What happened in 1906 in Nnewi
that made the significant deities or arụsị lose many of their worshippers to
Christianity, a new religion of the whiteman, are now happening in Nigeria. At
that time, the elders of Nnewi and most Igbo communities gave the Christian
missionaries the evil forests of powerful deities, namely, Udo, Ogwugwu, Nweke,
Egbochi, etc. to build their churches hoping that the deities would make names
for themselves by decimating the whiteman and his intruding deity, called God
who they claimed was higher than any other deity.
Nnewi and other Igbo deities'
worshippers' disappointment paned into laughter when the pan-Igbo shrine at
Arochukwu in today's Abia State, south-east Nigeria, had been levelled and that
the British Expeditionary Armed Forces publicly executed the revered chief
priests. An Nnewi person represents most of what Igbo people are known for.
They believe that "ọgbọ m ka m, efee m ya", meaning that "a
victor must claim his prize." They are merit and results-driven. "Now
that the God of the whiteman has defeated their gods, why not transfer
allegiance to a more powerful deity?" the Igbo people asked. The same
thing the users of typewriters did when computers appeared. And many of them,
except the beneficiaries of the status quo, moved on to worship the whiteman's
deity. It is understandable that people react differently to change. And it
played out.
Consequently, the Igbos were
indoctrinated and asked to jettison their old beliefs, including the reasonably
practical ones like the long-held belief that "there is no common God for
the human race". The Igbos believe that each individual has his own
"Chi onye" or "personal God" responsible for the person's
destiny. They believe that height or low anybody achieves in life is a function
of how good or powerful his "Chi" or "God" is. The Igbo
saying of "onye na chi ya" or "each person is guided by his own
God" resonates today. It is a person's Chi that protects him. Christianity,
especially the Catholic Church, made Igbos rather see their personal Chi as
guardian angels. They went ahead to construct a big Chi or "Chi
ukwu", also written as "Chukwu". With this, every Igbo Christian
is required to start depending on one Chi for protection. Perhaps, out of a
feeling of abandonment, our various personal Chi left us to our own devices.
And this fell apart.
For many years, Christianity has
sold the sanctity of their places of worship to credulous Igbos, and they
believed them. Sanctuaries were still built in many churches where the faithful
converge to pray instead, to take their eyes away from the shrines of their
ancestors' deities. The recent events in Nigeria have brought to scrutiny, the
impregnability of sacred places of worship and their capacity to serve as a
bunker or refuge to worshippers. It is faith-shaking to behold successful
massacres of Christians inside the churches where the power of their God ought
to be at full strength. How would God watch and see evil men invade God's house
and kill not only His pious worshippers but also the chief priests? The
murderers also desecrate the sanctuaries and all that the worshippers consider
holy. How can a sinful killer touch and kill the anointed so easily and destroy
the dedicated Church of God?
These are hard questions that
must be explained to an Nnewi man as he is being brought to the decision point
in 1906. Where would a human being run to, order than to his powerful God's
house, which he is told is a refuge and protector? Catholic Church teaches that
Jesus who is also God also resides in the Holy Sacrament and the Church. How
come the sinful invader, a mere man, could waste or destroy the Blessed Sacrament
and destroy its tabernacle? How could the faithful comprehend killings inside
St. Philip's Catholic Church Ozubulu on 6 August 2017 and another at St.
Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom, Benue State on 24 April 2018? While the
priest in Ozubulu escaped, those in Benue were not that lucky. They died along
with worshippers in the house of their God, inside the very house that should
have been their refuge.
Agents of death have also reduced
the radical members of the Christian fold's power and claims known as
Pentecostals. The herdsmen and Islamic fundamentalists have been making
mincemeat of many Pentecostal churches in Northern Nigeria and their members
and elsewhere in the world without a supernatural challenge. Could it be that
Christianity oversold security to Nnewi people and entire black Africa in a bid
to gain worshippers? How can we be made to lose a monkey to gain a baboon? As a
confessed Christian and a Roman Catholic, I have brushed aside the earthly
protection being sold to me without guarantee by men of God and some priests to
pursue the promises of the new world after death. My decision was hinged on a
disclaimer issued by the owner of my adopted religion in John 18:36 that his
Kingdom is not of this world. Matthew 4:8-9 validates that Lucifer or Satan was
given ownership of this world after the civil war in Heaven.
When he was offered the Earth and
its Glory by the leaseholder called Nwaekwe or Satan in Matthew 4:9, Jesus rejected
the terms and the offer. It would be a comforting mark of integrity if the
Christian leaders could swallow their pride, apologise to their followers and
tell them that they do not have adequate protection for them against murderers,
Boko Haram, killer Herdsmen and other natural disasters; that they should find
different ways to protect themselves than to depend entirely on prayers and running
to Church for protection. It is a mark of wickedness for Europe to sell
ineffective protection to mostly Africans, a product they used and dumped, and
still went ahead to build advanced military hardware and equipment for safety
that they sell to us for our own destruction through inter-tribal conflicts.
Who will blame an Igbo man who,
after reminiscing on his people's history and the failure of his new Christian
religion to offer him reliable security in the face of danger, decides to arm
himself with traditional, religious and conventional weapons to protect
himself? By adequately arming self with a variety of protectors like ọdụụna,
eti a da, ọdaeshi, etc. the Igbo man believes that "nkea alụghịịọlụ nke ọzọ
alụọ ya" meaning that "any of the weapons could be the
lifesaver". To his critics of multiple self-protection, the an Nnewi man
would say: "onye gbuo onwe ya ọ na eje!" meaning "a person who
leaves himself unprotected committed suicide". After all, the country, the
government, Christian God and other gods derive their essence from the living.
The most outstanding deceit
soaked in eternal shame is that our political leaders who daily assure us of
security and their religious counterparts that sell theirs from the pulpit
don’t play with external security as they are well guarded by physically armed
security agents. Only God knows the complementary but invincible security
gadgets they tie to their waists, traditionally made devices breathing inside
their stomachs and other native doctors’ prepared vaccinations on the various
parts of their bodies.
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