Posted by By NWABUEZE OKONKWO, Onitsha on
The Anglican Diocese on the Niger may have been thrown into a deep crisis over the creation of more dioceses out of the existing Niger Diocese.
•Creation of new diocese tears Anglican Diocese apart
The Anglican Diocese on the Niger may have been thrown into a deep crisis over the creation of more dioceses out of the existing Niger Diocese.
At the centre of the crisis are the Bishop on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Ken Sandy Okeke, on one hand and the church committees on the other together with a group of disenchanted church leaders from the Obosi Archdeaconry under the Niger Diocese, who are agitating for the creation of Obosi Diocese out of the present Niger Diocese.
The crisis which started since 2005 when the church leaders from the Obosi Archdeaconry under the aegis of the Anglican Community of Obosi Archdeaconry for the creation of the Diocese of Obosi under the chairmanship and secretaryship of Dr. Bertram Nkemena (KSC) and Bernard Offor respectively, wrote an application to Bishop Okeke, requesting him to use his good office to carve out Obosi Diocese for them in the interest of evangelism.
At a Press conference recently at Obosi, Nkemena and Offor, chairman and secretary of the Committee for the Creation of Obosi Diocese out of the Niger Diocese, said that the Anglican community in Obosi, Oba, Nkpor, Ojoto, Awada, Ugwuagba, Umuoji and Akwu-Ukwu had in 2003 applied for the creation of Obosi Diocese or whatever name it may be called.
Also, Sir G. A. Nwokolo, the spokesman of the committee, accused the bishop on the Niger 'of blocking the creation of Obosi Diocese to pave way for the creation of Ubiaja Diocese which will have Awka-Etiti, the bishop's home town, as the headquarters with Obosi as part of the diocese".
However, the church authorities swiftly defended Bishop Okeke and described the allegation against him as baseless, saying that the stand of the church in areas of creation of new dioceses is that such a request must meet the provisions of the constitution of the Anglican Communion.
But the agitators contended that Obosi is ripe for a diocese because it is not only one of the oldest churches established by the early missionaries as far back as 1882 (about 126 years ago), but also the only church that has not been made a diocese among its contemporaries, such as Oji River, Lafia, Bida, Calabar, Uyo, Lokoja, Minna, Ideato, Ika, Esan, Damaturu, Jalingo, Gombe and a host of others.
They also contended that the worst aspect of the development was that the bishop, in a bid to diminish Obosi's request for a diocese, ceded about six churches situated on Obosiland to Onitsha South and Central Archdeaconries. The measure is, however, already causing a stir in Obosi, considering the chequered land problem between Onitsha and Obosi.
According to them, "the ceding of part of Obosiland has generated so much tension in the town that the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Engr Josiah Nwokobi, had to write the bishop to reverse the decision but to no avail and we view it as a ploy by the bishop to apply a divide-and-rule tactics in order to weaken our nerves".
'The bishop is biased because in setting up the committees that looked into our request for the creation of Obosi Diocese , he did not only outright selected those loyal to him to influence the reports, but also introduced divide-and-rule tactics among the Anglican towns and communities that are requesting dioceses with a promise to compensate some young men from the towns agitating for Obosi Diocese with knighthood if they opposed the request", Sir Nwokolo said.
The committee for the proposed diocese consequently in a letter to the Primate of Anglican Communion, the Most Rev Peter Akinola, dated July 24, 2007, requested that they should henceforth, from the date of the letter, be administered directly by the primate, since they wished to cease to have any further relationship with the Diocese on the Niger.
Addressing newsmen at the Bishop's Court in Onitsha , Sunday, as delegated by the bishop, the committee appointed by the bishop to look into the agitation for the creation of Obosi Diocese said that there was no consensus among the towns and communities mentioned in the application for Obosi Diocese.
The Chancellor of the Diocese on the Niger, Professor Ilochi Okafor, reminded the agitators that their request must meet the provisions of the constitution of the communion, stressing that any request made for a new diocese by any part of the communion should be properly channelled and must represent the wishes and aspirations of the people asking for the new diocese.
Okafor, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, warned that the church would not allow a situation where a group of people in a community cause disaffection among other members in the quest for a new diocese.
Referring to the agitation for the creation of Obosi Diocese, the chancellor made it categorically clear that no diocese would be created in an atmosphere of rancour and bitterness, adding that the recent press statements on the issue lacked merit and at the same time violated the constitution of the Church of Nigeria .
Also speaking, the Chairman of the committee looking into the possibility of creating a new diocese out of Niger Diocese, Justice Peter Obiora, emphasized that any diocese to be created out of the existing one should promote peace and unity of the church and should not be designed to satisfy the whims and caprices of a few individuals in a community.
Obiora disclosed that most of the signatories of the parishioners within the affected parishes and archdeaconries earlier included in the request for the proposed Obosi Diocese had disassociated themselves from the agitation, pointing out that his committee is also prospecting new dioceses in riverine areas of Mbamili and Ayamelum council areas of the Niger Diocese.
Justice Obiora said: 'In the case of Obosi's communities request, the committee set up to ascertain the desirability and viability of creating a new diocese out of Niger Diocese, presented its report to the synod, which rejected it based on the committee's findings that the request lacks merit."
He said that in the course of the committee's interaction, they found out that the people who Obosi Anglican community mentioned in their application as those they wanted to form the new diocese with were not carried along and were not signatories to the application and, therefore, Obosi community alone cannot be granted a diocese.
'The bishop has nothing personal against Obosi becoming a diocese and there is no application for Ubiaja diocese being promoted by the bishop as alleged," Obiora said, adding that the constitution of Anglican Communion stipulates the conditions for creating a diocese and one of them is goodwill not out of strife or ill-will.
On the issue of transferring some churches within the Obosi land to Onitsha South Archdeaconry, Obiora said that 'political boundary is different from ecclesiastical boundaries, and in some cases, some towns in a state are administered by another diocese from another state for convenience".
In their contributions, the Synod Secretary of the diocese, Venerable Emma Ekpunobi, and the Deputy Registrar of the Niger Diocese, Justice Paul Obidigwe, stated categorically that Bishop Okeke, does not interfere with the work of the committee on the creation of the new diocese, adding that the bishop would always support the wishes and aspirations of any group in the diocese working for a just cause.
Ekpunobi and Obidigwe who insisted that the bishop did not literally create diocese but the synod of the diocese, which meets once every year, called for respect to constituted authorities and due process in the agitation for a new diocese, pointing out that only the Obosi Anglican community signed their request for a diocese.