WHERE IS NIREC?
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Tuesday 29 July 2014
THE HOLY MASS IN THE FACE OF TERROR
THE HOLY MASS IN THE FACE OF
TERROR
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Introduction
Some print media who reported the bomb attack on
St. Rita’s Catholic Church, Kaduna, Nigeria on October 28, 2012 presented the
parish priest,
Fr. Mike Boni Bazza, (OSA) who celebrated Mass that
Sunday morning as a priest who has deep faith in the Holy Eucharist. This is
demonstrated in the words of Fr. Boni who even in a pull of blood could tell
the weeping and panicking worshippers: “it is well, it is well”! In the
hospital, he told some journalists, “I was covered with blood”. Doesn’t this
incident remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross? The blood of
martyrs is the seed of Christianity? Let our brothers and sisters who may be so
scared to go to Church on Sundays take heart and meditate on the Holy Mass of
Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
BROKEN AND SHARED IN THE EUCHARIST
BROKEN AND SHARED IN THE EUCHARIST
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
The interview of Archbishop Felix
Alaba Job, the Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Ibadan was published in the Nation
Newspaper on Saturday November 3, 2012. In one of the questions, he was asked
if he encountered any challenging periods in life.” The Archbishop responded:
“In my life of over 74 years, I can say that I had a few ugly periods. There is
the challenge of people not accepting your sincerity and of people not accepting
you for who you are.” [1]
WHAT JESUS DID FOR A TERRORIST
WHAT JESUS DID FOR A TERRORIST
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
The character of a person is
moderated by environment. This sometimes gives a limited and fixated horizon.
Some people grow with manipulated ideas that cloud truth and values that could
enhance life. Sometimes, people obey customs and traditions to such an extent
that one wonders whether culture is a creation of the human person or the other
way round. In the past, human beings
grow in cultural and religious milieus that do not tolerate questions. Some
people find themselves doing unreasonable things in obedience to the customs of
the land. In the past, people have died in circumstances that were dictated by
the gods and deities. The story of Lesley Hazleton about Abd al-Muttalib (ca. 570
AD) is understood in this context.
COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL
SOVEREIGNTY
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Introduction
Religion and Ethnicity have been
perceived as serious challenges to national sovereignty. Many people did not
choose the religion and tribe they found themselves. The danger is that the
horizon of some people is limited to the tribe and religion they have
inherited. For instance, some Christians were made to believe that outside the
Church, there is no salvation because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life
and no one can reach God except through him. The Muslims inherited the teaching
that Prophet Muhammad is the last and final prophet who received the message of
Islam directly from God, therefore only those who accept Islam and
unconditionally surrender to Allah will be saved. The Indigenous Religions in
Africa taught their children that Christianity is the religion of Europe while
Islam is the religion of the Arabs and that these religions have come to erode
the good values of Africa. Consequently, religious and ethnic communities have
become the focus of dialogue and peace building to keep a nation united under a
western system of government. Since 1960, the question of the national unity of
Nigeria lingers and the voices of those calling for a national sovereign conference
refuse to wane. Others have gone beyond that to demand for resource control and
clear ethnic boundaries. This calls for
a brief synopsis of the identity of these communities to see if any nation can
really be one in her glaring diversity in a society under a sovereign and
democratic leader.
Saturday 19 July 2014
REFLECTIONS ON MY MISSIONARY JOURNEY BY Sr: Esther Nseobong Ekpo DC
REFLECTIONS
ON MY MISSIONARY JOURNEYS
Sr.
Esther Nseobong Ekpo DC
JANUARY 2013
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to GOD who
loved me before and even as he created me; my parents – CHIEF ENGINEER GEORGE
EKPO AND MADAME PHILOMENA EKPO who received me happily from God and since then
cared for me with much love.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication.............................................................................
Acknowledgement....................................................................
Forward.................................................................................
Introduction............................................................................
Before
the Rising Sun................................................................
Come
to Me............................................................................
Here
I Am.............................................................................
God in the Psychiatry
(‘In love with the mentally ill’)............................................
A tribute to the
Providence Home.............................
The real Missionary
Preparation.............................................
Rosalie Home,
Eleme ..........................................................
Eeken – Ogoniland..................................................................
Life in Ossiomo...................................................................
Mission
in Nouna..............................................................
Where is God in all these......................................................
Thursday 17 July 2014
DESECRATION OF THE SACRED TEMPLE
DESECRATION OF THE SACRED TEMPLE
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Chief Adamu Egwa, the village
head of Irekpai, Uzairue in Edo State, Nigeria had prayed and wished that he
died in Mecca. He believed that Mecca is a holy land cleansed and consecrated
by Allah. This wish was actually realized. He died and was buried in Mecca
during his hajj on January 18, 1973. This
is an illustration of how the Muslims and those who love Islam believe in the
sacredness of Saudi Arabia as a holy land being the home of the Prophet
Muhammad.
CHRONOLOGY OF VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM IN NIGERIA
CHRONOLOGY OF VIOLENCE
AND TERRORISM IN NIGERIA
2002
2002: Many people claim
that Boko Haram was formally founded
2007
2007: Buju Foi, an
influential Boko Haram member, was appointed by Borno State Governor, Ali Modu
Sheriff, as commissioner of religious affairs.
2009
July 2009: Boko
Haram attacked Maiduguri police stations.
Mohammed Yusuf released a video and threatened vengeance.
July 2009: Mohammed Yusuf, leader of
Boko Haram, was captured by the Nigerian army and handed over to the police. He
was found dead later and the police claimed that he was killed while trying to
escape. Residents and human rights groups claimed that he was assassinated.
IF THIS SONG DID NOT EXIST
IF THIS SONG DID NOT EXIST
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Iyeh was a pretty and intelligent
girl. She looked forward to become one of the elites in her village some day. This
hope was dashed! Today she depends on her younger brother for sustenance. What
happened to her? She was in class with other pupils enjoying the stories that
were being moderated by the class teacher. That was when she was in primary
two. Suddenly a man forced himself into the class with military uniform. It was
the uncle of Iyeh. He came to inform the headmaster that all the girls from his
family should be withdrawn from school. For what reason, the teacher quarried.
The response was a military command that a soldier is known for. “You do not
tell me how to bring up my children.” He turned to Iyeh, “take your bag and
follow me! We are going home!” The uncle had decreed that no girl in the family
should go to school to prevent them from getting pregnant outside marriage. The
family was such that when the elder brother gives an order, there is no further
dialogue. Everybody had to obey. In obedience, Iyeh accepted her fate but that
was just the beginning of her trauma and the trauma many young girls would go
through in the extended family.
Saturday 5 July 2014
JESUS AND THE SWORD
JESUS AND THE SWORD
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Sometime ago, I was thrilled with
this caption on CNN: “He who angers you conquers you”. I
interprete this to mean that no one thinks correctly in anger because most actions executed in a rage are
regrettable at the dawn of calm. Some people behave on the premise that “action
begets reaction” forgetting that what makes human beings different from other
animals is the ability to moderate action and passion with reason. It appears
that some people are trying to proffer biblical arguments in favour of violence
in the face of provocations. Somebody once told me that the Bible prescribed
reprisal in the following New Testament passages: “Do not suppose that I have
come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man
against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law (Matthew 10, 32-34; Luke 12, 49-53) . Jesus said to the
disciples, the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one.” “The
disciples said, see, Lord here are two swords.” Jesus replied, it is enough
“(Luke 23, 35-38).
TOUCH NOT MY ANOINTED
TOUCH NOT MY ANOINTED
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
African tradition and culture is known for respect for
elders, parents and those whom God has chosen to be legitimate leaders in the
society. Traditionally, African children do not call their parents and elders
by name. These were outward signs of the respect and adoration they owe God. In
the bible, the Old Testament warns: Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of
your people (Exodus 22, 28). It was forbidden to insult or attack a prophet:
“Touch not my anointed and to my prophet, do no harm” (Psalm 105, 15). The Lord
said to Moses: “If anyone curses God, he will be held responsible; anyone who
blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. The entire assembly must
stone him; whether an alien or native born, when he blasphemes, he must be put
to death’’ (Leviticus 24, 13-16). This law empowered Jezebel to falsely accuse
Naboth of cursing God and the king (1 King 21, 13) for refusing to give the
vineyard of his inheritance to King Ahab. She ordered the mob to stone Naboth
to death
BEYOND GREED AND POWER
BEYOND GREED AND POWER
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
I am just wondering why some
people knot the problems of Nigeria only to the wheel of greed, power and
corruption. If we compare Nigeria with other countries in the world, we may be
amazed at the dynamism of Nigeria in terms of natural and human resources. Nigeria
has displayed excellence in many areas in spite of her many challenges. It is
interesting to observe that Abuja is more beautiful than some capital cities in
the Western world. What all these translate into is that there is real and raw
energy in Nigeria with the capacity to do almost all that is humanly possible.
Unfortunately, this energy is
sometimes misdirected towards the capacity for evil and crime. If a Nigerian
wishes to display intellectual capacity in doing what is good, he or she can do
what Napoleon could not do. On the other hand, if a Nigerian wishes to display
intellectual capacity in crime and evil, he or she would compete with a
mischievous sprite. That means that Nigeria has a potential energy that could
be directed positively.
But who is to do this? How do we actualize this potential energy in
the right direction? Perhaps we can attempt the basis by revisiting the
formative stages of our children. The training and upbringing of a child in the
past was the responsibility of the community. Today parents and teachers can no
longer impart moral education on the children. Religious education and ethics
have been replaced by modernism and technology. Many Nigerians are imitating
very fast the foreign style of life at the expense of African values which even
the western world would wish to emulate. Children of this generation need to be
redirected to a space where they can learn how to love God, respect their
parents and their elders. The freedom of the child should not take the place of
discipline. Some parents go to the extent of saying: “I do not want my children
to suffer the way I suffered’. In my own view this is a systematic destruction
of the child. We seem to forget that he who spares the rod spoils the child.
When I was in primary school, our
parents encouraged the teachers to even “flog” us when we misbehave. I remember
an occasion when I did something wrong in the house, my own mother after
getting my father to punish me still went to report me to the headmaster of the
school to give me more punishment. In our college days, the senior students
were feared and revered talk less of the teachers and the principal. Today,
this form of training has been thrown to the winds to the extent that we breed
future criminals instead of training and forming future responsible leaders of
excellent character.
The time has come for us to stop
blaming our political leaders only for all the ills of our country. In times
like this, every person should take a step into his or her heart to examine the
individual contribution to the national growth. We must be ready to take
individual blame for our sins of commission or omission in the collective
growth of the nation. It is not enough to reduce the problems of Nigeria to poor
governance and leadership. We must continue to ask: WHO IS THIS NIGERIA? If we can get a correct
identity of Nigeria, then we can turn out a great nation. Perhaps that too can
begin the answer to the enquiry into the possibility of a united Nigeria and
the optimism that Nigeria can never disintegrate. Now the puzzle and
examination of conscience:
- Is it the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who exploits the students in our various institutions of learning before they are allowed to graduate?
- Is it the State governors who misappropriate the funds of pensioners?
- Is it the Senate president who extorts money from our road users?
- Is it the Inspector General of police (IG) who preaches inciting sermons in places of worship and turn religion into business centres?
- Is it religious leaders who delay files in the civil service and deny the youths of employment to earn a meaningful living?
The point is that if the
government seems to be failing, it is because some people put in some positions
are not responsible and accountable. The political leadership should therefore
ensure that people are put in positions based on pure merit and be courageous
to remove those who are not performing up to expectation. This will serve as
corrective measure and deterrent. We need to look back and see if we can
identify the height from where we have fallen and the point where we exposed
ourselves to this storming rain. Nigeria citizens need mental re-engineering,
clear vision, change of negative attitude, redefinition of values, and
aggressive recognition of professionalism of Nigerians in executing individual
and national missions. Let each and every one of us take a serious challenge on
what we can each do to make a better Nigeria. We need to re-examine our psyche,
attitude, orientation and world view.
Many Nigerians are used to finger
pointing. We find it difficult to blame ourselves or take individual
responsibilities for our actions. We forget that when you point a finger at
somebody, the remaining fingers point back to you. For instance, some members
of the Nigeria World Forum and Nigerians in Diaspora (NID) have daily filled
our email boxes with arguments and discussions on the killing of Cynthia
Osokogu. The discussion so far seems to be a kind of inter-tribal debate on the
issue that the killers are from Cynthia’s own tribe. My interest rather in such
discussion would be the skill of “facebook”
technology these Nigerian boys used in luring this girl to wherever they abused
and killed her. The technological methods of these boys have nothing to do with
tribe. These boys have wonderful
knowledge but lack wisdom to positively transform their potential energy to
create rather than to destroy. It is easy to say that they were greedy but with
the kind of knowledge they had could they not have been able to positively earn
a decent living without killing somebody.
Perhaps we can beam a search
light on the kind of training these boys received from their parents and the
institutions they received their formal education. I have already published an article on the
formation of conscience. That publication could lead to my next question: “What
will the Federal Government do with these boys?” Will it just be enough to kill
them or sentence them to jail? Can these boys be used as a case study to
enquire the root causes of human abnormality in Nigeria? This is the same
country where a taxi driver could return a huge amount of money that was
forgotten in his vehicle. A wise man indeed perhaps not with too much academic
prowess! What a country of the ugly and the beautiful!
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and
Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja; and Consultor of the
Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City
(comonokhua@hotmail.com).
ISLAM AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
ISLAM AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
It appears that women are
becoming aware of their dignity and the power that they are endowed with. The
truth is that they have always been conscious of their strength but they
conceal their powers, to protect men. Only when it is necessary to correct
men’s excessive abuse do women come out and take over. Women of this jet and
electronic age are no longer content with the status men have attempted to put
them since the old stone age through the middle ages until recent times. The
women of this generation are reacting seriously against being used by men
simply as sex objects and reproductive machines. In the past, some women have
shown their worth and the powerful content of their being. The memory of Moremi
of Ile-Ife is still fresh in Yoruba kingdom. In Benin City, a College is named
after Imaguero. Queen Amina is immortalized in Zaria and many parts of Northern
Nigeria. In Calabar, Mary Slessor will never be forgotten by twins who not for
her intervention would never have seen the light of day. The Airport in Calabar
is named after Margaret Ekpo in memory of her effort to liberate the people
during the Aba riot.
Education for peace building
Education for peace building
By Stella Bassey Esirah
Many a times when I have a big issue to dialogue
with illiterate persons; I find myself very helpless for; both of us seem not
to be making any sense to the other; until I apply a kind of therapeutic measures,
I don’t know about you; this remains me of my one time professor who will
always repeat in class “If you think education is expensive, try illiteracy.”
MAN: A MYSTERY TO HIMSELF
MAN: A MYSTERY
TO HIMSELF
Stella Bassey
Esirah
Scientific
study of man can neither discover the truth of man nor unravel the mystery of
man; this is why one would say that there is a mistake in the mechanistic,
scientific description of life.
Determinism is mechanistic and mechanism is scientific because it is
based on observation of how the body operates, biologically the brain becomes
for the scientists the engine of the body. So they explain man as a control
body acting according to impulse and stimuli. Even where this is a true
observation of the makeup of the human body, it is not the knowledge of the
human person. In fact science can only know the body of man which is observable
but can never know that which is not observable in man. Hence there can be a
scientific knowledge of the human body but no scientific knowledge of man. The
concept of man as we use it here is not in the sense of specie but in the sense
of a being that acts through the body. That being is not the body yet that
being acts through the body this is why we can say that the human person is not
the body alone for example, one can see a child growing but cannot see the
actual growth per se.
Nonetheless,
the truth of man is only partially accessible to philosophy because of its
speculative nature. There is a principle in man which is distinct from the
body. St. Thomas Aquinas discussed this principle by saying that a soul is the
life principle of a living body and it is that substance which makes the living
body the specific kind of living body it is. Aquinas went further to explain
this principle which is not obvious of science but philosophical, he says “The
human soul is a non-bodily substance endowed with intellect and will. The human
soul has an extrinsic dependence on the body. It can exist and operate per se
even if it is severed from the body.” (S.A. Ia2 Q75, p.60) This truth of the
soul is not scientific it is philosophical but, philosophy is not enough since
divine revelation is required. We say that science is a body established with
certitude; but to what extent is this notion true; since there are truths which
science has no access to; such as the truth of man, and philosophy also cannot
reach absolute certitude about this. The issue of man still cannot be exhausted
in philosophy or science because man remains a mystery even though; scholars
have made effort to offer an insight into this mystery.
The
soul is the true self and the body is merely the accompaniment of the soul, it
is the inner spirit or self, of a person – superior to the body, in which it
was temporarily confined during life on earth. The truth of man is not found in
science for science only describes the body of man but not the truth of man.
But from speculation and reflections, philosophy is able to stumble on such
truths about man, though its claims are not empirical. This is why in solving
one problem from different contexts of reasoning, whether a posteriori, a
priori, or ontological, there continues to be equal reactions put in the same
context. This makes all the contexts to equally expand ad infinitum or without
limit to the amount of interest raised by the subject concern. This
necessitates reactions because of its nature which is subject to speculation
and multiplicity of thought and diversity of opinions on the same issue.
Opinions or problems are open to many reactions since human thoughts are
somehow connected. Hence, in human reasoning there is extension based on this
connectivity of points raised as philosophical problems; which could be
responded to form different contexts. The problem which aptly describes the
nature of philosophy is the problem of man. There has never been unanimous
understanding of what man is. This; we can affirm to be the fundamental
question of man (The human person) It was the above question which inform
Parmenides’ denial of change. That is, it was the problem from infinity to
finitude, which made Parmenides reflect on being abstracted from the
philosophical problem of man as a human being. In his reflection on being,
Parmenides had to deny that change was possible; for nothing comes into being
as nothing goes out of being therefore; only being can produce another of its
kind. From the above, the fact remains, man is a mystery to himself and to
others.
Man
is the only being that has within him, a rational principle of organization,
hence the only being that is organized. Thus he has a self-propagating
formative power, which cannot be explained through the capacity of movement
alone. This organization in man can be
found in all his make ups, body senses, body system, mind system and soul
system. That principle of organization is itself internal to man. People hold
different opinions regarding what the human person is made up of. But we hold
that man is a rational being which gives him/her the capacity to plan, and by
planning to order himself/herself, he/she sets his goals which he strives to
achieve.
This
is what makes man autonomous and no other specie but the human species with
ability for self rule. By this, man becomes the lord of nature, since every
other thing in nature including nature itself lacks autonomy. Having an order
does not mean ruling oneself so, nature lacks autonomy though it is
teleological, man’s place in nature is therefore to serve for a lord in nature
that interprets, relates, apply and maintains the order of nature, so that the
principle of order in nature will make meaning. Nature itself is readily
discovered by man and he intuitively knows what to do to maintain it but man is
not able to discover and maintain the order of his own being.
His
own teleology is called destiny, moving on the path of human destiny is only
possible insofar as man in his autonomy can apply his principle of organization
and go on to direct his being through actions that flourish his being. He
follows his plan, to achieve his goals, to realize his purpose and to depict in
himself a certain degree of authenticity of self discovery. Self discovery is
the truth of man that lies within man; this truth within man does not lie in
man’s appearance or physical nature as it is in nature that has no interiority
since everything in nature is an appearance; such that nature could be said to
conceive of only appearances. Whatever science and Philosophy is trying to
discover about man, it is not sufficient in knowing the mystery of the human
person for; this knowledge belongs to the ultimate being, the creator and cause
of human existence and this being is God.
Sr.
Dr. Stella Bassey Esirah HHCJ is a lecturer and Head of Department of Philosophy
at St. Joseph Catholic Major Seminary, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State
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