The dedication or inauguration of Our Lady of Assumption Cathedral, Nnewi, Anambra State on Wednesday 14th January was supposed to be a celebration -of the completion of their Cathedral which had been under construction since 2013.

Instead, a nasty controversy ensued when a man was so disappointed, in his own opinion, that the Bishop of Nnewi Dioceses didn’t credit the late Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah adequately for his role in building that expansive cathedral that he openly announced his exit from the Catholic church.

That was it; like flies to carcass, the social media swarmed in. A feast was on. The hapless average Nigerian did not know what to believe. Did the Bishop remember Ubah at that church service? Yes, he did, tersely; he appreciated the other members of the church, “including Ifeanyi Ubah, who also contributed” to turning the church dream into reality. Was that enough recognition? Everyone will judge for himself. 

How big is that church? What are its outstanding features? It is a shame that no report mentioned that the central sitting area of that expansive church contained just a few or no pillars. Go to any church

with a wide sitting area in Nigeria and you will see pillars obstructing the views of the worshippers and deducting from the beauty of the building itself. That was the first thing Ifeanyi Ubah wanted to do away with; he didn’t want those pillars. He wanted a building that was so lofty in its height of design that it would uplift the soul of anyone who would step into it. Ifeanyi wanted a soul-stirring design. That was why he didn’t bother with continuing with the contractor who was handling the project when he opted to build that Cathedral for God and for Nnewi. How to support that expansive roofwithout numerous pillars was the challenge he wanted Architects and Structural Engineers to solve. And if something turned out wrong, Ubah would tear it down and begin afresh. And time ticked away as he would build, tear down and rebuild without counting the cost.

Chief Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah would have shared in the celebrations during the inauguration. In 2013 or 2015, Ubah took Mr. Afam Ilounoh and I to the Cathedral site. He said he was not embarked on an ego trip but wanted to build a church for God who had lavished blessings upon him. Second, he wanted to take the burden of monetary contributions off the people of his beloved Nnewi town as the normal

way for a Diocese to build a Cathedral is to task the members of the Diocese because cathedral derives from the Latin cathedra, meaning chair or seat. A cathedral is the seat of the local bishop, the center of Christian worship and pastoral administration for a district or diocese.

Ifeanyi Ubah wanted the Nnewi Cathedral to be special because Ifeanyi’s things were always superlative. And he was right because a cathedral is always more than a mere house; it has always been a prayer in stones, a poetry or hymn to God cast in marble, soaring spires and summits that rise to the heavens as though directing prayers towards God. The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson described St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as “an ornament of the earth … the sublime of the beautiful.” Ubah wanted nothing less at Nnewi.

In this, the Nnewi Cathedral shares some aspects with St. Peter’s Basilica. In 2012, Ubah told me and Mr. Afam Ilounoh that Bishops and certain priests would love to be buried near their cathedrals, and as Nnewi lacked open space for graveyards, there will be underneath the Cathedral, facilities for 140 tombs. Underneath St. Peter’s, Rome, are burial chambers, including that of Apostle Peter, the first Pope. I don’t know whether he realised that dream or not. I mentioned this because there is a lot in the Cathedral that the public may not know- such as underground halls for meetings.  Also, we don’t fully understand the economic headwinds that buffeted Ubah when the President Mohammadu Buhari administration came into power in 2019. DSS arrested him for months. He sent his lawyers to ask me to tell his version of his story to the world. So, we will never know how much his businesses suffered and how much money he lost. And hey, I’m still telling his story for I don’t forget my friends.

We don’t know why Ubah’s wife or family was not invited or whether they were invited but turned down the invitation, after all, Ubah himself survived a nasty assassination attempt once in Anambra state.

That man who quit the church could have noted all the politicians that were invited that day, he could have heard Governor Soludo thanking Nnewi people, for allowing for the first time, his political party, APGA, to sweep Nnewi polling units. That was a political statement right inside a church. But the Bishop cannot be blamed for that.  Ubah was in the grave during that election. Unfortunately, we will never

know how much Ubah spent to bring up the Cathedral from its new design, foundation, underground level, the Architects and Structural Engineers he imported from Italy, the profound enterprise which banished ghastly pillars from the Church Hall and yet keeping the vast roof over almost a ten thousand capacity church in place, etc, etc, and raised it to 80 or 90 per cent completion by most accounts before the new Bishop took it over. God knows and that is enough!

Everybody who contributed towards building that cathedral built for God. May God redirect the steps of the brother Knight back to the Church. His Lordship, Most Rev. Jonas Benson Okoye, might even go out of his way to look for his prodigal spiritual son, remembering the good shepherd who would go in search of the straying sheep. And for Ifeanyi Ubah, may his soul and all the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.   Amen.