Enugu
Debacle: Politics in the Name of God--Catholism and Theocracy
By
Segun
Toyin Dawodu, MD
segun@dawodu.com
A recent report
from
Enugu
state,
Nigeria
said there was a pandemonium at the
Government
Technical
College
ground where a reported 14 people died and many were wounded.
Immediately there
were accusations and counter accusations about the involvement of the Enugu
Government using its thugs who shot at the crowd, this was later changed to an
accusation that the government agents actually used poisonous gas.
My initial
questions where the following:
- Who
planted the poisonous gas and how were they able to do that within the
ground without being affected themselves? EXCEPT they had gas-masks on
– where there witnesses to prove this?
- What
type of poisonous gas could be used in an OPEN FIELD to have such
devastating effect without using an ENORMOUS QUANTITY introduced from
a HIGH ALTITUDE to have a widespread effect?
- What
type of gas could be so easily released to cause death so quickly with
such a few so affected?
- Could
the other sustained injuries (outside those caused in the process of a
stampede) be attributed to
poisonous gases?
Answers to
the above questions will provide evidence that no poisonous gas
could have met the criteria to be able to achieve some of the results
being banded together by Oji and Nwodo. I personally believe
that independent parties with
Enugu
state interests should bring these facts to the attention of the
public and ask why Oji and Nwodo instead of providing solutions for
this calamity that befell their stateare making mockery of the dead and insulting the intelligence of the
people of
Enugu
state for their sadistic political enhancement.
The fact that
the Catholic Church is the source of this pandemonium is neither new nor
peculiar to
Enugu
State. The Catholic
Church has been known to dabble into politics acting as agent-provocateur for
politicians whom they think they could get recognition or benefits from and
against politicians who refuse to toe their line of thinking using the name of
God in vain.
Before I am
labeled as an anti-catholic, May I say that as an Anglican Christian, I have
nothing against the doctrine of Catholicism as it pertains to the tenets of
Christianity.
The Catholic
Church has from time in history used its organization to put pressure on
politicians to do their biddings and refusal often lead to accusations,
anti-government campaign using the church’s pulpits to deliver
anti-government “sermons”, all these in the name of God.
Few Examples
of this will be given to show the extent to which the Catholic Church will go
using its priests like Reverend Mbaka of
Enugu
State
to destabilize a government that refuses to co-operate with it. A recent
Vanguard Newspaper article gave a reason for this imbroglio viz:
“It
began in the early years of governor Chimaroke Nnamani in late 1999 when Rev.
Father Ejike Mbaka had launched a sustained criticism of the governor
following alleged governor
involvement in the murder of late Sunday Ugwu, elder brother of the
embattled vocal legislator in the state, Hon. Nwabueze Ugwu. Rev. Father Mbaka
who claimed to have counselled the governor on several occasions on issues
that concerns the proper administration of the state to no avail, said during
one of his weekly adoration sermons that he decided to criticise the governor
publicly because he allegedly "ungodly" and impervious to good
advice. The massive retrenchment of civil servants in
Enugu
in 1999 by the Nnamani further strengthened Mbaka critical position on the
governor.”
Reverend
Mbaka was again quoted in the same article to have boastfully said:
"The
Catholics here in
Enugu
support the PDP. We have
about 75% of votes here being the single largest Christian denomination in
Enugu
.
The large percentage is not guaranteed in the future if the PDP continues to
support this man (governor). This regime here has been
sponsoring murders of innocent citizens in
Enugu
state. In fact, we had sent list of government hit-man to the police here in
Enugu
but no positive response has come out of it."
This veil threat
from the Catholic Church using Rev Mbaka could be traced to the policy of the
VATICAN
where the policy of one God one nation in which the ground was set and
efforts are being made to achieve religious and political control of crucial
policies in governments in notable states in the world including the
USA
.
In the USA for
example, this is inspired by the Vatican and made possible through the
National Council of Catholic Bishops who have continuously created the
impression that they speak for the millions of Catholics in the USA and using
this as a formidable political force to intimidate politicians.
The above tactics
are now being perpetuated by the Bishops in
Enugu
state using Rev. Mbaka as a front. Their political force as mentioned by Rev
Mbaka lies in having about 75% of the votes and therefore indirectly saying
“do or die” politically to the politicians in Enugu State including the
Governor who refuse to do their bidding. For a young governor like Chimaraoke
Nnamani who is also less experienced with dealing with the church, it
is like David against the Organizations and Machineries of a Goliath many
times over and the Catholic church knows this and using this with the help of
Nnamani’s political enemies to perpetuate this un-Godly and dastardly act.
A further look
into the past will also reveal the that the Catholic Church also goes against
the freedom of the press as part of its orchestration to control the political
process of any state it wants. The catholic hierarchy has consistently refused
to accept the concept of freedom of the press.
In an article by
Stephen Stomley aptly titled Vatican Rejection of Freedom of the Press, he
said:
“Pope
Gregory XVI (1831-1846) "condemned the ideas of liberalism. He viewed
freedom of conscience as a `false and absurd concept,' indeed a mad delusion.
Freedom of the press, to his mind, could never be sufficiently abhorred and
anathematized. In 1850, Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) branded freedom of the press
and freedom of association as intrinsically evil.”
The
influence of the Catholic Church in other foreign lands including
Lebanon
is well documented in George Irani’s The
papacy and the
Middle East
in which he also attributed the
Vatican
interest in
Lebanon
to be economic. Further instances of meddling in other countries include
Argentina in which an
Associated Press story in the May 21, 1997, Kansas City Star reports
that Cardinal Pio Laghi—then
Archbishop and Papal’s Ambassador in Argentina--has been accused by a
leading human rights group in Argentina, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, of
complicity in the torture, murder, and kid napping of thousands of suspected
political dissidents. The group charges that he “collaborated closely with
the 1976-1983 military dictatorship” during the so-called dirty war and, on
the testimony of “a bishop, seven! Priests, a mother superior, and two other
persons, [was seen] at the government’s secret prisons and torture centers
“The group has asked
Italy
to prosecute Laghi
and the pope to lift the cardinal’s diplomatic immunity so he can be brought
to trial.
While
Southern Nigerians have been calling for a review of the Sharia Laws, they
have forgotten to look at their own “backyard” for the existence of an
evil force that is gradually creeping into our political consciousness and
trying to take over our mind in the name of God, perpetuating the evil
machination through political control, using the like of Rev Mbaka to
implement their un-Godly acts for a total control of the political will of the
people and daring anyone like Governor Nnamani to come against them and face
the choice of a political suicide.
While
I pray to all to re-examine their conscience on this issue of Catholicism and
Politics, I will conclude this article by quoting John Swomley again:
“
All
this is evidence why political ecumenism is a real danger. Progressive
Catholics and non-Catholics must examine every proposal by Catholic bishops
and Catholic politicians with unusual scrutiny as to whether they will move us
ever closer to a theocratic state--quite like the state advocated by such
Protestant right-wing groups as the Christian Coalition, Promise Keepers,
Focus on the Family, and James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries. There is
some evidence that they may already be in bed together. “
May God in his
infinite mercy, show us all the guiding light and save us from the modern day
Pharisees calling and using the name of God in Vain.
For
a follow up on this Read : No friend of Democracy by Edith Moore to understand
the political mischief of the Catholic Church on how they helped the fascists
to power in the early 20th century:
http://home.earthlink.net/~velid/cf/nfd/
References
- The
Worldwide Impact of Religion on Contemporary Politics, edited
by Richard L. Rubenstein.
New York
: Paragon House, 1987.
- Theocracy
- http://www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_theo.html
- Catholic
Church Vows to Resist Governor: THIS-DAY
http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20020315news18.html
- You
shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.:
Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy
5:11
http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp
- One
Nation, One God by John M. Swomley :
http://www.population-security.org/swom-98-05.htm
-
Enugu
Crises: Presidency Wades in:
VANQUARD http://www.vanguardngr.com/news/articles/2002/march/16032002/f1160302.htm
-
Vatican
Rejection of the Freedom of the
Press by S. Stumford: http://www.population-security.org/22-CH14.html
- Catholicism
and Politics in
France
: http://www.pust.edu/oikonomia/pages/febb2000/puel.htm
- Eschatology
and the world:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/5552/jan.htm
- The
papacy and the Middle East by George Irani
- NO
FRIEND OF DEMOCRACY by Edith Moore : http://home.earthlink.net/~velid/cf/nfd/