AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …42 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 16: A Perfect Anti-climax [iii]

Apart from the “renegade” traditional rulers and the pro-Okpalaeke priests, the group that would work quite tirelessly in the post-Okpalaeke ordination period to get the new bishop installed in Ahiara Diocese was constituted by the Knights of St Mulumba. Prior to the crisis, the order had three sub-councils in Ahiara Diocese. They were Mbaise Sub-Council made of knights of St Mulumba from Ahiazu Mbaise LGA, the Aboh-Mbaise and Ezinihitte Sub-councils.

As the battle raged, the leadership of Mbaise Sub-Council led by Mr Bob Teteh of Nnarambia Ahiara, a resident of Owerri Capital City and a man of two parishes - his home parish of St Brigid Nnarambia and Assumpta Cathedral Parish Owerri where he lived, vowed never to cooperate with the priests of Ahiara Diocese on the resistance. He declared his allegiance to the Pope and his appointee being Bishop Okpalaeke. While as the two other sub-councils in Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Aboh Mbaise would hold off supporting bishop Okpalaeke and undermining the activities of the resistance, the Bob Teteh-led leaders of Knights of St Mulumba Mbaise sub-council would toe the opposite line of action. They quickly declared their total support for their national executive who vowed that the wish of the pope in giving Ahiara Diocese Bishop Okpalaeke must be upheld.

As a result of their determination to realize the bishopric of Bishop Okpalaeke in Ahiara Diocese, members of the Knights of Mulumba allegedly embarked on two major manoeuvres before the ordination. They were said to have donated to the new bishop and to Owerri Archdiocese so many millions of naira to help underwrite the cost of hosting the ordination especially since Ahiara Diocese bluntly refused to host it. The second thing the order was said to have done was to spend a huge sum of money to pay for military and police security details that would take over the venue of the ordination on the appointed day. Chief Anthony Onuh, the supreme knight of the order would acknowledge as much on May 11, 2013, during the investiture of their new members in Christ the King Cathedral Aba. He boasted that his order had made adequate arrangements for the security that would ensure a hitch-free ordination for the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese on the appointed date.

As the Knights of St Mulumba plunged themselves into ensuring a successful ordination of the rejected bishop by force, their sister order, the Knights of St John International led by Professor and Brigadier General Paschal Enyeribe Okorie, opted to remain neutral and watch events development. While trying to maintain some neutrality as the resistance continued by Ahiara Diocesan priests and a good number of the lay people, many members of the order of the Knights of St John, used the period to educate themselves on the issues in contention. Many of them would confess, though privately, to some priests of Ahiara Diocese and beyond that what had happened to Ahiara Diocese were both immoral and a rape of justice, and therefore needed to be rectified or at least clarified by the authorities of the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

It would be the leader of the Knights of St John in Ahiara Diocese, Professor Paschal Okorie, the last pastoral council chairman of the diocese before the death of Bishop Chikwe, who had asked both Archbishop AJV Obinna and the Nuncio a question that has remained unanswered till today, namely, “How did the name of Fr Peter Ebere Okpalaeke from far away Awka Diocese make it into the final list of the bishopric candidates for the vacant see of Ahiara Diocese?” Archbishop Obinna parried the question by insisting that it was the Nuncio that drew up the final list of candidates that was sent to Rome. But the Nuncio himself refused to answer the question when it was put to him.

So, the Knights of St. John unlike their counterparts of St Mulumba allowed themselves to examine the issues in contention before taking up any position. They were more willing to freely exercise their faculty of judgment on the matter before taking a position. But not so for the Knights of Mulumba who took their position of opposition from the very beginning while refusing to consider whatever the issues were. According to the leadership of the Knights of St Mulumba, no matter what the issues were, obedience to the appointment of the pope trumped them all. According to them, the pope was owed absolute obedience in the Catholic Church even when his decisions impinged on natural justice. This would be where the situation would stand until the day of the ordination at Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo Owerri.

However, after the ordination of the new bishop, the Knights of St Mulumba changed their focus from that of ensuring that the ordination took place in Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral without any incident to that of ensuring that the installation of the new bishop took place in Ahiara Diocesan Cathedral within the first month of the ordination. This would exacerbate the crisis a little bit more. Now working in cahoots with the Nuncio, the supreme knight of the Knights of St Mulumba, Anthony Onuh hatched a plot on how to bring the Knights of St John International to work in concert with them to realize the installation of the new bishop in Ahiara Diocese.

On the weekday that began on Monday June 10, they scheduled two to three meetings of the leaders of the two orders of the knights in Onitsha, Anambra State. They would invite the leaders of the Knights of St John to attend the meeting. Professor P.E. Okorie, the leader of the Knights of St John International in Ahiara Diocese was reluctant to participate in the meeting. But he would be encouraged by the administrator, Msgr. Nwalo and me to attend the meeting knowing full well where he and the members of his order stood on the bishopric crisis in Ahiara Dicoese.

Eventually, Professor Okorie would attend the meeting in Onitsha. While there, the Knights of Mulumba whose spiritual director in Awka Diocese was the bishop being proposed for Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Okpalaeke brought in all the big guns of the province to try to persuade the leaders of the Knights of St John in Ahiara Diocese to join hands with them in fighting their way into Ahiara Diocese so as to effect the installation of Bishop Okpalaeke as the bishop of the diocese. But Professor Okorie would persevere in insisting that his order, the Knights of St John International would remain neutral as far as the bishopric crisis in Ahiara Diocese was concerned.

After about two days of trying to get the Knights of St John International to join hands with their counterparts of St Mulumba in fighting for the installation of Bishop Okpalaeke in Ahiara Diocese, the body would adopt a five-point agenda for the realization of their set-goal which was the installation of the new bishop in Ahiara Diocese. The five-point resolution would include:

1. To find a way to penetrate into Ahiara Diocese for the purpose of inciting the lay faithful against the priests of the diocese; that they would employ the Catholic Women Organization of the Diocese to undermine the authority and influence of the priests of Ahiara Diocese in order to break their resistance.

2. To identify the leaders of the revolting priests and begin a process of negotiation with them.

3. To work for the removal of the administrator of Ahiara Diocese, Msgr. Theo Nwalo and install an administrator that would be favourable to their cause

4. To meet Archbishop Obinna, the metropolitan of Owerri Province as early as the following week in order to work out a strategy and begin the planning of the installation of the new bishop in Ahiara Diocese.

5. To work with pro-Okpalaeke priests in Ahiara Diocese so as to establish a new presbyterium that would eventually work harmoniously with the new bishop.

By Monday, June 17, 2013, the leadership of the two orders of the Knights with their priest-spiritual directors from dioceses in Onitsha Province paid a visit to Archbishop Obinna in Owerri to launch their new initiatives on how to install Bishop Okpalaeke as the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese. But they would meet a new Archbishop Obinna who, having gotten the issue of the ordination of Bishop Okpalaeke off his back, was now more ready to address the crisis in Ahiara Diocese.

According to an eyewitness on the occasion, in the five hours the leaders of the two orders of the Knights would spend with Archbishop Obinna, the metropolitan of Owerri would take about two and a half hours to school them on the main issues of the crisis. He took the leadership of the knights to the cleaners on the injustices and imbalances in the appointments of Catholic bishops in Igboland. He would encourage them to study their history and the statistics involved in order to educate themselves that the crisis was not just a fluke but based on real issues of justices that needed to be addressed.

The meeting of the leaders of the two orders of Knighthood in Nigeria with Archbishop Obinna in Owerri would shock the former that they would not have the courage and energy to embark on their next initiative which was to penetrate into Ahiara Diocese and incite the laity against the clergy of the diocese as they had proposed. Having been roundly beaten up by Archbishop Obinna, the leaders of the knights would return to their homes with a lot to think about on the crisis in Ahiara Diocese.

A day or two after the leaders of the knights had paid a visit to Archbishop Obinna; one or two pro-Okpalaeke priests from Ahiara Diocese led a delegation of the renegade traditional rulers from Mbaise to visit Archbishop Obinna so as to ask him to schedule the installation of the new bishop. Exactly in the manner Archbishop Obinna had dressed down the leaders of the Knights, he did the same to the traditional rulers. He told the priest leading the delegation to return home and reconcile with his brother priests instead of working in cross purposes with his brother priests.

And to the renegade traditional rulers, the archbishop allegedly told them to mind the numerous problems they had in their various autonomous communities and allow Church matters to be handled by priests and bishops. The archbishop would berate the renegade traditional rulers for interfering in a matter that was reserved for priests. According to him, everything regarding the bishopric crisis in Ahiara Diocese was a matter for the priests of the diocese to handle with the bishops. It was not open to the traditional rulers who should be concerned with the numerous problems they had in their various autonomous communities.

As the pro-Okpalaeke groups were working very hard to schedule his installation in Ahiara Diocese, members of the College of Consultors together with the administrator decided to make their final stand on the matter known to the Holy Father. They would embark on writing a personal letter to Pope Francis stating their view on the crisis and suggesting how the situation would be resolved so that the diocese could move forward in peace.

In a letter addressed personally to the Holy Father and dated June 7, 2013, with the title: THE IMPOSITION OF BISHOP EBERE PETER OKPALAEKE ON AHIARA DIOCESE, NIGERIA, members of the College of Consultors would try to bring some pertinent issues of the crisis to His Holiness’s attention.

1. The trauma caused by the sudden death of Bishop Chikwe who did a marvellous work in the diocese, the hope raised by the Nuncio to look inward in the appointment of Bishop Chikwe’s replacement and the dashed hope of the people when the Nuncio did not keep to his word hence the crisis that has engulfed the diocese.

2. The anger and uproar the announcement of Msgr. Ebere Peter Okpalaeke as bishop-elect had been causing throughout Ahiara Diocese.

3. A plea to the Holy Father “to look with pity on the plight of the Catholic faithful in Ahiara Diocese and act promptly with your fatherly solicitude to deliver us from our problems.”

4. The lack of heed to the Administrator’s call for consultation and dialogue as the most appropriate means to resolve the crisis.

5. The various groups of people and individuals that have been visiting the diocese on the crisis and the various arrangements that had been made by the bishops of the Province to realize the bishopric of Msgr. Okpalaeke in Ahiara Diocese all to no avail.

6. The College of Consultors concluded:

“Based on these facts, Your Holiness, the College of Consultors of Ahiara Diocese states as follows concerning the bishopric problem in Ahiara Diocese

1. The rejection of the newly ordained Bishop Ebere Peter Okpalaeke as bishop of Ahiara Diocese by the overwhelming number of priests and lay faithful of the diocese is true.

2. As a result of this we believe that Bishop Okpalaeke cannot serve fruitfully in Ahiara Diocese

3. We are convinced that any attempt to impose Bishop Okpalaeke on the people who have overwhelmingly rejected him will have adverse effect. His apostolate in the diocese will not only scatter the flock of Jesus Christ, but will also damage the Catholic faith in the diocese. The situation on ground proves this.

4. Since a bishop is a symbol and a guarantor of unity in a Local Church, Bishop Okpalaeke cannot serve this indispensable role in the local church of Ahiara Diocese given the uproar and a divisive situation it has already created.

5. It is our firm belief that those acting on behalf of Your Holiness on the crisis in Ahiara Diocese do not present to Your Holiness the actual situation on the ground.

6. What is happening is neither ethnic nor tribalistic but a reaction against injustice.

7. The crisis was not instigated by the so-called “militant priests” as there are no militant priests in Ahiara Diocese. But the whole thing is a rise against injustice and lack of due process.

8. The uprising was not led by an ex-priest as the person in question wrote his track a week after the first protest letter had gone to the Holy See.

9. Ahiara priests do not threaten violence. Theirs is a peaceful resistance. The threat to violence came from the youths who were acting on their own initiative.

10. The process followed in the selection of Bishop Okpalaeke was terribly flawed. The faithful of Ahiara Diocese suspect that cronyism, undue favouritism and nepotism produced the flawed process.

11. To accentuate the flawed nature of the process that brought about the bishopric of Bishop Okpalaeke, the president of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama declared unequivocally and without mincing his words before Ahiara Diocesan presbyterium on May 15, 2013, that he heard the name, “Okpalaeke” for the very first time on that Friday, December 7, 2012 when his name was announced.

12. Similarly, the metropolitan of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Most Rev AJV Obinna on various occasions reiterated both publicly and privately that his caution, both oral and written, to the Nuncio regarding the crisis the appointment of Msgr. Ebere Peter Okpalaeke could cause was neglected

13. It has come to our notice that financial inducement, promises of positions, offices and contracts and other forms of pecuniary gratification have be employed to secure the acceptance of Bishop Okpalaeke in the diocese.

14. The College of Consultors therefore humbly and earnestly requests Your Holiness to send an independent body for an indepth inquiry into the factors that brought about the crisis in our once peaceful Diocese of Ahiara, Mbaise. All we are praying for is an urgent resolution of the crisis so that the faithful Catholics of our diocese will continue to practise their Catholic faith in peace and joy.