Issues in Father Mbaka’s Transfer Lamentations

It is not only surprising that Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka of the then Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu, (who is also the spiritual director of Adoration Ministry) reportedly resorted to throwing tantrums and unleashing lamentations over his transfer from the latter parish to Our Lady Parish, Emene, Umuchigbo, Njinike Enugu – his new station – but also it is unnecessary and quite unbecoming of a Catholic priest (and a missionary for that matter who could be called upon at any time, any day for an assignment that demands, among other things, his immediate relocation) to indulge in such a shameful public show of unwarranted displeasure – as was reportedly done by him during his farewell speech to his followers at Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu.

Mbaka and Buhari

Though it is natural for Fr. Ejike Mbaka, just like any human being, to be displeased in the circumstance he has found himself, yet carelessly and, in fact, deliberately registering such a displeasure in the glare of the public as a Catholic priest does not only smack of a great disservice to the church and the entire catholic community in Nigerian, but also such unpleasant swansong negates in some way the church’s core principles as embedded in the concept of dogmatism (which for sure Mbaka would have been exposed to them in the course of his priestly training). Therefore, to say the least, Fr. Mbaka’s public lamentations during his farewell speech to his followers at Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu reek of heresy.

As it is already a well known fact within the public domain, the idea of a periodic transfer of Catholic priests from their parishes to another is obviously a tradition as old as the church itself. Thus, this fact stands in direct contradiction to Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s reported and disgusting insinuation and lamentation that his own transfer portrays a quintessential case of a witch hunt. Unarguably, this mindset is more so outrageous, provocative and totally misplaced when juxtaposed with the fact that the same Fr. Mbaka who apparently takes delight in whipping up unnecessary sentiments in order to curry sympathy from members of the public and thus make his latest missionary movement look like a witch hunt had abini tio left a parish before joining Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu. Hence it is no less a sordid and indicting omission on his part to have, consciously or unconsciously, failed to publicly acknowledge and/or tell it to his followers (at least for the sake of records and as an acknowledgement of the magnanimity shown to him by those he erroneously wants to believe are fighting him by orchestrating his transfer) that he did spend no less than twenty (20) years as a parish priest in Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu, before now.

Meanwhile, this implicitly long period of tenure elongation for Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka during his stint at Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu, is certainly a clear negation of the media reports which posit that the transfer of Catholic priests in Enugu Diocese “is a routine exercise done every six years by the bishop”. Nonetheless, it still boggles one’s mind wherein lies Father Mbaka’s disgusting impression of a witch hunt in this whole transfer saga.

Apparently, given it to him that he is an obedient Catholic priest as he is wont to make people believe, one wonders why Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka had to go the whole hog of publicly accepting his new posting with an obvious intent to show his pain, regret, reservation and, above all, grumbling – simultaneously.

Hear him: “How many trailer loads of cement came here? All the monies I made from my cassette and other private crusades all of them were used to build this church (Christ The King Parish, GRA, Enugu). We cannot   quantify it but let God be glorified”.

Indeed, there is no gainsaying that the foregoing remark is uncalled for. This is basically because it is somewhat unbelievable that such a self-adulating remark could in the very first place be credited to or even be deemed to have emanated from a Catholic priest of repute who definitely has no illusions about the near anonymous nature of services being rendered to the church and the society at large by the individual Catholic clergy, which is akin to the sort of anonymity that obtains in the civil service. This in essence leaves much to be desired from Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka who supposedly knows or ought to know that whatever contributions he makes to the growth and development of the church as well as the promotion of Catholicism are not meant to be eulogized or celebrated to high heavens by himself – but other people.

Moreover, it is very disappointing that Fr. Mbaka who in his various songs and homilies – which abound in the market places and streets across the country – has tended to preach and emphasize the need for the citizenry and Christians alike to acquiesce in the decisions of constituted authorities with equanimity, decorum and meekness, yet here he is apparently living out the very opposite of what preaches as evidenced by his transfer lamentations. Funny enough, it is ironical that the same Fr. Mbaka who wants Biafra agitators to be acquiescent to the dictates of the government of the day could not in fact publicly contain his own petulance over a routine transfer exercise which the church he swore to spend the rest of his life in has a long standing tradition of upholding as it suits the wisdom of its authorities.

Similarly, even bearing in mind (borrowing the exact words of Mbaka) that “it is the will of God, and when the will of God either permissive or however it happens, nobody should question it”, why then must Fr. Mbaka bother himself with a litany of complaints thus: “I know we are going to suffer between now and few months to come, I am going to suffer because I have no place to lay my head; I am going to suffer because I have no place to keep the ministry’s assets; I know I am going to suffer”.

Truth be told, these unnecessary complaints are clearly untypical of a committed Catholic priest. And even granted that by dint of his transfer Rev. Father Mbaka has been moved from living in a duplex to a one room self-contained apartment as it were, does it in any way justify the fuss about his assertion of going to “Golgotha” to suffer? Or, is this transient change in the affairs of a mortal like (me) him worth publicly fussing about while forgetting in the same vein the enormity of the ordeal our Lord Jesus Christ, our great role model, experienced for the salvation of mankind? Or, could it be that the priests of nowadays no longer remember and reflect on the accounts of the lives and times of the likes of St. Augustine, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and, more importantly, our own highly revered, canonized and Blessed Michael Cyprian Iwene Tansi? Or, could it be that the same malaise inherent in the contemporary Nigerian dysfunctional system equally affects the calibre of our priests and priesthood candidates, as well?

But be that as it may, it must be clearly stated that while the decision of the Bishop of Enugu Diocese to effect the transfer of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka remains highly commendable and a right one in the right direction (which has invariably helped to bring to his consciousness the fact that he is still in the service of God within the Catholic order and not in the Pentecostal church or in a sole proprietor capacity), it need not be belaboured that the church authorities still have to keep an eye on him while he performs his duties as a resident priest in his new parish, with a view to ensuring at all times full compliance with the tenets, practices and liturgies of Catholic faith and Catholicism.

Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije writes from Abuja via duluemije4justice@yahoo.com (07012130204)

Issues in Father Mbaka’s Transfer Lamentations