By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI —— There are a few things going for the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Professor Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, which nobody can afford the luxury of denying him.

He is roundly charismatic, a brilliant scholar and exceedingly humble. He speaks truth to power, even as he spices his teachings with a large dose of humour and practical ways of life and living. To crown it all, the hapless poor masses appear to be his permanent constituency.

One other thing about this Catholic cleric is that he hardly delivers written homilies. It just pours effortlessly and coordinatedly from his brain!

Experience has shown that he handles everything he does with clinical finesse. The beauty of the construction and landscaping of St. Theresa’s Cathedral, the new Bishop’s Court, Nsukka, the mission hospital at Enugu Ezike etc, are typical examples of what he does with his brain.

Bishop Onah will readily tell whoever cares to listen that: “Success does not come in a straight line and no success can be recorded without hard work.”

Saturday Vanguard’s assignment this time, therefore, is to serve you snippets of his random thoughts and lessons we can learn from his profound homilies, all in a bid to make our society a better place to live in.

BIAFRAN GENOCIDE AND CARDINAL ARINZE’S ANTIDOTE

Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, had its centenary celebration recently and Bishop Onah was invited to deliver a lecture at the event.

Before he arrived, Francis Cardinal Arinze and a host of other dignitaries, including the former Minister of Information, Chief John Nnia Nwodo and senior seminarians, were already seated in the auditorium.

He kicked off with a short, vivid and incisive narrative of the despicable and inhuman 30-month genocidal war that was waged against Biafra, by the Nigerian Military Government and its allies.

He also recalled what Cardinal Arinze, late Bishop Godfrey Mary Paul Okoye and the Irish missionaries did to save lives, stressing that “if not for them, we would not have been alive today”.

The factual but impromptu story, which was outside his prepared text, held the audience spellbound for the main lecture! That is vintage Bishop Godfrey Igwebuike Onah and his message delivery style!!

His words: “I am very pleased to see His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Arinze, in our midst. For the benefit of the younger ones, who may not know Arinze, I would like to say one or two things about him.

“It has become very customary in Igboland now, for disillusioned young people and their older protectors, to blame the church for all the woes in our land. As a response to all the blame, they are turning to the do-it-yourself religion, created and operated by individuals and not the traditional religion they are claiming.

“The accusation levelled against the church, especially in Igboland, is the greatest sign of ingratitude that I have ever seen in my life and the reason is not far-fetched.

“Without the church, many of us and your parents, would not have been alive today, because the Biafra/Nigeria war was prosecuted in a way that would have exterminated all of us.

“For the first time in modern history, genocide was so carefully programmed that hunger, starvation, blockade and total silence, were effectively used as weapons of war.

“Cardinal Arinze, who was the Archbishop of Onitsha and the Metropolitan of Onitsha Province, which is now divided into three provinces, bulldozed all the barriers, and in collaboration with other Catholic Bishops, were able to inform the world, about what was happening in Biafra.

“He risked his life and reputation, at a time that even the Vatican, was becoming sympathetic to the Nigerian forces, following the murder of some workers of Agip, in the oil sector, in Biafra.

“The position of the Holy See, was beginning to change, but a man like Arinze, went through the hassles to tell them that this was not the fact on ground and that we were being carefully exterminated. He also told the Vatican that we are a bastion of Christianity. His plea was: Whatever you can do to save us, please do it before it gets late and irredeemable.

“Through persons like him, photographs of the suffering of Biafran women and children, as well as the multiple carnage being perpetrated in Biafra, got out to the rest of the world!

“He and Bishops like him, encouraged Irish missionaries who ultimately chose to stay and die with Biafrans. The situation in Biafra was grim and hopeless.

“They smuggled food. They smuggled medications. They smuggled used clothes into Biafra, despite the seemingly unending bombardment of civilian centres. I am a beneficiary of this lovely gesture. I know what I am talking about. I did not read them from any book. That was how we survived.

“While Arinze was pushing  the Vatican, Bishop Godfrey Mary Paul Okoye, was moving from house to house, in London, begging for whatever he could get for Biafrans.

“Igbo people were eventually saved and in a swift reaction, the then Military Government of Nigeria, drove away all Irish missionaries from Igboland, accusing them of supporting Biafrans to prosecute the war, believing or hoping that the church in Igboland and the rest of Eastern Nigeria, would die.

“There were no indigenous priests. When these Irish missionaries left, the Bishops, with Arinze as leader, were left without personnel to run the church. Some of the parishes were run by senior seminarians, at the instance of the Metropolitan.

“Through their hard work and prayer, what we now know as vocation boom, happened within the space of six years, from 1970-1976.

“This was the time Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, became the seminary with the largest population in the world! It became so large that it could no longer contain all the seminarians and in their considered wisdom, the Bishops initiated the erection of another faculty at Ikot Ekpene.

“Nothing we say about Arinze’s rule, in this part of the country, will be enough. I want to sincerely salute Cardinal Arinze and other Bishops, who fought, not only for the survival of Bigard Memorial Seminary, but also, for the survival of the church in this part of the country; the church that has become the hope of other parts of the world!”

IMBIBE ACTS OF GOODNESS INSTEAD OF EVIL

On Monday , December 2, 2024, Bishop Onah was at St. Mary’s Hospital, Enugu Ezike, to inaugurate a new dialysis centre, made possible through the generous contribution of Anton Zystra, Germany.

This was courtesy of the instrumental support of Rev. Fr. Thaddeus Eze, a Catholic priest from Nsukka Diocese, currently serving in Germany.

In his homily, Bishop Onah reflected on the call from the Book of Isaiah to transform our human resources into acts of goodness rather than evil.

He emphasized the importance of compassion and faith, drawing parallels to the actions of a Centurion, who demonstrated empathy towards his slave.

Onah said: “Your sense of worthiness is a sign of a total lack of faith. Whatever you do for another person, without seeking recognition, is far more gracious and rewarding than seeking praise from those you help.

“Anton Zystra members simply denied themselves a few things, so as to purchase the dialysis machine. They are not interested in knowing who the eventual beneficiaries will be. Their only interest is to save lives. This is practical Christianity and true love in action.

“The satisfaction gained from visiting the sick often surpasses that felt by the sick themselves. Our lives are, at every moment, a free gift.”

The Bishop encouraged the congregation to seek the faith to recognize the greater aspects of their unworthiness and to act with love and compassion towards others.

Speaking on the sacrifices of priests and God’s people in building for the Church and for God, he challenged the people of Enugu Ezike to speak with their wealthy sons, who are making sacrifices to local deities, urging them to redirect those resources towards the development of the community and the church.

His words: “The Dialysis Centre is set to greatly enhance the medical services available at St. Mary’s Hospital, providing essential care to those in need and service to the community.”

EVERY LEADER NEEDS FEEDBACK MECHANISM

Onah advocates that leaders at all levels, should establish feedback mechanism to ascertain how people see or appreciate what they are doing.

Drawing his message from Matthew Chapter 16, the Bishop said: “In this biblical account, Jesus wanted a feedback from his disciples. His question was: Who do people say I am?

“Effective feedback mechanism system is very important in the life of every political, community, organizational, religious and corporate leaders.

“Once your feedback mechanism is flawed, you will never be in a position to perceive the people’s assessment of what you are doing.

“Very often, many leaders prefer praises from psycophants instead of people who tell them the bitter truth. This is the source of the problems of many leaders.

“Examples abound in Nigeria, on how praise singers misled the nation’s leaders in the past. While people were suffering and dying, the few privileged praise singers kept prodding the leadership that they were doing well. This is the bane of psycophancy.”

ABOLITION OF OHU/OSU CASTE SYSTEM

Preaching a homily at St. Stephen’s Parish, Imilike, Bishop Onah said that nobody should, out of sheer fear of possible death, refrain from speaking the truth, when it matters most.

His words: “Most of our people know the truth about virtually everything happening around us, but sadly prefer to either maintain stoic silence or tell outright lies about them.

“There is this ugly and age long traditional cast system in Igboland. It is the so called ‘free born and slaves’. Ndigbo call it Osu or Ohu and Di ana.

“Our forefathers may have come to this conclusion and practice, as a result of their limited exposure and understanding. We can’t continue to tow their line, in our today’s world because we now know better.

“It is on record that in some areas of Igboland, this so called Osu or Ohu, are not allowed to associate or speak at community gatherings or inter-marry with others from the divide.

“We need to be radical in eradicating this evil in our land because, it is a bad culture. We beg God to forgive our unintentional misdeeds. We also beg for pardon, from our brothers and sisters that we ill-treated since the beginning of history.”

On pursuit for happiness

If you want to be happy, you have to strive to make others happy. The more you pursue happiness in life, the more it eludes you. But the more you try to do the right thing to make others happy, the happier you will become naturally.

Happiness always eludes those who pursue it. It’s like a baby chasing butterfly. The butterfly keeps going from one flower to another, and the baby  becomes tied and the lies down on the grass and the butterfly comes back to perch on his forehead. Stop pursuing happiness,  especially  pursuing it  through pleasure.  Be good and do good to others and happiness will come to you on its own.