“While most returned with flourishing plants, one manager came with an empty pot, explaining that despite his best efforts nothing had grown,” Bishop Onah recounted, noting that the CEO made him his successor for being the only honest man who had not “changed the seed,” since all the seeds had been boiled.
The late founding Bishop of the Nsukka Diocese, he said, just like the honest manager, did not change the seed for glowing plants that were not from the seed the Lord gave him.
“Bishop Francis Okobo, whether we as human beings accept it or not, no matter how we judge the plants he presents to the Lord, we will agree he didn't change the seed,” Bishop Onah said in his homily during the August 30 event, which had Clergy, members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL) and the Laity in attendance.
The late pioneer Bishop of Nsukka Diocese was ordained to the Priesthood for Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Enugu in June 1966 at the age of 29 and served as a Priest for 54 years.
He served as the Local Ordinary of Nsukka Diocese for 34 years, following his Episcopal Consecration in January 1991, which St. Pope John Paul II presided over.
Meanwhile, in a tribute published on August 31 on the Facebook page of Nsukka Diocese, Fr. Cornelius Obe, the first Secretary to the late Bishop, has eulogized him as a fearless Church leader, who stood up against injustices during his Episcopal Ministry.
“As the first Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, he consistently demonstrated the courage to stand up and speak against evil, injustice, corruption, and bad governance,” recalls Fr. Obe in his tribute, adding that Bishop Okobo “raised his prophetic voice in defense of the Catholic faith and the authentic teachings and traditions of the Church.”
The late Bishop Okobo, he recalls, “was convinced that evil thrives in society when good men remain silent. For him, even if one’s life is the price for speaking the truth, such a sacrifice is worth making.”
He remembers the “Consensus Saga” of 2003, when the late Bishop boldly convened a dialogue to identify a consensus candidate for Enugu State governorship election, saying, “He was misunderstood, and on the hallowed ground of the Diocesan Secretariat, two tear gas canisters were detonated. Yet, he remained undeterred.”
Fr. Obe lauds the late Bishop for laying “both the spiritual and physical foundations” of the Suffragan Diocese of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Onitsha.
