Nigeria Abroad
Twenty-seven years of marriage, four children, and a stable home. *Catherine Egbujo loved her family—a husband that had done her no wrong, obedient children staying course in their studies, and, though not a rich home, peace reigned. It was all she ever wanted, until that sermon at a Deeper Life Easter Retreat in Lagos, where General Overseer W.F. Kumuyi said people like her were living in sin and would not make heaven.
In 1990, Catherine, then a young school leaver, had met her husband at her workplace in Lagos where he came to order for items. A whirlwind romance followed and soon led to marriage. The couple became born-again Christians years later. Their search for a more profound Christianity led them to the Deeper Life Bible Church, Nigeria’s leading conservative denomination known for strict adherence to Christian scruples, including the teaching on restitution.
The teaching is drawn from Biblical commands in Numbers, Leviticus, Exodus, Psalm, Matthew, Luke, etc.: it requires repentant Christians who had committed certain sins against man and God to seek Divine redemption, but also report themselves to the individuals or institutions affected by the past actions. An adulterer must confess apologetically to their spouse; money stolen by a thief must be returned, apology rendered to the owner; credit obtain by fraud must be confessed; and a woman, like Catherine, married to a divorcee, must leave the marriage upon repentance.
“That decision took years,” Catherine tells Nigeria Abroad from a village in Eastern Nigeria where she is living all alone in her father’s old house. Her children are enraged and do not speak to her, nor does her husband. Only the husband still attends the church; the children, young and indifferent to religion, remain implacable, especially as Catherine left the marriage and the family suffered some setbacks till date.
Catherine says she did it to save her soul from eternal damnation and is “not angry at all” about all she is going through since it will all make sense in the end. She is not alone.
Nigerian Christians face terror in parts of Northern Nigeria overrun by Islamist insurgency and many have paid with their lives. Others who embraced the faith in families practising different religions or denominations face persecution. But self-enforced, extreme sacrifices by individual Christians are also common experiences in the faith—from a former gold seller who reportedly trashed his ware upon repentance, to someone who chose to starve than work in a beer-making company.
Deeper Life’s Kumuyi, a proponent of restitution, exemplifies the teaching. As a brilliant youth, Kumuyi had helped many take the West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams. When he became born-again, he wrote to WAEC confessing his crime, listing the names of those who benefitted from his services. A Deeper Life pastor who spoke to the magazine said WAEC did not press charges and did not withdraw the results.
“It is done with wisdom,” he says. “When you want to do restitution, the church will appoint highly-placed members to mediate. It often goes well, but sometimes too it doesn’t. There was the case of a man who confessed to killing someone. After his confession, a relative of the deceased struck him with a machete. He later died in a hospital and the attacker was charged with manslaughter.”
Many Christians, after graduating from the university and becoming born-again, have disowned WAEC results fraudulently obtained, essentially ruining their degrees. The pastor said no amount of sacrifice is too much for one’s eternal salvation, and that, even beyond Christianity, it is the honorable thing to do.
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In a construction company in Lagos, some managers connived for years to steal millions of naira. Everything was good until one of them repented at a Mountain of Fire and Miracles crusade in the state. He confessed to the management—in the spirit of restitution. The culprits were all sacked, rounded up, and forced to refund the money in full. An insider who spoke to Nigeria Abroad on the matter said “the only secret in life is the one known to yourself alone. Once another person knows, it will come to light one day.”
Other Christians have spilled on infidelity; some have quit jobs in which they were hired by fraud or confessed to using love charms.
At the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Church in Lagos, a woman once confessed to using charms to entice her husband into marriage. But besides restitutions are other forms of sacrifice in the faith.
Grace Michael* was widowed at 25 and was left with two children. At first, she swore never to remarry, focusing on her faith and trade. But years later, sexual and commercial needs made her become open to a second marriage, except that a good suitor never came, and she would rather not fornicate.
It’s now over 30 years since Grace lost her husband. She says she has never indulged in sexual relations since her husband, the only man she had “known” all her life. “At a point the feeling just died away. It didn’t matter anymore but I didn’t do it by myself. God did it for me,” she told Nigeria Abroad on phone.
For Catherine, the real victim is her husband’s first wife whom she says remarried and is therefore in sin except she returns to the “rightful” man. But she has done her part by apologizing to the woman, she notes, and that her spirit is at peace no matter the hardship she is going through.
This story first appeared in Nigeria Abroad
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