Tribute to Sunday Mbang

John Onaiyekan

It is a great honour for me to be invited to pay tribute to His Eminence Prelate Sunday Mbang, on this formal occasion here in his home environment in the city of Uyo. I take this opportunity to recall and celebrate certain salient points of his life journey at which providence brought our paths to cross.

Starting from the beginning, my first contact with Prelate Mbang was when he landed at the department of religious studies in the University of Ibadan as a young Scripture Scholar, doctorate graduate of the prestigious ivy league Princeton University in the United States. At that time Dr Sunday Mbang found himself in the department of religious studies whose emphasis was on academic and comparative study of the three main religious traditions in Nigeria. Its philosophy was encapsulated in the tittle of the official journal of the department ORITA, a Yoruba word meaning a meeting point on a cross road. This was a reflection of the idea of the founder of the department, the British academic, Rev. Prof Parinder. His interest was rather on the phenomenology of religions, with little attention and interest to faith convictions and commitment, which he suspected to be obstacles to objective professional academic exercise and approach to the study of religions. That was the reigning academic fashion in that era of rabid secularism. It is not surprising that the heads of that department namely; Parinder, followed by Idowu and at the time of the arrival of Dr Mbang, Awolalu, were all specialists in African traditional religion, even though they were all also ordained Christian ministers.

The department had three sections; African traditional religion, Christianity and Islam. The teaching staff was practically all ordained Christian ministers. These included also the teachers of Islam, in a section of Islam effectively boycotted by Muslims, students and teachers alike, who had moved into a later established department of Islamic and Arabic studies.

The Christian section was quite weak, since it was neither a department, less still a faculty, of Christian theology. Landing in this environment, with a fine doctorate in Biblical studies from the prestigious Princeton University, Dr Mbang found himself very much under used, in terms of Biblical scholarship. At that time, I was the rector of SS Peter and Paul Major Seminary Bodija, where I also occupied the Chair of Sacred Scriptures, armed with my own doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the best Pontifical University in Rome. Our first meeting was enough to make us bond together. We shared interest in high level Biblical studies.

Soon Mbang was withdrawn to serve under Patriarch (Prelate) Prof Idowu at the headquarters of the Methodist Church Nigeria. On my part, I too was withdrawn by the Pope from Bodija Seminary and appointed Bishop in Ilorin. But the bond established grew stronger from academic to pastoral and church leadership.

Our next serious contact was in the context of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (can) in which both of us got involved as young Bishops. He became president of CAN after Archbishop Okogie of Lagos. I served later as his Deputy. We worked very well together to stabilise the turbulent religious environment of those days. Much was also done to streamline the organisation of CAN with a lot of effort to draft a workable Constitution.  Many government policies exacerbated the conflict situation between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, making harmonious living together between us challenging. As CAN president, Prelate Mbang brought into play his tremendous attitude of peace building. Even among our different Christian groups, he had to calm frayed nerves every so often.

This was due to the leadership and spirit of peace and harmony of Prelate Mbang. He facilitated a fruitful discussion and decision to reach out to the Muslim leadership in Nigeria for the purpose of creating a forum for dialogue in view of promoting better mutual understanding and reducing inter-religious tensions. He shared this proposal with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo during a courtesy visit with him at the Presidential Villa. The President jumped on the idea. He facilitated a meeting of the leadership of the CAN with the counterpart of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, (SCIA).

The meeting took place at the Sultan Machido’s Palace in Sokoto, where, as if by miracle, a decision was taken to establish the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council, NIREC. An inauguration date was promptly chosen for September 29th, an event that was facilitated in the International Conference Centre, Abuja, with the leadership of Prelate Mbang and Sultan Machido and with the President Obasanjo himself presiding over the event. Prof. Yusufu Obaje, who was then State House Chaplain, was given the charge of all the logistics, an assignment he carried out in a most admirable manner.

It was natural that he became the first Coordinator of the Council, until he left office with President Obasanjo. So great was the role of Mr President in the establishment of NIREC that some rumours gained ground that the NIREC was established by government. But it was always understood by all concerned that the Council was a free association of the leadership of our two main religions. Subsequently a constitution was drawn up with the leadership under a co-chairmanship of the CAN President and the Sultan of Sokoto, an arrangement that has continued until now.

Prelate Mbang will forever be remembered as the ideological initiator of the NIREC. When his term ended, there was a peaceful transfer of Presidency to me. Our time together in leadership of CAN was a very exciting and spiritually enriching experience.

Worthy of note is the role of Prelate Mbang in establishing a formal forum of dialogue between Catholics and Methodists in Nigeria. By divine providence, in 1979, the Pope appointed me a member of the international Catholic-Methodist Dialogue Committee, with seven members from each side. We met each year for a week in alternating venues, discussing doctrinal and pastoral issues to bring our communities closer together. It was for me a most significant experience and a good opportunity to get to know more about the Methodist Church. I was the only black person on the committee of 14 high level Church leaders and theologians.

Coming back home, I shared my experience of the International Catholic-Methodist Dialogue Commission with Prelate Mbang. At that time, I myself, providentially, had become President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, (CBCN). We both agreed to replicate here at home the dialogue between our Churches at the global level. Thus began the bilateral Catholic-Methodist dialogue committee which is still active until now.

The leadership qualities of Prelate Mbang has been appreciated not only at home but globally. His emergence as the President of the World Methodist Council, making him the leader of all Methodists globally, was news of great joy and pride not only for the Methodist Church Nigeria but for all Nigerians, Christians and non-Christians alike. In that capacity, his performance was applauded all over the Methodist world. All this was God’s own doing, a wonder in our eye. It was for me a personal pride when our own Prelate Mbang led a delegation of the Methodist Church to the Vatican and had a well- publicised private audience with the Holy Father, Saint Pope John-Paul II. His visit made a great impression on our Catholic Church leaders in the Vatican. The officials of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which he visited with his entourage, told me later how impressed they were with my Nigerian brother Church leader. May the Lord be praised.

For about three decades, Prelate Mbang was a national prominent Church man. He was a genuine “man of God’’ in the line of the great prophets of old who spoke in God’s name to both rulers and people of the nation. He proclaimed the truth to all and sundry in clear terms, without fear or favour. He did this with a deep sense of patriotism and a sincere love for the nation. He fully deserved the award of a Commander of the Niger, (CON). His prophetic voice continued to ring out till his last breath. He had an unflinching faith in the destiny of Nigeria as a truly great nation. It must have pained him not to have seen his dreams realised, as he made his final exit from this valley of tears. It is now up to us left behind to sustain his dreams, praying and working that the nation finds its way to the greatness that the Almighty and Merciful God has destined for it.

In the last few months and especially since the highly disputed Presidential elections of last February, the nation has been facing serious challenges and uncertainties about our national cohesion. All eyes are now on the courts to deliver a final, fair and true judgement. This should be as soon as possible, so that the nation may begin to stabilise and move forward.  

The verdict, even of the Supreme court, will certainly not please everybody. But we all have to prepare ourselves now to accept it as the best we can get, and move on to join hands to restore and rescue our nation. We do well to remember the wise saying of the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, JSC, who declared: “the verdict of the Supreme Court is final, but not necessarily infallible. It is not infallible, because it can be wrong, and one may not necessarily agree with it. But it is final, in the sense that there is no higher court to appeal to, except to the court of the Almighty and All Just God. We pray for the courage to be sincere with ourselves, to forgive one another, to work for national reconciliation in order that we may achieve peace and genuine unity. We can hear Prelate Mbang sending this massage of peace and unity to our nation from his heavenly abode. May God save our nation.

On a final note, I am glad to report on this solemn occasion that the last honour that the Prelate Mbang conferred on me was to send me the manuscripts of his precious autobiography to review and to write a preface. This is an honour of which I shall be eternally grateful. The publication is for me what we in Christian literature call ‘’hagiography’’, literally meaning a “sacred writing”. Like the classical “Lives of the Saints”, it is a solid material, with valuable spiritual edification for the reader. It readily reminds us of the famous “Confessions” of St. Augustine. In this and in his other publications, he will continue to communicate with us from his eternal abode in paradise.

Prelate Mbang, RIP, resquiescas in pace, rest in peace, while you keep an eye on the church of God you have left behind to continue the task of spreading the Good News of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Keep an eye also on your beloved nation of Nigeria, presently going through turbulent times and self-inflicted pains. We, whom you have left behind, will continue to sustain your stubborn faith in the basic goodness of the Nigerian people, of all tribe and creed, and in the ever abiding and all-powerful loving care of God over us. God bless Nigeria.

John Cardinal Onaiyekan (CON), Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja delivered this piece during the Celebration of Tributes for Mbang in Uyo on August 9, 2023.