By Ejike Anyaduba
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obimma, a.k.a Ebube Muonso of the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Anambra state, does not need introduction. He is a household name with an Adoration Ministry that is venerated for years as solution ground by Catholics and non-Catholics in search of spiritual and physical needs. The number of worshippers that throng the Uke Adoration ground every Friday from across the states, excluding virtual participants, bespeaks of the priest as a man of unusual charisma.
Ebube Muonso is perhaps the most celebrated Adoration Minister east of the Niger – if indeed this great man of God cum philanthropist – can be described straightforwardly as such. But he is that and more. He is an Adoration priest, a teacher, a philanthropist and a rebel. He has enormous flock. It won’t be out of context to see him as an embodiment of all the qualifications above as no single one is enough to capture all his essence. Beyond the call of clerical duties, Ebube Muonso has done a lot of work to help the cause of humanity. And it is the fact of these works, not the manner of his priesthood that is the thrust of this essay.
These works sans his priestly obligations are legion and will be difficult to put a price on. They cut across education, health, empowerment and all. His recent tiff with the state notwithstanding, Ebube Muonso is a major contributor to the development of education in the state. He has empowered as many people as are available to his ministry and has brought his weight to bear on human capital development to such a degree even his implacable enemies will not be able to contradict.
The recognition of Anambra as one of the few states in Nigeria with more than 60% pass rate in WASC, which Senator Ben Murray-Bruce spoke favourably about in his Commonsense Series, was not the effort of the state government alone, but also of individual contributors like Ebube Muonso. The charismatic priest, barely 14 years in priesthood and a teacher of many (he had taught at St. Paul’s Secondary School, Ogwuikpele, Holy Trinity Secondary School, Akili Ogidi and All Hallow’s Seminary, Onitsha – as teacher prefect) during his priestly formation, established two of the best secondary schools in the state. These schools namely Divine Rays British School (DRBS), Obosi, 2017, and St. John Vianney Science College, (SJVSC) Igbariam(described as the best boarding school in Anambra State), 2023, have yet to miss on the attendance lists of performing schools in Nigeria. Both have successfully improved the quality of education in high schools in the state and etched Anambra’s name on a pedestal of academic excellence.
The DRBS, in 2022, competed for, and won, the Horn Entrepreneurship Award, put together by Diamond Challenge of the University of Delaware, Dover, United States of America. The Entrepreneurship Award, created in 2012, by the University, challenges teens to unleash their creative energy towards advancing world technology. The DRBS trio of Elvis Ugochukwu, Jennifer Onyejiego and Anthony Maduka trumped other competing schools like Mater Amabilis Secondary School, Umuoji (first runner up), Caleb British International School, Lekki, Lagos, African Church Model School, Ifako, Lagos, Vetland Senior Grammar School, Agege, Lagos, Iju Senior Grammar School, Iju, Lagos, to take the coveted prize and represent Nigeria at the Global Summit. Prior to this, the school had competed in Kampala, Uganda, for African Spelling Bee, and in Lagos, for Crux Mathematics Competition. It has been the defending champion of AVOSCO (Archbishop Valarie Okeke Science Competition) for two consecutive years 2021 and 2022. In 2023, barely 6 years after its establishment, the school produced the highest JAMB scorer in Enugu state in the person of Ernest Ofoama. He scored 347 marks, 13 short of the highest overall national scorer, Kamsiyochukwu Umeh, with 360 marks.
St John Vianney Science College, Igbariam, has not been any different in terms of performance both in academics and character formation. Like the DRBS, it has clocked impressive disciplinary miles on its journey to grooming thoughtful and highly skilled future managers. Just last year, the school won the Technology Innovation Competition for all girls in Secondary Schools across Nigeria, tagged M-Tag V2, organized by the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy. The project which was designed to allow users explore iconic landmarks like Zuma Rock in order to learn the fascinating cultural aspects of Nigerian tribes was competed for by schools from all the 36 states of the federation. In the end, SJVSC’s Immaculate Ikegwuonu, Camilla Anyadike and Oluchi Nonso-Nweke triumphed over the rest.
It may be fair to argue that none of these achievements came gratis, and none was secured on a platter. All were efforts of the students, the teachers and more importantly Ebube Muonso’s abiding sense of hard work and reward. Workers in these schools and elsewhere in his other concerns who are diligent in their duties are often rewarded with financial support and car gift as fillip. Many of them, especially those at the lowest rung of the ladder have their hospital bills and school fees of their children paid regularly. Well over 300 elderly people from his Nkwelle Ezunnaka community are on salary from the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry.
Without straining the limit of what he has done and is doing, Ebube Muonso provides scholarships to many brilliant students and others from financially unstable backgrounds, with more than 30% of the beneficiaries coming from his schools. This does not detract from his corporal work of mercy which is consistent with his work as a priest where he empowers orphans, widows, displaced persons, underprivileged ones and the physically challenged. He has provided shelter for the displaced, secured accommodation for those in need and contributes actively to community development across the state. His intervention in emergency situations, especially during flood disaster, inferno, and sundry other incidents is public knowledge. However, it is his empathic support to families particularly children who lost their parents in tragic circumstances, many of whom he adopts while empowering others financially that sets him apart as a compassionate priest.
It should be borne in mind that not everything he does is public knowledge. Some are deliberately kept under wraps while many more are obscured by problems of definition. Ebube Muonso is a priest at ease with solemnness and prayer, but miraculously undefined by either. A good conversationalist with little of the grave appearance of a typical charismatic priest. No man with his wits about him, even if he is not cottoned to his ideas, would willingly choose him as an enemy. He has none and if he “be a man of God” as he is wont to say may his work speak for him always.
Ejike Anyaduba
Abatete
