Goya oil has become so sacred to Nigerian Christians. If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you have not at least sipped the oil for healings or applied it on your body for protection against demons or used it for deliverance, then you must be among the very few exceptions.

In Nigeria, Goya Extra Virgin Olive Oil is considered a Holy Anointing Oil that can drive away demons. In Spain where the founder Don Prudencio Unanue was from, and in America where he later founded the Goya company in 1936, Goya oil is simply a cooking oil or for Salad or for marinating.

While people in the US, Puerto Rico, Spain, and even in the UK keep Goya oil in their kitchens, those in Nigeria and various parts of West Africa, keep theirs on their Altars, sick people’s beds, and church handbags.

I am not in any way playing down on your faith because I know for a fact that with God, he can use anything he so pleases to transmit his power and blessings.

But you can’t ask a pregnant woman to be drinking a complete bottle of Goya oil every day so that she will deliver her baby like the “Hebrew women” and expect me to keep quiet.

You can’t be ignorantly applying cooking oil inside your eyes like an eye drop because you were told that it is an anointing oil that can open your eyes to see the demons around you and expect Fr Kelvin not to react.

You can’t go to bless people’s houses and empty more than 10 bottles of Goya oil at every corner of the building in the name of driving away demons and expect your ritual and ignorance to be left unquestioned.

You can’t be giving your children Goya oil on their way to school, asking them to rub it on their pens for exam success, or on their private parts to remain virgins and you expect everyone to fold hands and not talk.

You can’t take because you are an invited preacher to a crusade and come with your oil, claiming yours is more powerful than others even though they all carry the same labels. . .then you sell yours three times the original price because you claim it cures HIV/AIDS, and expect that no one will call you out.

There are many things you all should just stop. These abuses should just stop!

More disheartening is that many of what some of you consume as Goya olive oil in Nigeria is fake. Even as you read this, there are people somewhere using paraffin Oil and color to produce the oil, then they package it with the name Goya Extra Virgin Olive Oil to sell to you.

Well, I do not fully understand the reason why Christians of other denominations use Goya oil, so I won’t question them. . . But I will question Catholics.

If you are a Catholic, you have to convince me why you are using Goya oil for ANOINTING? Where exactly did you get your teachings from?

First, you cannot anoint yourself by yourself. It is not theological, it is not biblical, it is not Catholic practice. Even a priest when sick, cannot anoint himself.

In the book of James 5:14, the sick person is supposed to call the elders who will anoint him or her with oil. In Leviticus 8:12, Moses anointed Aaron. In 1 Sam 16:13, Samuel anointed David. We can go on and on.

Note this: there are cases in the bible in which people were said to have anointed themselves with oil, but it was used in the same context as telling someone to rub cream and look good. For example, Matthew 6:17 says “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face.” The word “anoint” here is like saying, “apply” hair cream. (This is not the type of “anointing” we are talking about.)

Secondly, the Catholic church already has provisions for Anointing and the oils to be used are clear. If you are sick, the priest anoints you with the OIL OF THE SICK. Before baptism, you are anointed with the OIL OF CATECHUMEN to exorcise you of any powers that are not from God. Then at baptism, confirmation, and priestly ordination, you are anointed with CHRISM OIL which signifies that you are a priest, a king, and a prophet.

These three oils: Oil of Chrism, Oil of the Sick, and Oil of Catechumen are blessed by the Bishop of the diocese every year during the Chrism Mass and given to all priests to use on the people of God. How did Goya oil come into the picture as anointing oil? I am asking you my dear Nigerian Catholics.

Fr. Kelvin Ugwu

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