AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS: THE UNTOLD STORIES…8

From Quest to Struggle:

All through the 1970s the quest for the establishment of Mbaise Diocese, as it was called then, was largely taking place under the radar. Not many people from Mbaise knew what was happening. It was an effort dominated mainly by the elite of Mbaise land who pursued it through private consultations and meetings with the new bishop. Notwithstanding the apparent lack of enthusiasm on the part of Bishop Unegbu, the project of establishing a diocese for the Mbaise people was still believed to be possible through a peaceful negotiation. The new bishop was given all the benefits of the doubt on all issues relating to the quest. Mbaise elite believed that the new bishop had good faith and could reason with them so as to allow the diocese to come into being.

But all that would appear to change dramatically from the beginning of 1981. There was a build-up to that dramatic turn of events in the quest. In early 1980 Assumpta Cathedral Owerri was dedicated. Over the years it was rumored that the only thing holding back the announcement of dioceses for Mbaise and Orlu was the unfinished Assumpta Cathedral. The rumor then was that Bishop Unegbu feared that if the two deaneries, Mbaise and Orlu, were allowed to go that quickly, he would not have enough income to complete the building of the Cathedral. And the consequent argument was that once Assumpta Cathedral was completed, then the two potential dioceses would be allowed to go.

When eventually Bishop Unegbu announced that Assumpta Cathedral had reached an appreciable level of completion and would soon be dedicated, excitement reached sky high. There was excitement not only because of the dedication of the beautiful Cathedral, which would be a landmark event in every sense of the word as it would become the first of its kind in the heartland Igbo area, but also because the dedication of Assumpta Cathedral would signal that the last obstacle to the creation of dioceses from the Mother Diocese of Owerri had finally been removed and new dioceses could come into being shortly afterwards.

At the dedication ceremony of Assumpta Cathedral, the excitement over the creation of two dioceses would reach a fever pitch. The homilist at the dedication ceremony, Dominic Cardinal Ekandem shot the anxiety for the two new dioceses into the stratosphere when he announced that the Catholic Diocese of Owerri would soon give birth to a twin. The announcement by the first Nigerian bishop, Dominic Ignatius Cardinal Ekandem that two new dioceses would soon emerge from the womb of Owerri Diocese sent the dedication congregation into frenzy. This made headlines all over the place. It was widely interpreted in the press and among discussants that dioceses would soon be created for Mbaise and Orlu peoples.

It was generally understood that Cardinal Ekandem in that homily had told the peoples of Mbaise and Orlu to go home and start preparing for the births of their new dioceses. And that was what the peoples of the two deaneries left the dedication ceremony of Assumpta Cathedral to do.

Both Mbaise and Orlu peoples took Cardinal Ekandem by his word. After all, they reasoned, he was the most senior bishop in Nigeria and the most respected among all the bishops. People believed that he could not possibly be preaching about a baseless rumor concerning the creation of dioceses from Owerri Diocese. He was speaking from knowledge and not hearsay, many chorused. That is to say, when Cardinal Ekandem said that Owerri Diocese would soon give birth to a twin, he meant every word of it and should therefore be taken literally. This was more or less the consensus opinion of all those who had attended the dedication ceremony from the deaneries of Mbaise and Orlu, or, had heard about the announcement Cardinal Ekandem made during his Cathedral dedication homily.

Then the fateful day of November 29, 1980 arrived for Mbaise people. Bishop Mark Unegbu announced a diocese only for the Orlu people leaving behind Mbaise people without any information on their request. And that left the whole of Mbaise land completely befuddled. Msgr. Gregory Ochiagha, the rector of Bigard Memorial Seminary Ikot Ekpene, was appointed the new diocese’s first bishop. Mbaise people felt that such could not be true. After all, they said, it was twin Dioceses that were promised. How come, they argued, that only one was announced afterwards? Something was definitely wrong, some Mbaise folks reasoned.

Many Mbaise people chose to wait a little bit to see if the gap in announcing the birth of the last of the twin dioceses would be a matter of days or even a month. But nothing happened even after one month. That was when many in Mbaise land began to conclude that something was definitely wrong with the process of creating dioceses and choosing bishops in Igbo Catholicism.

Mbaise people would enter the New Year of 1981 with lots of disappointment and anxiety. Nearly everybody in Mbaise was lamenting the fact that the out-maneuvering of Mbaise people which had become a staple in politics had finally reached the domain of the Catholic Church. Mbaise people’s frustration level was unimaginable.

However, while Mbaise people anxiously waited for their fate to be decided another creation of a diocese was announced in the province. Okigwe Diocese was created on January 24, 1981, from Umuahia Diocese. Msgr. Anthony Ilonu, a professor at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, was appointed her first bishop.

Mbaise people were taken aback by the announcement of the creation of Okigwe Diocese. The entire land occupied by Mbaise people was terribly confused. Could this be the last of the twin dioceses Cardinal Ekandem had promised during his homily at the dedication of Assumpta Cathedral? Many were asking.

But Okigwe Diocese came from Umuahia Diocese, many argued. Cardinal Ekandem spoke specifically about two dioceses given birth to by Owerri Diocese and not two dioceses from Onitsha Province. There were many questions. Has somebody substituted the name of Mbaise Diocese for Okigwe Diocese? What was happening? Many people from Mbaise were anxious to know. Is there no procedure of doing things in the Roman Catholic Church of Nigeria? Do they not understand the principle of “first come first served” which is the natural principle of justice and fairness? Many questioned themselves and one another most vigorously.

However, more importantly for Mbaise people were the facts that both Orlu and Okigwe peoples had learned how to ask for the creation of their dioceses from the Mbaise people. The question was; how come they have all realized their ambition while Mbaise was still left in a lurch? Does it mean that they have people working for them at the highest levels of the Church and Mbaise people have none? Nobody could provide any sensible answer to what was happening.

Because of the confusing situation arising from the rapid creations of Orlu and Okigwe Dioceses, Mbaise people began to suspect that something was terribly wrong with the way things were happening in the Nigerian Catholic Church. The belief was that something fishy was happening that was totally in opposition to the desires and aspirations of the Mbaise people.

The thought began to circulate that a powerful clique that was totally against the progress of the Mbaise people and their beautiful Catholicism had arisen at the highest levels of the Catholic Church in Nigeria. There might have been some manipulation somewhere along the line, some suspected, that prevented the announcement of a diocese for Mbaise people as had been promised by the most senior cleric in Nigeria in the person of Cardinal Ekandem.

This development would hit Mbaise people very hard. It made them arrive at many conclusions about their situation in the Roman Catholic Church of Nigeria. The situation gave Mbaise people a different view of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria. It made them conclude that there were many haters of the Mbaise people operating at the highest levels of the Catholic Church in Nigeria. According to them, there were many top-ranking Catholics in Nigeria who would leave no stones unturned in hurting the Catholic Church in Mbaise land. The situation, they concluded, called for an urgent action plan on how to protect the Catholic Church in Mbaise land from those who might want to see it go down in ruins.

When Mbaise people realized that they had practically nobody either among the Nigerian bishops or in Rome to make their case for a diocese, the elite of Mbaise decided to take up the battle by themselves. They decided to fight for their diocese no matter what. This fight would result in all sorts of verbal and written warfare carried out against anybody who was considered an obstacle to the realization of the dream of the Mbaise people.

Bishop Unegbu, being the one who upturned the apple cart in the erection of dioceses from old Owerri Diocese, bore the stiffest brunt of the weapons of the battle. He in turn fought back against Mbaise people alongside his allies many of whom had become prominent church leaders both in Nigeria and in Rome.

Among the suspected allies of Bishop Unegbu was his former foster son, Archbishop Francis Arinze, whose influence had grown quite astronomically following the successful hosting of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in Onitsha, in February of 1982. Archbishop Arinze was subsequently appointed the President of Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue of the Vatican City, on April 8, 1985. He would be made a Cardinal in 1996. With the astronomical rise in the status of Cardinal Arinze at the Vatican, Mbaise people realized that the process of getting a diocese they had been longing for would no longer be easy.

For nearly eight years the battle to have Mbaise land raised to a diocese in the Catholic Church would go on without any let off. Bishop Unegbu being an old war horse soaked up all the forces Mbaise people were unleashing to force him to get Mbaise diocese created. He appeared unmoved even as the battle raged all around him. The battle often appeared seesaw like between a tasted war hero and a bunch of amateurs who were making fruitless efforts to get the better of him.

To add more teeth to their efforts, priests of Mbaise origin, whether they were diocesan or religious, and whether they were working in Owerri Diocese or outside of it, formed themselves into a powerful organization that was led by Rt. Rev Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu and the indomitable Fr [later, Msgr.] Donald Okoro. The lay people had equally a very powerful organization led by the irrepressible Chief Donatus O. Onu of Umuezue Umuokrika Ekwerazu. All these organizations and even prominent individuals turned up the heat on Bishop Unegbu trying to force his hands to create Mbaise Diocese. But all efforts would prove like a flash in a pan.

The pressure on the bishop of Owerri, Bishop Unegbu, the Nunciature in Lagos and the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, on the need to create a diocese for the Mbaise people would not have any let off and was sustained for the greater part of the ‘80s. As we crossed the middle of the 1980s, it began to appear that Bishop Unegbu was growing weary of the pressure. As a result, he started setting up all sorts of obstacles to dissuade Mbaise people from continuing with their demand. But all that fell flat on their faces. Mbaise people would have nothing other than their own diocese like their counterparts from Orlu.

One of the obstacles Bishop Unegbu had put in place was the name a potential diocese for Mbaise people could take. He had refused and rejected the popular name for Mbaise people which was simply “MBAISE.” Mbaise people had wanted their diocese to be named simply “Mbaise Diocese.”

According to the late Msgr. Donald Okoro, who was the last president of the Mbaise Indigenous Priests Association that piloted the struggle for the creation of the diocese, when the name MBAISE proved an obstacle to the creation of the diocese, he, Msgr. Okoro, suggested that the new diocese be named after the town that first welcomed the missionaries in Mbaise. This became acceptable to Bishop Unegbu. Hence a little progress was made when it was agreed by both parties that the diocese could be called “Ahiara Diocese” without any problem. Resigned to their fate, Mbaise people as a whole accepted that no matter what the diocese for the people of Mbaise was eventually called, it would be acceptable to them in so far as it included all the five ancient clans in Mbaise land.

With the name of the diocese settled on, the focus shifted to where the first bishop of the new diocese could come from. At first, Bishop Unegbu appeared to be adamantly opposed to appointing an Mbaise priest to become the first bishop of the proposed diocese for the Mbaise people. He wanted a bishop from another place that was outside Mbaise land. This became the cause of a new struggle. Mbaise priests rejected and remained immoveable in their rejection of the idea which implied that an Mbaise person was not qualified to head the first diocese in Mbaise land. This struggle would prolong the struggle further. The two sides appeared deadlocked on who could be appointed the first bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Mbaise.

According to the priests who were interacting with Bishop Unegbu on this issue at that time, he, Bishop Unegbu went far afield searching for bishopric candidates for the new diocese for the Mbaise people. At some point, according to the people who were conversant with what was happening, he proposed his cousin, the powerful late Msgr. Nwafor of CKC Aba fame. The new candidate began making some sporadic visits to Ahiara and other communities in Mbaise. When the priests of Mbaise noticed what was happening, they vowed never to accept the appointment of Msgr. Nwafor as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Mbaise.

Having been fought to a standstill on the issue of the person to be appointed bishop of Mbaise, it appeared Bishop Unegbu began to look inwards for the possible bishopric candidates for the new diocese. He began to search from among Mbaise people for a person who could be appointed bishop of the new diocese. Unfortunately, at that point in time, there were only very few priests from Mbaise who could be said to be in the good books of Bishop Unegbu. The intense struggle to have a diocese created for the Mbaise people had greatly soured the relationship between many Mbaise priests and their bishop.

But there were still quite a few priests from Mbaise who, despite the intense struggle, kept a close relationship with Bishop Unegbu. These included Fr Lambert Nwigwe, Fr. Theophilus Nwalo, Fr Emmanuel Ogu, Fr Sabinus Nwachukwu, Fr Paul Amakiri, Fr Clement Ebii, Fr Eugene Azorji, to mention but a few. Those who were very young in the priesthood at that time did not have any other option than to throw their support behind Bishop Unegbu of Owerri Diocese. All these priests had some kind of a look-in as the process to get a bishop for the diocese for the Mbaise people progressed.

But the first among those favored priest candidates of Bishop Unegbu was Msgr. Victor Chikwe of Mount Carmel Church fame. Msgr. Chikwe whom Bishop Unegbu had appointed twice to serve as the powerful parish priest of the mother Church of the Diocese, Mount Carmel, Emekuku, and who was at that point in time serving as the Dean of Owerri Deanery, was arguably the favorite of Bishop Unegbu at that point in time. Many believed he was Bishop Unegbu’s alter ego and his favored candidate for the bishopric of Ahiara Diocese, Mbaise. But what seemed certain was that Msgr. Chikwe appeared to have been the fall-back candidate of Bishop Unegbu if and when he failed to get a priest from outside Mbaise to be appointed the new bishop for the new diocese.

Also, to his credit was the fact that Msgr. Chikwe was first and far ahead of every other priest from Mbaise in the pecking order of those who could be made bishops from the point of view of Bishop Unegbu. As far back as 1982, Msgr. Chikwe was believed by nearly everyone in Owerri Diocese to have been penciled down as the one who would wear the cap of a bishop when eventually a diocese was created for the Mbaise people. And the whole of Mbaise people, especially the priests and the elite of the would-be diocese, appeared resigned and even comfortable with the idea that Msgr. Chikwe could eventually be appointed the bishop of their diocese.

Among the priests of Mbaise origin, the consensus opinion was that any Mbaise priest who would be appointed the bishop of Mbaise would be open-handedly welcomed by his brothers and sisters.

To be continued….