The Mbaise bishop impasse and Kanu’s Biafra
I am not Catholic, but I make it my business to meddle in other churches affairs, it enables me to wholly see what’s going on. I am usually enamoured of the pronouncements of His Holiness Pope Francis. It would seem that while His Holiness has an array of qualified representatives everywhere, he is yet to […]
I am not Catholic, but I make it my business to meddle in other churches affairs, it enables me to wholly see what’s going on. I am usually enamoured of the pronouncements of His Holiness Pope Francis. It would seem that while His Holiness has an array of qualified representatives everywhere, he is yet to understand the dynamics of the newest prospective member of the United Nations, the 18th member of ECOWAS – Nnamdi Kanu’s republic of Biafra in its full splendour.
One of the easiest ways to make things work in Naija is to press spiritual buttons. You could get honorary US citizenship if you have spiritual aura, if in doubt ask Apostle Johnson Suleman, who recently shook the hands of Donald Trump’s right hand man in South Carolina, USA.
Isn’t it shocking that the spiritually eminent and politically prominent people of Mbaise of Ahiara Diocese have lived without a Bishop since 2012! Not only is this unthinkable, it is untenable bearing in mind that the people of Mbaise are very well rooted in Catholicism.
Mbaise people are known to have a priest for every household in the same way that Ekiti people have a professor for every mud hut, yet voted for stomach infrastructure. What the Mbaise people ask is not far from what the Ekiti people have – they want a Bishop from their own stock, one raised on yams in the tradition of the Iri Ji Mbaise and drunk from the undiluted mmanya. After all a Bishop is a Bishop. Well, as Ovularia, Chief Zebbie’s wife would put it, if it’s not Panadol, it’s not the same thing as Panadol! Isn’t it said in Igboland that the kolanut understands only Ibo, don’t be surprised that Ibo is the language of the original liturgy.
It’s a shame that neither Jesus Christ nor Simon Peter traced their roots to Mbaise, but if truly papal antennae are tuned to celestial satellites, it should be clear that even God sanctions this demand.
Many Mbaise sons and daughters have climbed high on the political echelon with my own good friend, Emeka Ihedioha top on the list as Speaker, making him primus inter pares or a member of the first eleven in the political equation of Lugard’s contraption. Although in Biafra, nothing beats being numero uno, but being on the first eleven is better than being on the reserve bench, which is what the over 290 other ethnic nationalities in Naija are subsumed into being in the politics of regionalization.
His Holiness’ predecessor ignored the sea of ferraiolo-clad Mbaise sons and went to the cuestas of Anambra to pick Bishop Okpaleke whose Igbo identity is considered out of sync from time Imo River. If the previous Pope who made this sacrilegious error was not good in spiritual map reading, why is His Holiness Pope Francis towing the path of spiritual errata? If Rome had not been sleeping when Nnamdi Kanu was desperately looking for canonization, it would have been easy to resolve this issue with a call on him to adjudicate. In all Biafra, what the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra says is law.
Too late now, not even Benjamin Netanyahu could deny the authenticity of Kanu’s yarmulke as a Rav. When Kanu gets his republic, there would be no place for Papal hegemony because in ecclesiastical history, you cannot be Jewish and be Catholic at the same time.
On this Bishop of Mbaise saga, successive pontiffs have sincerely been mouthing their will to end the impasse, but they’ve been approaching it the wrong way by picking inquisitors and adjudicators who would not breathe without whispering to the cows of northern Naija which makes things worse?
Rather than send his emissary to Isiama Afara Ukwu, Biafra’s New Jerusalem, Pope Francis has issued an ultimatum. He asks Mbaise-born bishops to write an apology because they’ve been made bishops over other people – what an excuse; I bet what he’ll get is an apologia. From my Mbaise lenses, an attempt to defrock Mbaise priests for the intransigence of their home people might do more harm to the Catholic Church than the Great Schism. I’ll ask him to drop the threats and accede to the demands of the Mbaise laity.
The contributions of the Mbaise to Catholicism cannot be flippantly wished away like a mould-infested sacrament. If the Pope carries out his threat, Kanu could just as well appoint a rabbi for the flock without a shepherd or the Mbaise could create the 21st Century schism. Whatever happens, may I appeal to His Holiness to think of creating a diocese in Umuleri/Aguleri and promoting Bishop Okpaleke a cardinal to head it. If His Holiness were to ask president-in-waiting Nnamdi Kanu, he’ll be told to severe his relationship with the zoo like weak nations do with Taiwan, for fear of the wrath of big brother China. This is just one positive aspect of the shape of what would be in the prospective republic of Kanu.