A civil Society group, Doing Democracy Movement, Nigeria (DDM) has picked holes in the criticisms of Reverend Father Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka by Bishop of Abuja Metropolitan See, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, and Bishop of Enugu, Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma.
The group in a press statement said it is “preposterous, anti- people and God, for Bishop Onaiyekan and Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma of the Enugu Anglican Province to take a most tyrannical position against the Catholic Priest and Founder of Adoration Ministry, Enugu Catholic Arcdiocese, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, painting him as a ‘political priest’, corrupt, a subversive at best, following his recent right-based, people centered utterances on the evil he noticed being perpetrated by a regime; without faulting any of the critical issues raised in the said utterance as they affected the citizens, which includes his own flock on: insecurity, bad governance, socio-economic malaise, human rights abuses and impoverishment of the citizenry.
“Indeed, the Bishop of Abuja and that of Enugu, by their own utterances in defence of the status quo, became more viciously political than Rev. Fr.Mbaka. It is most instructive to note that Rev. Mbaka was right and Godly when he supported the cause of Mr. President and his wife, the First Lady, but devilish and corrupt when his spirituality directed him differently.
Anyakwee Nsirimovu ,convener of DDM who signed the statement said “While unequivocally condemning the position taken by Bishops of Abuja Metropolitan See, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, and Bishop of Enugu, Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, DDM insists that their position is contrary to the principles of liberation theology which the Catholic Church and others have led across the world, and indeed the Word of God, the creator. Shockingly, the Bishops took the same extra-conservative positions that some of the worst dictators in Latin America, Asia etc took against the Church in recent history.
Read the full text of the Statement below:
Press Statement – Port Harcourt, January 8, 2015
Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, Human Rights and the Church
Doing Democracy Movement, Nigeria (DDM) without prejudice, considers it most preposterous, anti- people and God, for Bishop Onaiyekan and Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma of the Enugu Anglican Province to take a most tyrannical position against the Catholic Priest and Founder of Adoration Ministry, Enugu Catholic Arcdiocese, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, painting him as a ‘political priest’, corrupt, a subversive at best, following his recent right-based, people centered utterances on the evil he noticed being perpetrated by a regime; without faulting any of the critical issues raised in the said utterance as they affected the citizens, which includes his own flock on: insecurity, bad governance, socio-economic malaise, human rights abuses and impoverishment of the citizenry.
Indeed, the Bishop of Abuja and that of Enugu, by their own utterances in defence of the status quo, became more viciously political than Rev. Fr.Mbaka. It is most instructive to note that Rev. Mbaka was right and Godly when he supported the cause of Mr. President and his wife, the First Lady, but devilish and corrupt when his spirituality directed him differently.
While unequivocally condemning the position taken by Bishop of Abuja Metropolitan See, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, and Bishop of Enugu, Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, DDM insists that their position is contrary to the principles of liberation theology which the Catholic Church and others have led across the world, and indeed the Word of God, the creator. Shockingly, the Bishops took the same extra-conservative positions that some of the worst dictators in Latin America, Asia etc took against the Church in recent history.
Rev. Martin Lurther King, Jr. suffered this faith in America, when he did not only speak out against black oppression, but led the Movement for their emancipation. Desmond Tutu suffered the same faith in the hands of White apartheid regime in Southern Africa for speaking out against the oppression of the black majority, using the pulpit and the Holy Book. For the avoidance of any doubt, the Cardinal and Bishop has every right in the world to remain apologists of an oppressive state power, but is most unwise to wrongly educate members of the public on the teaching of Christ regarding any incapacited, corrupt and unaccountable regime that make life insecure and unbearable for the citizens.
In view of the heinous position taken by the Bishops of Abuja and one of Enugu, DDM observes as follows:
That in the then Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the Christian Churches maintained a campaign in favour of human rights. They collected and published information about the torture and ill-treatment of suspects and the demoralizing and dehumanizing effects of the way in which the blacks were crowded into the so-called protected villages. The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission was in the lead on this, but an ecumenical activity with close cooperation between Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists and other Churches.
That African churches and church leaders have made numerous statements commenting on the structural roots of poverty over time:
All African Conference of Churches Maseru Declaration: “The effects of the payment of the African debt should be compared to a low intensity war which brings death, hunger, malnutrition, sickness, unemployment, homelessness and loss of dignity and personal worth to millions of children, women and men, young and old.”
Zambia Catholic Bishops: “The gap between the rich and the poor widens. The suffering of the poor increases daily. This is not only a moral scandal but a threat to our democratic stability. In many instances, there is a silent suffering that breeds potential anarchy.”
Association of Christian Lay Centres in Africa: “Our challenge is to transform those educated into ‘prophet/teachers’ who realizes that their role in society is not only a matter of speaking out against evils in society but, more significantly, a question of seeking to transform the present oppressive structures into humane and just relations among the children of God.”
All Africa Conference of Churches’ Women’s Desk: “Theology and economy are related just like the soul and part of the body, when the body is nourished the soul remains alive in the body. We cannot separate theology and economy. Theology is the backbone which illumines our management of the economy; therefore, economy should become one of the aspects of the ministries of the church. The Church is called to be involved in economic justice in the same way she has been involved in social justice.”
- That politics need not be understood in the narrow sense of “party politics”, therefore, theologians and church leaders need not and should not remain without words in the political situations in which they find themselves. Weather the Bishop likes it or not, political exercise involves the people of God and of necessity therefore, has theological dimensions.
- That Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s concern with secular things such as bad roads, unfulfilled infrastructural project promises, insecurity, education, shelter, unemployment and extreme poverty arises out of his relationship with and acknowledgment of God as the Creator of the Lord over human life in all of its aspects.
- That it is impossible for a Priest worthy of his vocation to be ‘non-political’ because that would imply that there is “substantial part of human life in which God’s writ does not run”
- That such a view creates an unacceptable dualism between the spiritual and material, and implies that there is another Lord who is in-charge of the political sphere than God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To invoke the separation between religion and politics in order to uphold this dualism, the Bishops are suggesting that human beings somehow belong to the power that be, that is, they are at the mercy of political authorities who can do what they please with them without fear of rebuke from God through the prophetic ministry of the Church.
- That as Creator, God is totally indifferent to what happens to and among human beings and how they treat one another. To be sure, the witness of the Church throughout the ages has denied the possibility that God is indifferent to what human beings do to themselves and to the life entrusted to them, because everyone of them must account for their actions before the creator.
- That we appreciate Rev. Fr. Mbaka’s refusal to apologise for being “political”, when he condemns corruption and oppression as unjust, wholly immoral and unchristian, which must go away. The resistance to bad governance flows from the fact that the God we worship clearly cares enormously about displaced parents and children, the abducted Chibok Girls, the taking away of our territories with reckless abandon, those who go to sleep daily without food in the midst of plenty, extrajudicial killings, all pervading impunity, uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and bands of self proclaimed merchants of violence. Rev. Fr. Mbaka perhaps cares that life seems so dirt and cheap in Nigeria.
- That no well meaning Church leader believes that he can be the disciple of such a caring God and remain aloof from socio-political involvement in deliverance of the oppressed.
- That the two Bishops in their utterances are the ones stoking violence, oppression, disagreement and divisions, therefore, should be called to order.
Finally, DDM calls on Christians to void the luxury of compartmentalizing life so that they may think that religion should keep to its boundaries, and not impinge on the things beyond its ken and competence. The God Christians worship, though transcendent, wholly other than finite creatures, is also one who is not cosmic absentee land-lord but one in whom we live, move and have our being, therefore our God is the Lord of all life in the political as well as the religious sphere.
There is no other way for Christians to establish and work for the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of peace, of justice, of compassion, of love, and reconciliation than by following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, carrying his Cross and standing side by side with those who are casualties of man and woman’s inhumanity to their fellow beings. Jesus said: in as much as we do or do not do something for our fellows who are the least of his brethren, we do or did not unto Him (Mathiew 25:31-40).
We wholly commend Rev. Fr. Mbaka for his fearless disposition, early warning endeavour in the face of extremely least expected poor leadership delivery of the moment.
Signed:
Anyakwee Nsirimovu
CONVENER
Doing Democracy Movement, Nigeria.(DDM)
