My Personal Encounter With Bishop Obinna
By Ochiagha Nnanna Okere.
The recently retired Archbishop, His Grace, Rev. A.J.V. Obinna touched my life in a way that I will never forget. He prayed for me and God answered the prayer. Let me share my encounter with him that changed the trajectory of my life for good.
One day I was sitting with my mother of blessed memory Ezinne Cecilia Onyemaechi Okeke in front of my father’s house brainstorming about my going to Kogi state for my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) when a car stopped and behold it was the People’s Bishop , Bishop Anthony Obinna. We were surprised to see him coming to our house. He told us that he had gone to see one of his friends, Rev. Fr. Mmegwa from Ihitte a neighboring town and decided to greet my parents, unfortunately my father was not around.It was only I and my mother.
After exchanging pleasantries, my mother had offered to bring something for him to drink but he said he was in a hurry to rush back to the diocese. My mother was quick to inform him that I was planning to leave for my NYSC but unfortunately I was posted to Kogi state against my desire to serve in FCT Abuja. That I was not happy going to Kogi State. He looked at me and smiled and said, “Kogi and Abuja are close,” and I said, “Yes, but I would have loved to go to Abuja.” My mother asked him to pray for me before he leaves. Immediately I knelt down and he prayed for me. At the end of the prayer he said, “May God Almighty grant you the desires of your heart,” and my mother and I said a big “Amen!!” and he left. That was the first time a Bishop prayed for me apart from when I received the sacrament of confirmation by Late Bishop Mark Unuegbu.
Few days later, I left for Kabba, Kogi State.During our three weeks orientation camp, one day we went for an endurance trek and entered inside one of the secondary schools at Kabba LGA. I met a corps member serving in that secondary school and asked him the prospects of one getting a good place to do primary assignment and also securing a job after the service year. He told me point blank that teaching was the only option and the possibility of one securing a job after service was not certain as there were no jobs in Kogi state for non-indigenes. I told him that I would not like to teach at all, although I was a product of the teaching profession. My parents were teachers and almost all my brothers and sisters that went for service taught but I needed something different. We ended the conversion and left.
As we were going back to our camp, a female corps member excused me and apologized for eavesdropping on my discussion with the corpsmember and asked if I would like to redeploy to another state after our orientation that he could help and I said, “Yes!” She demanded for mydetails and as fate would have it I was redeployed to Abuja for my primary assignment. When, I got my redeployment letter and remembered the prayer of the Bishop it confirmed that God indeed answers prayers.
Another time I had encounter with Bishop Obinna was in 2011 when I visited Nigeria from Italy. My senior brother and former governorship aspirant in 2019 under APGA, Engr. Augustine Okere’s company had won a contract to renovate the Maria Assumpta Cathedral Owerri. He sent some documents and drawings for me to deliver to the Bishop. He had called the Bishop that I was coming. When I got to the cathedral I was ushered in to the awaiting room, few minutes before he came in. He recognized me and said in Igbo, “Enyia inokwanu ebe kemgbe,” (My friend where have you been?). I told him that I have been out of the country living in Italy. Immediately I mentioned Italy, our conversation changed to Italian language and we discussed at length. I recall one striking question he asked me, “Whether Italians have started going to church?” and I told that it was the same old story, only the old and the children go to church in Italy. And he said, “Very soon, we will be sending people to go and preach the gospel to them”. After I handed the documents to him, this time around I asked him to pray for me, which he did and I left. May the God Lord continue to bless our amiable Bishop in retirement! AMEN.
