Ekpu: A Personal Retrospection On Candid Priesthood
By Emma Okondo
We will be remembering the transition of Archbishop Emeritus Most Reverend Dr. Patrick Ebosele Ekpu a year ago, precisely on the 6th August, 2024, with diverse memories of him, and what he stood for. So it is with my joyful retrospection of the genesis of his persona as it first registered in my head, on Thursday, 5th July 1973, during his installation as Bishop of Benin City, in succession to Most Reverend Patrick Joseph Kelly.
Then at 14 in St. John isBosco College, Ubiaja, my hometown, under the Ishan Division arrangement at the time, I was in the midst of excitement with peers over the unfolding event, fanned by the benevolent weather condition. There was a tendency for me to sinfully (Lord have mercy) join in discussing frivolous tales without a fixed origin, and that one knew nothing about, surrounding how some relatives were said to have wept (for whatever reasons) either at his first priestly ordination or for the prevailing happening.
But to a larger, more profitable dimension, one tried to lazily brood over the monstrosity of the centuries-old Catholic clergy. Also, battling to figure out the beginning of Catholic missionaries’ entry into Esan (Ishan as it was known) land through Ubiaja and Uromi (the Bishop’s own hometown) not distant away. One tried to assimilate the reality of Ekpu’s evolution to the Most Reverend title within that milieu. One tried to appreciate how he would be firming up a resolution to the faith on an elevated pulpit, to bear the tenuous Grace of God. Finally, I did try to estimate what his tenacity of purpose would be like for him to minister to the spiritual needs of the faithful for greater happiness as much as his predecessor, who had served for 34 years.
In reflection, in the first instance, my gratitude to His Grace Ekpu remains unfiltered for further fertilizing my commitment and dedication to Catholicism. While that was boosting my sentimental spiritual affiliation with Ekpu, nothing reminds me that I had a faint hope on how to be personally useful to the new Bishop. Poor me! And there l was who had benefitted from Kelly anointing me to receive my First Holy Communion in 1968 in Ubiaja, believing it had enhanced my obligation to Christ.
As the providence of God has had it, those who knew Ekpu better have told us emphatically that he reigned with “honour”, in “self-respect” and “respect for others” as much as Kelly, whom he surpassed in tenure of office by two years. A mind-boggling combination that I cherish.
Zoom to 1979. It is unforgettable that l never in my wildest imagination foresaw one’s once and only closest physical encounter with Ekpu, that became defined with a mixed feeling of sorrow and joy for me. As a student of the University of Benin, one day in 1979, an inspiration drove me into dashing to the Bishop’s Court along Airport Road in Benin City, to beg for Ekpu’s comfort over an ailment I was battling with. Never mind that my eldest sister, Mrs. May Unubun, was an esteemed nurse. For I was confident in the ability of the Most Reverend to draw from the miraculous healing might of Jesus Christ over the sick.
Leaving out the details (as TV news readers are fond of saying) of the affliction as it was between Ekpu, the doctor and me, the meat of it was that Bishop was an agent of compassion; calming me down, attending to me swiftly, and eventually directing me to the doctor’s clinic along First East Circular Road, with his complimentary card as covering note.
Not before laying his hand (I think the one with a ring) on my head to bid me good-bye. It gave me a momentous psychological satisfaction (undoubtedly in truth), that for the second time in one’s life, I would be privileged to be cleansed by the exaltation of substantive Bishops. Particularly, at my age at those times.
The other side of the engagement was that between our brief discussion and the final blessing where I was jittering, bending down my head, including closing and opening my eyes with intermittent rapidity, inquisitive instincts led me to as much as the opportunity provided itself, steal looks at his amazing handsomeness, his robust physical composure at 48 (me 20), within his carriage in cassock devoid of self-conceit. Indeed, my experience was that, within his bishopric imprimatur was a true servant of God.
When reminiscing on the event, I dwell in thankfulness to His Lordship, I keep commending his personal secretary at the time who permitted my jiffy meeting with Ekpu without my having to wait for too long.
Fast forward to 1983 for another perspective. Ekpu left me with a legacy of describing him as a Nigerian patriot, in his wisdom to meditate in the affairs of state, an expediency in social mobilization. It was on account of his emotionally presented and indispensable Pastoral Letter titled “Choosing Political Leaders: Reflection in an Election Year”, towards a genuine democratic process, issued on 25th January, 1983 as Bishop.
Said he: “As a Christian I of course believe in God’s power and His goodness” to such as “encourage political office seekers to have some visions to seek votes and know where they seek to lead”. He urged “all candidates, political parties and every citizen to grow in political tolerance”, ending with “Nigeria, Nigeria my dear country. ‘I could not love thee dear, so much loved, I not honour more”’.
Looking back, for those who had ears but refused to hear, the outcome of that civic exercise remains a reference point for evaluating visioners like him, for judging where our country is in our contemporary time.
I cannot now exactly pinpoint where I picked the pamphlet from, but most likely a Church or as it was distributed to staff of the Nigerian Television Authority, Benin City, I, being a renewed one that year. It became a tool for my fellowship with Ekpu psychologically, in trying hard to adhere to ethical standards in journalism while covering the July general elections, as our Manager News and Current Affairs, Professor (then Mr.) Tonnie Iredia, drummed it into our ears. Therefore, I am beholden to Ekpu. For he encouraged me to enthusiastically build myself in the vocation as I handled reportorial and editorial responsibilities on politics over many years.
For one’s years as an active resident diocesan lay person and being far from it, during which Ekpu passed over the staff of discipleship to Most Reverend Richard Burke in 2007 and Most Reverend Augustine Akubeze in 2011, I busied myself animating Ekpu’s phenomenal touch in advancing the body and spirit of the universal church. Doing so goes with a committed expression of love for him.
One, from the prism of his choice of Et Unum Sint! as his motto, translated into “That they may be one”, in attaining to the Kingdom of God, founded in the prayer of Christ. Without claiming full comprehension of or participation in the dictum, my understanding of it is that it enabled me to lean to the Cross as “IN CRUCE, SALUS”, a phase eternally lodged on the wall of the front entrance of Holy Cross Cathedral Church, Benin City. Each time I visited the Church or was driven past it, I’d be woken from slumber to the fact that it is the Cathedral of Archbishop Ekpu. What that always meant was I’d be suffused in contemplation, of imageries of him, that pounded me to reorder my mind (or more poignantly as a warning) of what it takes to live in strict conformity with being always in the presence of the Lord.
Two, as much as I cannot now exactly factor in whether or not, or when I ever witnessed Ekpu’s handmaid in the Transubstantiation of bread and wine into the real Body and Blood of Christ at Mass, the visions I built of him in the mystical process were not in vain.
Three, from my appreciation of Ekpu’s voluntary exit rested on the submissions made by church authorities, as I have read them, that he did not interfere with the work of his successors thereafter. Even though the depth of it is unknown to me, I can now place my impelling interest in garnering some satisfaction of how the current presiding Archbishop Akubeze, by his persona and within a dedicated routine, has as much as possible accomplished what is tangible in integrating the faithful in the archdiocese. To that extent, my reading of it is that there existed a bond of fellowship between Ekpu and Akubeze that was beyond the full understanding of mere human beings but, that of the abundance of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For the latter zealously superintended over the laying to rest of the former, for his precious goodness to be a memorial for a long time to come.
Since his transition coincided with the day of the Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ, memories of my examining it is that with Ekpu’s reported dexterous life in the priesthood, that should earn him the zenith of piety, the consequence being that his great soul would be among those of the faithful departed well rested in Heaven. In my human assumption, is a certainty that he could be taken in the likeness of a Saint. Yet again in my ordinariness, that is if his unabashed lovely and gentle face as I knew it, is anything to go by, in the first instance.
Aghast I was while taking the breaking news of Ekpu’s passage. And then processing it as it became a developing story as it gained momentum the next day, when my sister, Mrs. Joy Osakwe, transmitted excerpts of the commentaries she was gathering, with Benin City as the primary source, accompanied by a terse official statement by the Chancellor of the Benin City Catholic Archdiocese, Very Rev. Fr. Michael Oyanaofoh, for our family WhatsApp platform. Of course, the passing of the man had by then generated an outpouring of grieving from the flock in the immediate environment, within Nigeria, and all over the world.
If I jotted down in my diary that “The news really reached me with a personal feeling”, it was prompted by a reminder that Archbishop Ekpu was someone I owed a depth of gratitude for all time, after tasking his retentive memory (of which I was informed was yet resounding) when I sought to be educated on when the Holy Cross No.2 (now Oguola) Primary School in New Benin area of the city, my last school at that level, was founded. The troubled heart of mine, urging to infuse an important fact of a text in my book writing venture needed a huge relief.
I remember the departed Archbishop Emeritus so well because l had pestered the life of my friend Very Rev. Fr. Thomas Yakubu-Gowon Abdul-Salami, and through him Oyanaofoh and to Ekpu’s Private Secretary, Rev. Father Freedom Omodiale in that order, during the ongoing Lenten season of the year outside their tenacious religious obligations for an answer. It was Omodiale, who, in a snap chat of Tuesday, 12th March, unequivocally stated that “From His Grace, the school was established in 1928”. Why will I not be eternally appreciative of such a privileged gesture.
As this revelation would have it, it is heartening that a parental obligation to the Catholic-owned Veritas University, Bwari, Abuja in 2023, won me a captivating experience of the footpath to the immortalization of the new building of the university’s College of Medicine named after Ekpu, even before departing our earthly realm.
But what is the inspiration to it? As the story goes, and this is profound for me to commend the recipient, the donor, Mr. Johnson Ikhide, was into solemnizing with His Grace, perhaps because of the cordial relationship between them. I was moved that the university authorities led by the Vice Chancellor, Rev. Father Professor Hyacinth Ichoku, have described the project as that which “aligns very well with the long Catholic tradition of emphasis on spiritual, moral, intellectual and human capital development, ‘that they may have life and have it to the full”’. (John 10:10). Which is why I am pleased that my further adventurism unveiled that the ground breaking and foundation laying ceremony corresponded with the 91st birthday anniversary of the beneficiary that Thursday, 26th October. And to be sure, my ruminating over the epochal event was that it must have been driven by the Church’s heritage of meticulously preserving historical records for educational purposes, a pursuit that Ekpu gave his best to, and won him a reputation. With it, I win a lesson that I should strive to do what is worthwhile for the progress of humanity.
May the soul of Archbishop Emeritus Most Reverend Patrick Ebosele Ekpu continue to rest graciously in the bosom of the Lord Almighty. And may the Archdiocese of Benin City, in receiving showers of blessings poured forth by our Saviour Jesus Christ, grant us the courage to continue supporting our guardian, Archbishop Akubeze, and for the Church to remain resilient in withstanding the pressures of unfriendly forces, through the Holy Spirit, Amen!
To wrap up. Dear reader, if this piece goes well with you as my modest tribute to His Grace Patrick Ekpu as a model Sheperd, I’d feel truly fulfilled, that, what I couldn’t immediately deliver due to my inability to locate certain personal written records and library materials, especially the Pastoral Letter kept in my archives, at the time of his passage, has now come to be.
Emma Okondo is formerly Deputy Director News at NTA Headquarters, Abuja.
