optimistic that by the time he finished with the crusade, his lot would improve for the better.

He was a member of the Bible Life Church but he said that henceforth, he had become a member of the Christ Embassy. “I think they are serious here. I want my miracle,” he told Newswatch.

Oyakhilome was so overwhelmed by the crowd that he proclaimed on arrival, “Isn’t this wonderful?” Both the stands and the playing pitch of the mainbowl were filled up, while thousands of people outside watched the programme on giant television sets.  Oyakhilome seems to be getting more popular because of his miracles. Whenever he stepped into the podium through the state box in the stadium, wild jubilation, ululation and ovation heralded him.

Handsome, smooth talking, smart, eloquent, Oyakhilome does not believe his ministry is just about miracles. He insists that he equally preaches Christ. “I don’t preach miracles. I preach Jesus Christ and declare Him alive. I say if He is alive, let Him manifest and the miracles normally follow,” he said.

Reported by Victor Ugborgu, Betty Onuh and Tosin Omoniyi.

Newswatch Volume 35 No 15, April 15, 2002

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