Fr George AdimikeAs a chief witness of the glorious heritage bequeathed by the early missionaries, Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke has assumed the role of its great driver. One of these outstanding legacies is the education of the faithful. An ardent believer in human formation and education of the youth, Archbishop Okeke gladly embraced the responsibility entrusted to the Church two millennia ago (cf. Matthew 28:19-20) and took the efforts of his venerable predecessors—the great founders of the Church in Onitsha—and their immediate successors to a new level of depth. It is such that no objective person would deny that the Archbishop has achieved, in the education sector, what would ordinarily be a herculean task or an ideal many extraordinary achievers would dream of for many decades.
The impact of his episcopacy on education has made Archbishop Okeke synonymous with education. Education is his substance, skill, and style. A few minutes with him is likely filled with education. He teaches with words, examples, and deeds. To justify this, one has to look at his administrative acts during these two decades of his episcopacy; surely, what is seen today has precedence in his days as the Rector of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIn embarking on his education apostolate, the road map has a precise spelling. The Archbishop engaged with the necessary ideation and then launched the idea to get his collaborators’ buy-in. He organised its launch and continued its marketing through the annual corporate retreat facilitated by Professor Pat Utomi, of the Pan-Atlantic University, and his team. The Archbishop wrote a pastoral letter, “Our Greatest Legacy,” detailing the rationale and importance of education. He engaged in personnel recruitment and training, and reorganised the education department for more efficient service delivery. To date, he has trained over ten priests up to PhD level in world-class universities in Italy, the United States, Canada, the Philippines, and Nigeria to administer the various secondary institutions in the Archdiocese. To make the point apodictic, here are some of the educationists he trained: Fr Dr Paschal Onwugbenu, Fr Dr Gabriel Anochilionye, Fr Dr Emmanuel Emenu, Fr Dr Peter Nwadimkpa, Fr Dr Celestine Okafor, Fr Dr Francis Unegbu, Fr Dr Jude Udechukwu, Fr Dr Aloysius Anyichie, Fr Dr Henry Ekeh, Fr Dr George Okpala, Fr Dr Marcel Chukwunonye, and Fr Dr Matthew Obiekezie. Some others are still in training.
The Archbishop’s commitment to human capital development is next to none. It is first among unequal. He has trained and still trains priests in areas as diverse and versatile as medicine, pharmacy, accounting, biotechnology, engineering, theology, philosophy, psychology, software engineering, mathematics, law, architecture, mechatronics, education, scripture, digital and strategic communication, political science, music and so on. After transforming secondary education to an excellent performance level, he delved into tertiary education and formation. Aside from giving special attention to the spiritual year and major seminaries within the Province, he established the Holy Family Youth Village for holistic human formation and a conducive academic environment for students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He also established a College of Nursing, which has outperformed most of its kind, and presently he founded the first and only university in Onitsha, Shanahan University, Onitsha.
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As an analogue to a famous saying, ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’, the Archbishop operates with the principle of integrating excellent soft infrastructure and great hard infrastructure for a great output in the formation of students. Simply, it means quality assurance in the material to be taught and those teaching it on the one hand, and a good environment and top-notch physical space for formation on the other. To achieve the transformative revolution in education, the Archbishop embarked on a massive reconstruction, rehabilitation and renovation of secondary schools left to decay for decades due to mismanagement and abandonment. The physical spaces for learning in the Archdiocese can be compared to the many great schools in their cadre in many parts of the world. They have undergone a tremendous transformation and count among the miracles of outstanding leadership.
Indeed, in executing his education philosophy, the Archbishop undergirded it on the principle that education is an enabler of discipleship. His vision and drive for an educational revolution prioritises the comprehensive human formation that educates all three dimensions of man: the intellective, the affective, and the operative (the Maduka principle, the dignity of the human person). Rooted in his recognition that love and knowledge are mutually cooperative, the Archbishop equips the faithful with knowledge of God through created order for a convinced surrender and adoration. There is no love devoid of knowledge; no religion can rightly exclude science. No matter the discipline, all knowledge is supposed to lead to God and personal transformation. Knowing the laws of physics, or the behavioural pattern of chemical elements, or the dynamics of social organisations, or the know-how of software, or the basics of child-rearing, or the rubrics for liturgical celebration, or the explanation of the theandric nature of Christ, or the differentiation of the hypostatic individuation of the Blessed Trinity, inaugurates one into the depth of reality from a perspective and a circumference. Education leads one from the facts of life to the truth of reality, God, irrespective of the discipline. It integrates the head and the heart, for education that is worth its weight in gold transforms knowledge into love, the love of God.
Though a theosphere, the arena of the mystery of God, the human heart is intellectually being purified through education to assume the identity of and similarity to God. Through erudition involved in education, the self is cultivated, which readies it to adequately impact society as the soul is affected by the light of truth. In that way, the darkness of ignorance, evil and sin is dispelled by the luminous existence of well-formed Christian citizens. By investing in education, Archbishop Okeke demonstrates his full grasp of the import of education as the process through which humans are weaned off the attachment of primordial animalistic tendencies in order to live a cultivated, groomed, trained, and redeemed existence. Regardless of the direct object of a particular learning experience, the Archbishop underscores the value of education to the subject and society irrespective of the discipline.
His success in this area cannot be justly articulated without a mention of the strategic partnership with the State he leveraged on and nurtured for the good of the people. This strategic partnership between the Church and the State, which Anambra represents, has yielded many positive dividends for the Archdiocese and facilitated the good of the entire State. Through healthy competition and cooperation, exemplary capital and paradigmatic value, domino effect and peer influence, the revolution in Onitsha has impacted the whole State. Anambra State, thought to be indifferent to education in favour of commerce, has reclaimed its proper position as the best State in education in Nigeria. She has proven it repeatedly such that no iota of doubt is sustainable. Anambra students and schools lead in WAEC, NECO, JAMB and other competitions at national and international levels. They set the pace for excellence and success. What changed? The partnership, which offered the Church support in providing world-class education, discipline, and cultivation of character and skills to train the citizens of the state, has proved meritorious.
It is incontestable that Anambra, the light of the nation, is shining most brightly in the educational sector. Education, arguably, is the best export of Anambra to the country and the world. Mission schools contribute significantly to this status. It has resulted in a harvest of awards and a bazaar of victories. With the emphasis on the culture of excellence as the underpinning principle and trademark of the institutions of the Archdiocese, it is hoped that this revolution will endure, and one can only say kudos to the leadership acumen of Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke, which is the wand and formula of this success.
Fr George Adimike
findfadachigozie@gmail.com
