by Wilfred Okiche

Nothing spells end of year season quite like the rash of prophecies and messages from influential members of the religious constituency. Taking advantage of the expectant mood that usually comes over the faithful, men of God struggle to outdo one another with their own submissions of significant events.

The founder of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, a now popular Pentecostal ministry based in Edo state, Apostle John Suleman, was only joining the bandwagon when he released his prophecies for the year 2017. Testaments that would set the mood for the next 365 days, especially for believers in that sort of thing. And in these parts, there are legion. To describe Suleman’s 2017 missives as explosive would be understating things mightily.

As picked up by most online media, Apostle Johnson Suleman at an end of year event tagged Fresh Fire, held at the Lagos headquarters of his ministry, revealed snippets that were booth damning and dramatic. After the long, difficult year that was 2015, compounded tenuously by government’s economic crippling policies, it didn’t take a prophet to deduce that the hardship would continue in the New Year.

But Suleiman pictured it even gloomier for the country’s leadership. He revealed that God would ‘’humble’’ President Buhari in the New Year and that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, a professor and pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, would battle many attempts to remove him from office.

His quote went something like this, ‘’Two times, Nigeria’s vice president Yemi Osinbajo will face removal from office. They will alienate him and will make attempts to remove him. But God will humble Buhari in 2017. And the New Year is when the Nigerian government will fight the church like never before.

For the rest of the continent, Suleman envisioned a sort of political awakening where presidents (he did not name which,) would be removed and new ones, installed to replace them.

False starts

For the many who by virtue of their faith and a hope in things yet unseen, subscribe to such prescriptions, Apostle Suleman was taken at his word. But for sceptics who have long been conditioned, especially by flippant local prophets to err on the side of caution, this fresh wave of prophecies only managed to raise suspicion at the methods of the firebrand apostle. See it wasn’t the first time Apostle Suleiman would be in the news for making dramatic and controversial submission. He’s had a long and chequered history.

In 2014, as the nation feverishly anticipated the 2015 general elections, Apostle Suleiman arrived, unsolicited, with his annual predictions. He declared, with righteous conviction that President Goodluck Jonathan would be re-elected, then in the same breath, likened the electoral outcomes to that of June 12 1993, predicting widespread violence and judicial interventions. Suleiman also posited that whoever won the elections genuinely would not get their mandate.

Things played out quite differently than the good apostle predicted. First, Goodluck Jonathan lost the popular vote, with a deficit of more than 2 million votes. Then he did the unthinkable, at least by Nigerian standards, and called the victor, Muhammadu Buhari to concede. Though there were tiny pockets of violence in some hot spot regions, the polls were widely considered free and fair. Jonathan went on to supervise a relatively hitch free transition process. Not at all like the 1993 tragedy which Suleman had foretold.

Following this gaffe, apostle Suleman failed to go gently into the good night. In an interview with Punch newspapers published after the elections, he went on the defence, suggesting that prophecies could indeed be reversed especially if the persons concerned reach out to him for further prayers. He explained further, ‘’The day every prophecy you give comes to pass 100 per cent, you have become God. And I think 46 out of 50 is a pass mark. If a man gives 50 predictions and 40 of them come to pass, that is a pass mark.’’

Not quite sure his interviewer was convinced, apostle Suleman continued, ‘’When 100 per cent of your prophecies are fulfilled, you are not a human being, you have become God and when you have become God, you don’t need to be in this world anymore. God will take you home. So when people tell me you said this, I would say what about this and that that happened? They would say I think it’s true. So I tell them, let’s focus on the things that happened. And let me say something to you. Not all prophecies given in a year get fulfilled that year.’’

Trouble with the law

Naturally, not everyone was convinced about Apostle Suleman. And who could blame them? The preacher man offered plenty of reasons for doubts. Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir Elrufai, whom survived one of Suleman’s electoral prophecies and went on to be elected governor under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) remains unconvinced.

Last year, after the Kaduna state government produced an irksome religious regulation bill that sought to control activities of religious groups in the state by placing them under the purveyance of an interfaith committee set up by the state government, Suleman read the situation as a means of curbing the practice of Christianity in the state and demanded that El rufai ‘’revoke this law or die.’’

This marked the opening salvo of a beef that has played out in the pages of newspapers and in Youtube videos where Suleman offered to give the governor the date of his burial.Such comments, coming from any person anywhere are wild enough to be considered reckless but for Apostle Suleman, they are merely, stars on his glittering crown of controversies.

Suleman got into hot water this year with the Department of State Services (DSS) when a bizarre video clip of him surfaced. Preaching at the Sunday service of 15, January, Suleman was all sound and fury, fire and brimstone, as he encouraged his congregation in no unclear terms to kill any Fulani herdsman that managed to come around his premises. He revealed that there was a plot by some herdsmen to assassinate him because of his vociferous condemnation of both the gruesome activities of the herdsmen, and the condoning behaviour of the state government.

Friends in high places

Weeks ago, officials of the DSS made a botched attempt to forcefully grab Suleman at Ado Ekiti, capital of Ekiti state where he was ministering at a high powered crusade that was attended by the state governor, Ayodele Fayose. In an episode that could have been taken out of a Nollywood film, Suleman was trailed to his hotel after a courtesycall with Governor Ayodele Fayose, perhaps the strongest critic of the APC led federal government.

Eyewitnesses report that the DSS agents attempted to force their way into Suleman’s room but were prevented by hotel security who promptly informed the apostle. In his own telling, Suleman claimed he had a premonition of danger and once alerted, put a call through to the state governor.

Of course Fayose wouldn’t be Fayose if he sat through an episode like this. The governor immediately activated his entourage, comprising his security detail and hurried straight to rescue his new friend. Fayose would later address journalists saying, ‘’ I personally attended his crusade and I think it is wrong for a man of God who is armless that could be invited if they have any issue against him. Are Christians and Moslems under different dispensation of the rule of law? That’s why I went there to rescue him. Let them kill two of us together. But when they saw my vehicles and the crowd, they fled.’’

DSS officials may have fled following Fayose’s intervention but the botched episode only awakened their resolve to interrogate apostle Suleiman the proper way. Suleiman was then invited, gentleman style to a meeting at the DSS headquarters in Abuja. He honoured the meet but not before threatening disaster around the country if the DSS men tried any funny business. Suleiman’s communications adviser, Phrank Shaibu put forth a statement after the meeting that summarised the proceedings. “Apostle Suleman has been allowed to go. The DSS exhibited high level of maturity, competence and professionalism.”, he stated.

‘’Dignified cultist’’

To attempt to understand apostle Johnson Suleman and his fiery brand of radical Pentecostalism would be to go back to his origins in Benin, Edo state where he was born and raised in a mixed religious family. According to legend, encouraged by Suleman, days after his birth, some preachers travelling all the way from Warri, Delta state met with his parents and predicted that a child had been born to their household, who would minister in the presence of God around the world.

Naturally his Muslim father dismissed the prophecy and went ahead to raise his son in the Muslim faith. As a youngster, Suleiman finished his Quran from cover to cover. Based on personal experiences, he found Christians to be insincere and disapproved of pastors who fleeced their congregation of their savings in the guise of collections, without accounting for them.

Suleman’s coming of age years were quite troubled as his parents’ marriage hit a rough patch that prompted their separation. He would eventually be shuffled back and forth between both parents. He took to violence to express his frustrations and for a while found himself living on the edge.

While in school (Suleman does not state which,) the young man, desperate for acceptance, found solace in the arms of a cult like society. He recalls, ‘’ Someone told me that there is something called brotherhood and that I would be accepted as a family member and I liked it. I didn’t know there was a beating part and being taken to the bush… I was a dignified cultist.’’

Suleman blames the separation of his parents for pushing him in this direction, He contextualises, ‘’I am from a home of separated parents. My parents had some issues. Any child from a home like that is bound to fall into the streets.’’

The man of God who has travelled on crusades and evangelical missions around the world has also recalled a past history of abuse, especially from his mother, a retired police officer. She trucked no nonsense and was in the habit of locking her children up in their room overnight and spraying tear gas while the struggled to breathe. It was her own way of instilling discipline and punishing any rebel behaviour.

The methods may seem extreme but Suleiman has made his peace with that. He told Encomium magazine, ‘’It was a horrible experience. But now, I am happy that I went through that training. She had instilled discipline in us but then I didn’t like my mother. When I went to my father’s house, we were free to do all sorts of corrupt things.’’

Seeing the light

According to the Bible, Apostle Paul (formerly Saul) had one of the most dramatic experiences of conversion to Christianity while journeying from Jerusalem to Damascus, Syria on a mission to persecute Christians. Johnson Suleman’s account may not quite touch of Apostle Paul in terms of momentum, but it is quite as drama filled.

On Christmas Eve of 1989, Johnson Suleman claims that he went to bed as on every other night but inexplicably slept all through Christmas day only to wake up on the 26th. The realistic version of this story would suggest some heavy inebriation, considering his history and the season involved but Suleman insists it was an out of the world experience that could only have been spiritual. He recalls, ‘’ I didn’t see Christmas day. I slept all through. In the midst of that, I was seeing hell, heaven and a voice told me that I was going to be a preacher.’’

Confused and overwhelmed, Suleman met with a Mallam who prescribed some recitations but they were of no use. His life’s course had been irrevocably altered and he gradually but wholeheartedly embraced his new calling. Apostle Suleman had seen the light.

While partaking in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Lagos, Suleman was arrested and docked for hitting and killing a young child while driving. He claims the dead child’s mother testified on his behalf as a result of his decision right there in the courtroom, to go to Bible school instead of jail.

From the Bible, the Acts of the Apostle passage (Acts 10: 38) tells of how God anointed his own son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and sent him off to do good, ministering to the oppressed. Apostle Johnson Suleman credits this particular chapter with kick starting his actual ministerial work in 1994. In his telling, he received a vison in which an image of the entire globe was presented to him with the inscription of that particular verse written boldly across. He did not take this message lightly.

From his beginnings in Auchi, Edo state, Suleman moved to Lagos where he joined the Armor of God church as an assistant Pastor in April 1998. However, after a series of encounters with the Holy Spirit, the building blocks for Omega Fire Ministries were formed and he established fully on his own in 2004. This journey took him back to Auchi, where Omega Fire Ministries International headquarters is located.

Born to fight

In his other life, Suleman has worked as a journalist in both print (TELL magazine, PM News) and television media (DBN). As a minister, he has published several motivational books and pamphlets (over twenty of them,) written to encourage the faithful to be steadfast in their faith. Some of his popular titles include Blood is Bitter, Holy Madness and License to Kill.

Always ready for a showdown, Apostle Suleiman has never been too shy to respond to an accusation concerning him. He has dismissed Prophet TB Joshua on the pulpit no less, to the encouragement of his congregation, as ‘’too small’’ to encourage criticism of the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s Pastor Enoch Adeboye and the late Benson Idahosa of the Church of God Mission International.

When a church building in the Mabushi area of Abuja belonging to Suleman’s Omega Fire Ministries was bulldozed in 2013, the man of God attributed it to political roadkill, caused by a particular prophecy dating back to 2012 in which he urged President Jonathan not to consider seeking re-election as his political future was bleak.

Apostle Suleman has also turned the heat on President Muhammadu Buhari, urging the president and his ‘’co-travellers’’ to desist from exhibiting ‘’divisiveness, marginalisation, exclusion, and palpable hatred for Christians and the body of Christ.”

In Nigeria, as with the rest of the world, populist tendencies are all the rage and Suleman has successfully ridden the wave. But he’s also known to divert on occasion. Last year, he opposed the Biafran agenda, noting that the movement was already divided as the Igbos could not even rule themselves. He then declared from his own comfort zone and without any sense of empathy that ‘’Biafra is dead and buried.’’

This apparent lack of a filter has been as much responsible for Apostle Suleiman’s rising profile as have his hit and miss prophecies. His outsize, larger than life persona has earned him many followers and supporters, but it has also alienated him from those who like their men of God circumspect and discreet.

Husband to Lizzy, also a pastor, and father to five children, Johnson Suleiman is guaranteed to remain a regular news item as long as he stays true to his over the top character. Man of God, irresistible force, champion of the oppressed, train wreck waiting to happen, apostle Suleman has played all these roles and more. It isn’t only the faithful that anticipates his next major role.