AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS: THE UNTOLD STORIES…18

Heavy-lifting Begins

The wondrous inauguration and installation of Bishop Victor Adibe Chikwe in Ahiara marked the climax of years of unrelenting efforts to establish a diocese for the Mbaise people. With that accomplished on that haloed day of January 31, 1988, the next chapter opened. And that was, for a want of a better word, the heavy-lifting that would commence the building up of the new diocese. Nearly every priest of Ahiara Diocese expectantly looked forward to the first Presbyterium meeting that would flag off life in the new diocese.

Almost every participating priest wanted to use that first meeting to size up the new bishop and his agenda for the diocese. Many had speculated that the new bishop would use that first Presbyterium meeting to announce his road map for the new diocese. As a result of the high expectations, anxiety over the first Presbyterium meeting of Ahiara Diocese hung very low throughout the whole diocese and beyond.

As if he was reading the mind of everybody in the new diocese, the new bishop did not waste time before convening the first meeting of all the priests in the diocese. All eyes were on him. There were so many sensitive issues to handle from the get go. The new bishop knew he had so many balancing acts to perform in order to maintain unity in the place.

The nature of Ahiara Diocese entailed that he would have to tread constantly a delicate fine line so as to ensure unity of purpose in the diocese. Historically speaking, Mbaise is a confederation or an amalgamation of five clans from the different strands of the Igbo nation. It was brought together as one entity or unit in the middle of the twentieth century; 1941, to be exact. The tendency for it to fall completely apart is always present.

Over the years, Catholicism, together with the other Christian denominations, provided the glue that held Mbaise peoples and clans together. Catholicism in particular had succeeded where the county-creating colonialists of the mid 20th century had woefully failed. Perhaps if Catholicism had grown fast enough in the 1940s and 1950s the former Mbaise communities of Logara, Obiangwu and Umuohiagu would have stayed rather than join present-day Ngor-Okpala and Owerri communities.

The Catholic Church has always served as the glue, the soul and the blood holding the disparate Mbaise communities together. The struggle to have a Catholic diocese erected in her land had made this glue grow even stronger. So, the challenge of the new bishop was to make sure that this divine glue so to speak, holding Mbaise people together, never got weakened as a result of administrative decisions. Coming into office at that point in time, the new bishop understood this challenge more than anyone else.

An added incentive for the new bishop to do well along the line of holding Mbaise communities together was the fact that the eyes of all Catholics in Nigeria appeared fixated on Mbaise people and their re-energized Catholicism. Catholics all across Nigeria seemed curious to know how the rural Diocese of Ahiara would take off and comport herself along the way. This universal interest sort of brought some additional pressure on both the new bishop and the priests who were convening for the first Presbyterium meeting in Ahiara that early February 1988.

But that first Presbyterium meeting would turn out to be principally an occasion for the new bishop to show appreciation to all Mbaise people, both priests and the laity alike, for the great works that were put into ensuring the success of his ordination in Rome as well as his installation and the inauguration of the diocese on January 31, 1988. It would become a meeting filled with banters, jokes and self-congratulation on what had been achieved in Mbaise land.

About seventy Mbaise priests mostly made up of returnees from Owerri Diocese arrived for that meeting. Despite its being light in agenda, it would become a meeting like no other. Being the first for the brand new diocese of Ahiara Mbaise, there was a lot of hogging and backslapping over the long-awaited dream that had come to reality.

Bishop Chikwe would open up the meeting on a joyous note with a self-deprecation of himself as having suddenly transited from the seat of the parish priest of Mount Carmel Church Emekuku to that of the bishop of Ahiara Diocese. He was ecstatic with the wondrous support and unity that had marked his Episcopal installation as well as the inauguration of the diocese. He prayed that such wondrous show of unity might continue forever and ever in the diocese. He would go on to harp on the need for unity of purpose in the new diocese. According to him, what the new diocese would need more than anything else to triumph and prosper was unity of purpose and dedication.

Bishop Chikwe pointed strongly to the slander that had been circulating against the diocese since its creation. According to him, many people from outside Mbaise were not being generous enough with their comments on the prospects of the new diocese. Some, according to him, had even gone as far as to uncharitably wish and pray that the new diocese might not succeed; that it might become a theatre of war, rancor and bickering among the clergy and laity of Mbaise. While praying that the wishes of such unkind people may not succeed, he challenged the priests of the new diocese to use the pains of the criticisms as a catalyst to build an enviable diocese in Mbaise land.

The new bishop called on the priests of the diocese to brace for hard work as they had the obligation to prove their detractors wrong. He requested that the whole Mbaise land be treated as one single family. The bishop said that his whole goal and philosophy would be that Mbaise people realize that they are just one single family pursuing a single purpose which is the building of God’s kingdom in Mbaise land.

The bishop warned that Mbaise was a very small place to admit or even tolerate unnecessary distractions along the lines of divisions and clannishness. As a result he said that it would be his solemn wish to see all parts of Mbaise treated as one single entity and community. He urged all the priests to reflect the fact that Mbaise is one single family in all their actions and behaviors.

To encourage efforts along the line of treating Mbaise as a single family, the new bishop requested that all clan, community or town associations of priests, religious and seminarians cease to exist forthwith as he would want the people of Ahiara Diocese to see themselves as one single family. According to him, such associations made meaning when we were in Owerri Diocese which was very large. But having come home to our own diocese, there would be no need for such associations as Mbaise was a very small place made up of kindred and communities that are closely knit together.

The next thing in the agenda was to confront head on the first challenge facing the new diocese. There were seventy priests to be accommodated in the eighteen parishes of the diocese. The problem appeared like a mini-conundrum. The priests returning from Owerri would have to be given places immediately. And some of the priests who were already in parishes in the diocese may have to be reassigned as their places had been made untenable by the realities of the new diocese.

The situation was absolutely dire and called for utmost care as it could mark the first tipping point for the new diocese. Everybody looked on the new bishop for leadership. He promised that he had started working on the list of the first assignments and locations of priests in the diocese. Everybody was chorusing the universal desire and readiness to make sacrifices so that the diocese could take off without any untoward incidents.

In the face of those challenges the new bishop appeared a little flustered and even a little jittery in a way. There were so many elderly priests to be accorded some respect and dignity. A good many of them carried some big egos that needed to be handled with care. And the fact that the new bishop appeared not to have been in the mainstream of those who fought for the diocese became an added liability. He appeared a little bit at a loss on how to handle the powerful priests.

Prior to his ordination and installation Bishop Chikwe appeared to have met with some of those Mbaise Diocese gladiators individually and tried to reassure them of his good intentions for the new diocese and perhaps win their support and confidence in the process. How far that effort had gone and how successful it had been was up in the air. There was a whole lot of uncertainty at the beginning.

There were so many issues to be addressed immediately. It appeared the bishop had thought about them severally but had made up his mind only on a few. And even the action he appeared to have taken at that point in time tended to raise many other questions. For instance, Fr Emmanuel Ogu had been chaperoning him since his announcement as the new bishop of the new diocese.

Fr Ogu was such a hands-on kind of a person that it was clear to everyone that the new bishop would need him working intimately and centrally with him for the diocese to move forward. As a result there was a lot of speculation that Fr Ogu would be a perfect fit for the office of the secretary of the new diocese. Nearly everybody agreed that Fr Emmanuel Ogu would make a perfect secretary for the new diocese. He had the knowledge, the docility and whatever it would take to make the office of the secretary of the new diocese productive and respectable.

But then there was another reality staring everybody on the face. Many people believed that the new bishop had talked the very versatile Fr Matthew Onyemma into joining him in the new diocese from his very comfortable parish of St Joseph’s, Uzoagba Ikeduru. Initially Fr Matthew Onyemma had given the indication that he might prefer to remain in Owerri Diocese. It appeared the new bishop had talked him out of that decision.

However Fr Onyemma's presence appeared to complicate the expected position of Fr Emmanuel Ogu. The reasoning was that both Fr Emmanuel Ogu and Fr Matthew Onyemma could not both have their speculated offices in the new diocese since both came from the same kindred in Umunama Ezinihitte. That is to say, if Onyemma became the Vicar General then it would be most unconscionable to appoint Ogu the secretary of the diocese. So everybody agreed that between the two something would have to give.

The next line of speculation was the position the powerful Monsignor Ignatius Okoroanyanwu would be given in the new diocese. Many speculated that he was the natural fit to be appointed the Vicar General of the new diocese. After all, they said, he was the former Vicar Capitula that held the entire old diocese of Owerri together immediately after the civil war. Msgr. Okoroanyanwu had a proven track record as an administrator. His experience in administering a large diocese would serve the new bishop right if he were to be appointed the Vicar General of the new diocese.

But then there was the very versatile Fr Matthew Onyemma who was his classmate looming so large in the new diocese. Either of the two would fit into the office of the Vicar General very perfectly. And that appeared to be another hard nut for the new bishop to crack in the new diocese. If one of them got the office of the Vicar General what would the other one get? That was the million Naira question at that time.

Besides Onyemma and Okoroanyanwu who were being heavily speculated for the office of the Vicar General, there were other powerful individuals who were said to have an outside chance of being appointed into the position. Among them was the powerful Fr Donald S. Okoro, a classmate of the new bishop who was the President of Mbaise Priests' Association that had played a very crucial role in realizing the dream of the new diocese. He was also believed to be within the radar of consideration for the position of the Vicar General of the new diocese.

Fr. Donald Okoro was believed to have a clearer path to being appointed to that position. It was believed that having come from Ahiazu-Mbaise Local Government Area, Fr Okoro’s appointment as Vicar General like the speculated appointment of Msgr. Okoroanyanwu into the same office would bring about the needed balance in the administration of the new diocese.

Another figure nobody in the new diocese could ignore at that time for any available office including that of the Vicar General was the indomitable Fr Lambert Nwigwe. He was a priest who would fit into any position of responsibility he was appointed to. He had the brains, the focus and resilience to thrive in any challenging situation.

And like Msgr. Okoroanyanwu and Fr Donald Okoro, Fr Nwigwe came from Ahiazu-Mbaise and his appointment would also bring about balance in the administration. But his strong personality was both a plus and a minus for him. It all depended on whether the new bishop would want to work closely with a man of such strong personality as Fr Lambert Nwigwe. Many could not bet on the possibility of the new bishop appointing Fr Nwigwe to the office of the Vicar General of Ahiara Diocese.

But constituting a harder nut to crack for the new bishop was the assignment to be given to Fr Lambert Nwigwe and the place to serve as his residence when the new assignments were published. At the time of the creation of Ahiara Diocese, Fr Lambert Nwigwe was the parish priest of St Brigid’s Parish Ahiara Centre, the host parish of the new diocese. He was the one who received the new diocese and the new bishop. But would he continue to live with the new bishop after the publication of the new assignments?

There was a consensus opinion among priests that Fr Nwigwe would not be appointed the new Cathedral Administrator of the diocese. And being a highly precautious individual Fr Nwigwe knew ahead of time that the position of the Cathedral Administrator needed a person younger than the new bishop and not one older. He was a year ahead of the new bishop in ordination.

Shortly after the installation of the new bishop, there was a rumor that Fr Nwigwe had had some discussions with the new bishop about his future assignment. According to sources familiar with what was happening then, he had made a request to go back to serve as the rector of the diocesan junior seminary, Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Nguru. Prior to his assignments as parish priests of Sacred Heart Parish Nguru and subsequently St Brigid’s Ahiara, Fr Lambert Nwigwe had spent years as seminary rectors in both St Mary Minor Seminary Umuowa Orlu and St Peter Claver Seminary Okpala. According to sources, the new bishop had readily agreed to grant him his wish, that is, to appoint him a rector again.

And with that informal agreement reached another problem was apparently created. The rector of Mater Ecclesiae Seminary then was Fr Clement Ebii. He had barely spent up to a year in the place before the creation of Ahiara Diocese. He was appointed into the post by Bishop Unegbu immediately he returned from his studies in Rome and Germany. If Fr Nwigwe would be assigned to the place, it meant that Fr Ebii would be reassigned after just a short spell in the place. How that was going to be taken by him, nobody knew at that point in time.

Another big decision that loomed for the new bishop was what to do with Sacred Heart Parish, Nguru. Before the creation of Ahiara Diocese, Nguru Parish was the biggest parish in Owerri Diocese with a population of about 60,000 Catholics. When Orlu was a part of the old Owerri Diocese, the only parish that had bested Nguru Parish at that time was the old Ihioma Parish but with only about two hundred Catholics extra. So, Nguru Parish had always been very outstanding both in old Owerri Diocese and now in the new Diocese of Ahiara. Many Nguru indigenes boasted that their parish was about two to three times larger than many dioceses in Northern Nigeria. And that was the truth. Nguru Parish outnumbered many dioceses not only in Nigeria but throughout the continent of Africa.

At the creation of Ahiara Diocese the parish priest of Nguru was Fr Christian Paul Egege, a very courageous and indomitable priest, in fact, a take-no-prisoners-kind of a priest. He was the first Nguru indigene to head his home parish of Nguru. And he made great contribution for the new diocese to take off. As speculation swirled about who could be appointed Vicar General of Ahiara Diocese, Fr Egege - alias, Prophet Habakkuk, made no bones in joking that if the office of the Vicar General was given to him, he would gladly accept it. And in a way he meant it and was qualified for it in every way!

But now it was crunch time for Nguru Parish. Would it continue to be one parish or would it be balkanized immediately so as to create parishes to accommodate some of the 70 priests that were returning home from Owerri Diocese? That was the million Naira question. Many indigenes and priests of Nguru origin vocalized their desire to have the large Nguru Parish maintained as one parish. Unfortunately, realities of the new diocese could not support their wish. But the new bishop was not signaling how he would handle the delicate case of Nguru Parish.

A more crucial question was who would be published as the parish priest of Nguru pending the time a decision would be made about its new structure. Would Fr Christian Paul Egege be maintained as the parish priest of Nguru or would another priest be appointed in the assignments to be published to oversee the parish pending the time it would be restructured. Smart money betted on retaining Fr Egege as the parish priest of the place until the new bishop made a decision on the new Nguru parish.

However, many other voices of priests and even lay people opined that as a new diocese every priest must be made to start anew in a brand new place. How the bishop was going to resolve the numerous thorny issues on his table at that point in time nobody knew for sure. But he was putting a brave face about the whole situation. Both the priests and the lay people of the diocese followed up his determination with prayers.

To be continued …..