THE Roman Catholic church in Nigeria has, probably, done more in the last 24 years in speaking truth to power publicly than any other organised major religion. It has been consistent in speaking for the voiceless and defending the weak. It is important to declare upfront that l am not an adherent of that variant of the Christian faith. l am of the Anglican Communion of Nigeria.
l have been intentional here to add Nigeria to the two orthodox churches in our country because of the weird tendencies of these churches in Europe, North America and elsewhere in the world. Some of these tendencies include giving stamp of approval to homosexuals, conducting weddings for same-sex couples, ordination of women into the priesthood and sundry practices that some arch-conservative Christians regard as not biblical. l have a different and personal understanding of some of these controversial issues in the Church of God. But today is not the day to speak to the rightness or wrongness of the subjects.
In this intervention we will limit ourselves to the ongoing burning down of Nigeria and how, in our opinion, the Roman Catholic church appears to be in the forefront of battling to stop the flame throwers, arsonists, political terrorists and their active collaborators elsewhere in the society. And this church which ironically has an unsavoury past in some other parts of the world including allegedly killing their Pope and running a very corrupt Vatican Bank, has been in the vanguard of building an inclusive and humane country since 1999 and even before.
We have had in their ranks over the years and especially since Olusegun Obasanjo acceded to the presidency at the inception of the return to democracy the likes of Anthony Cardinal Okojie, Anthony Cardinal Obinna, John Cardinal Onaiyekan,
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Reverend Father George Ehusani, among others.
In the Anglican Communion where l belong, the gift of publicly rebuking the powers that be is scarce. But the few who do so are usually fiery and irreverent and trenchant in their criticisms. This clan with severely limited membership includes Bishop Ephraim Ikeakor of the Diocese of Amichi and Emmanuel Chukwuma, the archbishop of the Anglican Province of Enugu, both in what used to be the Eastern region. Chukwuma has been an outspoken priest from his days as the Bishop of Bauchi Diocese. It must be conceded, however, that there may be other church leaders who prefer to admonish the powers that be in the closet.
The leaders of the Roman Catholic church, serving or retired, do not just speak to the issues of the day, they also act. For instance, l wager that the church’s Justice,
Peace and Development Commission [JPDC] routinely provides the largest contingent of Nigeria’s election observers and monitors. They certainly achieved that feat during the February/March 2023 elections. They also do the same for off-season elections such as the ones that will happen in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states in eleven days time. The JPDC does not just monitor our elections, they also write and publish reports of their observations based on eye-witness accounts. They make recommendations too on how to improve on our elections. For the last elections, the reports and recommendations of the JPDC and the European Union Observer Mission stood out in their forthrightness and display of courage. And it was not a surprise that they attracted vicious attacks from the beneficiaries of the electoral heist. Some of the leading lights of the JPDC, including the frail-looking but fire-spitting Uzoma Joe-Nkamuke, were unsparing in puncturing the conduct and outcome of the elections.
Father Kukah, Bishop really, was a torn in the flesh of the regime headed by his friend, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who turned out to be an affliction on Nigeria during his eight-year misrule. The spokespersons of that regime disliked Kukah with a passion but they failed miserably in countering him on points of facts. Recently Father Ehusani appears to have picked up the gauntlet. And he seems to be more acerbic in condemning misgovernance, disregard for values by the ruling political elite and their collaborators as well as sundry contrivances to defraud Nigerians and despoil the country.
A recent intervention of Father Ehusani in a trending viral video on the ongoing shenanigans in our country was frightening in its forthrightness. Excerpts from a transcript of the video read: “The Nigerian state as presently constituted has all the features of a criminal enterprise. Nigeria as at today is being run in the form of an organised crime. We have fumbled and blundered along for 63 years, most of which had been under misguided military adventurists, clueless overlords and primitive usurpers of political power.
“We cannot survive for much longer as a corporate entity, let alone prosper in unity and peace, or take our rightful place in the comity of nations under a bunch of scoundrels. We cannot prosper under a syndicate of gangsters or under a cabal of criminals. Some of them are known to have used the state’s instruments of coercion to shut down the voices of dissent. Some of them are known to have sponsored terrorists and killer bandits that are known to have wreaked havoc. Some of them are known to have recruited the so-called unknown gunmen to cause mayhem here and there in the polity.
“Some of them are known to have regularly mobilised drunken thugs and violent cultists to assassinate or intimidate their political opponents. And some of them are known to have looted staggering amounts from the nation’s treasury, riding exotic cars with police escorts, living in palatial mansions, owning expensive properties abroad where they often settle with their families while abandoning the generality of the people to dehumanising multidimensional poverty and misery.
“Now what measure of progress can
Nigerians possibly make in our journey towards nationhood as long as we remained saddled and burdened with such a syndicate of criminals superintending the affairs of our nation. What measure of progress can we possibly make in our aspirations for national development so long as we remained constricted and trapped by the conspiracy of treasury looters and election riggers hanging around the corridors of power. What measure of progress can we make towards national unity, peace and prosperity as long as we remained plagued and afflicted by greedy merchants of money and prostitutes of power whose consciences are deadened and who are therefore devoid of any ethical or moral scruples”.
The burning down of Nigeria started at infancy in our troubled journey towards what now appears to be an elusive nationhood. The first republic was marked by instability and the absence of elite consensus of what to make of an emerging country. But the experience was far better probably because of the self governance by the Eastern, Northern and the Western regions, and later the Midwest region. Economic growth especially in the Eastern region and the Western region was phenomenal. History had it that at a time, the Eastern region was recorded as the fastest growing economy in the world while the Western region set the pace in innovation and human capital formation through access to universal education. But the politicians fought. The army struck. And the country was arrested. The seed for the Mistake of 1966 was sown.
Next week we will address the harvests therefrom and the prognosis for Nigeria, going forward. And the implications of what appears to be a state capture.
