AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …14 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 5: Mbaise’s History with Injustice [iii]

The Catholicism that soon captivated the imagination and allegiance of Mbaise people would almost start immediately to bear fruits. Two of the earliest Mbaise children that would embrace the priestly and religious lives of the new religion were Edward Ahaji Nwoga of Umuezuo Umuokirika Ekwerazu and Christiana Gertrude Nwaturuocha of Umuanuma Nguru. While Edward went through the routes of becoming a priest that passed through St Charles College Onitsha and St Paul’s Seminary Onitsha and Igbeariam, culminating in his ordination to the priesthood in 1945 as the first Mbaise priest, the journey of Christiana Gertrude Waturuocha would begin with the famous and saintly Mother Magdalen Charles Walker of Calabar in 1927 when she entered the famous St Joseph Convent College Calabar alongside some of her sisters. She would become an aspirant of Mother Magdalen Charles Walker in 1929. Christiana Waturuocha would in January of 1931 become one of the four pioneer aspirants of Mother Magdalen to be hooded with religious habits as postulants of the new congregation of Our Lady of Divine Providence whose name was later changed by the Holy Child of Jesus Sisters to the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. In 1937, she would enter the novitiate. Christiana made her first religious profession in 1940 taking the religious name, Gertrude.

The great lives and dignity of these two Mbaise priestly and religious pioneers would spark the fire of vocation in the whole Mbaise land. The real miracle of the vocation boom that has become the talk of the town throughout Igbo land of today made its first appearance in Mbaise land. It was first manifested in Nguru Mbaise when in the late 1930s, young girls in various age-brackets, numbering more than 30, who had been raised by the famous and saintly Mother Mary Coleman opted for religious life by joining the Juniorate of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother Christ. The crowd of more than thirty young girls entering the Juniorate at the same time from Mbaise would mark a new turn in the appreciation of religious vocations throughout Igbo land. It was in Mbaise land that the phrase “vocations boom” made its debut. That was more than thirty years before it would become a household phrase following the miracle of numerous vocations that became the feature of the post-civil war Catholicism in Igbo land.

But Mbaise land is not just the origin of “vocations boom” in Igbo Catholicism; it is also a land that had produced and continues to produce exemplary vocations as the lives of the two earliest children of Mbaise to embrace priestly/religious vocations would demonstrate. The two pioneers, Edward and Christiana Gertrude, would emerge as the best products of their respective institutions. While Edward would be seen as that smart, holy and prudent priest loved by the missionaries who would immediately be sent to Rome to study Canon Law, and perhaps become well prepared for a position of leadership in the Igbo Church, Christiana Gertrude would immediately emerge as a great leader and holy woman among her peers. After her profession among three other pioneer members of her congregation, Christiana Gertrude would be unanimously elected the first superior general of her congregation on December 28, 1959. She therefore became the first Nigerian and African superior general of a major congregation, a post she would hold continuously for an unprecedented period of 18 years.

As Mother Magdalen Charles Walker had spent only a very short few years founding her congregation in Nigeria before returning home to Ireland, it became largely the responsibility of Christiana Gertrude Waturuocha to develop and implement the vision and aspiration of the foundress of her congregation. And what a great job she did as the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus Congregation not only blossomed during the time she was her superior general, but has become one of the major congregations in both Nigeria and Africa of today. There can be no authentic account of the achievements of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus Congregation in particular and women congregations in Africa in general without praises lavished on the accomplishments, leadership qualities and holiness of the little girl from Umuanuma Nguru Mbaise called Christiana Waturuocha that went into St Joseph Convent College, Calabar, in 1927.

However, the two earliest Mbaise children to embrace priestly and religious lives would also become the first to experience what has since then become the unfortunate lot of many Mbaise Catholics in Nigeria. Their lives served as a parable of what has continued to happen to Mbaise sons and daughters in the Catholic Church. The plot of the story of most Mbaise sons and daughters in priestly and religious vocations runs thus: they would be the first to implant the faith but when it grows to maturity, they would be systematically edged out. Over the years, Mbaise land has become synonymous with injustice inflicted in the name of the Catholic Church. And that was long prophesied in the lives of the two Mbaise pioneers in the priestly and religious vocations.

Edward and Christiana would become the first to receive some degree of injustice arising from the fact that they were Catholics who hailed from Mbaise land. Edward Ahaji, both as a seminarian and later on as a priest who was made a monsignor, was a standout seminarian and a great priest in every way. In his class which included the first bishop of Umuahia, Bishop Anthony Gogo Nwedo, Edward was simply described as “one of the best ever”. The late Bishop Mark Unegbu in his autobiography, My Life, described Msgr. Ahaji as “one of the best priests that ever went through our seminary. He was very methodical…”

A testimonial given by Fr Benedict Okike, who hails from Umuahia Diocese and a professor at Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Owerri, during the ANIMAEE meeting in Ahiara Diocese on April 11, 2013, recalled that when the cause for the beatification of Fr Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was launched, and Bishop Anthony Nwedo was informed about it, he quipped, “why not Edward Ahaji?” Msgr. Alphonsus Aghaizu of Owerri Archdiocese, who is one of the oldest Igbo priests alive today, praised the excellent qualities of the late Msgr. Edward Ahaji and regretted that these qualities had been overlooked during the time the first indigenous bishop of the old Owerri Diocese was being appointed.

And Msgr. Aghaizu’s regrets appear corroborated in a crisp statement contained in the autobiography of Bishop Mark Unegbu. According to Bishop Unegbu, “just as Fr A Gogo Nwedo’s admission into the Spiritan congregation raised eye-brows, more so his appointment to pastor a diocese.” Reacting to the appointment of Fr Anthony Gogo Nwedo as the first bishop of Umuahia Diocese, one of the most senior priests in Owerri Ecclesiastical Province and a monsignor who was widely regarded as a great theologian and author of the popular Igbo prayer book was alleged to have exclaimed: Aghugho abatago n’ive a – Cunning and manipulation have entered into this enterprise and project [of ours] called the Catholic Church. And that was as far back as 1958!

The fact that Msgr. Edward Ahaji, a priest of pre-eminent qualities, who was perhaps the first Rome-trained canonist in Nigeria, was bypassed in the selection of the first indigenous bishop of Owerri Province seemed quite strange to his colleagues and contemporaries at that time. Many of them had asked what the selection of a bishop was based on if a man of highest integrity like Msgr. Ahaji could be so easily bypassed for lesser mortals. And in hindsight today, nothing could have contributed more to this than the fact that Msgr. Ahaji bore the burden of being an Mbaise priest. Right from the earliest times, an Mbaise priest or religious was one marked for discrimination and injustices of all stripes. An Mbaise priest or religious bore the heavy burden of the prejudices that resulted from the killing of Dr Stewart in their territory in 1905. As a result of that tragic event and the way it was spun into a stigma for the rest of the generations of Mbaise people, anybody that hails from Mbaise becomes automatically branded and made to become a candidate for discrimination.

The situation of Mother [Christiana] Gertrude Waturuocha was a little different because it happened during the heat of the civil war. She became the first superior general of her congregation on December 28, 1959 and was leading her congregation excellently to the satisfaction of her members. But when the civil war cut through the territories of the present-day Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, with the Igbo people becoming enemies of Nigeria and the other minority groups in Southern Nigeria, Mother Gertrude was made to bear the blame of the alleged crimes of the Igbo people.

The irony of this event is recounted in the recently published Memoirs of Mother Mary Gertrude Waturuocha HHCJ: A Testimony of An Eye Witness on the Life and Works of Mother Mary Charles Walker [RSC] [Enugu: SNAAP Press, 2012]. While the Nigerian soldiers parading the streets of Ikot Ekpene led by one Captain Moses, a Catholic, had come to assure the sisters of Mother Gertrude Waturuocha that they would be safe as they would not be harmed by the soldiers,

The two bishops, - Dominic Ignatius Ekandem of Ikot-Ekpene and Brian Davis Usanga, the auxiliary bishop of Calabar paid the sisters occasional visits at Eriam. At one of these visits, they met with me – the superior general – Mother Mary Gertrude Waturuocha and told me that it seemed that the Ibo sisters, as Biafrans, of which I was one of them, would not be excluded from the hostility of the soldiers adding that they prayed it would not be so…. A few days later, the bishop of Ikot Ekpene, D.I. Ekandem, met with me at Ifuho where I had gone for some business. He told me that it had become evident that the Ibo Handmaids were in the same danger as any Ibo in the South Eastern State. He stated therefore, that during his meeting with the auxiliary bishop of Calabar B.D. Usanga, who had full knowledge of the events, they both had decided that in order to “save the lives of the Ibo sisters” they would advise us to return to our homes until the crisis was over. ……The members of the General Council could not fathom such message and decision from the bishops. None had ever imagined that the war would affect the congregation in such a way. Besides, the army captain from the seminary camp had assured the sisters of their safety. Would any advancing soldier read ‘ibo’ on the faces of sisters who were all gathered together at Eriam? [Pp 174-180].

Bishops Brian Usanga and Ekandem arranged with the Nigerian soldiers in Calabar and Ikot Ekpene to ship Mother Gertrude and the Igbo sisters of the congregation to Lagos for “their safety”.

For the two prelates, that was the best way to ‘save the lives of the Ibo sisters’. He [Ekandem] added “the superior general being an Ibo was also included. I was either to go home… or take the risk of dying with the rest of the Ibo sisters. After consulting with the auxiliary bishop of Calabar acting for Bishop Moynagh, he decided that … I should handover my office as the superior general of the congregation to one of the sisters of South Eastern Origin [without mentioning names]. She was to act till the end of the war ‘when we hope that you and all our Ibo sisters will return to us [cf. p 177]

Acting in obedience to Bishop Usanga’s request, Mother Gertrude appointed Mother Marie Therese – a Togolese, then vicar general of the congregation to act according to the rule of the congregation. As reported by the Memoir,

At this juncture, the bishop [Ekandem] handed me the letter ordering me to resign. The auxiliary bishop of Calabar [Brian Usanga] had asked him to deliver the letter to me. The two bishops signed the letter.

‘Dear Mother Gertrude, for your safety and that of the other beloved Ibo sisters, we think you should resign from your office as the superior general, for the present, since you have to go with the other Ibo sisters to Lagos. Meanwhile, one of your sisters of South Eastern state origin will take your place and govern the congregation as superior general till the end of the crisis [Cf. p 178].

Mother Gertrude would go ahead and resign her office as superior general of HHCJ on April 23, 1968, as she had been ordered but with the following caveat:

If it is the Holy Will of God, for the good of the congregation and the Church in Nigeria and if it is permissible by the Sacred Congregation for Religious in Rome, I resign the office of Superior General of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus.

Mother Gertrude would be evacuated to Lagos as a refugee. She would only be restored to her position through the intervention of the Vatican Apostolic Delegate in Lagos. Mother Gertrude reports the experience thus in her Memoir:

Soon after my return from Ghana, His Excellency the Right Reverend Msgr. Emilio Poggy, the then Apostolic Delegate to Nigeria, summoned the Bishop of Ikot Ekpene – the Right Reverend Dr. D.I. Ekandem to Lagos. The bishop called at the Holy Child Convent Obalande to tell me of his meeting with the Apostolic Delegate who had asked him to come. The purpose was to tell him that my resignation from the office of Superior General had been cancelled by Rome who has made my appointment by confirming the Congregation’s election at the General Chapter. Hence, that such a forced resignation as was imposed upon my Congregation and me was illegal and therefore null and void [cf. p 192].

Even though Mother Gertrude appeared not to have been so treated because of her home of origin in Mbaise, but rather because she was an Igbo religious woman, it seems obvious that her Mbaise origin did not help matters at all. Rather it was perhaps an added minus to her ordeal as an Igbo religious woman. The truth is right from the earliest period, hailing from Mbaise - the place that killed Dr Stewart, did not help much in our people’s interaction with the rest of Nigerians. There was that suspicion that an Mbaise person was always going to commit some mischief.

As we noted in the welcome address we had presented to the visiting Igbo priests, the bypassing of Msgr. Ahaji in the selection of the first bishop of Umuahia in 1958 had not elicited any negative reactions from Mbaise people or any other people as such as it was seen in the broader picture of the missionary Holy Ghost Fathers flexing their muscles and trying to hand over the Church they had founded only to those who would continue to show loyalty to them. As the welcome address had noted:

There was no cry of anti-Mbaise sentiments or stereotype then when Ahaji was not selected. What was largely being decried then was what was seen as a suspicious manipulation of the system by the white Holy Ghost Fathers to favour members of their congregation. There was that perception then that the White Holy Ghost Fathers wanted to handover the Igbo Church to their members and the few diocesan priests they were able to convince to join their congregation. As a result, the Holy Ghost Congregation was seen as the sure route to Ecclesiastical office in Igbo land. The trio of Fr Mark Unegbu, Fr Anthony Nwedo and Fr Godfrey Okoye was sent to Ireland for studies. The Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland descended on then and succeeded in convincing Anthony Nwedo and Godfrey Okoye to join the Holy Ghost Congregation. Mark Unegbu, whom they could not convert, they left stranded in Ireland. When Anthony Nwedo and Godfrey Okoye returned to Nigeria alongside Mark Unegbu, they quickly made them bishops while Mark Unegbu was left out as an agitator.

But then, there would appear a glaring anti-Mbaise exclusionary policy when some twelve years later an Mbaise son was systematically prevented from succeeding the white missionaries who had been forced out of the country by the triumphant Nigerian Armed Forces. As the welcome address narrates,

The eyes of some Mbaise priests and lay people would be opened a little more when in 1970 another Mbaise priest was bypassed in the choice of a bishop of one of the dioceses in the present-day Owerri Ecclesiastical Province. Some twelve years after Edward Ahaji was not made a bishop, another Mbaise priest was bypassed in what became an apparent “payoff” for the fight to secure the Episcopal See of Onitsha for Archbishop Arinze. It would be recalled that the venerable Bishop Whelan when he was forced out of Nigeria by the victorious Nigerian armed forces chose to handover the old Owerri Diocese to an Mbaise young priest, Fr Ignatius Mmereole Okoroanyanwu. What Bishop Whelan did in the process was to announce to everyone including the Vatican that Fr Ignatius Okoroanyanwu was the one he had found worthy throughout the entire diocese to take over the baton of leadership from the missionaries.

But this holy wish of the great missionary was not to be with Archbishop Arinze as the metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province. In a non-subtle manoeuvre, Archbishop Arinze cornered the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese to his mentor, Fr Mark Unegbu while blocking the will of Bishop Whelan and the missionaries that stated quite clearly that they wanted Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu to shepherd the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese. By so doing the duo of Archbishop Arinze and Bishop Mark Unegbu deprived the Mbaise people of a bishopric of Owerri Diocese which the missionaries had arguably willed to them. Archbishop Arinze clearly seized the position given to an Mbaise man, Msgr. Okoroanyanwu, by the missionaries and used it to reward his long-time mentor for the favours he had received from him in both 1945 and 1967.

The 1945 and 1967 issues that had impacted strongly on Mbaise people in their journey towards the bishopric as the Address recalls are stated as follows:

According to an account in the autobiography of Bishop Unegbu, in 1946 to 1947 when Fr Mark Unegbu became the second parish priest of Dunukofia after Fr Michael Iwene Tansi, the young Francis Arinze was completing his primary education. The then parish priest of Dunukofia, Fr Unegbu, was in favour of the young Francis entering the minor seminary. The young man was ready to enter the seminary but his mother could hear none of that. He wanted Fr Unegbu to take any other son of hers for the seminary but not Francis. According to Fr Unegbu, the father of Francis was indifferent either way. To get Francis to be allowed to enter the minor seminary, Fr Unegbu as both parish priest and manager of schools had to play what he described as “a trump card” by threatening to withdraw from the school system the two elder brothers of Francis, Christopher and Linus, unless they went home and convinced their parents to allow Francis to enter the seminary. According to him, the threat worked. Francis’s parents reluctantly allowed him to enter the minor seminary in 1946. The rest is history.

The 1967 issue that had contributed in the denial of Msgr. Okoroanyanwu the bishopric of Owerri Diocese which the missionaries had positioned him to receive was recounted by the Address thus:

Following his death in 1967, it was an assumed fact that the late archbishop was going to be succeeded by young Bishop Francis Arinze who was his auxiliary and coadjutor. But this was not to be without some pronounced struggles. The Holy Ghost Fathers did not want Francis Arinze to succeed their man, Archbishop Heerey. According to stories usually told by some elderly priests most of whom are dead now, the Holy Ghost Fathers wanted one of their own to succeed the late Archbishop Heerey. As a result, they wanted to transfer Bishop Nwedo from Umuahia Diocese to Onitsha. But to counter their move, Bishop Francis Arinze and his allies from Onitsha Archdiocese together with the support of Bishop Arinze’s long-time mentor, Fr Mark Unegbu, insisted that only a son of the soil from Onitsha was qualified to serve as the archbishop of Onitsha. Bishop Mark Unegbu allegedly sent a petition to the Pro-Nuncio/Apostolic Delegate in Lagos and also participated in the delegation that pressured and succeeded in securing the Episcopal See of Onitsha for the young Bishop Francis Arinze. This was more or less seen as laying down a marker on how Episcopal succession was to be carried out in dioceses of the Igbo Church.

The Address concludes,

It is safe to assume that when Francis Arinze became the Archbishop of Onitsha and the metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, he remembered the indispensable roles Fr Mark Unegbu had played both in his vocation to the Catholic priesthood and his rise to power in the Catholic Church. He therefore decided to reward him accordingly. It is very clear that Bishop Mark Unegbu got the bishopric of Owerri Diocese ahead of Ignatius Okoroanyanwu thanks to the scheming and manipulations of Archbishop Arinze. We could say in hindsight that that was the Holy Spirit at work. But the fact remains that the first person the Holy Spirit had willed Owerri Diocese to through the Irish missionaries was not Bishop Mark Unegbu but Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu of Ahiara Mbaise.