By Comfort Obi

The significance was not lost on the hundreds of people gathered. It couldn’t have. Nobody could have done it better, or shown a better example than His Grace, Archbishop Anthony Obinna, the retiring Catholic Archbishop of the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province.

His patriotic action was, at once, subtle and punchy. Its impact, immeasurable and unbeatable.

Since the masses suddenly became aware of their electoral power, their power to change the fortunes of Nigeria for the better, their power to change a bad Governnent, their power to vote out their non- performing rogue representatives, their power to take their money (why not, it is public money), and still vote against them, nothing has remained the same. And not a few rogue professional politicians are afraid. They are afraid of what tomorrow will bring. They are afraid of this sudden awakening of the youths. A political revolution is afoot.

In their millions, the youths are registering to get their Personal Voter’s Card, PVC. They are having a ball – singing, dancing, jiving for a change. Not a few of them have turned emergency musicians, emergency actors, emergency commendians just to drive their message home. Go get your PVCs let’s reshape our future, let’s give these politicians a red card. That is their chorus. Their weapon is their PVCs.

Traders are shutting down markets, their shops, and losing millions of Naira to the bargain just to get their PVCs. Imagine shutting down Alaba International Market, Lagos, where they make about $40b a month. They don’t care. They want a bit of the action. Bad governance is evil, they chorus. We can do something about it, they add.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is overwhelmed, so overwhelmed it has created more centres in Lagos and the South-east –  a first in the South-east. Hope rising. It will be difficult to see youths turning streets and market squares into football  fields on election days, especially, on the day of the Presidential election. That’s gone. It has become history.

Churches are not left out in the PVC “madness”. Priests have become,  the three, at once, the Federal Minister Minister for Information and National Orientation, the Public Affairs Director of INEC, and the Director General of the National Orientation Agency. They are harassing their Parishioners over the PVC. They are forcing them to get their PVCs. To them, it has become a ticket to salvation, to heaven.

To achieve that, some of the Priests have gone to the extreme.

On Sunday, June 12, at least, two Catholic Priests crossed the borderline. They embarked on “Operation show your PVCs or go home.” Don’t enter the Church. You will not be allowed to take the Holy Communion. They sent  Parishioners home. The action of one of them in particular was more dramatic and ridiculous.

Apparently, the Head of a Roman Catholic Tertiary Institution,  he not only stopped his students without PVCs from going into the Church, he told them that any one of them without a PVC would be failed in his/her examination. He said he had told them earlier that any student without PVC would have a “carry-over.” Meaning that student could even repeat a class over PVC.

Some of these Priests want to play God. They think the Cassock they wear is a license to say anything, do anything, talk to anybody anyhow. A number of them think they have the power of life and death. The key to Heaven. They don’t. Their job is to guide the weary, guide our footsteps so we don’t falter, to intercede for us, to uplift the spirit of the weary. It is not to treat us as a village headmaster would a pupil who failed “one plus one.”

The two Catholic Priests should be cautioned by their Diocesan Bishops, and the others warned never to send their Parishioners home over PVCs. That’s an overkill.  It is a civic responsibility. As their Priests, their job is to explain how important it is, and persuade them to go and register and get their PVCs.

The Priest who threatened to fail students, especially, should not only be cautioned, he should be sanctioned. He is not fit to head a school. He should be removed from office. Otherwise, Parents and students should watch out for him. If any student without  a PVC fails, the circumstances  behind the failure  should be thoroughly investigated. The paper should be re-marked by an uninterested party.The Priest has confirmed he is capable of corrupting the system, just like some politicians.

But,  back to Archbishop Obinna. His Grace is both a Priest and an activist. Every administration in Imo State knows that. As the saying goes, the fear of Obinna is the beginning of wisdom. He does not spare them. He does not condone bad governance, and he tells the Governors off  to their face. He is not the “Your Excellency, Your Excellency” type. He cannot be bought. He holds a strong opinion on  governance. When he talks, it is from a moral high ground.

On Thursday, June  9, 2022, Archbishop Obinna, as usual, effortlessly, stamped his  moral authority on the political freedom of the people. He did so at the Jubilee Hall, Owerri, venue of a reception in his honour.

It was his day. The crowning glory to  his decades as a Priest of the Roman Catholic Church. His Golden Jubilee celebration. 50 years as a Priest. It also marked his retirement as the very influential Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province.

Hundreds of people thronged the venue. The crowd was expected. The mighty and the low.

Present, expectedly, were scores of Priests.  Scores of Reverend Sisters. The who- is-who in the Catholic Province’s hierarchy. All those were expected.

What was not expected, however, was what Obinna did. His action. As he was being ushered into the Hall by the galaxy of Priests, amidst drums and cymbals, and joyful songs, led by two young girls dressed in their cultural outfit, dancing,  His Grace was expected to dance and sing along. You know, swing to the soul-lifting tunes.

He did not.

Instead, he pulled off a revolution. A patriotic revolution. A silent revolution. He showed the way to go.

As he walked in, broad smiles playing on his face, he brought out his weapon of revolution. His weapon for the emancipation of the people. His PVC.

He didn’t need to talk. He didn’t need to make any statement. He did not threaten anybody. He did not ask those without their PVCs to get out of the reception Hall. He did not ask them not to take part in the reception activities. He did not stand by the door of the Hall like a tax collector. Or a toll collector. What he did was disarmingly  ordinary. Yet, it  carried so much weight. And resonated.

As he marched into the  Hall to the glory of God, he waved his PVC, enthusiastically, at the cheering crowd. It was more than words could do. More than any “gra-gra” by any Priest or anybody could do. Without saying a word, he pointed at the way forward. The way to go.

May His Grace, even in retirement, continue to be the moral standard bearer of the people. And may he continue to show the way to go – in good health.

Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]