Rev. Chris Ogugua has launched a fierce attack on Africa’s prosperity gospel movement, describing it as a product of ignorance sustained by economic hardship and systemic failure.
In a no-holds-barred critique, he argues that the obsession with praying for financial breakthroughs is less about spirituality and more about survival in a continent where real opportunities are scarce. According to him, if Africa had functional job systems and reliable income structures, many pastors built around prosperity preaching would struggle to maintain influence.
Ogugua draws a striking comparison with developed economies, where even teenagers can earn independently. A 13-year-old can make up to £20 per hour walking dogs — translating into millions of naira monthly — without needing to “bind” or “cast out” anything. In such an environment, he says, sermons about witches blocking prosperity would sound completely disconnected from reality.
He accuses the system of commercializing faith, turning desperation into a marketplace where hope is packaged and sold to the vulnerable. In his view, many people have been conditioned to interpret poverty as a spiritual attack rather than the result of failed economic structures.
Going further, he raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of wealth among the elite, claiming that only a small fraction can genuinely account for how their riches were made. The rest, he suggests, are beneficiaries of a broken system that keeps the masses distracted and dependent.
His message is blunt and unapologetic: prosperity preaching in Africa is not thriving because it works — it is thriving because people have been left with no better options.
