He is 65. He is at an age when his peers have started coming to terms with the onset of old age. It is an age when his contemporaries have started seeing their grand children, some luckier ones, great grand children.
Paradoxically, it is an age Sat Guru Maharaj Ji, the Ibadan, Oyo State-based self-acclaimed Living Perfect Master, has come out to shock the world with an unabashed antagonism to the sacred institution of marriage.
In a recent encounter with the bearded one at his hilltop commune on the outskirts of the Oyo State capital, the reclusive spiritualist declared that, for him, marriage is a taboo. It is a no-go area. He has never given it a thought and never will do so because, to him, marriage is an unnecessary distraction. “I challenge anybody who says she is Maharaj Ji’s wife to come out,” he declared matter-of-factly.
“I challenge anybody who says she has children for Maharaj Ji to come out. I don’t have any biological children. My children are my followers. I’m the father of creation. … I don’t have any biological child, and I’m not married to any woman. I don’t have a wife. “I’ve never thought about marriage, and I will never do so, because there is a war going on, and the war is between light and darkness. Until the war is over, anybody who gets involved with marriage will always be in trouble. …
My advice to the young men of these days is that they should not get married. This is not the time to go into marriage because the situation is not conducive.” This is not the only bombshell that the man in Ibadan dropped during the interview. He also threw darts at pastors, men of God, who he accused of using diabolical means to hoodwink their teeming followers.
“Quote me,” he declared, his eyes like balls of fire, “all of them use juju. How can a pastor touch somebody and he falls down? That one is juju at work. Our people are very foolish and ignorant. How can you touch somebody and he falls down? There is something behind this.” Well, what else can we say other than to urge you to sit back and devour the full interview? It is Sat Guru Maharaj Ji verbatim. Like you have never read him before. Excerpts:
How do you feel hitting 65 in a country like Nigeria where life expectancy is below 50?
To put it mildly, I feel fantastic in the sense that, for the first time, several church leaders, political leaders and other prominent members of the society not only met each other but also interacted freely at the ceremony (his birthday party). I’m happy that the grace of Maharaj Ji has made us all to survive in the last 38 years of this ministry. There was nothing some people didn’t do to frustrate us, especially those groups that have been tormenting the Black race for centuries. They are not happy that Maharaj Ji has espoused the true name of God. They were wondering that how can I just come like that and all of a sudden I put a stop to all what they had been doing to dupe almost everybody. I felt so good for being able to stand as the representative of God, our Creator on this earth.
From what you have just said, you claimed some pastors and top political leaders in the country were here to celebrate with you…
(Cuts in…) Yes. Many of them were here. It was not a secret. They came here to felicitate with me and also to receive knowledge, which will help them in their ministries. Some of them even expressed the wish to see me in privacy and I obliged them.
Still talking about your 65 years on earth, what was the turning point in your life? What was that point in your life where you made a 360 degree-turn and you experienced the transformation that led you to where you are today?
That was in 1975. I was in Europe to attend a course in marketing at the Institute of Marketing in London. Two years later, I heard about Sat Guru Maharaj Ji of the time saying that there was a power within us that knows everything, and that until you experience this power, you are not complete.
Unknown to me, he had already given a lecture in one of the universities in America, University of Pennsylvania, on July 15, 1976, telling the audience that there is somebody coming from the most populous nation in Black Africa who is going to take over from him. I received knowledge from him on January 1, 1980, and that was the beginning of this journey, which has enabled human beings to know that we can overcome our pains, and agonies when we receive knowledge. When I received this knowledge from my master, a baton of change took place and I had to return to Nigeria to spread the good news and begin my mission. I came back on July 15, 1980. On that eventful flight on the Nigeria Airways plane that brought me home was the late T.O.S. Benson. On arrival, I headed for Adegbola Street, in Ikeja where some people were waiting for me.
What happened thereafter?
I wrote to almost all our leaders drawing their attention to the urgent need to allow me to start a radio and television programme, to explain the phenomenon called Maharaj Ji. Among those prominent Nigerians that initially gave me audience were the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, and the late governor of old Rivers State, Chief Melford Okilo, and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. But when it became obvious that the colonial forces were still holding some of our leaders under the false belief that Jesus is the way, that Mohammed is the way, some of these eminent Nigerians later blocked me from seeing them again. So, most of our leaders didn’t really understand my mission. Due to this non-challant attitude of our leaders, I then took up a job with the defunct Nigeria Airways as private secretary to the Marketing Director, Chief Okim. I worked there for about a year, and I used the money that I saved to hire an apartment at 33, Shittu Thompson Street in Ikeja, which later became the universal headquarters of my mission. Immediately I got the place, I resigned from Nigeria Airways because God told me the time has come for my mission to start.
In a mission like this, you can’t afford to wait because there are instructions and directions being given every minute. How I got the house where we started was a miracle because the spiritual mandate was that we had to start using a new house. I was contemplating on how to get such a house, when one Chief Onifade came to know more about Maharaj Ji. I just asked him two questions. Number one, I asked him: Are you a Yoruba man? He said ‘yes’. I then told him that we are looking for a new house. He went away, only to come back the second day and informed me that he had got a place for us. He, however, added that the landlord demanded for a year rent. I told Baba that he should plead with them that they should allow us to pay for six months. I gave Baba N450, but Baba later added another N450 to make payment for a year rent. That was the beginning of my mission.
I didn’t come to Ibadan immediately. When we started in Lagos, something happened that forced us to have an extension, and what happened? The northern oligarchy, the feudalists, who didn’t come out then as Boko Haram actually were finding a way to stop my mission. To achieve their objective, they used the former military governor of Lagos State, Gen. Raji Rasaki to stop us from using Thompson Street in Lagos as our headquarters.
But luckily for us, one Mama came one day from Ibadan, and she told us about available large expanse of land in Ibadan. I sent a delegation to follow her to find out exactly the true position of things. My position as a Perfect Living Master has always been to find out things before I take position. I then asked Mama about the original owner, and she said it belonged to one Chief Ogundimu. I was later taken to his place, and he agreed to sell the land to me. We met a pastor who had a church around the area and he vehemently opposed my members and me. He said we won’t be allowed to stay there, but Chief Ogundimu stood his ground and later insisted that he would sell the land to us.
I was shocked by the pastor’s action. I couldn’t understand why he opposed our coming to the place. Perhaps he felt that customers coming into his church might be diverted to our place. But the pastor was ignorant. He didn’t know that the Perfect Living Master had come to stay there. He should have allowed his members to come to me for knowledge. But like most of the pastors have been doing, he held his church members hostage with juju.
Are you saying that pastors use juju?
Yes. Quote me: all of them use juju. How can a pastor touch somebody and he falls down? That one is juju at work. Our people are very foolish and ignorant. How can you touch somebody and he falls down? There is something behind this.
Today, we are in a world of falsehood. And if you look at what is happening, you wouldn’t blame the pastors, you would blame our law, which is lax. I said this because if some of these pastors that have been duping people had been brought to book, there would have been sanity. These pastors that are pushing people down, and are saying they are healing them, they should tell us the source of their power. If, as a pastor, you receive your power from Ifa, Ogun or Orunmila, and you are giving credit to another person, this means that you are a saboteur. You are in actual fact a murderer because you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Is it true, as some people have claimed, that some religious leaders often come to your headquarters here in Ibadan to consult you?
It is true. At times, they send their representatives. But I clearly remember that the General Overseer of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Kumuyi, came to see me at our Lagos headquarters in Iju, Lagos, sometime in 1987. It is a public place, he was there, and people saw him. But he went back, never to come back to fulfill his promise to come for knowledge. And without knowledge, there is no way anybody can make it.
When Pastor Kumuyi came that time, was it on a courtesy visit?
You don’t go to a place where they acquire knowledge on a courtesy visit. His visit was more than a courtesy visit. But like I said, he never came back to acquire knowledge. What many people don’t know is that the Creator has come down. Somebody of his calibre doesn’t come here on courtesy visit, it goes beyond that. Kumuyi had come for salvation but he didn’t exercise sufficient patience as he left without acquiring knowledge. There are many others that have come like that. My mission is to give light to the world, to bring people out of darkness into light. I’m the father of everybody, the entire human race.
You may then wonder, what about the White people? Are you also their father? I will say ‘yes’. There was a time they were not Whites. They were Blacks then. But, suddenly, something happened many years ago, that drove them under water. And they stayed there for so long. And by the time they came out, their skin had changed. This is why you now have dichotomy between them and us. Due to the fact that they stayed for so long under the water, by the time they came out, their character had changed. This is why you see most White people being rascals, impatient, restless and erratic.
But Maharj Ji, being a loving father, made it possible for the energy in Blacks to mix up with that of the whites to give world peace. Before Maharaj Ji came, the supremacy of the white man was unshakeable. But when I came, everything changed. I’m the source of life, everybody should come close to me, and know Maharaj Ji as not only helping the Black man to realize his potentialities, but also as the power that has helped the white man. Otherwise, this world would have disappeared.
And don’t mind the whites with their propaganda that they have been using to brainwash the Blackman. For example, for how long have they been telling us that Jesus is coming? They have been saying so since I was very young, and now I’m 65 years old, and yet He has not come. But there is one thing that people should realize about the coming of Jesus Christ, and that is, instead of Jesus coming in a white body, it is somebody in a black body who came to rescue the world. And that is my humble self, Sat Guru Maharaj Ji.
Is it also true, as some people claimed, that some of our political leaders often come here?
Yes. Some of them come here. Even my position demands that I should be with them everytime. They have been coming here, and I have also been with them since 1983, 1984 and 1985. Again, I used to write letters to them, counseling them on how to move the nation forward. But, unfortunately, some religious leaders have held them hostage, deceiving them, and shielding some of them from knowing the truth. Yet, these pastors, who claim to have knowledge and power, couldn’t see vision about all these plane crashes all over the place.
Our leaders should remove this wool that has been used to cover their faces by these religious leaders. There is no way you claim to be a servant of the Most High, and He will not reveal events that are to happen to you. But do these religious leaders see anything? Our leaders need life and they want to enjoy it. There are so many things missing in the life of somebody who doesn’t have knowledge from Guru Maharaj Ji. How I wish that this interview will come out raw and everything I said should be published, and I dare anybody to challenge me.
A lot of things are going wrong in this country, and those people you expect to speak out, especially religious leaders, are keeping quiet. Church leaders are not talking. We are in a state of confusion where the rich are getting richer, and the poor getting poorer. This is one of the reasons why I have come to redeem mankind. If Maharaj Ji had not come on July 17, 1980, Nigeria would have been in a complete mess. I had not even used half of the power I have. Had I have done so, I would have dealt with many people, especially those that have looted our treasury. But I’m not Moses, an apostle of fire for fire. I love everybody and I will like evil people to retrace their steps, otherwise they will face destruction.
So, who is Guru Maharaj Ji? Some people claim that you are an Indian, others says you are a Hausa man while others say you are a Camerounian. Who are you?
Guru Maharaj Ji is an Ibadan man. But I was born on December 20, 1947, on the day of the eclipse of the sun in far away Ghana. I was carried in my mother’s womb, spiritually, for nine years. I was born in the gold-mining town of Obuasi in Ghana. My father’s name is Alan Ibrahim and my mother’s name, Madam Senatu Amope. They are both Nigerians. I was second to the last in a family of 17 children. I was given the name Mohammed Shuaibu Ayobami Ajirobatan.
Are you from a polygamous home?
No. All of us were born by my mother. However, my mother was first married to a mining engineer, Pa Ajala. It was after his death that our mother married my father. For my primary school education, I attended Methodist School, and from there, I proceeded to Methodist Middle School also at Obuasi. By 1960, I completed my middle school. Thereafter, I was taken to my senior sister who worked with Ghana Police in the Squadron Unit. While there with her in Accra, I enlisted at Kwame Nkrumah Pioneer Institute, located at Old Polo Ground in Accra. On the completion of my studies there, I moved down to Nigeria. From then on, things started changing.
As a kid, one believed that whatever advice elders give you, you must take it. So, when my mother advised me to go and stay with my senior sister and her husband who was a member of the then Western Region’s House of Assembly, I agreed. The couple was staying in Iseyin. There, I enrolled in a secretarial school. I remember it was there I did my RSA and Pitman professional examinations. Few years later, I was taken to another senior sister who was married to a cocoa merchant in Sekona, Osun State. I stayed there for some time. While I was there, one of my uncles, Professor Haruna Balogun, asked me to see him. On getting to his house in Lagos, he enrolled me in a commercial institute owned by one Papa Afuwape. It was when I was there that I was informed about a vacancy in a transport company. I was hired as secretary to the Transport Manager. This was in 1969. I was later transferred to the General Manager’s office. I later joined another establishment, YWC under Lady Alakija. I stayed there for a year before I joined another company owned by late Chief Lekan Salami in Ibadan. It was while I was there that I secured employment with a clearing and forwarding company at Apapa in Lagos.
It was from this company that I travelled outside the country in July 1975. But I remember that day of my departure, there was a coup d’etat led by General Murtala Muhammed who toppled the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. When I arrived London for the first time in my life, I saw a mad white man. I shouted, and my friends asked why. I told them that I never knew that a white man could also run mad. I encountered some problems over accommodation. When I arrived London, I had to leave Chapters Street where I first stayed because the landlord and I had a mild disagreement while having discussion over Nigeria.
In the second place where I stayed, I got the accommodation through a woman I met by providence. I told the woman that I had accommodation problem and she assured me that the problem would be solved. She later invited me to her house where she stayed with her children.
As we entered the house, right in the foyer, there was this photograph of the master before me; the one that prophesied about me in 1976. I now asked this woman: ‘who is this man?’ She said that is Sat Guru of this age. The woman later told me that the man, that is Sat Guru, would solve any problem I have. She said Maharaj Ji would solve all my problems. She now invited me to Maharaj Ji’s place of worship called Sat Sang. For me to hear the man speaking, I was overwhelmed with joy. That was it. I immediately felt that this was where I belonged. This was how I received knowledge, and became a child of light. When you are in knowledge, materialism has no meaning to you. You control and dominate your environment.
There is this controversy about your marital status. Some people claim that you are married with children while others say you are a divorcee. Which is which?
There should be no controversy. Guru Maharaj Ji has come to this planet to offer life and knowledge to people. So, anybody that receives knowledge from me is my child, a bona fide one. Those who receive knowledge from me are my children. I don’t have any biological child, and I’m not married to any woman. I don’t have a wife.
Why? You are 65, and …
(Cuts in…) It’s like this. For any sincere and honest somebody, you find out that even if you are blessed, this is not the time for somebody to think about marriage. For me, I’ve never thought about marriage, and I will never do so, because there is a war going on, and the war is between light and darkness. Until the war is over, anybody who gets involved with marriage will always be in trouble. For now, I’m not thinking of marriage. The war against the forces of darkness is on and that battle must be won. Marriage can wait.
At 65, you say marriage can wait?
Yes. I have a mission. Marriage will be a distraction. I must defeat forces of darkness. Marriage is not in my agenda. This is not the time to go into marriage. I challenge anybody who says she is Maharaj Ji’s wife to come out. I challenge anybody who says she has children for Maharaj Ji to come out. I don’t have any biological children. My children are my followers. I’m the father of creation. So, everybody, including Christians and Muslims, I’m their father. Before I left for Europe and till I came back, I was never married. Even up till now, I’m not married to anybody. My advice to the young men of these days is that they should not get married. This is not the time to go into marriage because the situation is not conducive. However, for anybody that insists, I have no opposition. After all, some of my members are married.
Is it true, as some people claimed, that you once said that you would never die?
When one is transformed into spirituality, you no longer talk about death. Man is talking about mortality and immortality because he accepted teachings brought by the Europeans without finding out how true these teachings are. When you talk about death, it negates the principles of our existence. They say God is light, and in Him there is no darkness, and darkness can’t comprehend it. So, why is death coming in?
The true name of our creator is Maharaj Ji, and with my coming, light has come. Now, the light will be guiding my followers wherever they are going, so that with the knowledge they have acquired they will not commit sin. As it was written in the Bible that the wages of sin is death, but the moment you are lifted above, you will live in the spirit, and when you live in the spirit you will have knowledge.
Since I live in the spirit, and I’m the fountain of knowledge, I’m immortal. I can’t die. Why should I die physically? I can’t die physically. I will not die. Even it is said in the Scripture that man is the perfect image of God. Can God die? Since I’m a perfect image of God, I can’t die. Is it a sin to live till eternity? I have both the physical body and the spirit. If you look at the Scriptures, where did you see or read about people seeing dead bodies of previous masters like Moses, Elijah and others. Death means nothing to me – man is an image of the creator, so I don’t believe in death.
