Citation of Fr. John Odey during presentation of his book ~ “The Forbidden Truth and Clouds of Witness”

My job here is to unveil the spirit behind the mask; to unveil the icon of our time and times to come; the man who has shown time and again that the pen is truly mightier than the sword.
But as John of old found himself unfit to herald Christ, I confess that I am unfit to introduce the new John, our own John. But since it has to be so for now, let it be so for now.

The man for whom we are here gathered is a fulfilment of Karl Marx’s charge that philosophers should not just interpret the world but should change it. Our host has not just interpreted his times, but is changing it by personal example, which Prof. Achebe said is the hallmark of leadership. Our friend is a leader because he lives by his convictions.

As a social justice crusader, he fit perfectly into the mold of Aristotle’s man writ-large.

Bertrand Russel, a British philosopher awed by Plato’s philosophical musings, opined that Plato was the finality of philosophy and consequently held that other philosophers after Plato were merely writing footnotes on him. With all sense of modesty, one is tempted to conclude that Rev. Fr. Dr. John Okwoeze Odey, the gadfly, is the end and epitome of social justice activism in our time and clime and within the circle of his calling a near-perfect witness to Christ crucified; an alta-Christus, the sumnum bonum, while every other person after him of like persuasion is merely footnoting him.

The summary of this introduction to the introduction of our host, friend, priest, author, father, activist, accurate timer keeper, gadfly, the man who stooped and conquered, Fr. Odey, is the description of Vladimir Putin, the man who has held Russian politics at the jugular for over 3 decades switching from president to prime minister and vice versa, by the Sunday Guardian of London. Accordingly the paper describes Putin as a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma. Fr. Odey is a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma.

Rev. Fr. John Okwoeze Odey, the man whose spectacular courage and commitment to humanity brought all of us here today, is Ngbo, Ohaukwu Local Government, Ebonyi State, by birth. He had his primary school education in Sacred Heart School, Otinyi Ngbo, and passed out in 1964. He had his secondary education in St. Augustine’s Minor Seminary, Ezzangbo from 1972 to 1976. In August 1977, he proceeded to St. Augustine’s Major Seminary, Jos, for his philosophical and theological studies from where he graduated in 1984. He was ordained a priest on July 7, 1984, after which his Bishop posted him to Sacred Heart Parish, Onueke Ezza, where he worked for three years. In June 1987, he was posted to St. Theresa’s Cathedral as the Cathedral Administrator.

Three years later, in June 1990, he was sent to Rome where he read Moral Theology and got his Master and Doctorate Degrees within an unprecedented short period of time. On his return, he was posted to St. Patrick’s Parish, Kpirikpiri. In September 2009, he was posted out of St. Patrick’s Parish to his current place of assignment – Holy Trinity Parish and Holy Trinity College, Ngbo.

As a result of his inexorable resourcefulness and untiring workaholism, Fr. Odey was fondly given the nickname Nwoke-Ezuike by the parishioners of St. Patrick. That nickname sticks wherever he goes because, like Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it can rightly be said that his philosophy is I WILL ALWAYS WORK HARDER. It is interesting to note that Holy Trinity College, located far away in his remote village, has become a centre of academic excellence.

Due to his undiluted and practical application of the gospel message to the Nigerian condition, Fr. John Odey has become a household personality. Consequently, different people call him different names. Such names include: a rebel on the pulpit, the nemesis of bad politicians, a consummate scholar, an accomplished and prolific writer, John the Baptist and Prophet Amos of our time, the voice of the voiceless, a pragmatic administrator, an accountable and transparent manager, a selfless priest, an audacious social justice crusader and an ardent lover of humanity.

Those who admire Fr. Odey as a prophet of social justice come nearest to his fundamental disposition and deepest commitment. While all of us are familiar with biblical Ten Commandments of God, Fr. Odey has, in his crusade against injustice, dared to add another, making it eleven commandments. This is captured by the title of his two-volume book: The Eleventh Commandment: You Shall Not Keep Silent In The Face Of Injustice. Like John the Baptist, after whose name he took, Fr. Odey is a man who is not prepared to compromise justice for any prize or for any threat.

For him, the zeal to speak out against injustice is like the word of God that was burning like fire in the heart and imprisoned in the bones of Prophet Jeremiah (20:9). He makes it very clear in his autobiography that the struggle against injustice is the commitment of his life. His passion, dynamism and scholarly deftness as a prophet of social justice are more boldly spelt out in his 45 books, in his piercing Sunday sermons and the lectures that he has walked the length and breadth of the country on invitation to deliver at seminars, conferences and symposia,

While time does not permit us to name those books here, let it be said that one of them – This Madness Called Election 2003 – gave our political buccaneers sleepless nights when it was published. Fr. Odey is the first Nigerian who had the guts to describe Nigeria’s electoral brigandage as madness. To crown it all, sixteen years before it happened, he predicted the End-SARS protest of October 2020 in his most prophetic book, The Children of a Wicked Generation: Why they are Angry, Desperate and Vicious. Permit me to recall briefly what he said in that book. He wrote:

“We are all in trouble.

“Our nation is pitched in an abyss of pervasive and gargantuan moral decay.

“Who will bail the cat?

“If my personal view is anything to go by, I am of the opinion that while all of us are guilty of the mess, our young ones are guilty to a lesser degree.

“When you drive normal people mad, they will become mad.

“When they become mad, they will behave like mad people.

“When they start behaving like mad people, they will have no moral scruples and will be bent on destroying everything that has value as mad people do.

“While in action, if the spirit driving them tells them that they should destroy any being that walks on two legs anywhere they see one, they will do it.

“And once they start doing it, it does not matter whether their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters happen to be the visible beings walking on two legs.

“It makes no difference.

“As long as they walk on two legs they are enemies and must be eliminated.

“When this happens, everybody lives in fear.

“This is analogous with what is currently happing in Nigeria.

“We have driven our children mad and the entire society cannot stand under the weight and the intensity of their madness.”

Since 2004 when Fr. Odey raised this alarm, we have been seeing the madness he talked about straddling like colossus on our highways, on the streets of our big and small cities, on the pathways of our remotest villages and in our jungles. Our wicked generation has driven the young ones mad and there is no place for us to hide as they go on rampage, maiming, killing and shedding blood with impunity. As pessimistic as that might be, we see ourselves in a situation where we are compelled in this country to agree with Thomas Hobbes that life is short, nasty and brutish. When shall we start listening to the prophets of our own time instead of persecuting or even killing them?

As a result of his fearless advocacy for truth and justice, when he was transferred to his home parish in 2009, a journalist, Mr. Stephen Elem, spoke the minds of majority of people in Ebonyi State when he wrote in the Abakaliki Diocesan newspaper, Citizens’ Advocate, that “Silencing Fr. Odey is silencing the voice of majority.” Whatever was the motive behind silencing and sending him to his home parish, he has transformed that parish beyond the imaginations of both friends and foes.

The truth remains that as long as the ideas and the ideals which they stand for and propagate remain the common and the legitimate yearning of the people, the mission of the advocates of social justice is unstoppable. And so, recalling what Prof. Chinua Achebe said in his seminal book, The Trouble with Nigeria, it can safely be said that to stop Fr. Odey from developing a place of his assignment and from writing and fighting against injustice in Nigeria will be as difficult as trying to stop a goat from eating yam. This is a man we have seen thriving under the most excruciating form of persecution because he has been fighting a just cause. But why must it remain a paradox of history that those who clamour for peace and justice are often clamped down or eliminated by those who are entrenched in power?

Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to the cross for bringing peace to the world and for preaching justice.

The true prophets of old, Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others, had similar experience.

The Hindu saint, Mahatma Gandhi, was compelled to spend the greater part of his life in jail for struggling for the freedom of his people from British imperialism.

In Nazi Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed at the age of 39 years by Adolf Hitler because he challenged the atrocities he committed against the Jews.

In America, Martin Luther King Junior was killed at the age of 39 years for challenging the atrocities of racism.

Dele Giwa, the editor-in-chief of the Newswatch magazine and one of Nigeria’s most brilliant and most courageous journalists, was killed by a sophisticated letter bomb at the age of 39 years for defending the right of the oppressed.

In South Africa, Steve Biko was killed at the age of 31 years for his struggle against the apartheid regime.

In the same South Africa, Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years for his war against apartheid.

In El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot dead at the age of 63 years while celebrating mass for telling the leaders of his country to stop killing the innocent.

Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was killed at the age of 54 years for his environmental activism and defence of minority rights of Ogoni people whose land had been devastated by the British and Dutch oil interests.

Gani Fawehinmi was incarcerated many times in different prisons for fighting for oppressed Nigerians until he contacted the lung cancer during his long-term confinement in Gashua prison. He died of that cancer at the age of 71 years.

The list is endless. But these few constitute a graphic illustration of how the world treats those who clamour for justice. If you read Fr. Odey’s books, you will discover that all of these vanguards of justice constitute a catalogue of his revered models. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Martin Luther King Junior. He has written a book on almost all of his other revered models. Just as the struggle for justice was never a bed of roses for these great men, so, it has not been for Fr. Odey. But since no good or evil act can escape the probing minds of the public and the verdict of history, his tribulations in his diocese for daring to stand up against rampaging social injustice remains a festering wound in the court of public opinion. Permit me to substantiate this claim by recalling what one of his brother priests, Rev. Fr. Joseph Eze, now of blessed memory, said in a letter he wrote to Fr. Odey on July 12, 2009 as a tribute in respect of the silver jubilee celebration of his priestly ordination which took place on July 18, 2009. Fr. Eze wrote:

“Rev. and Dear Fr. John, You use your talents and intelligence energetically, risking your own life and comfort if only to serve and save the oppressed, the marginalized and the underprivileged. Your apostolate cries out for righteousness, equity, social justice, fair play and peace. You identify with the plights of the poor and the wretched, frowning at their misery and appealing – oh so passionately to the rich and those in power to bridge the gap. And right there is the potential location of your stiffest opposition – if not persecution – from the rich and those in authority!

“As I am sure you have learnt from experience, some of these oppositions are subtle, others swift and brutal. A good number of the rich do not believe in sharing, nor are they ready to part with their earthly possessions. Those in authority believe they own everything, every place and everybody. They are often prepared to use whatever means, no matter how drastic, to suppress whoever dares to question their life style or method of administration. The rest of your opposition might come from the envious, the greedy and the cowardly. But the poor and the weak have a friend in you. You are God’s able instrument.

“In spite of its rugged and risk-prone nature, it is to this apostolate that God has called you; and from what I can see, he has you well equipped for your mission. Fr. John, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Be of good courage and strength. Your mission is from and of God. Those who killed Jesus Christ thought they had the ability to destroy him, but they soon found out that they had, instead, permanently accentuated his divine celebrity. Whatever it takes to silence you, to intimidate you, to humiliate you and to extinguish your God-given apostolate would be a thing of joy for the enemy but a tragic loss and disservice to mankind. May God forbid it! Keep up your good works.”

Fr. John Odey was pained to the marrow when his brother priest, Fr. Joseph Eze, suddenly died on July 8, 2017. By then, he was putting finishing touches to his penultimate book, St. Thomas More: A Martyr for Truth and Right, when the devastating news hit him. By way of immortalizing Fr. Eze, he dedicated that book to him with the words: To Rev. Fr. Joseph Eze, a brother in need whose sudden death created a profound vacuum in my life. All that Fr. Eze predicted would happen to Fr. Odey did happen. But conscious of the prophetic vocation, Fr. Odey remains dauntless and has refused to be suppressed. That is why we are here today. Truth must be told. Justice must be proclaimed.

In concluding this profile, I wish to recall two sayings. The first goes this way: “A person who always speaks the truth has no friends. Do not speak the truth if you are not strong enough to stand alone.” Fr. Odey always speaks the truth. He has the courage it takes to stand alone. He has some enemies, the enemies of truth. But his friends massively outnumber his enemies. Secondly, it is said that a prophet has no respect among his people. As true as this biblical aphorism is, it does not apply to Fr. John Odey. Ask any Ngbo man or woman anywhere to tell you what he or she thinks about Fr. Odey, you will discover a prophet that is revered by his people.

Any person may choose to like or dislike Fr. Odey’s ways. But he is a man that no serious-minded person and no intelligent and dispassionate observer of the role he has been playing in Nigeria as a whole and in Ebonyi State in particular will wish to ignore. He cannot be ignored because his social activism against the systems and persons that reduce other people to subhuman conditions touches on the chord of humanity. He cannot be ignored because his voice is the voice of reason and the voice of conscience. He cannot be ignored because his voice consistently raises strident alarm in the human psyche and calls for immediate attention.

This same voice of Fr. John Odey has raised another alarm. By merely reading the title of the very book we have been invited to come and unveil, a good number of people who are familiar with his other books have predicted that it is going to be the book of books, a catalyst, and a bombshell. But it is not my job to pry into the contents of that book here and now. That is the task assigned to our respectable reviewer. My job is to make a brief introduction of the personality of Rev. Fr. John Okwoeze Odey. That is what I have done. I cherish that privilege. I thank you for listening with rapt attention.

By Esheya Greg,

A Friend of Fr. Odey.