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Ubaka Okwusogu

While scanning through the internet I chanced upon an article titled: Ebube Muonso and the tragedy of ego written by a certain Henry Chigozie Duru of the Mass Communication Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. It was an overly presumptuous piece.<!--more-->

The writer took liberties with facts in his effort to admonish the charismatic priest of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Anambra state, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obimma (aka Ebube Muonso) on the obligations of priesthood. With near avuncular disposition, he proceeded to counsel an end to the recriminations between the Priest and Governor Soludo’s aides because according to him there has been improved security with the launch of the new security initiative, Udo ga-achi by the government. Perhaps so.

But he admitted the mutual blame between the priest and the state would not have happened if Rev. Fr. Nonso Okoye who, by the way, is the vicar at Blessed Iwene Tansi Parish, Umudioka, where Fr. Ebube Muonso himself is the parish priest, was not abducted and Hon. Justice Azuka, representing Onitsha North 1 in the State House of Assembly, not kidnapped and murdered after payment of ransom. Claiming knowledge of the genesis of the strained relationship between the two men, he said it all started with the prophecy made by Fr. Ebube Muonso about invasion of the Government House by persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen which left Soludo bloodied. Unimpressed, the Governor, he claimed, treated the purported prophecy with slight disdain based on leaked personal message he sent the priest. He would have done better here if he had applied more diligence in search of the truth.

However, he went on to point out as a Catholic imbued with knowledge of Catholicism and its tenets, the unpleasant development whereby priests who claim manifestation of charismatic flair and operate adoration ministries become, in his words, “unpriestly, egoistic, arrogant, recalcitrant, and tend to abuse the privilege of the pulpit in total negation of the calling of the clerical office as understood in the catholic church”. I must admit that I have yet to read a more “fantastic” qualification of such priests.

Regardless, I was patient enough to read through, and with every fiber of concentration, but did not see where the writer claimed to be a priest himself. I also know, and it is public knowledge, that the Catholic Church is perhaps one of the few churches, if not the only one, which do not tolerate abuse of its processes without punishment that may be as grave as defrocking an errant priest. It does not seem, and has yet to be established, that the Onitsha metropolitan see under the bishopric control of the courageous and strict moral theologian, Archbishop Valerian Okeke would sit by or had sat still and allowed violation of the Church’s age-long tradition. I will like to be contradicted.

Eager to profess deep knowledge of the Catholic Church perhaps more than the Church leadership itself, he delved into the issue of curse and how alien it is to the Catholic liturgy. He alleged megalomania and arrogance against Fr. Ebube Muonso who, until the failed security situation in Anambra, was hardly in evidence. He was quick to reel out cases where men of God and or Catholic Priests were publicly abused, even defamed without them placing curses on the aggressor. To cap his point, he cited the case of Ali Mehmet Agca, the Turkish assailant, who made attempt on the life of Pope John Paul 11, on St. Peter’s Square in Rome sometime in 1981, and how the Catholic Pontiff, on recovery, visited him in prison and forgave him. With this and other allusions to abuse and forgiveness he tried very much to portray Fr. Ebube Muonso as being of vindictive cast of mind. But before he succeeds in this self-imposed task, it is important to know what a curse is, if indeed it is alien to the Church and whether it can light if uttered in vain, and by a man he claims is unpriestly, and in whose adoration ground, God neither assumes another nature nor greater power.

Curse or imprecation is a swearword or solemn utterance that is designed to invoke supernatural power in order to exact harm. Though not easily advocated except on extreme situation, it can only light on the ground of justification and cannot be placed in vain. It is not alien to the Church and there are evidences where imprecation was placed on willful and infernal offenders. St Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, uttered a curse on malevolent pagans of his time. Up against King Ceretic Guletic who sold Christian Irish Converts into slavery and ridiculed him, and against the pagan community that frustrated his effort at proselytization, the Holy Patrick took umbrage at them. In uttering the solemn words he said: “Mudebroth, in spite of all your labour you shall achieve nothing”. It was reported that the following night a heavy storm stirred up the sea and rendered waste all that the pagans had done as the man of God had said.

Elsewhere in the Holy book there are instances of curse. In Genesis 4: 11-6, Cain was cursed by God after he murdered his brother Abel and lied about it. In Mark 11: 12-24, Christ cursed a fig tree to wither for not bearing fruits. “The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again”. And it came to pass.

Although there is nothing to be said in defense of a curse if it can be avoided, but let no rat knowingly incur the wrath of a diviner (dibia) so that the latter does not deliberately curse it. It is easy to defame anybody particularly in this age of the internet and pretend that all is well. What Fr. Ebube Muonso has said to the government in the state and will still say once there is noticeable breach, which elicited attack on his person by a few whippersnappers, is still within the ambit of the law, while his reaction to the defamation of his person does not contravene his obligation as a priest. He is alive to his duty to the church and the people. He might not have got everything right because he is human, but neither has the state. In fact, the state is the worst offender and was in deep slumber until the charismatic priest roused it to action. Going forward let the state appreciate that security is the first line charge of any government and work towards maintaining it. Ebube Muonso is speaking the mind of the silent majority cowed by the intimidating presence of the state.

Ubaka Okwusogu

Onitsha