Ozubulu massacre: Prize for collective Silence – by Frank Ofili

A young man of no more than 40 years old (I hear he is actually 36!), without a known flourishing business, builds two massive churches worth hundreds of millions of Naira for his community – one of the churches in fact bears his name – and both the church institution and the community leaders accept the gifts without asking questions.

Worse, the young man has a collection of different traditional titles including Ozo, the highest in Igbo land. Traditional titles in Igbo land don’t cheap either.

Both the church authorities and the community leaders, even to some extent the government of Anambra State, appear to have been aware that the young man was involved in illicit drug business, yet everyone kept silent, perhaps because they were all benefiting from him

And then one early morning, gun men apparently searching for the young man, invade one of the churches and massacre innocent worshippers, and all the Parish Priest could say was that he had no choice but to escape to avoid being killed.

Where is the faith of this Parish Priest? Shouldn’t he be de-robed for two reasons – one for abandoning his flock in the face of the devilish attack, and the other for not warning the church institution about the shady young man and his Greek gifts?

If a captain abandons a sinking ship, his license is instantly withdrawn, if he survives. Why should same not happen to this man of God who could not cry to God to save his flock, but instead ran away, leaving them to the mercy of the attackers?

There is collective culpability for the massacre that happened in Ozubulu, if the statement of the State Governor, Willie Obiano, is anything to go by. The community leaders, the church leaders, and to some extent, even the State Government, all are guilty of collective silence in the face of a young man whose philanthropy could obviously not have come from legitimate income.