By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Nothing divides Nigerians like religion, but I have it on good account that Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who prefers Orisha to Christianity and Islam turned out the saving grace of Pastor Chuzzy Udenwa in the United States.
Soyinka, the humanist who taught me Humanism at Great Ife, preferably delves into Orisha rather than Christian and Islamic worship but this did not stop him from penning attestation for the born-again Christian pastor Chuzzy Udenwa in America.
It was in the dark days of the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha and Chuzzy was in America asking Christian personages to guarantee his asylum pursuit and they all failed him until the ever rendering Soyinka came to his rescue from his Emory University, Atlanta self-exile base back then.
For those not in the know, Chuzzy Udenwa was a wave-making journalist in Nigeria in the 1980s, and was in my book the closest ally of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Chuzzy knew all the reigning DJs and rocked all the hip nightclubs, but you can be sure that he would always be with Fela in the wee hours of the morning.
There was hardly any journalist more highly wired than Chuzzy who happened to be a close confidant of the then much sought-after Primate Olabayo of the Evangelical Church of Yahweh.
Primate Olabayo who did not hide his bearing with Military President Ibrahim Babangida shocked Chuzzy out of his wits by telling the young journalist his history and revealing that he was in the process of “getting married to a lady who was not his wife!”
The bewildered Chuzzy could not but confess that he had gone too far with the lady that he could no longer be able to pull out!
Primate Olabayo then promised Chuzzy that he would help with the task of ending the proposed wedlock pronto.
Just as Primate Olabayo promised, the wealthy bride-to-be put Chuzzy in her car and drove him to his house, thus putting a full final stop to the relationship – unaccountably!
Chuzzy was in Nigeria the other day for the funeral ceremonies of his beloved mother, and we enjoyed a breakfast meeting in a posh Awka hotel in Anambra State to reminisce on fond memories.
I pointedly told Chuzzy that he was the last person I expected to become a Christian pastor because he was a Fela devotee and a compulsive boozer and womaniser!
He had a hearty laugh before revealing to me that he could not himself believe that he would turn out a pastor.
Chuzzy was an early recruit at The Guardian newspaper in Lagos, having been given a letter of recommendation in the University of Ibadan by Bayo Oduneye to Stanley Macebuh, the pioneer Managing Director of the celebrated “Flagship of the Nigerian Press”.
Chuzzy’s projected transfer of his services to MKO Abiola’s African Concord magazine under the headship of Lewis Obi fell through and he had to then start work at the human interest magazine Classic edited by May-Ellen Ezekiel under Dele Giwa’s Newswatch magazine stable.
Chuzzy had hopes of publishing a magazine named “Uptown” on his own, and Stanley Macebuh undertook to provide the seed money which never materialised.
It was as though many things were going wrong in Chuzzy’s life, and a caring lady insisted on taking him to Pastor Enoch Adeboye in the fledgling days of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
What animated Chuzzy’s spirit was the revelation that Adeboye was a doctorate degree holder in Mathematics and a University of Lagos lecturer to boot, and not just another shaman of doubtful education.
Chuzzy was then taken to the bushy outskirts of Ogun State where Pastor Adeboye said a short prayer for him.
He felt an unexplainable inner peace, and Pastor Adeboye advised the lady to bring Chuzzy to the church’s headquarters in Ebute-Metta.
Chuzzy was feeling signs and wonders, and eventually fell flat and passed out at the headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Ebute-Metta.
Some heavy bouncers had to carry the collapsed Chuzzy to a smiling Pastor Adeboye who laid his hands on him and said uplifting prayers.
It was a strong and bouncing in spirit Chuzzy that eventually left the presence of Pastor Adeboye after his fainting fit.
Chuzzy grew in leaps and bounds in the fellowship and as a Sunday school teacher.
Chained madmen were brought before him to be prayed for – and as Chuzzy prayed the chains were loosened such that the mad ones went home with their wits back with them.
Chuzzy’s transition to America was facilitated by an invitation letter from a former journalism lady colleague who had risen in an American elite bank.
When he landed in New York, he found it hard to get accommodated by some former colleagues until Okey Ndibe took him in with aplomb in his Connecticut home where he stayed for about 11 months.
He established links with fellow journalists in Nigeria who had relocated to America, notably Azuka Jebose-Molokwu and the late Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo.
It was in the struggle to get the attestation of his asylum status that the non-Christian Wole Soyinka performed the miracle by writing and posting it some Monday for sure, to borrow Nadine Gordimer’s title.
Pastor Chuzzy Udenwa, has won global especial recognition with his Glory House World Church based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
He has written scores of Christian books and travels across the word preaching the words of Jesus Christ.
The handsome pastor endeavours to come home to Nigeria handful of times in a year, preaching the gospel and spends his Christmas in the village.
He does not belong to the lost tribe of our fellows who speak only American phonetics!
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author