AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS: THE UNTOLD STORIES…19

Worst Fears Confirmed

The first Presbyterium meeting of the new diocese of Ahiara in early February of 1988 had broken up with lots of speculation on who would be assigned to what and where. Anxiety was hanging very low on how the new bishop was going to resolve some knotty issues regarding priests’ placements and assignments in the new diocese. There were so many outstanding priests in the diocese whose places in the new assignments list were being carefully watched.

Hardly was there anybody in the diocese who was under any illusion about the potential for priests’ placements to constitute the first flashpoint in the new diocese. As a result, the first two weeks of February 1988 would become a period packed with suspense and expectation. Everybody saw the impending publication of the list as the first hurdle for Bishop Chikwe. Will he scale it or be tripped by it? That was the question!

Shortly before the middle of February, the long awaited assignment list was finally published. Fortunately, there would not be many surprises in the list. Some speculated names had been listed for what they had been projected for. That was a great relief. To the new bishop’s credit, the list had demonstrated an ingenious effort on his part to ensure balance in the administration of the new diocese. Priests from the five socio-political zones were evenly spread in the key administrative areas of the diocese.

As had been speculated, Fr Matthew Onyemma got the nod for the position of the Vicar General. He was also made the parish priest of St Michael’s Parish Okwuato. Rt. Rev. Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu, the former Vicar Capitula of old Owerri Diocese, was assigned as parish priest of St Dominic’s Parish Ezinihitte East and also as the director of Propagation of Faith. Such other big names as Fr Boniface Nwachukwu and Msgr. Jacob Ibekwe were adequately assigned to strategic positions. While Fr Boniface Nwachukwu became the parish priest of St Patrick’s Ekwerazu and the director of the Health Services of the new diocese, Msgr. Jacob Ibekwe was assigned as parish priest of St Jude’s Amuzi and also a member of the Board of Consultors. A cursory rundown of the list showed that the new bishop had put in a lot of thought in the placements of the senior priests which had been a great concern to all.

However, a little bit of a surprise would be sprung on the position of the Secretary and Chancellor of the diocese. Placement in that position had taken into consideration the musings of many priests that both Fr Onyemma and Fr Emma Ogu could not be made Vicar General and Secretary respectively without causing some disconcerting lopsidedness in the administrative structure of the diocese. So, in place of Fr Emmanuel Ogu, Fr Justin Anaele got the call for the position of Secretary and Chancellor of the diocese. That was a welcome relief to many priests. The appointments of Fr Anaele from Ahiara and his deputy, Fr Daniel Anyanwu from Oke-Ovoro had brought about an apparent balance in the administration of the new diocese. It ensured that almost all zones and clans of the new diocese would have some kind of a presence in the inner administrative circle of the diocese. Not a few priests applauded the balance in the selections.

For the position of the rector of Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Fr Lambert Nwigwe got his wish to return to the seminary setup. It had been speculated that Fr Emmanuel Ogu, who was another veteran of seminary formation in Owerri Diocese might get the call to serve as the rector; that is, if the need for balance prevented him from being appointed the Secretary and Chancellor of the diocese. But the wish of Fr Lambert Nwigwe could not be ignored. In matters of seminary formation and administration he was somebody who could not be denied his wish to return to the seminary. He was believed by many to be a disciplinarian per excellence. There was a consensus that with the changing social situation in Nigeria, the seminary needed a strict disciplinarian like Fr Lambert Nwigwe. And that was what Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Nguru, eventually got in the very first assignment list of Ahiara Diocese.

The president of Mbaise Indigenous Priests’ Association at that time, Fr Donald Okoro was made the parish priest of Queen of Peace Parish, Ezinihitte West as well as the powerful director of Justice and Peace Commission which would be put to a maximum use shortly afterwards in the seminal youth empowerment programme of the new diocese. The appointment of Fr Donald Okoro had taken into consideration his antecedents as one who loved to give young people head-starts in life. By appointing him to the office of Justice and Peace the new bishop was looking forward to recreating that office into a skills acquisitions office for the new diocese. And that was what it would turn out to become as we shall see later in this series.

To the great credit of the new bishop, the assignment had succeeded in placing all of the 70 available priests in one parish or the other in the 18 functioning parishes of the new diocese. Most of the parishes found a way to accommodate between three and four priests depending on the number of available and livable rooms in such parishes. The bishop had described it as an interim measure pending the time further assignments would be found for the priests. He had in mind to send out some priests on mission and many others to further studies both locally and overseas as we shall demonstrate later in this series.

However, the publication of the assignments’ list had also set off some weird reactions in some quarters. The most disconcerting was what happened at Sacred Heart Parish, Nguru. The former parish priest, Fr Christian Paul Egege was reassigned to St Anthony’s Parish Mpam, Ekwerazu, and Fr Emmanuel Ogu was appointed as the new parish of the vast parish. This change would set off the first major crisis of the new diocese. Fr C.P. Egege was greatly distressed by the change. Being a native of Nguru Community the youths of his parish rallied to protect his resistance of his relocation from the parish. This would mutate into a very tense situation of embarrassment in the new diocese.

For weeks, Nguru youths acting in a manner that would anticipate present-day militancy, barricaded the parish and restricted entry into the premises of Sacred Heart Parish, Nguru. As a result, the entire atmosphere throughout the diocese was charged and distressful. It appeared as if detractors of the new diocese had had their wish. The new diocese in her first outing had entered into serious turmoil. All over the place, critics of the new diocese were patting themselves on the back that their prognosis for the new diocese had quickly been realized. This would become a period of great grief in the new diocese. Fr Egege would emerge the first in the new diocese to fire off some petitions against the policy of the new bishop. That was barely two to three weeks after the inauguration of the diocese. Their worst fears having been confirmed, both priests and the lay faithful of the new diocese were terribly embarrassed, aggrieved and unhappy.

As the standoff over the relocation of Fr Egege from Sacred Heart Parish Nguru lingered, emissaries upon emissaries were sent to him to reconsider and not to bring down the new diocese with his resistance. For a while, all entreaties appeared to fall on deaf ears. Fr Egege and those guarding his premises stuck to their guns and refused to negotiate. The whole resistance of the relocation by Fr Egege would reverberate throughout the Igbo heartland area. It made headlines in radios and newspapers to the embarrassment of all Mbaise people.

On the other side of the coin, there were lots of talks whether the new bishop had acted wisely in removing Fr Egege from Nguru Parish that early in the new diocese and replacing him with Fr Emmanuel Ogu. Could the bishop not have avoided that unnecessary crisis that early in the life of the new diocese by employing one additional year to prepare Fr Egege psychologically for his eventual removal? Among the younger priests of the new diocese, there were lots of questions for both Fr Egege and the new bishop. Blames over the crisis were being spread all over the place.

But at the end of the day, many realized that there was no way Fr Egege could have been retained in Nguru Parish at that point in time. The reason was that he had a vision of the parish that was totally at variance with that of the new bishop and the overwhelming majority of the priests of the new diocese. Fr Egege had insisted that the very large Nguru Parish with about 60,000 Catholics should remain one single parish in the new diocese. He had gone ahead to lay the foundation of a big rectory he believed would house a large number of priests who would be running the oversized parish from the parish centre.

To the new bishop and to almost all priests of the new diocese, Fr Egege’s vision for Nguru Parish was totally unrealistic. It blatantly undercut the basis on which Ahiara Diocese was created. And it made nonsense of the raison d’etre for the creation of new dioceses in general. A diocese is usually created to bring the faith closer to the people and not to maintain the status quo of keeping the faith furthest from the people. To entertain the thought that the large Nguru Parish would remain in the new diocese of Ahiara as it used to be in the old Owerri Diocese was something nobody would tolerate in Mbaise land. As the new bishop realized that Fr Egege would be difficult to convince to abandon such an anachronistic idea about Nguru Parish, he chose to remove him thereby harvesting the crisis that broke out that early in the diocese.

When many in the new diocese realized that there was no way Fr Egege’s resistance of the transfer was going to be defended on the basis of what he believed about Nguru Parish, all efforts were geared towards persuading him to leave the place in peace. But this was a very painful and embarrassing period in the new diocese. It tended to suggest that the diocese would have many problems along the way. Fortunately, Fr Egege began gradually to soft-pedal and to listen to the many appeals coming from all quarters of the diocese. Eventually the situation was resolved peacefully. Fr Egege left for St Anthony’s Parish Mpam and Fr Emma Ogu moved in with the group of priests working with him. Peace and serenity returned to the new diocese!

The next drama that ensued as a result of the publication of the first priests’ placement list was at Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Nguru. To make way for Fr Lambert Nwigwe, Fr Clement Ebii, the former rector of the place was swapped with him. Fr Ebii was appointed the first Cathedral Administrator of the new diocese. But he was terribly aggrieved. He had planned to remain in the seminary for awhile. But the situation of the new diocese could not accommodate his wish.

To his credit, Fr Clement Ebii did not permit the Nguru Parish-kind of drama to recur at Mater Ecclesiae Seminary Nguru. Rather he grudgingly moved into his new place at Ahiara Cathedral with the new bishop. But he almost began immediately to search for an escape route. And in about one year into the life of the new diocese, Fr Ebii found the escape route he had been searching for when he got employment as a lecturer at Umudike Umuahia College of Agriculture. The institution would eventually be relocated to Ebonyi State as Federal College of Agriculture Ishiagu.

However, the most telling of the dramas of the period and perhaps the most profoundly felt among priests of the new diocese was the one involving the person who topped the list of Mbaise priests returning to the new diocese from Owerri Diocese. The primus among the priests of the new diocese at that point in time was Fr Innocent Onyewuenyi. He was a professor of Philosophy at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He had not featured quite prominently in the whole struggle to realize the new diocese of Ahiara. He was rather ensconced behind the walls of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. But he was a very prominent priest and very respectable son of Mbaise land. For reasons unknown to so many till this day, Fr Onyewuenyi had not applied to remain in Owerri Diocese when Bishop Unegbu had demanded that Mbaise priests wishing to continue serving in his diocese of Owerri after the inauguration of the new Diocese of Ahiara re-apply [perhaps for a re-incardination, if there is any word like that].

However, shortly after the publication of the first assignment list of the diocese, Bishop Chikwe announced almost in tears that Fr Innocent Onyewuenyi had requested and has been granted his request to return to Owerri Diocese. Making this revelation almost in tears, Bishop Chikwe was peppered with questions about what had transpired between the two that precipitated in Fr Onyewuenyi deciding to return to Owerri Diocese. Bishop Chikwe kept saying that he did his utmost best to try to persuade him to reconsider his decision, but that he had his mind made up to return to Owerri Diocese. As a result, he had to be allowed to leave.

The decision of Fr Onyewuenyi to return to Owerri Diocese would set off all sorts of speculations among priests. Some speculated that perhaps he had felt ignored and bypassed in the assignment of duties in the new diocese. Others thought that as the first in dignity among the priests of the diocese, he felt he had not been respected and consulted enough. Yet others believed that since he lived in far away University of Nigeria Nsukka, Fr Onyewuenyi could not have expected to be fully assigned to any domestic work in the new diocese while remaining a full-time professor at UNN.

But the most telling speculation which had gained some currency at that time was that Fr Innocent Onyewuenyi and one or two other senior priests from Enyiogugu had allegedly entered into a secret agreement with Bishop Unegbu of Owerri Diocese to hold back Enyiogugu community as a part of Owerri Diocese when eventually a diocese would be created for the people of Mbaise. That was cited as the main reason why the boundary between the new diocese of Ahiara and the old diocese of Owerri had not been clearly demarcated when the former was created.

According to this strand of speculation, it was done on purpose to allow Enyiogugu community the freedom to decide which diocese to belong to. And when at last Enyiogugu community opted for the new diocese of Ahiara, Fr Onyewuenyi allegedly had no other option than to opt out of the new diocese.

However, the fact remained at that time that the decision of Fr Onyewuenyi to return to Owerri Diocese was considered a major setback for Ahiara Diocese, and it was very distressful for the priests of the new diocese. Many young priests could not understand it any bit. Fr Onyewuenyi was considered the pride and symbol of excellence among Mbaise priests. He was acclaimed as the first Nigerian priest to be made a university professor in Nigeria. He was seen as the “Eagle on the Iroko” of Mbaise Catholicism. Many priests looked up to him as a subject of great admiration and inspiration. So, his decision to leave and return to Owerri Diocese as the new diocese tried to find its footing was seen as greatly unfair.

The triple whammy so to speak, namely, the saga of Fr Egege, the grudging of Fr Ebii and the absconding of Fr Onyewuenyi, kind of soured the joy of beginning anew in Ahiara Diocese. In the face of the resistance in Nguru Parish, the brooding face of Fr Ebii in Ahiara Centre and the decision of Fr Onyewuenyi to abandon ship, many priests began to suspect whether the experiment of the new diocese of Ahiara would collapse midstream. Some level of demoralization started to creep in that early in the diocese. Nobody knew how many other senior priests would abscond and head to whatever dioceses they liked when the going got tougher as it was destined to be in the young experimental diocese.

Fortunately, that little demoralization was apparently for some priests and not for the new bishop who had his mind set on what he wanted to accomplish. He was not going to brook any setbacks. He appeared to be a man on a mission. While younger priests were brooding about the future, the new bishop was hard at work trying to create the future for his new diocese. The contrast could not be starker!

Bishop Chikwe was from the start very optimistic that the Ahiara experiment as it was called then would not end in disaster despite some initial setbacks. He was extremely hopeful that Ahiara Diocese would be a huge success. And it did not take long before his infectious enthusiasm would catch up with the entire diocese. Very soon Ahiara Diocese would explode with new initiatives that soon became the talk of the entire Catholic Church of Nigeria.

To be continued….