For Fr. Abaka: Beyond Priesthood (Part 2)

By Sunny Awhefeada

What the foregoing pointers attest to is the interventionist role of the church in the socio-historical evolution of our society and how that role was instrumental to the overall wellbeing of our clime. What should follow right now is for us to take a hard look at our circumstance today and ask if there is need for such an intervention, in this case by the clergy made up of priests. Nigeria has been at the crossroads for too long. We have suffered and have been so badly beaten that we have cried ourselves hoarse to the extent that our cries can no longer be heard. Ours is now a muffled, silent and killing cry. Nothing seems to be working here except thriving corruption, pervasive insecurity and an ailing economy. All the indices of existence and wellbeing no longer add up for Nigeria. And is there anybody here who doesn’t know that the cause of our crisis is the failure of leadership? What we need therefore is an intervention at the level of leadership. And if the secular has failed, will the sacred also fail?

ALSO READ: Oborevwori’s Birthday Bash And Shape Of Things To Come In Delta

I must submit right away that I am not proposing a theocracy. Far from it! My point is that genuine, altruistic and patriotic clergy should give leadership a shot. It will be naïve and simplistic to assume that just any clergy would fix Nigeria. That is why my emphasis on “genuine, altruistic and patriotic clergy”. We must take cognizance of the reality that the clergy has been infiltrated. There are now clergy men for hire during elections. Many of them fake prophecies and call the name of God in vain. This is not the kind of clergy I have in mind. Although, the state and the church in modern times have become dialectically opposed and the Catholic Church does not embrace the dalliance between politics and priesthood, the clergy whether it is Catholic or Anglican or Pentecostal has a history of engagement with politics globally. Much of the Western world from the Roman Empire up to the Middle Age was under the authority of the church. What is yet to be seen in contemporary times is the worth of the impact of the engagement between the church and the state because such engagements are few and far between since the modern state has taken on a secular character.

Significant in the quest of the clergy to take on politics is the concept of liberation theology pioneered by Gustavo Gutierrez, the Dominican priest from Peru. Woven into the fabric of liberation theology is the intervention in marginalized communities suffering from social, political and economic inequality and injustice. This swept through the Americas and beyond. Outside the confines of liberation theology, other clergy took on the gauntlet of political activism. The likes of Martin Luther King jnr. And Jesse Jackson in the United States of America, Desmond Tutu in South Africa and of course Jean Bertrand Aristide who was twice president of Haiti, to mention, but a few. Back home in Nigeria, the struggle against the monstrosity of military dictatorship led to increasing activist role for the clergy. Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie was a critical voice of that era. Rt. Rev. Peter Ajayi, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, all took on the toga of activism and confronted the enemies of our republic. In the recent past, the voice of John Cardinal Onaiyekan has been loud against bad governance. The same can be said of Fr. John Uba Ofei, Fr. George Ehusiani, Fr. Iheanyi Enwerem, among others.

Central to the foregoing is the role of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah in the evolution of the Nigerian state. Bishop Kukah needs no introduction as he has actively engaged the state for three decades now. From the pulpit, to the media and lecture circuits, Bishop Kukah has emerged as a symbol of our national conscience inhering in peace, justice and stability. His roles in the National Human Rights Violation Commission (aka Oputa Panel), the National Political Reforms Conference, (2005), and the National Peace Committee, since 2014, have been quite wholesome for the Nigerian story. In negotiating our point, we need to ask a few salient questions. Beyond priesthood, what other roles can the priest take on in our quest to evolve the nation of our dream? Now, that the secularists have failed, shouldn’t we beckon on the sacerdotal to intervene? If the rest of us have failed, will the clergy also fail? These are questions I have no answers to. But they are deserving of our attention. The church in Nigeria has become organized but its interest in leadership has not been clearly defined. So far, there is the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), there is the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), among others. Within Catholicism are the Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), etc. These are organs that should continue to engage matters that trouble the Nigerian polity. The church should be more proactive and decisive and the priesthood must take the lead. Let us remember that the etymology of church is ekklesia which in Greek means “to call out”. The church must call everybody out and play its watchdog and gatekeeping roles.

The clergy as citizens enjoy human rights too and one of it should be for them to aspire to leadership. The clergy must aspire beyond the pulpit and the pew. If one of the functions of the clergy is the welfare of the faithful, it will better serve that welfare through leadership and politics. Will a “genuine, altruistic and patriotic clergy” not build schools, hospitals, roads, provide electricity, jobs and more for the people? Will such a clergy condone corruption, economic malaise and unleash hardship on the people? Will such a clergy sworn to self-sacrifice, disavow his calling and amass wealth for personal aggrandizement? I leave the audience to ponder and answer. Suffice to say that the priesthood is a position of trust and respect. The clergy should step out because right now there is none for whom it is well in Nigeria and the clergy has also become victim of all that is wrong with our country. The number of priests either abducted or killed across Nigeria in the last eight years is staggering. If the priest remains insular the fate of the persona in Martin Niemoller’s poem “First they came…” is likely awaiting him. In that telling verse, Niemoller himself a priest writes: “First they came for the communists/And I didn’t speak out/Because I was not a communist/Then they came for the socialist/And I didn’t speak out/Because I was not a socialist/…../Then they came for me/And there was no one left/To speak for me”. The clergy in Nigeria is threatened and already at the receiving end in Nigeria. In fact they have come for the clergy. That is why the clergy should get involved.

In getting involved, one can recall the stint of Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu who was the Governor of Benue State from 1992 to 1993. As we speak another Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia has taken over as Governor of the same Benue State, while Rev. Umo Eno is the Governor of Akwa Ibom State. Although, Fr. Adasu’s tenure was truncated by the crises of June 12 so we are not able to evaluate it, let us be optimistic that Fr. Alia and Rev. Eno will take Benue and Akwa Ibom States to a level where their citizens will be beneficiaries of the true essence of government which are security and welfare. It is also on record that Rev. Jolly Nyame was Governor of Taraba State, but he failed the clergy from available records. This again calls to mind my emphasis on “genuine, altruistic and patriotic clergy”. An altruistic clergy can meaningfully contribute to not just spiritual development, but also to social, economic, political, scientific and technological advancement and take Nigeria out of the woods. The clergy should escalate the drive for active participation, transparency, the rule of law and human equality.The church and the clergy must begin to think more critically and proactively and get positioned to engage Nigeria.

Congratulations, Padre and let your voice continue to ring out in intercession to God for us!

It shall be well with Nigeria.