AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …40 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 16: A Perfect Anticlimax [i]

The compromise decision made on Thursday night of May 16, 2013, by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria [CBCN] during its retreat in Abuja to shift the venue of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke’s Episcopal ordination on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, to the chapel of Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo, Owerri, would become a perfect anticlimax to the heart-wrenching build-ups to catastrophe both sides appeared to have committed themselves to. Before the bishops would provide that most needed elixir of an action, a few of us had concluded that there was no way a train wreck would be avoided on the day of the ordination. But imagining such happening in the sacred lands of the Mbaise people was a great nightmare we could hardly ever come to terms with.

Notwithstanding our deep worries, members of Ezuru Ezu Mbaise were speeding fast ahead readying their militant foot soldiers for a titanic battle on the day of the ordination. On their part, Mbaise youths had amassed a huge cache of live bombs made of bottles, glass and plastic containers filled with gasoline – a weapon they had conceived as some sort of a military tank-killer that would incapacitate the military hardware they believed would throng Mbaise land on that fateful day.

The youths also stationed at strategic corners throughout Mbaise land heaps of used tyres and plastic rubble to light up flares on blocked highways. Mbaise students in tertiary institutions rented fleets of buses to storm Mbaise land on the day of the ordination in defence of what they saw as their fatherland under attack. Finally bouncers and touts of Ahiara junction in coalition with their counterparts from many states in Nigeria braced themselves for the battle of their lives.

This was the horrendous picture of Mbaise land on the final days leading to the Episcopal ordination of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke scheduled to take place in Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral Ahiara, Mbaise. The whole stage had been made perfect for a disaster of unimaginable magnitude. The image that kept popping up in my mind as I imagined and visualized what could happen on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, was that of Biafran or Rwandan genocide. Nearly everybody in Mbaise land had resigned oneself to the inevitability of a very big disaster happening before our very noses on that doomsday.

And then the great news came from Abuja that the bishops of Nigeria had decided to move the venue of the ordination to the chapel of Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo Owerri. That piece of news would be greeted with joyous relief throughout Mbaise land. In the morning following the midnight breaking news, people could be seen clustered in small groups discussing how the good Lord had saved Mbaise land from a horrifying carnage that was headed her way. I remember shouting to my associate priest, Fr Vitalis, immediately I heard the news, “Man, we have dodged a bullet!” Indeed we did dodge a deadly bullet with that wisest of decisions taken by the CBCN to move the ordination to a different venue.

As a result, not a few people from Mbaise began immediately to wax spiritual about the CBCN’s decision. Many saw it as the spirit of the late Bishop Chikwe fighting on the side of Mbaise people. Others believed it to be another instance of the miracles God had been showering on Mbaise people since the struggle began so as to demonstrate to the world that He was on their side in their struggle against a brazen injustice inflicted on them. There would be no telling the great relief that came to all the people of Mbaise with the decision to move the ordination to a neutral venue that would not provoke the war-clamouring and war-mongering youths of Mbaise, who saw the potential confrontation as a moment to showcase their bravery and perhaps make name for themselves as local heroes.

As the news of the movement of the venue continued to spread and stir jubilation all through the morning of Friday, May 17, 2013, a meeting of the Mbaise Indigenous Priests’ Caucus was hurriedly convoked to assess the implication of the decision to move the venue out of Mbaise. After reviewing all the options presented by the members, the Caucus would decide to continue with all the security arrangements put in place before the news broke. That is to say, the mass action planned for the day of the ordination would have to go ahead. Sunday masses would be used to invite and persuade people to come out in large numbers on that Tuesday with all the placards that had been planned in order to demonstrate to the world that Mbaise people meant it when they rejected Msgr. Okpalaeke as their bishop. The public was told to remain on a maximum alert in order to forestall being taken by surprise.

However, the reason to maintain a high-level of alertness was the fear the Caucus members had that there could still be a reversal in the thoughts of the bishops who might decide on the morning of Tuesday, May 21, to make a detour into Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral for the ordination. As some members of the Caucus would maintain, nobody knew whether the army amassed by the supporters of the bishop-elect and the Anambra people in general might decide to vent their anger on Mbaise people by trying to catch them unprepared with a sudden attack. The consensus opinion was not to rule anything out or in, but to maintain a high degree of alertness until things were sorted out properly. According to the members of the Caucus, it would be better to think of every conceivable scenario as possible and prepare for it ahead of time rather than wait and be taken by surprise by those who would want to make Msgr. Okpalaeke bishop of Ahiara Diocese by all means.

Another issue that had bothered the Caucus was what the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke as putative bishop of Ahiara Diocese at Seat of Wisdom Seminary might portend for the people of Mbaise and their struggle. There was worry about the legal or civil law implication of Msgr. Okpalaeke’s ordination; whether the bishop-elect would make a move to seize some of the assets of the diocese, especially the monetary assets of the diocese in several banks in Nigeria and overseas and use same to fight the people of Ahiara Diocese. Though the canonists of the Caucus insisted that there would be no legal basis for the new bishop to tamper with the assets of the diocese without first of all taking a canonical possession of the diocese, there was a lot of fear among Mbaise priests that the new bishop buoyed by his Episcopal ordination might choose to go that route so as to stifle the hold-outs in Ahiara Diocese. So, an alarm was sounded that the Caucus must prepare ahead of time for a scenario in which an attempt would be made by the new bishop to freeze all the accounts of the diocese in the banks throughout Nigeria and overseas.

An idea was presented to the Caucus to either launch a pre-emptive litigation to restrain the new bishop from tampering with Ahiara Diocesan bank accounts or engage in some other measures aimed at securing the bank accounts of the diocese until a new bishop that would be acceptable to the people was appointed. Lawyers were consulted to study the situation. Some lawyers asked to be given the green light to commence such a proceeding. On their part, the priest lawyers advised that such a premature litigation would be unnecessary as there was an easier way to preclude the new bishop from tampering with the diocesan accounts. The latter would advise that all the banks holding Ahiara Diocesan accounts be written to not to embark on any transaction with the bishop-elect until further notice. And that would be what the diocese ended up doing.

There was another suggestion that a disclaimer be published in a national daily putting it on record that the bishop ordained in the chapel of Seat of Wisdom Seminary Ulakwo Owerri, Imo State, was not and could not have been the bishop of Ahiara Diocese as he had been utterly rejected by the people. Moreover, the advertorial would declare that even though purportedly ordained for Ahiara Diocese, the new bishop had not been given any canonical possession of the diocese by which he could act on behalf of Ahiara Diocese. The public were to be warned to desist from having any dealings with him on behalf of Ahiara Diocese.

The green light was given by the Caucus for a draft to be quickly produced and made ready for publication on or before the day of the Episcopal ordination on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. As a result, a draft was quickly drawn up and sent to the lawyers who made little corrections in it and approved its publication. The approved draft read thus:

DISCLAIMER!

EBERE PETER OKPALAEKE IS NOT OUR BISHOP!

The Clergy, the laity and the entire faithful of Ahiara Diocese, Mbaise, hereby announce and notify the general public that we, the Catholic faithful of Mbaise, have absolutely nothing to do with the Episcopal ordination of one Ebere Peter Okpalaeke who is being falsely addressed as the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese.

The general public must know that the so-called Bishop Okpalaeke has been roundly and definitively rejected by the entire Catholic faithful of Ahiara Diocese. As a result, Ebere Peter Okpalaeke is not and cannot be the bishop of Ahiara Diocese.

Msgr. Okpalaeke’s appointment as bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese contradicts NATURAL JUSTICE. The PROCESS that brought about his appointment is IRREPARABLY FLAWED. That PROCESS contravenes and makes nonsense of both the letter and the spirit of the Code of Canon Law that governs the universal Catholic Church, especially in Canon 377 s3.

Moreover, Msgr. Okpalaeke’s Episcopal ordination outside our diocese is a flagrant contradiction of Canons 379, 380, 382 ss 1, 2, 3& 4.

The general public must know that Episcopal Ordination does not translate to canonical possession of a diocese. Msgr. Okpalaeke will not be allowed to take a canonical possession of Ahiara Diocese.

In view of all these and more, Ebere Peter Okpalaeke cannot be legally called the “Bishop of Ahiara Diocese”.

The general public is hereby advised to desist from addressing and treating him as “Bishop of Ahiara Diocese”. He is not and cannot be Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Ahiara, Mbaise.

Any attempt by Ebere Peter Okpalaeke to parade himself as the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, or allow himself to be paraded as such, whether by his agents or ecclesiastical office holders who ought to be aware of the true position under the Canon law, shall constitute a wrongful act and a provocation for which the Clergy, the laity and the entire faithful of Ahiara Diocese shall consider themselves entitled to redress from him and such other persons.

The publication of the “Disclaimer” would be tangled up in indecision as some officials of the Caucus preferred to delay it in order to allow issues relating to the ordination to develop a little more.

The Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria, Ahiara Diocese, that was running its own security outfit independent of that of Ezuru Ezu Mbaise decided also that it would not tear down or scale back the security network it had put in place for the day of the ordination. That meant that anybody passing through Mbaise land on that day would be made to know that Mbaise people had rejected Msgr. Okpalaeke as their bishop. The youths also took the decision without much input from the Caucus that nobody would attend the ordination from Mbaise land on that Tuesday of May 21.

Of their own accord the youths made preparations to disrupt the movements of those who might want to attend the ordination either from Mbaise land or by passing through Mbaise territory. Also, the earlier decision by the Caucus that all parishes especially those on the highways hang a banner in front of their churches declaring that Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke stood rejected as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese was also allowed to go ahead.

Meanwhile, the pro-Okpalaeke camp in Mbaise made up of some leaders of the Knights of St Mulumba, some traditional rulers and a few Ahiara Diocesan priests went about telling those who cared to listen to them that they would be transported to the new venue of the ordination by a fleet of ten buses provided by the bishop-elect and his supporters. Mbaise citizens who supported the new bishop were told to gather at St Brigid’s Church podium by 7.00 a.m. so as to be conveyed to Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo, Owerri.

But when the youths of Mbaise learned of the latest plan of the pro-Okpalaeke group to transport some Mbaise citizens to Seat of Wisdom Seminary on the day of the ordination, they vowed to thwart it. And when some of us learned of the plan of the pro-Okpalaeke group and its counter by the youths, our worries peaked. We saw it as another flashpoint for confrontation which we had been praying and working very hard to avert. But having lost control over the activities of the youths of Mbaise, we were helpless on how to abort the imminent confrontation that would ensue when the youths intervened to stop the Okpalaeke buses from loading and travelling to the ordination venue from anywhere in Ahiara Diocese.

In another front, when the priests of Owerri Diocese heard that the venue of the ordination had been moved to Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo, Owerri, which is in Owerri Archdiocese, the executive of the Diocesan Priests Association of Owerri Archdiocese led by its chairman, Very Rev. Fr. Sebastian Igbokwe called a meeting on the afternoon of Saturday, May 18, to discuss the possible response of the priests of the archdiocese to the development. And that meeting would fall on the day Nkume Parish, Orlu Diocese, and the bishops of Nigeria were receiving the new archbishop, Brian Udaigwe, who was made papal Nuncio to Benin Republic.

[It would be recalled that the CBCN through the secretary general of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Fr Ralph Madu had allegedly mounted pressure on Archbishop Brian Udaigwe, to move back his reception to Monday, May 20, 2013, so that the bishops attending his reception would travel from there to the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke in Ahiara Diocese. But the new archbishop had refused bluntly to move his reception to the date favoured by the CBCN. When the priests of Ahiara Diocese learned that the new archbishop had refused to move his reception to Monday, May 20, 2013, they were greatly relieved.

The reason for the relief was that there was a lot of anxiety that the Nigerian bishops travelling to Ahiara Diocese with common buses in an army/police-led convoy might be attacked by the different militia groups that would be forming all over Mbaise land on the day of the ordination. As a result of such a possibility, the priests of Ahiara Diocese were wishing and praying that the new archbishop would persevere in his refusal to move the date of his reception to Monday, May 20. And when the news finally came that Archbishop Udaigwe refused to move his reception to Monday, the people of Ahiara Diocese chalked it up as a mini-victory in the struggle. That assured them that the bishops would be coming to Msgr. Okpalaeke’s ordination individually should they insist on holding it in Ahiara Diocese.

When Archbishop Obinna learned that a meeting of priests in his diocese had been convened, and fearing that such a meeting might misunderstand and misrepresent what the bishops intended to do in Seat of Wisdom with the ordination of the new bishop, he announced his interest to attend the meeting. The chairman, Fr Igbokwe cleared him to come and participate in the meeting if that would assure him that the priests were not planning to undermine his authority in the archdiocese.

On his way from Nkume, Orlu Diocese, where he had taken part in the reception ceremonies for the new archbishop, Archbishop Obinna drove straight to Orodo parish where the priests of the archdiocese were scheduled to meet to consider how to respond to the Episcopal ordination of Msgr. Peter Okpalaeke scheduled to hold at Seat of Wisdom Seminary, in Owerri Archdiocese.

The meeting would decide among many other things that no priest of the archdiocese was allowed to attend the Episcopal ordination ceremony at Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo on that Tuesday, May 21, 2013. According to the decision of the many priests that attended the meeting, full participation of many priests of Owerri Archdiocese would give the world a false impression that the Presbyterium of Owerri Archdiocese supported the naked injustice that had been perpetrated against Owerri Province and Ahiara Diocese in particular with the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as the bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese.

However, the stunning development during the meeting would be the unanimity with which the priests of Owerri archdiocese declared the bishop-elect as a persona non grata both in Owerri Archdiocese and throughout Owerri Province. They decided that the new bishop after his ordination at Seat of Wisdom Seminary would be allowed only a grace of one hour to spend in the territory of Owerri province before he would be expected to return home and never to be seen again parading himself as a bishop within any diocese in Owerri Ecclesiastical Province. They would communicate their decision in writing to both the bishop-elect and the authorities concerned with the ordination.