AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …22 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 8: Hell Breaks Loose [ii]

Another memorable moment was when the leader of the Catholic Women Organization, Mrs. Felicia Nwaogu raised her hand asking to be permitted to address the archbishop and the other bishops on the crisis. But the archbishop would not permit her to speak. She tried over and over again but would not be given the floor to speak out on behalf of the women. In frustration she called out the women to disrupt the meeting. They stood up and started singing loudly.

To quell the disorder that had broken out because of the women singing loudly in the audience, the archbishop allowed the leader of the CWO to speak. In her speech, Mrs. Nwaogu told the archbishop and the other bishops that the women of Ahiara Diocese were 100% behind the priests of the diocese. She told the archbishop that there would be no retreat in the quest of Ahiara Diocese to get her own bishop from among Mbaise priests like her counterparts in Anambra State who got their own bishops from among their own priests.

However, the most moving moment of that meeting was when Bishop Gregory Ochiagha, bishop emeritus of Orlu, addressing the audience, knelt down to plead with the people of Ahiara Diocese to stand down their protest. He regretted that the crisis had gone beyond anybody’s imagination. Continuing, he said that the time had come to call it off so as to allow the Church in Ahiara Diocese to move forward. Bishop Ochiagha would make such a powerful plea for the cessation of the crisis. Responding, the priests of the diocese told him that time for relenting in the crisis was far gone. According to the priests who responded to Bishop Ochiagha, the crisis had crossed the Rubicon and there would be no relenting in it until the demand of Ahiara Diocese was met.

Observing that he was making little headway in trying to get Ahiara Diocese to call off the stand-off, Archbishop Obinna told the audience that it was his canonical responsibility as the metropolitan of the province to ensure that a bishop appointed by the Holy Father within his province was ordained and installed according to the law. He informed the audience that he would go ahead to schedule the ordination of the bishop-elect in Ahiara Diocese on a date he would make known to the diocese very soon. He noted that while he would try to perform his canonical duty as far as the bishopric of Ahiara Diocese was concerned, he would nonetheless not be a party to anything that would bring about any loss of innocent lives in the process of ordaining a Catholic bishop. He said that when and if he scheduled the date and was threatened not to come for the ordination, he would refrain from doing so because he would not want any loss of life during the ordination.

While concluding his remarks, the archbishop told the priests and laity of Ahiara diocese that for him to contemplate calling off the ordination he would have some concrete evidence that the ordination might lead to violence. And for him to do that he would have to send a comprehensive report of the situation to the Vatican. He told the diocese to prepare a letter containing a comprehensive report on the situation on the ground and send it over to his office as quickly as possible.

As the meeting rose, two issues were uppermost in the minds of the members of the Caucus as well as the priests and laity of the diocese. First was that a letter would have to prepared immediately detailing what could happen if there was any schedule of the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke in Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral of Ahiara Diocese. A group was commissioned to start work on the document as quickly as possible.

However, the next issue that had begun to gain momentum since the mass action at St Brigid’s Church compound was the need to secure the cathedral area. The youths of the diocese had been pushing to be given the authority to take over the security of the cathedral compound. There was rumour all over the place that Ahiara Diocese might be invaded and overpowered on the day of the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke by a combined force of heavily armed police officers and the military with sophisticated weapons and armoured personnel carriers exactly in the manner the Archdiocese of Benin City had been overpowered some two years earlier during the installation of Archbishop Augustine Akubueze.

As the archbishop announced that he was contemplating announcing the date for the ordination of the bishop-elect, the whole diocese was in deep agony about how to prevent any invasion of the Cathedral or any other church in Ahiara Diocese by government forces acting on behalf of the bishops of Nigeria. The youths were boasting of having the capacity to stop whatever invasion would be planned against Ahiara Diocese. They insisted that all they needed was the permission to take over the security of the entire diocese.

On the other hand, since the crisis took a more critical turn following the mass action, the group of Mbaise elite under the umbrella of a socio-cultural organization called Ezuru Ezu Mbaise had insisted that everything about the security of the whole of Mbaise land would have to be left in their hand. Whenever the issue of security was raised either during the Caucus or general meeting, members of Ezuru Ezu would assure that they were taking care of it and would meet whatever challenge that would arise in that regard. However, Ezuru Ezu had all along been mainly about meeting and negotiating with all the members of the security organizations in Nigeria. Many a time, they would claim that they had many other security arrangements the details of which they would not reveal. But they were more than sure that they were on top of any security challenges that might confront Mbaise land as a result of the bishopric crisis.

Because of the assurances of the Ezuru Ezu group, the whole crisis had been operating with the conviction that the members of the group were in control of all security issues. But as the situation became more critical, the youths of Mbaise insisted on taking a physical control of the day-to-day happening at Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral. They were complaining to everybody that if Mbaise land was defeated in that battle, they would cause such mayhem throughout Mbaise land that nobody from Mbaise would know any peace again.

The push of the youth would force the hands of the priests to let them do whatever they could to secure the whole of Mbaise land. That would be the moment Mbaise youths would start to play prominent roles around the Cathedral and throughout Mbaise land. But that also meant raising the tempo of the crisis. The visible appearance of Mbaise youths made Mbaise land look like a place perpetually under siege. Also, as the youths became more involved, they began to organize community and deanery militia outfits that would react quickly when called upon. All such preparations began to ratchet up tension throughout Mbaise. There were visible preparations for war and imminent attack.

The very next day after our meeting, the group concerned with the writing of a letter to the archbishop was ready with the first draft. The letter was billed to be a veiled threat to both the archbishop and the other bishops who might be considering attending and participating in the ordination of the rejected bishop at Ahiara Cathedral. The letter dated January 15, 2013, included the following details among others;

1. Profession of absolute allegiance to the Catholic faith, loyalty to the Holy Father and honour and respect to the metropolitan

2. Recognition of the canonical duty of the metropolitan to ensure the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke as bishop of Ahiara Diocese and an emphasis on what such action if implemented would entail for Ahiara Diocese

3. Msgr. Okpalaeke’s appointment as another instance of great injustice among the numerous chains of injustices Mbaise land had been suffering since the arrival of colonialism.

4. Mbaise sons and daughters have been the greatest victims of the son of the soil syndrome throughout Nigeria

5. The creation of Ahiara Diocese was a divine intervention to give Mbaise people a home in religious vocation. But the new appointment is meant to carry discrimination against Mbaise sons and daughters in religious and priestly life down to their doorstep.

6. The Catholic Church for Mbaise people has remained the only stone of help [Ebenezer]. But it is about to be taken away through this appointment.

7. Okpalaeke’s appointment is terrible injustice aimed at weakening the faith of Mbaise people

8. Anambra State bishops working in Owerri Province are performing poorly and Okpalaeke would not be different.

9. There is a terrible barrier in dialect between Okpalaeke and the people of Ahiara Diocese which would impair continued evangelization of Ahiara Diocese

10. Okpalaeke’s appointment for Ahiara Diocese smacks of “godfatherism” reminiscent of the grab-it-all mentality of political actors in Nigeria.

11. The snub of the generality of Mbaise priests in the appointment of a bishop for their home diocese is an injustice bordering on a slander.

12. Because what has happened is a monumental injustice, the priests and laity of the diocese, who have been traditionally peaceful, have vowed to fight it to the last

13. Ahiara Diocese has traditionally been known as very peaceful and dynamic to the extent that, Your Grace recently described it as a pacesetter diocese.

14. Ahiara Diocese is a high-population diocese but terribly poor, her citizens averaging less than $1 a day.

15. Only people who know the realities of the diocese and can manage it like Bishop Chikwe did, can run it properly.

16. As a result of the injustice done to Ahiara Diocese in the selection of the replacement for Bishop Chikwe, the people are bitter and up in arms to the extent that they are likely to unleash violence should there be any attempt to force Okpalaeke on them.

17. The threat of a damaging implosion is real in Ahiara Diocese. Any attempt to forcefully ordain Okpalaeke in Ahiara Diocese would be resisted at all cost.

18. Any attempt to forcefully ordain and impose Okpalaeke on the people of Mbaise would cause grave and regrettable consequences.

There was no doubt that Ahiara Diocese had needed some kind of timeout in the sky-high tension that had engulfed her over the suspicion that there might be some kind of force introduced in the efforts to ordain and install Msgr. Okpalaeke as her bishop. God would send down this long overdue break to the people of the diocese through the august visit of the new archbishop, Most Rev Fortunatus Nwachukwu to his father’s maternal home in Amumara on Friday, January 25, 2013.

Immediately after his appointment as archbishop and a nuncio, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu began sending down some feelers that he might fulfil the promise he had made to his late father immediately after his priestly ordination in 1984. As he would relate later, shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, his father had requested him to schedule a mass of thanksgiving in his own [father’s] maternal home in Amumara, Ezinihitte Mbaise.

But immediately after his ordination, the then Fr Fortunatus Nwachukwu was absorbed by administrative and pastoral responsibilities. Besides his administrative responsibility in the diocese of Umuahia, Fr Nwahcukwu was also made the chaplain of Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike Umuahia. He kept rescheduling and procrastinating his visit to Amumara until he could not fulfil that solemn desire of his father. So, when he was appointed archbishop, he determined to utilize the little break after his ordination in Rome to fulfil the promise he had made to his father by coming down to his great maternal home in Amumara to celebrate a solemn Eucharistic celebration.

In the Mass of thanksgiving and reception at Christ the King Cathedral, Aba, Abia State on January 18, 2013, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu would announce with great enthusiasm and longing his pilgrimage back to his father’s maternal home in Amumara Mbaise. As I was right there in the congregation when Archbishop Nwachukwu made his enthusiastic announcement about visiting his great maternal home, I decided to see it as a challenge both to my home parish of Our Lady of Victory Church Amumara and to the entire Diocese of Ahiara. I reasoned that the whole of Mbaise could benefit a great deal from such an august visit by Archbishop Nwachukwu during that troubled time in our history. This reasoning would engineer me into throwing my whole weight into making the visit a remarkable one in every way possible.

Working with the indomitable parish priest of Our Lady of Victory Church Amumara, Fr Honoris Jimanze, we set off to mobilize funds for the reception. First, I talked and convinced the administrator that the diocese should cash in and give the august visitor a diocesan reception. The administrator, Msgr. Nwalo readily saw with me and pledged the diocesan cooperation to the fullest. Second was addressing the Amumara Catholic community on the need for them to put their best foot forward for the occasion. I attended and concelebrated a mass with the parish priest of Our Lady of Victory Church Amumara in which I talked at length on the need for the entire Amumara community to roll out their drums and accord a rousing welcome to their son who had been elevated to the rank of an archbishop in the Catholic Church by the Holy Father. This was not to be a big problem as my home community were already looking forward to the visit.

The next task we faced was mobilizing funds for the reception. The mini-launching organized by Our Lady of Victory Parish, Amumara, could not yield much. We started to appeal to prosperous Amumara indigenes. Only two Amumara citizens would respond as quickly as we had wished. Chief Ed Nwokocha from Obibi Amumara who lives in Port Harcourt promptly came to our aid. But the biggest boost came from Mr. Shadrach Eneogwe, from Okpanku Amumara, who gave us a substantial amount to carry out the entertainment of our guests during the reception. The diocese also promised to come to our aid with the funds we would need to carry out the big reception we were planning for the occasion.

With the funds we had and the ones we were being promised, we embarked on publishing a colourful brochure to mark the occasion. Fr Fidelis Agwulonu, my partner and publisher from the provincial committee for the celebration of the centenary of the coming of the Catholic Church in Owerri Province came on board to take over the publication of the brochure. He with his team would sleep in a publishing house in Owerri for two consecutive nights to ensure that the brochure came out.

We would make contacts with the three traditional rulers of Amumara, Eze Osita Nwokocha, Umara III of Adakam Amumara, Eze Felix Ogbonna of Eziala Amumara and Eze JoeBenz Ochulor of Otulu Amumara. Conferring together on what had been traditionally earmarked as a gift to be given to any son or grandson of Amumara who attains the status of a bishop in any of the mainland Churches, they opted to buy a cow and give it as a present to the visiting great grandson of Amumara, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu.

Then the day of visit and reception of Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu came. The new archbishop would arrive with a convoy comprising members of his immediate and extended families. The whole place was packed full with people from the Archbishop’s home town of Ntigha Isiala Ngwa North Local Government. Also represented in large numbers were the priests and religious from Ahiara Diocese led by the diocesan administrator, Rt Rev. Msgr. Theo Nwalo. In a welcome address presented to Archbishop Nwachukwu by the administrator, priests and laity of Ahiara Diocese, they said among many other things;

Your Excellency’s decision to visit your relatives in Ahiara Diocese at this time of their great need of an Episcopal presence in their midst is a great sign that God has not completely abandoned the great Catholics of Ahiara Diocese….

We thank Your Excellency for exhibiting unimpeachable character in your former role as chief protocol officer of His Holiness. You made us proud by exhibiting exquisite character in the most sensitive office that was entrusted to you at the Vatican City…..

We pray that Your Excellency carries this nobility of yours to your new office as Nuncio to Nicaragua. As Your Excellency knows very well having served as secretary of many Nunciatures across the world, the position of a Nuncio is usually tricky as he is the chief adviser of His Holiness in the country of his service. It is his responsibility to give candid and truthful advice to the Holy Father thereby minimizing instances of pain and controversy especially regarding the selection of bishops. We are confident that Your Excellency will discharge your duties as Nuncio with utmost nobility and sincerity of purpose.

In his response both during his homily and during the reception, Archbishop Nwachukwu told Ahiara Diocese that he had come specifically to prove to Mbaise people that they had not only given birth to a bishop in the person of the late Bishop Victor Chikwe but have now given birth to an archbishop who is an Apostolic Nuncio. On the issues at hand regarding the bishopric crisis in the diocese, Archbishop Nwachukwu cautioned that the situation must be handled with utmost care and prayer. He advised the priests and laity of the diocese that in dealing with the issues of the crisis, they should keep certain things in mind, namely, that the Catholic Church never trifles with the position of the Holy Father. According to him, in the Catholic Church the seat of the Holy Father is always very precious and all of its dignity must be preserved. Continuing he told the people of Ahiara Diocese a little bit in a parable that “What the late Mahatma Gandhi and the late Yasser Arafat were pursuing were same things but their methods differed.” He urged the people of Mbaise to be vigilant in prayer as a way of knowing the will of God for them in the crisis.