From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Most Rev Isaac Nwaobia, Archbishop of Aba Ecclesiastical Province, Anglican Communion, and leader Southern Bishops Council, has said that Nigerians were desirous, willing and eager to elect new leaders that will right the wrongs of the present government in power. In this interview, the Anglican Prelate said Abia, as an oil producing state, among others, had no reason to be poor.
In the North, people run to Bishop Matthew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, when they want to talk about Christians. Here in the Southeast, has the Church, any such role to play in governance, if yes, how are they or should they be going about it?
The Christian Church or organisation, is supposed to be, as Christ said in the bible, Matthew 5, that we are supposed to be the “light” and the “salt” of the world respectively. If that analogy is clear and correct, the expectations are upon us, as the Church and Church leaders, to project that light and bring the expectations of God and mankind to bear upon the society.
The Church should not look back in its quest to bring back other society. I say other society because, these days, you can see mad people on the way. You can see people that are internally mad but they are wearing suits, people in “Agbada”, who are mentally sick. The Church is supposed to be a centre of excellence. It should lead in the way of true service. By that, it is supposed to be the lead crusader of human liberation and that is what we are doing. The Church should lead in the way of justice. Unfortunately, at times, human frailties come into play, that we are not doing it up to 100 percent.
You said it was not being done as needed, could you explain more on the reasons impeding its full implementation?
What is responsible for our failures, is it that people are loosing values. Value systems, are being crushed by the day. I saw my Secondary School teacher sometime, and was accusing him, that they (education authorities), had caused the problems. When we were in the primary school, I remember one of my elder brothers, failed in a class, and had to repeat that class. When I moved into the secondary school, A, B, C, D, were graded according to the brilliance of the students. Those that were very bright were in class A, and if you are not, you come to B. But now, the fact is that if your parents or guardians have money, they can send their child to school at age 2. Then at age 4, he or she, is in primary school, and in primary 4, he is off to secondary school.
So, you can see the form collapsing. By doing this, we have an armature learning environment that begets armature teaching. Then, we in the church that are supposed to be the centre of goodness, we are seeing the worst. We will not come out to say those things. How can somebody, come with a fictitious certificate for employment in the church, knowing that in academics, you cannot commit fraud? How can somebody, in the seminary school, start buying and selling marks? These people are those that are supposed to be going to lead the church in the next three to four years. So, these collapsing of the value systems, had affected the continuation of where our forebears led us, in the way of uprightness.
As an indigene of Abia, are you comfortable with the way the state is being run, if not, what do you think should be done this time, to change the narrative?
Abia has no reason to be poor, as the citizens live very vibrant lives. Unfortunately, we’ve not gotten to the point where we ought to have been. I started my ministry in Obigbo, Rivers State and from there, to Port Harcourt Road, in Aba. Looking back at my early life, in Port Harcourt Road, Aba, if you go to the road now, even to the Mission Centre, we have there, there is no road to access the area. Many people are packing out from Aba, especially from the kidnappers era. The problem is that of leadership. It began with it and will end with having good leadership. Until we get good leadership, who will give direction to the society, we will continue to be where we are.
Abia, has no reason to be poor, I say it again. We are oil producing. Our allocation is higher than of many other states in the Southeast, that are better off than us. Even if we talk about leadership, it can be able to help one meander even within scarcity. What I mean by that, is that one’s intellectual ability can lead him into a successful venture, if he puts it to work. But if you are not intelligent, you will just be making complaint, complaint and complaint. There are grants from the international community, where we can access and use the funds to develop ourselves.
There’s the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), among others, but our people are of the immediate, seeing these organizations, differently. That’s why we are where we are today.
Having realized the problems of the state, and the elections coming a few weeks from now, what should the people do, to get a leadership that will do the needful?
I want to encourage Abians, that we should help ourselves to recover our destinies. Our destinies, are lost in the hands of people who have no human milk in them. What we should do at this point in time, is to be serious with the elections preparations, get our permanent voters cards (PVCs), look at the credentials of people coming out to be voted for and avoid sentiments. We should look beyond religion, look beyond brotherhood and take on persons, who will be able to deliver us from this logjam we are facing in the state. I know so many of them, have come to us, and are just talking. We know their antecedents. Those who have killed the state, should get out of the line. Let’s try new hands.
Like I said, I know that we (in the church), are not doing enough, and being in this state, we are not very comfortable with the development. Like journalists, we are supposed to also be (moral and spiritual) watch dogs of the society. We are not comfortable with even the air, that we breathe. There’s a polluted air in Abia. Spiritually, we are not rising, and then, you now count a greater number of men of God, real men of God excelling in Nigeria and beyond are from the state – Bishop Chigbundu in Benin, Dr Uma Ukpai, in Uyo/Calabar. There are others here and there. They are excelling internationally, but when you come here, we are not doing enough. I don’t know how I feel when my member, even owe salaries for 12 months. Medical doctors, shut down the system and people are dying, while we are receiving delegations of pensioners, telling us that their colleagues are in the mortuaries because of non payment of N20,000, and so on. And if you look beyond there, somebody is celebrating, wasting the resources. That’s why we say, we’ve not done enough. We need to lead that demonstration, combining it with physical and spiritual, so that by carrying out the pulling down of the structures of the enemy, people will see that even God is not happy with what is happening in Abia.
Will such campaign which took you through the streets of Umuahia continue and are you going to inculcate the culture into the people of the state?
The campaign is a continuous process. We’ve been able to reach out to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in the state and civil society organizations. We’ll move to repeat the programme. Definitely, it is not just going to end so soon, until we see a change in our society.
The Southeast region, seems to have become the “whipping boy” of the Nigerian State, especially during the current government. Issues like unknown gunmen saga, armed banditry, abductions, and farmers/herders clashes are on the increase. Why do you think it rose to this level at this time, and what should the authorities do to bring it back to normal?
Thank you for this question. A philosopher once said that if you don’t say here I am, no one would locate where you are. That has been the problem with the Southeast, which pertains again to bad leadership. We elected some people to be our spokespersons. Unfortunately, they are serving themselves. I’ll be a little bit deliberate, here on Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Of course, that body seems to be the worst. In the Southeast, we have no spokespersons, and for Ohanaaeze, we better dissolve it and form other groups.
Anambra can come up with Anambra Elders Forum, Abia Elders Forum, Imo Elders Forum, and so on, as alternatives to Ohaneze. As for our traditional rulers, they have been cowed and so, have no voice. Religious leaders have been intimidated, so, the problem of the Southeast, is that of leadership. We are still in search of leadership.
The governors are not dependable. If a person is made a governor here, and he has to go to the Caliphate to take permission to rule the state, he is not for us. That has been the problem we see everyday. Sometimes, when they summon Southeast governors meeting, if you watch, many of them do not attend.
They either send their deputies or even fail to have their states represented. In such situations, they do not form part of the decisions taken in the meetings. This is part of our problems.
The issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s release, is long overdue, much more that he was wrongly abducted and arraigned in court. Many well meaning leaders from the Southeast and other parts of the country, have made pleas to the president, for his release and he said he will look for a political solution, to resolve the issues at stake. From political solution, he said the courts will decide. The courts determined the matter and set Kanu free. He ignored the court order for his release.
That is arrant nonsense!… That is stupidity! Nnamdi Kanu, is supposed to be released and we, call for his immediate release, for peace to reign. The impact of his continued incarceration is negative upon Igbo land. Every Monday, we’re locked down here and cannot walk freely. The unknown gunmen are there. Kidnappers, are there. Even, the security agencies that are supposed to guard and protect us, you don’t know where they belong. Most of them, are now agents of the enemies hounding us.
As you approach 61 years of age, let’s look at your rise to the top echelon of the ministry, was the road smooth or otherwise. What were the challenges you overcame to reach where you are now?
Well, I will describe myself as a man of grace, or total grace. I was very fortunate in the local palace and had the privilege of working in good relationships with my seniors. I do not know how it happened but each day, my contemporaries had always imagined how favoured I was. This, at times, brought ill feelings, as it did not go down well with some of them. Due to the rapid growth of my rise in the Episcopacy, some people were jealous and when I tried to run away, the “bigman” (meaning the head of the Diocese then), was always calling me. There were real challenges, at the beginning.
I was a very young, newly ordained minister, having only a small radio set as personal property, with a wife. The house I was asked to move into, the bed, and other things belonged to the church. In God’s work, one must be focused. We ought to remember where we started, and coming from, while kneeling down praying for success. And then, learning from history, some of the Church fathers that I shared with, sowed into me. So, I look at those coming behind me in return, to encourage them, no matter whether they are doing well or not. We have to show them love. You see, history is very important. We use it to know what had been in the past and from there, make an input to improve on it. Whoever that removed it from our school curriculum, didn’t do well. We need to restore history because when you read it, you will know that people left their comfort zones years ago to come to help make this place better.
What is your hope for Abia, and Nigeria, post 2023, elections?
My desire for Abia and Abians, is that we progress, and improve in life. I have travelled round this country, we need to live in unity. The government needs to help us by developing skills acquisition centres for youths. Presently, young people’s minds and innocence are being wasted due to idleness and lack of skills training. I mean people, within the poverty level. We need to assemble them, train them in skills to become our foot soldiers in future. In Israel, every young person enrolls to be given military training immediately after coming out from the university, just like what we do with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). So, if we train our youths, they will become volunteers. Our young people, are presently growing without values, without focus, and this must stop.