Call it telepathy or emotiveness, mobile preachers have capitalised, to their advantage, on the fragile spirituality of many residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Abuja.
They hinge on the strong perception of the residents that there are always mystical forces after their fortunes or misfortunes to eke out a living through prophetic pronouncements.
The long buses, called El-Rufai buses have become the preachers’ business centres. For them preaching to commuters in these buses has become a full time employment and fertile ground of acquiring wealth as they preach from morning till night.
They have won the souls, minds and admiration of civil servants, businessmen and women and the ordinary Abuja residents, using the long busses, leaving them with no option than to patronise them.
They are noticeable along all the bus routes, especially residents at the outskirts of the city centres. The popular bus routes they are never in short demand include Berger-Nyanya, Mararaba, Gwagwalada, Kubwa, Kuje, Gwagwa and Karimo.
Part of their modus operandi is to join the buses just as workers heading to work places or business places, preaching and making prophetic declarations to as many passengers that are interested and receiving offerings, which they deceptively call support for the ministry, at the end of each sermon.
For some of the residents of Abuja, who consistently patronise long buses along Wuse to Nyanya, Apo, Berger to Kubwa and Mpape axis of the city, it is stealing in the name of God, yet to others, they are the go-between to their spiritual affliction.
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