₦airaland Forum

Anambra Poll: Obi Campaigns for Catholic Gov

ARTICLE | NOVEMBER 9, 2013 - 12:03AM | BY MU'SODIQ ADEKUNLE
Governor Peter Obi
Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has urged Roman Catholics in the state to sustain the grip of their control of the politics of the state by ensuring that the next governor of the state remained a Catholic.

Speaking on behalf of the governor at the inauguration of the Widows and Less Privileged Members Foundation at the Holy trinity Baislica, Onitsha, the Commissioner for Works, Mr. Callistus Ilozumba, said Roman Catholics must use the November 16 governorship election in the state to make a point that the church has come to be relevant in the politics of Anambra State.

He recalled that the late Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha, the Most Rev. Albert Obiefuna, had championed the involvement of knights of the church to take charge of the politics of the state, saying that effort paid off when Governor Obi was elected governor in 2003.

He said the first beneficiary of that effort would have been Prof. Alphonsus Nwosu, who was dropped as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju in 1998.

He said that it was after Nwosu dropped that the late archbishop advised on the need to have an alternative platform, and this came with the formation of APGA.

He said it was not by accident that the first national chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, Obi, the current national chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, and others are Catholics.

Ilozumba recalled that when Obi joined the race in 2003, both Knights of St. John, St. Mulumba and the Laity Council teamed up to support him in the election which he won.

He reminded knights of St. John International that they have the capacity to change the situation in the state as predicted by Obiefuna.

He said Obi was the first governor from the Catholic Church in the history of politics in Igbo land, charging them to ask themselves before voting in this election if their action will protect the interest of the church.

http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/article/anambra-poll-obi-campaigns-catholic-gov

eaglechild: Not every story on the internet is true.

Of course. You would have seen that I feel that way too in my opening comments

modhream: You've started grasping at straws,what has that got to do with anything?.The Mbaise clergy wants a Bishop from amongst themselves,not even from Okigwe nor Owerri Dioceses.The Catholic church don't work like that,tis the Pope that gives final approval n so they got stuck.Okpalaeke has already bn consecrated bishop n there's no going back on that.
How does that relate to ur imagined "christian religious crisis in Igboland"?

It is part of my opening remark. You claimed to have read my opening remark, no?

I followed that saga quite closely and it was very heated. There was bitterness. Stop living in denial.

lakhadimar: Yes that shows you how cosmopolitan and civil the Yorubas are. The yorubas dont discriminate. We respect people of other faith and belief

You have no clue what you are saying. All that glitters is not gold. You want me to recount how many times I was discriminated against in Ibadan?

modhream: Yes,I don't know who u are.Not calling ur person or character into question.What I do question is ur claim of being unbiased.Your thread title,OP n subsequent comment put a lie to that.

Do you have anything to say about the Mbaise Catholics and the Anambra Bishop saga? Or are you unaware of that one?

modhream: Yes,I don't know who u are.Not calling ur person or character into question.What I do question is ur claim of being unbiased.Your thread title,OP n subsequent comment put a lie to that.

The title is a question which is open to answer in any which way anyone likes. Got it?

With the way you are carrying on now, I hope you do not have a ''heart attack'' when you read some of the scathing comments on the original facebook post. Take am easy oh!!!

lakhadimar: You do not know anything about the Yoruba religious pluralism.

The redeemed christian chirch just concluded their convention and i know a lot of Yoruba moslems that attended. The Osun Osogbo festival will commence next week and i also know a lot of Yoruba moslems and christians that will also attend this traditional festival including those in the diaspora.

To the Yorubas, The Yoruba nationality i:e your identity as a Yoruba, comes first and religion comes later

I was born and raised (schooled) in Ibadan, the core of Yorubaland. So you have absolutely nothing to tell me about Yorubas.

Screenshot of Igboville. If you are not a member you can register (Igbos only) so you can have access.

modhream: I read everything.
U started out with a mindset,threw in what is purely politics as if having religious undertone into the mix,then tried to back it up with an unconfirmed tale from an unreliable/unknown source.
Did I leave anything out?.
I'm currently in the East,my family consist of Catholics,Anglicans n Pentecostals.
Whatever feud there be exist only in ur fevered imagination.
And u didn't even know Obi,Ngige,Obiano,Soludo et al are Catholics?.Smh
The only Anglican in their midst is Andy Uba n one has never heard him complain of being discriminated against cos of his denomination

Great. I have always thought those politicians are not all Catholics. Several news at the time of the elections in Anambra suggested so.

And as for being biased, you do not have any idea of who I am, so I am leaving you to wallow in your thinking.

Also, are you unaware of the Mbaise Catholics and the Anambra Bishop saga?

MOBJECTIVE: #I can bet most anglicans and catholics in the east dont even know why they're fighting.

I believe this, but then it also speaks of a growing trend of being brainwashed. It is not good for Igbos who fight any ''war'' not to know why they are doing so?

modhream: A lot of inconsistences in the OP already exposed ur bias.
For the record,the Catholic church or more correctly,Catholic-owned educational institutions do not discriminate in intake of students based on faith profession,all is based on merit.
There's no link to this ur fairy-tale,so no way to ask the author to provide more details for one to take it up from there.
By the way,Obi,Ngige,Obiano et al are all Catholics,so where u got ur Anambra Catholic v Anglican nonsense is what I don't know.

Did you read my opening comment and the second post from me?

Are you sure that Obi and Ngige and Obiano are all Catholics?


And here is the link. https://www./igboville/
Like I said, it is a closed group and you have to be a member to read and comment.

lakhadimar: There are more churches in Yorubaland than they are anywhere else in Nigeria.

This is untrue, with 50% of Yorubas being Muslims. Moreover, proliferation of different churches is not equal to number of Christians. Yorubas are known for proliferating anything in the world, aka quantity

collynzov5: Yoruba man such ill feelings only exist in your wicked imagination.
It is only a matter of time before your Islamic brethren start bombing you to shreds.

Don't mind him. When it happens, you can be sure that if Igbos have 10 religious problems, Yorubas would have 100, and hausa/fulani and the northern minorities 1000. It is going to be that logarithmic

collynzov5: Well, they aren't clashing or killing themselves are they?

I hope it remains that way.

collynzov5: Stop looking for problems where there is none.

Really? Are you implying that sacrificing merit for religious affiliations is not a problem? I agree that anyone can choose anyone to work for them as they deem fit, but in this case, the nurse will end up treating both catholics non-catholics, or would they also refuse to admit non-catholics into the hospital?

I am a Nigerian I do not hate the president. So speak for yourself.

lakhadimar: Yeah
I know there is an ill feeling between orthodox ibo christians and pentecostal ibo christians

I only know of that between Caths and Angs (perhaps has to do with Italy v England ). What you said is new to me, but again, I am not a regular, and so could be quite naive on the pervasiveness of these undercurrents.

lakhadimar: The Last Anambra election turned into an Anglican VS Catholic feud

Is there also a ''war'' of Catholic v other non-Anglican denominations?

For disclosure, I am an Igbo. I was born a Christian (non-Catholic; non Anglican) but since growing up and leading my own life, I have come to see religion as a problem rather than a solution. So I have lost any true interest in religion. For that reason, in the past 8 years, I have not been to a church service more than 150 times (keep in mind that there are at least 54 Sundays in just one year, so you can imagine how poor my attendance has been during this period), and all of those attendance have been in Catholic churches, just to please someone in my life

Contrary to the above, I have not entered into the church house of an Anglican Church all of my life. This disclosure underscores my non-bias (yes, I am 1000% unbiased towards any of the Christian denominations) involved in this (uncorroborated) story.

If Igbo get Biafra, could there be Christian religious crises? If so, can you guess who the cause might be?

My own analysis of the situation is that there will continue to be pockets of minor Christian religious animosities in Igboland that may affect specific Igbo communities, but it will not be elevated to the level that will threaten the Igbo nation at large because we do not have a history of large-scale religion-motivated societal unrest in Igboland. However, signals emanating from the Catholic and Anglican churches in Igboland are indicating that both are mutually quite intolerant of each other. They should thread carefully, keeping in mind what the intolerance by Islam of other religions is causing globally today.

Even within the Catholic community there seem not to be perfect peace. For example, does any of you remember a few years ago when the Catholic Church in Mbaise, Imo State rose stoutly against the appointment of an Anambra Bishop in their Diocese? The last I know about that issue, it took the Pope from far away Rome to calm frayed nerves and resolve the matter.

Now, this quoted piece below is quite worrisome. I agree I cannot vouch for its authenticity. I just copied it verbatim from a facebook page. So there could be a little bit of sentiments and embellishments here and there in the story. But given the extent to which Catholics have given indications of discrimination even against themselves, I will not be surprised if it turns out to be factual that the lady in question was not selected based on her not being Catholic. Who knows what else is happening in the unseen closet of Catholism versus other Anglicanism in Igboland?
====================================================

Has The Church come this low?

While Ebola is at it I got this shocker this morning:
My niece wrote an entrance exam into a school of nursing owned by the Catholic church. When the first result came out she came first, they went for the second round, she was among the best 5, they went for oral interview and she got all the questions but one: ARE YOU A CATHOLIC? She innocently answered no and lost 5 marks on the instant. Those who were catholics had their interview questions to be: recite Hail Mary and some catholic rituals like that. Physical appearance/dressing were checked and she sure made it, at least that's what she thought.
She came home and asked me the need for the church owned school to use denomination to select those that will be trained in the medical field that will after graduation care for people of all DENOMINATIONS(even all faiths) and also if they don't know that their hospital is not patronised by catholics only.
I just told her to expect anything these days but assured her that merit was still effective in the church today.
But I was WRONG.
This morning, just as she returned from the church(Anglican) she received a call that made her cry: the final result has been pasted and she didn't make it.
Their cut off mark was 75 and she was awarded 73. She asked me how that would be possible, I only smiled. She asked how all the people she scored higher than in the first and second exams where she came 1st and 4th now got all the marks that gave them 75 and above and she dropped to 73(over thirty persons were taken). She then tiredly said; IF I WERE A CATHOLIC AND WAS GIVEN THE 5 MARKS, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN 78 AT LEAST. And she started crying again, now for having been dissappointed by the CHURCH.
I consoled and encouraged her to hope for the best as she also wrote the entrance exam for University of Nigeria School of Nursing and the result is due on 27th of this August.
But the truth is that I don't even know who to speak to there on her behalf so that she won't be schemed out, peradventure she does well in the exam.
NOW THIS WORRIES ME:
The security agencies engage in nepotism, bribery and corruption in selection of those who get drafted to serve, the public schools engage in same in giving admissions to prospective students and now the ChURCH, all these people will come out to serve the public, AND THEY BECOME THE MERCHANTS OF LOOT.


Nigeria agwulanu!

Not that I didn't know before now anyway, I just pity the very young girl.

By the way, this happened at Bishop Joseph Shannahan Hospital School of Nursing Nsukka, Catholic Diocese of Nsukka.
Please those who have access to the new Bishop should reach him for a lot of things are going wrong there.
The Bishop is a good man, a seasoned product of Vatican, but he is new there.

There are over 450 responses on the story, but because it is from a closed facebook group (Igboville) non-members may not be able to access and read them. I do not have the time to copy them here.

He pledged the commitment of his association to carry out research towards tackling the Ebola virus to ensure that it did not ravage the people of the state.

Interesting.. Hope they follow thru.

Would have been another ala bekee but for the unpaved road and uncut grasses and a few other anomalies here and there (e.g., too many disorganized electric poles)

This is a good step in the right direct. WE NEED RESEARCH FOR THESE THINGS.

Independent scientists should be invited to corroborate or dispel these claims. Many of the drugs in use today come from plants anyways, so no real surprises here. But until they are tested for potency and potential side effects by external peers, it's still a long thing.

And Boko Haram has only just made things worse for them

Africa oh, Africa. When shall thou wake up from thine slumber?

This "dokita" men.

Lol

Why is no one commending this great discovery?

This is ridiculous. Nigeria is doomed with this type of attitude. I'm done with it

Topics such as this are what we should be discussing here and not all these APC-PDP, Igbo-Yoruba, Nollywood celebrity thrash that saturate Nairaland. It seems that Nairalanders are incapable of any serious intellectual discussions.

Food for thought.