BY NGOZI EMEDOLIBE
The fad in many churches, especially the spiritual white garment types is spawning sales of orange flavoured drinks, especially the Fanta brand, bottled by Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC.
Across the length and breadth of the country, it was discovered that the Fanta brand has become hot cake since spiritual fathers of many white garment churches have turned to the brand as panacea for wellbeing and prosperity in their prayer sessions.
A survey by The Sunday Times clearly indicated that the sales of Fanta is way above the other soft drink brands, and this has equally spiked the unit price of the product. For instance, while some other brands of soft drinks go for N200, Fanta is sold for N250, and in some cases, higher that that, depending on the location.
A shop owner, who identified herself as Rabiat Adekunle corroborated this discovery. According to her, there is more demand for Fanta and other orange flavoured products. “ I own a shop at Balogun Market and we sell assorted kinds of drinks,especially soft drinks and energy drink brands. There is higher demand for orange flavoured drinks than the other types. It could be the taste because, personally, I love orange drinks. The reality is that when you stock your shop with drinks, there is more demand for the orange flavoured brands than any other. But I am not complaining though”.
The Sunday Times however gathered that prophets of the white garment churches are in the habit of requesting for Fanta and other orange flavoured brand s from their congregants under the assumption that their lives would tow the sweet taste of the drink, when prayers are performed with such drinks. An adherent of a white garment church told Sunday Times that issues like that were strictly spiritual matters which required spiritual understanding and faith. According to him, “I do it because my prophet, who sees beyond the ordinary has told us about it. Most times when we have programmes, we are enjoined to bring the drinks for offerings of sweet life and prosperity. And I can authoritatively tell you that it has been working for a lot of us. Prayer is the key. And God is the ultimate”.
According to some of the adherents, whenever the prophets embark on the spiritual exercise of going to the mountain, offerings of such drinks are made and they are taken to the mountain to be prayed upon. After such exercises, adherents are made to wash their bodies with the drinks to unlock a new life of sweetness.
In spite of this growing fad, many pastors, especially of the orthodox churches dismissed such claims as signs of the end times, predicted in the Bible. According to Rev Fr Joshua Aremu, a Catholic priest, the world would see more of these kinds of idolatry. “It is pathetic that man has moved from worshipping God to referring a mere bottled drink. Nobody, no drink can show anyone mercy of prosperity or health except God through Jesus. People should not be deceived”.
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Another camp on the issue attributed the demand for Fanta on its low sugar content, compared to the other brands. “I read that Fanta has the lowest sugar content of all the brands of soft drinks in the market. Perhaps, this is helping its sales. But the said churches are using the product as a symbol. This can only make sense to the adherents “.
Sunday Times sighted a photograph of a typical prayer session conducted by a spiritual church and truly the orange flavored brands, constituted about 95% of the items on display.
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