AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …18 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 6: Struggle for Igbo Heartland [iii]

As many critics Cardinal Arinze in Owerri Province insisted, while he allegedly fought his battle to subjugate Owerri Province to Onitsha province his successors in Onitsha Archdiocese continued to push the frontiers of their hegemonic policies in Igbo Catholicism in other ways. For instance, when Archbishops Stephen Ezeanya and Obiefuna became metropolitans of Onitsha province they did try to contribute their quota in the efforts to keep Owerri Province under their province in spite of the fact that it had long been raised to the status of an independent province. Some instances tend to demonstrate this fact quite clearly. When the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus Congregation with headquarters at Ikot Ekpene decided to divide themselves into provinces, the policy they had agreed to was that the provincial headquarters would be located in the places of the first convents of the new provinces. As a result Lagos and Calabar became provincial headquarters.

But when it came to Central Eastern Province, the earliest place the HHCJ congregation opened a community in Igbo land was in Owerri, at Owerri Girls Secondary School, beside Villa Assumpta. However, the metropolitans of Onitsha influenced the sisters to insist that the headquarters of the Central Eastern Province of HHCJ be located in Onitsha since it was the place the first missionaries to Southern Nigeria had settled. And that was entirely a new principle crafted by the power brokers in Onitsha to deny Owerri Province what was legitimately hers. The argument the HHCJ sisters bandied about then was that every other congregation had its provincial headquarters in Onitsha which, in fact, was a bare-faced lie. DDL and DMMM congregations did not have their headquarters in Onitsha but in Enugu and Umuahia respectively. But Onitsha province had its way as usual to lure the HHCJ to establish her provincial headquarters in her territory.

Perhaps a better illustration of what had been happening between these two sister-provinces could be found in the battle that dogged the publication of the Igbo Bible. When the manuscript was ready to be sent to press, for many years it would get stuck at the press because there was no agreement on the title. The draft Igbo Bible had provisionally been titled Akwukwo Nso, Na Nhazi Igbo. But Archbishop Albert Obiefuna insisted that the title must be changed to Baibul Nso because according to him that was what every average Onitsha person understood to be the name of the Bible in Igbo. The struggle to agree on the name for the Igbo Bible would tangle the production of Igbo Bible for years. It led to a scandalous open clash between Archbishops Obiefuna and Obinna at Bigard Memorial Seminary auditorium. If not for the intervention of the late Bishop Michael Eneja, the two provinces would have opted to publish different versions of the Igbo Bible. Archbishop Obiefuna insisted on having his way irrespective of whatever the province of Owerri thought.

It was such similar intrigues of trying to have it their way that would tear apart some of the organs that held the two provinces together. For instance, the rectors of junior seminaries in Igbo land used to have a common conference to strategize on how best to train junior seminarians of Igbo extraction. They used to have a common Latin Diploma examination board. But the bishops of Owerri Province had to order their rectors to establish an Owerri Provincial body because they discovered that Onitsha Province consistently refused to share project aids from overseas meant for the two provinces with their Owerri counterparts.

According to one bishop who explained the situation to one of the junior seminary rectors then, whenever the bishops of the two provinces would cooperate to write a common project to help their seminaries or other institutions, the Onitsha Province would utilize the proceeds of such project aids without any reference to their counterparts from Owerri. They were consistently taking their colleagues from Owerri Province for a ride. Feeling frustrated, the bishops from Owerri Province had no other option than to establish their own independent bodies so that they could write projects under the name of Owerri Province.

The truth is long before there would break out the current bishopric crisis in Ahiara Diocese, there had been simmering very low-level tension between the two provinces. Every priest who went through the common seminaries of the two provinces knew long ago that it would be only a matter of time before there would break out an open battle between the two provinces. That is to say, what is happening today in Ahiara Diocese had had a very long history in Igbo Catholicism. The crisis of today had taken more than 80 years to build. This big storm that is raging has been gathering since the 1920s.

Fortunately for Owerri Province and unfortunately for the Onitsha Province’s colonizing forces, it would fall on the people of Mbaise as a result of the untimely death of Bishop Victor Chikwe to become the arrowhead of resistance against Onitsha Province’s domination of the Province of Owerri. Ahiara Diocese, as a result of her homogeneity, her battle-tested nature and her deep-rooted Catholicism became the place the Holy Spirit chose to expose and tackle the hydra-headed injustices “Anambranization” had been unleashing on the Catholic Church in Igbo land.

The third force that had dominated my reflection during the Christmas break of 2012 was on the issue of the motivation of “Anambranization”. I had asked myself several times why there would be such a force to dominate the Church of Owerri Igbo heartland. What interest do they have in doing this? What was their motivation? Does Christianity have any room for such domination in her gospel message? Is such a desire to dominate others and deny them their proper identity not as a result of some lingering paganism which the Ahiara Diocesan Christian Men and Women Organizations had complained about in their petition letter to Rome? After reviewing what could be the possible motives for this instinct of domination being manifested by some clergy from Anambra State, I had come down to the belief that such could only arise from paganism.

In the Ahiara Diocese Presbyterium meeting held on Monday December 24, 2012, I had informed the priests of our diocese that the only reason I had found for the dominative instincts being manifested by Awka priests was the Nri Myth. I had argued briefly to a thunderous applause from our priests that “Anambranization” had a pagan origin. While many elderly priests had congratulated me for the insight, many young priests had pestered me to no end to elaborate more on the insight and give them some copies of my research findings. So, I was not surprise when a professor from the USA, Professor John Michael Adinuso, expanded on that insight and published it all over the internet. I will reproduce his essay with the permission of Professor Anthony O. Nwachukwu who first published it in his email list.

“The Pagan Origins of Anambranization Agenda”

I must confess I am a Johnny-come-lately to the current brouhaha about the appointment of Msgr. Peter Ebere Okpalaeke as the Bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese. But as the hackneyed saying goes, it is better late than never. Like every person from Mbaise, I recall that on December 7, 2012, an appointment was purportedly announced by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI after his 12.00 Noon Angelus. A communication brief accessed by many Mbaise people via the internet declared that one Msgr. Ebere Peter Okpalaeke [49] had been appointed to the vacant seat of Ahiara Diocese as its new bishop. When one of my lieutenants in my office told me of the announcement, I treated it as one of those internet rumors that often turn out just exactly what it is supposed to be, namely, a bad and baseless rumour.

Unfortunately it turned out that the seemingly bad and baseless rumor was in fact true. A relatively young man, undistinguished in the Catholic priesthood in every way, from a far away Diocese of Awka in Anambra State, without any prior experience in Episcopal administration, and without any prior association or great knowledge of the people of Mbaise, had indeed been appointed to become the bishop of one of the most sophisticated dioceses in the continent of Africa. At first, it sounded like a bad dream. But that was until it became a terribly heart-aching nightmare. No matter how it is looked at, the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke is a very strange development in Nigerian Catholic Church. It is particularly a very terrible omen for the Church of Igboland. No wonder people are crying foul. There is indeed a snake on the mat [Agwo no n’akirika].

Msgr. Okpalaeke’s is one appointment that is bound to throw up so many issues that had been hidden in the history of Ndi Igbo in general and Mbaise people in particular. It is unlike any typical Vatican appointment which is usually thoughtful, painstaking and rational. It is difficult to concede any thoughtfulness or rationality to the appointment of the young Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke as the bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese. Because this appointment hardly bears the marks of any Vatican appointment in recent memory, it is bound to generate unprecedented controversy. And those who “confused” or “misled” the Holy Father into making such an unconscionable appointment that is bound to divide, weaken and demoralize the beautifully vibrant Church of the Mbaise people will certainly answer for it before God. This is an injustice of an epic proportion.

I wish those who advise the Holy Father on such matters could come down to Ahiara Diocese and see for themselves the enormous damage they are doing to the simple and pure faith of the Mbaise people. It is sad that this is what the young Catholic Church in Nigeria is turning to. But if there is any silver lining to it or any benefit that could accrue from discussions or fights against this terrible injustice to the Catholic Church of Igboland, it is the fact that it will ultimately lead to some re-examination of so many issues that have been going wrong in the history of our people’s expression of the Catholic faith. There is an endemic injustice built into the structures of the Catholic Church in Igboland. And the architect and founding father of this structural injustice in the Igbo Church seems no other person than the only Igbo priest who has ever risen to the rank of a cardinal in the Catholic Church. That this cardinal who is approaching the twilight of his life on earth is likely to leave behind a despicable legacy of structural injustice, nepotism, sinful favouritism and cronyism seems a tragedy of epic proportion.

Perhaps the controversy that is raging as a result of Msgr. Okpalaeke’s appointment will ultimately force discussion on how to defeat the sinful structures of injustice being fostered in the Igbo Church by some of her Eminences and Excellencies. Some of these big wigs of the Igbo Church do not give a hoot about some basic issues of justice and charity. It is sad. They infringe on justice with impunity. They get away with actions that could land their counterparts in the secular world into some serious problems. But this particular appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as bishop in far away Ahiara Diocese, a place brimming with priests of the highest calibre and pedigree in the continent of Africa will definitely blow open the moral cesspool and turpitude that has become the hallmark of the process of selecting Catholic Church leaders in Nigeria.

Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will utilize this painful period to cleanse and sanitize the ways of the Catholic Church in Nigeria. We are saddened that the Holy Roman Catholic Church is being turned into an arena for political brinkmanship in Igboland. What a shame for the so-called leaders of the Church in Igboland! They turn their God-given opportunity to serve humanity especially the poor and the less privileged into an opportunity to seek personal advantage and foster cronyism. It is sad!

At a glance, the appointment of Okpalaeke can only suggest that the world of Nigerian politics where nobody gets anything without greasing the palms of the higher-ups has announced its arrival among the Nigerian Catholic hierarchy. Or, that the Mafioso method of rising in leadership and authority in the criminal world has been adopted by some elements of the Holy Roman Catholic Church in Igboland.

How else could an undistinguished priest like Okpalaeke have gotten to the height of being parachuted from Awka to Ahiara if he had not either greased his way through to it or been sponsored by some criminal ring operating within or at the fringes of the Catholic Church of Nigeria? Let us face it. Msgr. Okpalaeke is not Matthew Kukah. He is not Ignatius Kaigama or Adewole Martins or Augustine Akubueze or even Camillus Etukudo. These known names who have distinguished themselves in some ways can be parachuted to any place without any uproar.

Rather, Msgr. Okpalaeke was until this strange announcement an obscure young priest who was only known within certain circles in his home diocese of Awka. His education is perhaps two years in CIWA and another two years in Rome studying Canon Law. He has not done much to reckon with outside his diocese beside heading some marriage tribunals and doing some clerical work as secretary of his diocesan chancery. How does he become qualified to be assigned to the Diocese of Ahiara where many of his teachers in the seminary are still active in the ministry? This is the mystery kicked up by his strange appointment as a bishop. People glibly tell us that his appointment is the work of the Holy Spirit. But we say the Holy Spirit does not do anything glaringly repulsive as this appointment appears to be. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is being lied against a trillion times a day all over the world. And I suspect He is being lied against with Msgr. Okpalaeke’s appointment as bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese.

This is why no sensible person should entertain any argument on Okpalaeke’s appointment based on the fiat of the Holy Spirit as meaningful. The truth is many criminals are quoting the acquiescence and compliance of the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Trinity as they continue to perpetrate their criminal actions all over the place. This is why the appropriate attitude in this circumstance is what the New Testament cautions and recommends all over the place, namely, “test the spirit” and “discern the spirit”. What the current situation calls for is a proper discernment of the spirit. It is a mark of authentic spirituality not to take such contentious issues without a proper test and discernment of the spirit.

Discernment is called for in this situation and not a hypocritical spirituality that swallows the bitter pill of injustice in the name of blind obedience. Injustice is a universal crime and must be fought every inch of the way till it is defeated. If injustice has been committed against Ahiara Diocese and the Catholics of Nigeria, it must be fought with all vigour by every authentic Catholic. Fighting injustice is a moral duty of every one. And clearly there is a terrible injustice to be fought and defeated in the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese.

It is on this note that I congratulate Dr Adolphus Amadi-Azuogu, professor of New Testament Studies in America, for his valiant and deep-peering analyses of the whole situation. I think he is doing Mbaise people proud by challenging an obvious injustice done to one of the most Catholic places in the continent of Africa. However, I worry so much about the narrow prism in which Dr Amadi-Azuogu is examining the whole situation. He conceives the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as the product of what he describes as the “rampaging Anambra political machine,” “Anambra Ecclesiastical Mafia.”

In his great essay on this crisis termed Agwo no n’akirika, Dr Amadi-Azuogu notes, “The Anambra political machine is on the rampage.Unless we understand this and put the present saga in this context, we shall all be enslaved forever by the Anambra ecclesiastical mafia. … The problem is Anambra ecclesiastical hegemony. They monopolize the politics of Igboland, whether it is in the church or in secular politics. No doubt they are also monopolizing ecclesiastical politics, East of the Niger and beyond.”

Dr. Amadi-Azuogu is not the only one who finds it difficult to acquire the appropriate context in which to interpret issues generated by the appointment of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke. In fact, putting the Okpalaeke’s “saga” in its proper context has been eluding many commentators that I have so far read. I must confess that I am far behind in reading up materials that have so far been published both on the internet and on letters that have been circulating. But the much I have read does not assure me that people have gotten the true context in which to interpret their nightmarish feelings over the appointment of an Awka young man to serve as bishop of the great Diocese of Ahiara, Mbaise.

The first real context in which one could comprehend the appointment of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke as bishop of Ahiara Diocese is Anambra people’s pagan and mythological world. Dr Amadi-Azuogu’s “Anambra political machine” or what he describes as “Anambra Ecclesiastical mafia” is in fact a product of this pagan mythology. This pagan mythological world that undergirds Anambra domineering ideology in everything from religion, politics to economy is the Nri Myth.

It is quite funny how the world of the 21st century continues to operate under ancient mythologies. What rules and determines the outcome of events in the world is largely mythology and not science and technology as often believed. Myth is a monster that must be conquered. And that is what is happening according to one respectable analyst of the Okpalaeke saga. The truth is that we are all enslaved to some ancient mythologies that tend to determine the outcome of our lives. We become fully human only when we eviscerate and defeat such ancient myths that should not have any part to play in our lives.

I was in a gathering recently when a priest of repute mentioned Nri mythology of the Anambra people as the appropriate context in which to understand what is happening with regard to the appointment of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke as bishop of Ahiara Mbaise Diocese. I went home to read more about the mythology in order to convince myself that the priest was making some sense. And after reading a little more about the mythology, I was convinced that he had hit the nail right on its head. What is happening with the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as bishop in a place other than his home diocese is nothing but the offshoot of Nri mythology.

Nri hypothesis as lying at the roots of the appointment of Okpalaeke as bishop of Ahiara Diocese got a tremendous boost recently when one of the priests of Ahiara Diocese, a university professor of repute told a gathering of priests that one of the priests at UNIZIK told him that every seminarian and priest of Awka Diocese believes in his heart of hearts that he would become a bishop of one diocese other than his own one day.

The only reason why such a belief would be so rampart among Awka priests and seminarians is this mythological belief of theirs that they have a divine right to dominate others in their respective dioceses, towns and villages. Because of this mythological reliance, Awka priests appear to have acquired the Catholic equivalent of the Sokoto Caliphate’s born-to-rule ideology. Awka priests are not nearly as intelligent and as productive as priests from say Mbaise. In academic accomplishments and apostolic zeal, Awka priests are completely inferior to Mbaise priests. What then qualifies them to be appointed bishops over Mbaise priests? The answer is mythology. It is this mythology that convinces them that they have a divine right to travel all across Igboland and perform priestly duties. Unfortunately, the mythology in question is pagan! What a shame!

The synopsis of Nri myth is that the Oka-community which the currently misspelt and mispronounced Awka is the motherland was given the exclusive right of serving as priests throughout Igboland. Remember the story of the Nri myth. Eze Nri killed his two children, a boy and a girl, cut their bodies into pieces and buried them. From the grave of the son yam seedlings sprouted and from that of the daughter, cocoyam seedlings sprouted. When these matured he harvested them and fed fat on them with his family.

According to the myth, the pagan deity wanted him to share the seedlings with the rest of the Igbo people. But Eze Nri refused. Then there was a negotiation between the deity and Eze Nri leading to a covenant in which the deity granted the Nri and their cousins in Oka-communities the right of serving as priests throughout Igboland in return for their sharing of the yam and cocoyam seedlings with the rest of the Igbo people. That was why people from Oka-communities went all across Igboland to cicatrize the faces of Igbo people [Igbu ichi]. Till today the people who go about carving ichi-marks on the faces of Northern Igbo people are people from Oka-communities – Njikoka, Umudioka, etc., and of course, Awka people whose original name, Oka, was corrupted both in pronunciation and in spelling by the colonial masters.

Since the origin of this mythology, Oka-communities have seen it as their exclusive right to send priests all across Igboland. They have always been missionaries to the rest of the Igbo people they would argue. It was a right they acquired from their pagan mythological past.

What Awka people through the appointments of such bishops as Solomon Amatu of Okigwe Diocese and now Peter Okpalaeke of Ahiara Diocese [?] are trying to accomplish is to use their connections and money to try to resuscitate their mythological dominance over the rest of the Igbo people. And this is typical of many Anambra people. They hardly ever leave paganism behind. They call it up when they need its help. And this seems what is going on here. In the recent times, they have realized that they could use their pagan past to advance and reassert their attempted dominance of the Igbo race. And they are going for it gung ho.

Unfortunately for them, they have come to Mbaise, the territory of the myth busters. Their trap has caught a shrew! [Onya ha amala nkapi]. I expect Mbaise people of today to fight like their ancestors and destroy the myth of Awka and Anambra hegemony in the Catholic Church leadership of Igboland. This is a task that must be accomplished. The burgeoning Anambra hegemony in the leadership of Igbo Catholicism must be destroyed. Mbaise is the land that is most qualified to do this. And the job must be done!

In ancient past, it was in Mbaise that the fierce Aros were handily defeated and their mythology shown to have no effect. It was in Mbaise that the myth of the white colonialist was first unmasked and defeated. Remember the beginning of the 20th century. Some white Britons were running about and being treated like gods all over Igboland. One of them, Dr Roger Stewart came to Mbaise and his myth was busted. He was killed by the natives. This is regrettable though but it shows that Mbaise is the land of myth busters.

In Mbaise, the Oka people failed to make any impact at all. Only one or two communities in Mbaise practise their missionary cicatrisation. And they are all migrants. The Oka people never won here. And they should never win this time around in the 21st century Mbaise.

All Mbaise people should rise and ensure that the pagan mythology of Awka does not win this contest. Mbaise is the Ireland of Nigeria. We have the authentic Catholicism in our land. Ours is not a Catholicism mixed up with pagan mythology of dominance. Even though we have our own mythology that is superior to Nri myth in every way, we do not rely on pagan myths in our faith. We are wholly converted from paganism. We now serve our Lord Jesus Christ with our whole hearts. Our Catholicism must remain pure and unadulterated with paganism that is the stock in trade of some of the Oka communities of Anambra State.

But a crucial question that must be asked here is; could it be that all the big guns of Anambra Catholicism, the cardinals, archbishops and bishops who are pushing their candidates into higher offices in the Igbo Church are acting out of motives other than Christian motives?

Could it be that what is controlling their ambition to have all their own priests in charge of the Igbo Church is the same pagan motives that their ancestors inherited from their mythology? It is difficult to say. But what seems certain is that the way they insist on their own people being the only occupants of the Episcopal sees in Igboland cannot come from a Christian spirit. One of the chief characteristics of a Christian spirit is fairness. Since they cannot be fair and see some spirit activities among priests of areas other than their own, they cannot be working with a Christian spirit.

But the question still remains; if what they are doing is not Christian, what is it? What motivates it? The only reasonable answer to such a question is that all those Church big wigs in Anambra State who champion only their own priests into the bishopric are in fact resorting to their domineering past which arises from paganism. They are yet to be fully converted to Christianity. If they had truly converted to Christianity, they would have known the importance of justice to all and malice to none. Perhaps the prayer of all Igbo Catholics should be directed towards the conversion of the Anambra State Catholic hierarchy. When they become converted, they will become open to the activities of the Holy Spirit in places other than their mythical homeland.