AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …15 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

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

The relationship between Bishop Mark Unegbu of Owerri Diocese and the Mbaise priests and lay people would become another place to showcase how Mbaise land had been treated quite unjustly in the long history of the Catholic Church they love so much. As the Address recounts,

As Fr Mark Unegbu was preferred by Archbishop Arinze in place of Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu, he became ordained and installed as the bishop of Owerri Diocese on September 20, 1970. Besides the situation of no-love-lost between him and the man he edged out to become the bishop of Owerri Diocese, there was no pronounced faceoff between Bishop Unegbu and the Catholic faithful of Mbaise. He ministered to the faithful of Mbaise as dedicatedly and faithfully as he could. However, one aspect that showed that Bishop Unegbu was totally different from the Irish missionaries in his treatment of Mbaise Catholics was in the quest for the creation of more dioceses from the old Owerri Diocese.

Around 1966, one Lawyer Mbaegbu of Ahiara had made a passionate request to Bishop Whelan for the creation of the Catholic Diocese of Mbaise. The request had shocked Bishop Whelan who promised to look into it. According to eyewitness account, responding to the request of Lawyer Mbaegbu, Bishop Whelan quickly set up a committee to study the possibility of raising Mbaise and Orlu as independent dioceses from Owerri. The panel eventually came up with the recommendation that infrastructure in the respective places should be upgraded and new ones be constructed in preparation for the two places to be raised into dioceses in the coming decade. While Orlu region had good infrastructure to build upon, that was not the case with Mbaise. Church infrastructure in Mbaise was almost nonexistent. But the determination of Bishop Whelan to begin the construction of such infrastructure could not see the light of the day as a result of the civil war.

When Bishop Unegbu replaced Bishop Whelan after the civil war, he saw the agitation for a diocese for the Mbaise people as a kind of a slight and sabotage. He therefore decided to either work against it or play it down. But his nonchalance attitude could not deter the dogged Mbaise priests and lay faithful from pressing ahead with their struggle for an Mbaise diocese. As the battle for the creations of both the dioceses of Orlu and Mbaise heated up, Bishop Unegbu chose to work primarily for the creation of Orlu Diocese rather than Mbaise that first originated the quest.

Orlu Diocese would realize their quest for an independent diocese in 1981 with Bishop Ochiagha from Umuahia Diocese, and later on, of Okigwe Diocese, as her first bishop. Unfortunately, the quest for Mbaise diocese was put in a cooler. This development would reinvigorate Mbaise people who saw Orlu getting a diocese ahead of them as some sort of a slight. The battle for a diocese would rage in many fronts for several years. Mbaise people fought a battle on two main fronts. They wanted a diocese of their own and an Mbaise son as their first bishop. This was in view of what they considered the peculiarities of Mbaise people which consisted mainly in their history of being easily misunderstood by people from outside. Mbaise people had always wanted one of their own who would understand them and take them as they presented themselves to the world. They fought several battles in the 70s and 80s in order not to be given a bishop that would arrive in Mbaise with a load of prejudices and biases.

The double wishes of Mbaise people would be fulfilled in November of 1987 when a diocese was given to them with the name “Ahiara Diocese”, and one of their own, Msgr. Victor Adibe Chikwe, was appointed their first bishop. The celebration that attended this announcement was unlike anything that had been seen in both Mbaise and Igboland before. The people felt fulfilled and transformed with the announcement of the new diocese and her new leadership.

Even though the diocese was considered poor and rural in every sense of the word, the people of Mbaise saw it as their own piece of heaven on earth. Mbaise people saw Ahiara Diocese as their own Zion and their own Land of Promise. The processions that followed the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese from Port Harcourt International Airport to Owerri and from Owerri to Ahiara on January 30, 1988, were characterized as akin to the biblical exodus. In those unending lines of processions, the people sang songs that were reminiscent of those the Israelites sang when they were headed to the Promised Land. The new diocese brought unbelievable joy to the hearts of Mbaise Catholics.

But in a strange twist, the bishop of Owerri Diocese, Most Rev Mark O. Unegbu appeared to retaliate against the creation of the new diocese by ordering all indigenous priests of Mbaise incardinated and working in what was remaining of the Old Owerri Diocese to return to the new diocese en masse. That entailed a glut of priests in the new diocese. The primary implication of Bishop Unegbu’s order was that some 80 priests of Mbaise origin would be forced to work in the 18 parishes of the new diocese.

The situation was largely seen as an unfair attempt by Bishop Unegbu to hobble the new diocese. It would take a lot of negotiation between Bishop Chikwe and Bishop Unegbu for the latter to allow about ten of the eighty priests of Mbaise origin incardinated in the old Owerri Diocese to remain behind in the diocese of their incardination and continue their work there. That meant that the new diocese of Ahiara made up of 18 parishes began its life with a great challenge of trying to fix a whopping number of 70 priests in 18 parishes.

There are numerous stories about anger and furiousness of Bishop Mark Unegbu towards the creation of Ahiara Diocese. First, he took it out on the new bishop, Most Rev Victor Adibe Chikwe whose ordination had taken place on January 6, 1988, accusing him of having reported him to the officials in Rome concerning his decision to repatriate Mbaise indigenous priests working in Owerri Diocese back to the new diocese. The new bishop told him that what he, Bishop Unegbu, had done was public knowledge and did not need his taking it to Rome for the Vatican officials to come to know about it. Second, when Bishop Chikwe asked Bishop Unegbu for the sharing of assets between the two dioceses, Bishop Unegbu was alleged to have thundered back in anger that since Mbaise people wanted a diocese of their own, the empty land of Mbaise was enough assets for them to begin the building of their new diocese.

In spite of all the hiccups, the new diocese brought tremendous blessings to Mbaise people. There were unity, dynamism, joy, love, progress, and everything that could make a people happy. The chains of stereotypes that had long been accumulated against Mbaise people vanished. People all over Nigeria and beyond marvelled as Mbaise people worked together with their new bishop in peace and joy. As the Address reports,

And as the Catholic faithful of Mbaise had pledged when they were seeking for the diocese, the people decided to close ranks around their new bishop and work for the growth and development of their new diocese. The world marvelled as they saw their long-held biases and stereotypes shattered in Mbaise of the new diocese. Through the help of the new diocese, Mbaise people began to be seen in a new light around the world. The new diocese became a model of unity, dynamism and orthodoxy not only in Nigeria but throughout the continent of Africa.

Unfortunately good things do not last forever. On that fateful September 16, 2010, the wicked hand of death snatched Bishop Chikwe away from his beloved Mbaise people thereby throwing the whole land into convulsion and confusion. The level of trauma in Mbaise that resulted from the sudden death of Bishop Chikwe has not subsided till this very day. The land of the great Catholics of Mbaise is still reeling in pain and confusion over the death of their beloved Bishop Chikwe.

An article I had published in Bishop Chikwe’s Funeral Rites book: Life and Times of His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. V.A. Chikwe [1938-2010] entitled “Mbaise: A Watershed Moment” would summarize what the creation of Ahiara Diocese and the bishopric of Bishop Chikwe in particular had meant for the people of Mbaise irrespective of religious allegiances.

The creation of Ahiara Diocese coupled with the selection of an indigenous bishop in the person of Bishop Chikwe to shepherd her was about the best news the people of Mbaise had heard in a century. At the point in time in which Bishop Chikwe emerged, Mbaise was in such a state of desperation that only one of its own could have truly understood her historical predicament so as to embark on rescuing her. Following some series of misfortunes in her history, Mbaise was almost at the point of tipping over into irrelevance when providence caused Bishop Chikwe to appear with his characteristic humility and gentility that became far more persuasive than any instrument of coercion.

Bishop Chikwe’s personality would serve as a soothing balm to assuage the frayed nerves of the Mbaise people. He had a perfect understanding of his people and offered to them those qualities of his that both inspired them and brought the best out of their endeavours. Unfortunately, with his death on this day, it looks as if Mbaise has been cast right back to where she was some three decades ago when she searched and laboured desperately for any kind of leadership to deliver her from the social incarceration she was thrust into at the beginning of the 20th century first by the propaganda machinery of the colonial masters.

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What the leadership of Bishop Chikwe did accomplish for the people of Mbaise in the last twenty three years was to present to the world the real Mbaise person as humble, level-headed and honest. In the person of Bishop Chikwe the world saw for once what a typical Mbaise person looked like which was totally in contrast with what anti-Mbaise slander had claimed he was. Bishop Chikwe was the best salesman the people of Mbaise have ever known. With his gentle demeanour and style of leadership he succeeded in debunking the slander that an Mbaise man was rebellious and ungovernable. In his diocese of highly educated and accomplished priests and lay people, Bishop Chikwe accomplished what has been very rare in the African Church, namely, creating a near-perfect unity and unanimity between a bishop and his priests. He so balanced the relationship between the priests and lay people that the usual antagonisms that often dogged their relationship became non-existent in Ahiara Diocese.

Bishop Chikwe was not just a salesman with an empty suit. He was in fact a transformative leader who determined from the get-go to make real differences in the life of his people. His tenure as bishop of Ahiara Diocese marked the greatest socio-economic transformation that has ever been seen in the history of this territory. He was a visionary leader who had a deep understanding of what it would take to lift the Mbaise people from their century-old doldrums. He appeared like somebody who had spent a life-time preparing for the call to the leadership of Mbaise. And when eventually he appeared on the scene, he seemed to have had his plans for the restoration of Mbaise clearly worked out in advance. The execution of this plan he pursued with a single-minded vigour.

Mbaise like any other part of Igbo land has had her fair share of social and political leaders in Nigeria. Right from the early days of the Nigerian nation, Mbaise land had had her sons and daughters [serve] as ministers, commissioners, permanent secretaries and high government officials [in the scheme of things in Nigeria]. But no political or social leader in the history of Mbaise had ever come anywhere close to what Bishop Chikwe accomplished for his people in the last two decades he shepherded them. There is no person from Mbaise who has not benefited quite significantly from the accomplishments of Bishop Chikwe. He was an equal-opportunity provider for the people of Mbaise. His achievements helped all people irrespective of their creeds or non-creed.

Not contented with being the chief pastor of the souls of majority of Mbaise peoples, Bishop Chikwe served as his people’s chief socio-economic transformer. Shortly after he was installed as bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Chikwe embarked on one of the noblest ventures to rescue the Nigerian youths. He established a skills acquisitions programme by which many youths from Mbaise were trained into any jobs of their choices free of charge. Bishop Chikwe could be said to have been one of the pioneers of this type of youth-empowerment programme in the whole of the Nigerian nation.

But he would not stop there. He quickly sought to bring the telephone to Mbaise. In one of his earliest overseas travels he purchased some telephone-relaying equipment by which he was able to relay telephone calls from Owerri to his residence in Ahiara. He was the first man ever to make and receive fixed-line telephone calls from the soil of Mbaise.

As the HIV/AIDS pandemic broke out worldwide, Bishop Chikwe bought a huge digital video projector, the first of its kind in this part of the world, and went around the whole diocese enlightening his flock on the ravages of HIV/AIDS and the need for chastity as a preventive measure. This was long before many African governments would join the campaigns for HIV/AIDS enlightenment. And that was quintessential Bishop Chikwe. He was always ahead of every other person.

As the world became computerized, Bishop Victor Chikwe was perhaps the first bishop in Nigeria, to the best of our knowledge, to install computers in his chancery. And the same was true of the internet. He was a pioneer in the internet technology in the Nigerian Church. His love for the new technology was legendary. In today’s language, Bishop Chikwe was so tech-savvy up to the point that he could have been called a computer geek!

Perhaps one of the best qualities of Bishop Chikwe was his unflinching desire to empower everybody around him. He was never intimidated by the success of another person. He was never jealous. Bishop Chikwe possessed such a legendary self-confidence that all his desire was to let his priests soar to the greatest heights. When he came for his annual vacation overseas, he would spend some good amount of time with every one of his priests. During the chitchat that usually dominated the interaction he would urge every one of them to use the opportunity offered by their oversea stay to go for gold in education. He would encourage those who were indecisive to go for doctorate degrees. Bishop Chikwe celebrated a successful doctoral defence of any of his priests more than any other person I have seen in my life. He regarded the success of his priests as his personal success. What a marvellous person he was!

What about the priests at home who had not yet had the opportunity to study or even to step outside the country? Bishop Chikwe usually gave every one of his priests hope that they would have their turns when the opportunity arrived. He had such a great conviction that every priest should be given an opportunity to interact with the outside world. He saw that as a way to improve the skills of priests as well as maximize their zeal and dedication. And this is why he hardly ever turned down an opportunity for any priest to take a short vacation overseas in order to have the opportunity to minister to foreigners so as to come home more incentivized to appreciate the wonderful Catholics we have in Mbaise.

Perhaps one of the most ingenious legacies of Bishop Chikwe was the creation of the Clergy Week for priests of the diocese. Listening to the promptings of his lay advisers like the former pastoral council chairman, Dr. Festus Nguma, Bishop Chikwe created the Clergy Week as a corollary to the Laity Week. He fashioned the Clergy Week to be a week dedicated to talking and studying about priests’ health in general as well as engaging priests and religious in competitive sports geared towards helping them shed some unnecessary weight and shape up properly for a more effective apostolate.

What about his accomplishments in the economic well-being of the Mbaise people? It can be said that Bishop Chikwe single-handedly revolutionized the economic outlook of Mbaise. It is to his credit that a city-environment is gradually evolving around Ahiara Junction. Before Bishop Chikwe made his home in Ahiara, the more than half-a-million Mbaise population resident at home had only two glorified post-offices called commercial banks. While one operated from a slope in Oboama Ezinihitte, the other ran a banking agency from a rented stall at Eke-Nguru Market Square. The state of the banking industry spoke volumes about economic activity in the whole of Mbaise. It was relatively non-existent. For any kind of serious banking business Mbaise people had to travel as far as Owerri to accomplish it.

Bishop Chikwe saw that as a problem and confronted it head-on. He prodded and pleaded with bank executives all over Nigeria until finally they saw the need to come and invest in the economically rich territory of the Mbaise people. Today both the bank chiefs and clients in Mbaise are all smiles because economic activities in this part of the world have picked up quite tremendously. The truth is Bishop Chikwe was a man of tremendous vision. He saw great potentials where mere mortals would see set-backs. He was not daunted by any challenge he faced. He believed that every challenge offered a tremendous opportunity for everyone to become more creative.

The lamentation over the death of Bishop Chikwe has continued unabated till this day. On that Thursday, September 16, 2010, at 12:40 P.M., all the hopes of Mbaise for a more glorious future came crashing down with the sudden death of the great Mbaise champion, Most Rev. Victor Nzeadibemma Chikwe. With the sudden death of Bishop Chikwe every Mbaise person knew that a tall palm tree had fallen in Mbaise for the women to climb all over it [Nkwu Oka adaala n’ala, nwa-nwanyi enyuola ya elu].

When Bishop Chikwe died, not many in Mbaise, especially in the Catholic Church, were under any illusion that a new battle to preserve the Mbaise spirit and the legacies of Bishop Chikwe would sooner than later be fought. People expected that there would be some kind of a battle to preserve Mbaise land on the great track Bishop Chikwe had set her. Among the priests, and even for the lay people, there was enormous confidence that Ahiara Diocese had come of age; that Bishop Chikwe had nurtured the diocese to some maturity. And Bishop Chikwe did say so at the point he was to exit this world. He told all those around his sick bed that Ahiara Diocese was in good hands. His immortal last words are recorded thus:

I thank you my priests. May God bless you all and all Christ’s faithful. I am not afraid. Ahiara is in good hands. Keep doing well.

By that Bishop Chikwe meant that he had not only commended the diocese to the protection of the Holy Spirit but that throughout his tenure as bishop he had built up solid structures and trained up a good number of personnel who would ensure that the diocese continued on the right track.

What every Mbaise Catholic had worried about was making sure that the best candidate was chosen among the great many Mbaise priests qualified for the job to succeed their brother. The Igbo proverb that was constantly repeated throughout Mbaise was; a naghi egbucha ihi nkwu ghara na igbute osukwu – there was no way a heap of palm fruits could be cut and gathered together without finding among them at least one palm fruit with a chewable shell called osukwu.

The translation of this is that it would be impossible to search among the many priests of Mbaise origin without finding one who would be suitable to be made the bishop of Ahiara Diocese. This would be the frame of mind of all Mbaise people, both priests and lay people until that Friday, December 7, 2012, when an e-mail was sent to the Administrator of Ahiara Diocese, Msgr. Theo Nwalo, that an Awka priest, by name, Ebere Peter Okpalaeke, had been declared by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI as the bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese.