A trap for ‘The Priest’

Genre: Stage play Title: The priest Reviewer: Tony Adibe

The drama entitled “The Priest” is set in the rural community called Ekwereazu apparently in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State which prides itself as the Eastern Heartland.

The period of the play is perhaps the time in history when so much ignorance and lack of awareness dominated society especially the Christian community; a period when the Bishop, as the sole administrative and spiritual leader of a Catholic diocese could, for a frivolous petition or complaint from a parishioner, pass judgment and sanction a Parish priest without giving him a fair hearing.

Although it’s a work of fiction, it no doubt reflects a lot of Catholic priests in some parishes in those days, maybe to date!

Thematically, “The Priest” is quite an impressive play which portrays the wicked, mischievous, scandalous and evil conspiracy of a tiny clique led by the notorious Parish Council chairman, Elder Kadurumba. The conspiracy is targeted at Rev Fr Francis Chikadibia, the parish Priest of St Louis Catholic Church Parish in a place called Ekwereazu, Imo State. The idea is simply to pull him down as a way of teaching him the lesson of his life. His “offence” is that he does not succumb to the undue, negative, pressurefrom the corrupt members of the parish Council of Elders whose stock in trade is to exploit and oppress the poor widows and the helpless in the parish. At a point Kadurumba and his callous and cruel cabal have the audacity to confront Fr Chikadibia in his office one-on-one, warning him to stop donating palliatives to the poor widows or else they would let him know that they own the Ekwereazu community and “we would put you, Fr Chikadibia in a sack of pepper!”

But their threat does not move Fr Chikadibia, who never relents in giving material, physical and spiritual assistance and protection to the helpless widows and the needy in the parish. As the devil doesn’t get tired easily, the ‘elders of mischief’, led by their grandmaster of evil, Kadurumba, decide to set a trap for the priest, using Kadurumba’s fair daughter, Oluchi.

Even when the ‘trap’ failed to catch the ‘prey’ because Fr. Chikadibia belongs to the club of morally upright priests, the conspirators still go ahead to submit to the Bishop of the diocese, His Grace Bishop Kizito, a damaging petition which assassinates the character of Fr. Chikadibia, accusing him of having carnal knowledge of Oluchi. “He is ‘touching’ and molesting my daughter; abomination has given birth to twins,” Kadurumba says.

Without setting up any Committee or Panel of Enquiry to investigate the spurious allegation, and without asking questions to the priest, Bishop Kizito suspends Fr Chikadibia “from any participation in the Holy Eucharist.”

Consequently, what follows is a wide jubilation by the evil plotters led by Kadurumba as news of the priest’s suspension spreads like wild fire in the entire Ekwereazu community. “We have done it,” Kadurumba said to Ichie Marcellenus, one of his fellow plotters. However, the poor widows and the needy in the community don’t take the news kindly as it provides them with a period of grieve.

But the period of jubilation and celebration is cut short by the sudden strange sickness that strikes Kadurumba in the midst of his jubilation which turns to humiliation.

“Help me, what’s happening to me? Kadurumba is dead!,” Kadurumba manages to speak as the weight of the strange illness overpowers him. He develops some revulsion like an epileptic patient. He becomes unconscious, falls down and his daughter, Oluchi places him on a mattress where he remains and begins to confess how he recruits his fellow “elders of mischief” to pull down priest. “Let me tell you something, my Lordship, I planned it with my elders,” Kadurumba tells Bishop Kizito as the other elder-conspirators all fall down and faint.

While begging for forgiveness, Kadururmba discloses how innocent the priest is and how he uses his daughter to set him up. Now, it’s as if the law of Karma is in aggressive motion, sparing no one. Few of his co-plotters who come around to see him all fainted, watching as their leader, Kadurumba transits, in a disgraceful manner, from the land of the living to the great beyond.

Meanwhile, Bishop Kizito in his humility, has to quickly apologise to, and recall Fr. Chikadibia, to his parish. Good deeds, as represented by Fr Chikadibia , have their reward; the same with bad works, as reflected in the likes of Kadurumba and the others. Jesus, The Christ summarized it thus: “You reap what you sow!”

The drama was one of the activities scheduled to mark the passing out of the 53 graduating students (2016-2022 set) of the Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Nguru, Aboh Mbaise Local Government, Imo State founded over 40 years ago.

The drama was well received by the audience including the Rector of Mater Ecclesiae Seminary, Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Emmanuel Nwogwugwu who said that the drama showed that in some parishes, certain false allegations are made against the parish priest but at the end of the day, the truth comes out.