AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS: THE UNTOLD STORIES…30

Sickness as Sabotage

The great tragedy that struck the beautiful Diocese of Ahiara Mbaise, which resulted in the disastrous harvest of crisis in play today, is substantially traceable to the gradual intensification of the health crisis of Bishop Chikwe from the late 1990s and early 2000s. As the primary preoccupation of the bishop gradually shifted to trying to get healthy, the usual intensity with which he raced to transform the diocese progressively lost steam. And once his health problems began to dominate his personal concerns, some real and potential counter forces that were previously under control began to rear up their ugly heads once again. As a result, many opportunists among the clergy and the lay people alike sought to take advantage of the highly distracted and troubled bishop with his deteriorating health to further their nefarious agendas. Hence a diocese that was once idyllic in peace and harmony began to experience some straining cracks.

It would be recalled that Bishop Adibe Chikwe started the diocese as a relatively young man. He was appointed bishop of Ahiara Diocese at a youthful bishopric age of fifty. Beginning his Episcopal ministry at that wonderful age, the bishop was full of energy and health. He wanted to keep his health that way as long as he could. As a result, Bishop Chikwe fought very hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle. He ate healthy foods all the time. And every morning he jogged around the premises of St Brigid’s Church Nnarambia. He was extremely disciplined with regard to his health. He never wanted to embark on anything that might jeopardize the good health he craved so dearly and enjoyed for a considerable length of time. As a result, he was very careful with what he ate and drank. He was neither a drinker nor a smoker. He hated what would be regarded today as junk food. Regarding food and drink Bishop Chikwe was like your ordinary Joe who would carefully pick and choose what to eat at any given time.

Concerning his overall health history, Bishop Chikwe from childhood was not a sickly person. He was born extremely healthy and lived out his entire early life as a very healthy person. As a young boy growing up in his home town of Ihitte, Ezinihitte, he became a member of Boys Scout. He was usually sportsmanlike. And for a long time throughout his adult life he would carry the physique of a sporty Boys Scout member. Although by nature plump, he was never encumbered by his weight. Rather, he was always sporty, plump and gingerly in the way he carried himself about. Even right into the time he began serving as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Chikwe appeared like a long-distance runner and a footballer who was blessed with an extended youthful period.

Bishop Chikwe carried into his Episcopal ministry a very healthy body and mind. He was determined to carry on like that for as long as he could. He appeared to have planned out his life as a bishop in such a way that it would sustain a long Episcopal ministry in good health. In other words, Bishop Chikwe did everything he could to maintain a healthy body and mind that would enable him complete the revolution he had begun in Mbaise land. But as the ancient cliché states: “Man proposes but God disposes.” As the bishop struggled to maintain a good health other factors gradually crept in resulting in a gradual descent into poor health.

To still further a healthy lifestyle for himself, Bishop Chikwe spent his vacation every year overseas. Contrary to what many might have thought, his yearly travel overseas for vacation was not for fun or for rest at all. It was rather a part of his overall game plan to maintain a good health for an effective Episcopal ministry. His vacation was programmed to help him maintain a sound health that would maximize his accomplishments in his challenging apostolate back home in Ahiara Diocese. As a result, he had his physical examination overseas every year while on vacation in which he addressed whatever were his real and potential health issues.

Bishop Chikwe was extremely fastidious about maintaining a very good health. He was convinced that for him to maintain the tempo of work needed to transform Ahiara Diocese from the scratch he needed to be healthy. He preached about maintaining a good health to priests and religious like a “gospel.” Hardly was there any Presbyterium meeting in which he failed to harp on the need to eat healthy foods and exercise often. But each year, he would return from his supposedly restful vacation overseas only to plunge back into more strenuous works. The ritual of spending a month or two overseas in the name of a vacation that was hardly worth the name only to return to plunge oneself back into very difficult task of building a brand new diocese from bottom up would soon begin to take its toll on him.

Moreover, as the population of Ahiara diocesan priests studying overseas grew in leaps and bounds, the so-called vacation of the bishop overseas ceased to be so. The bishop would reciprocate by renaming his vacation a working vacation. That was because once he landed in Europe or America, Ahiara Diocesan priests and religious all over the place would cluster around him demanding for one favour or the other. As a result, a bishop who was supposed to hide away and rest for a while would find no resting and hiding place all through the period of his supposed vacation.

Being the type of a bishop he was, Bishop Chikwe would spend night and day everyday attending to the numerous problems of his priests overseas. Staying close to him during his so-called vacation overseas, one could not but sympathize with him at the way he discharged his Episcopal ministry even while on vacation overseas. His was that of a total giving of oneself to the Episcopal ministry wherever he found himself. He was completely available to everybody - priests, religious and lay people whether he was at home or overseas on his so-called vacation. He tried to make himself helpful and available to every person that came to him. That was the unique quality of him. And that was also what would facilitate the quick complication of his health problems. He spent himself completely without holding back. There was no doubt that his chosen approach to his Episcopal ministry had perilous consequences regarding his overall health condition. As Bishop Chikwe insisted on keeping his tight workaholic lifestyle both at home and in overseas while on vacation, it would not take long before his health began to crack.

From the mid 1990s, the bishop began to attend to particular issues in his health. Gradually the issues began to multiply. But he was careful to hide and cover up all those health challenges of his. He wanted to carry the cross of his bad health alone. Not many people knew what he was going through. He steamed ahead without minding whatever health challenges he had. And notwithstanding the fact that the bishop had multiple health challenges which he carefully kept to himself, he charged along anyway in his Episcopal ministry. Whether at home or in overseas, the bishop kept his busy schedule without any let-up. And looking at his nature right up to the time he passed on, many would have thought that he enjoyed the best of health among the active bishops in the Igbo heartland area. But the contrary was in fact the case. His health issues gradually multiplied and intensified although outside the knowledge of his flock.

The great ingenuity of the late Bishop Chikwe was that he managed his health crisis perfectly that it hardly ever became a distraction or even a major concern to his flock. For the greater part of his ministry in Ahiara Diocese the bishop addressed his health problems only when he was on vacation overseas. He had great faith in the advances in modern medicine available overseas. He tried to treat his health issues in his three most preferred countries, namely, Italy, Germany and America. All through the 90s the health of the bishop was being well managed in those countries. Although he had a serious scare around the mid 1990s in New Jersey, he was well taken care of by a legion of Mbaise health practitioners in the Northeast of the USA.

However, as the new millennium broke, the bishop’s health situation began its gradual descent into a crisis. His problems in that regard became multiple. But he charged along his mission in the diocese as if nothing was happening. Only those who encountered him up close and personal overseas would understand the frequency with which he sought for medical treatments. But things would gradually become more serious. And from around 2008, the severity and multiplicity of the illnesses began to take their toll and the bishop began his gradual descent into anxiety and distraction. The severity of the illnesses would begin to cause the bishop to lose some focus as he battled to remain alive. But all these were happening outside the notice of most of his flock in the diocese.

There can be no gainsaying the fact that in handling his health crisis Bishop Chikwe was a model. Despite all that he went through, he brushed everything aside and tried to focus as much as he could on his work of transforming Ahiara Diocese. He knew that the challenge of building up the rural diocese was enormous. But he did not want anything to get in his way of trying to achieve his mission in Mbaise land. He would not even allow his deteriorating health to stand in his way. He was hell-bent on achieving his goal which was to transform Ahiara Diocese into a modern diocese. He wanted nothing but to make Ahiara Diocese a stand-out diocese in Nigeria. That was his overall preoccupation. He would not brook his deteriorating health condition to get in the way. Rather he discharged his mission in this regard with lots of anxiety and passion. No aspect of his ministry suffered inattention as a result of his health problems. He was one who gave his Episcopal ministry his all.

However, no matter how much the bishop tried to keep his health problems at the backburner of his Episcopal ministry, they refused to remain there. And gradually health problems began to weigh heavily on his day-to-day life. And as the great bishop fought gallantly to sustain the momentum he had created in the development of his once rural diocese, multiple illnesses began to sabotage his efforts. Gradually the strain of what he was going through began to manifest in his face, physique and overall attitude. He would suffer lots of frustration when bad health could no longer allow him to attend to his daily chores as the chief shepherd of Ahiara Diocese. What resulted was frustration upon frustration for the once very amiable and mobile bishop.

In the face of all this, the bishop’s temper became shorter and his attitude a little unpredictable and strange. Many who could not factor in all that he was going through in his personal life would misunderstand him a great deal at that point in time. It appeared as if the once very wonderful bishop was about to offset some of the principles he had put in place that had brought the diocese that far. Many who did not know what he was passing through in his health were very uncomfortable with what was happening.

Yours truly remembers today calling the attention of some senior priests at that time requesting that they approach the bishop to find out what was going on in his personal life. Things were happening in a very unpredictable and uncomfortable way for some of us who were used to his principled way of doing things. But little did we know that the bishop was fighting so many demons in his health. In hindsight, the bishop could not have acted any better considering what he was passing through in his health.

Most tragic for Ahiara Diocese at that time was the fact that many sought to take advantage of the health situation of the bishop to embark on actions that could not benefit the diocese at the long run. Some who pretended to be close to the bishop sought to manipulate the situation for their advantage. Others tried their hands in exploiting the situation for whatever reason they deemed necessary. Worse still, some would seize on the uncertainty of the moment to try to return to their old trenches of cliques and clannishness believing the end to be near.

All those actions during the twilight days of Bishop Chikwe’s life would contribute in no small measure to the current crisis we are experiencing today in Ahiara Diocese. Because of the bishop’s concentration on his health problems and his little inattention to other things, many tried to capitalize for their own selfish ends. Some of those forces would survive the death of Bishop Chikwe and contribute in no small measure to the situation we find ourselves in Ahiara Diocese today.

The summary of the untold stories of the current crisis in Ahiara Diocese is a combination of self-inflicted wounds on the part of the people of Ahiara Diocese and the unchristian conspiracy of Mbaise haters throughout Nigeria. Every one of us from Mbaise land bears some measure of responsibility for the crisis we are going through at this point in time. But the greater measure of responsibility lies with those who have made a career out of their hatred for the Mbaise people.

There are many people in Igbo land, and in fact, throughout Nigeria, who cannot stand or put up with Mbaise people for whatever reason that is known only to them. They appear to have a natural hatred for the people of Mbaise. And that hatred is largely as a result of jealousy. Mbaise people are known for their industry, doggedness and resilience. Added to this is the fact that Mbaise Catholicism has a special quality and mark that are hardly available in other parts of Africa. Moreover, the fecundity of Mbaise Catholicism by way of religious vocations has been a source of great suspicion and hatred for many Mbaise neighbours.

All this has crystallized into terrible hatred on the part of non-Mbaise citizens. And when this malignant hatred gets into a head-on-collision with the resilient Mbaise patriotism, what you get is the unending crisis that has been raging in Mbaise land in the last five years. We pray that God will intervene promptly with his miracles to resolve the current crisis in Ahiara Diocese that has the potential to wreck everything Mbaise people pride themselves in. May God come quickly to help us in Mbaise land!

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Respecting the sensitivities of many in this dicey moment in Ahiara Diocese, and heeding to the passionate plea of many of my colleagues and friends, blogging the specifics of these forces that contributed immensely in plunging Ahiara Diocese into her current crisis would have to wait until a more auspicious period in the future. God willing, at an appropriate time in the future, we will fill up the lacuna created by our suspension of blogging on this topic. That is to say, the conclusion of blogging on AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS – THE UNTOLD STORIES, still needs about four to five more essays for it to come to a perfect completion. We promise to do this in the nearest future, if God grants the opportunity and inspiration.

Meanwhile, blogging on this site will jump into a new phase in no distant future. We will begin excerpting a book already in print entitled: AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES. The book is authored by yours truly. So, there will be no concerns for copyright infringement. This new phase will relate the stories of what happened in Mbaise land from the eve of the announcement of Bishop Peter Ebele Okpalaeke as the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese until the appointment of the present Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese, His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan.

Blogging will soon continue with a new series…..