By Jude Atupulazi
There are many people who answer men of God today whose dispositions portray nothing of such. They live in opulence and display an ostentatious lifestyle that makes it difficult for one to distinguish them from celebrities. These celebrities also include fraudsters and ritualists who make their money by any means possible and are still adulated by society.
Happily, at a time when the activities of these people are casting big question marks on the genuineness of religion, Bishop Paulinus Ezeokafor of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, comes in as a refreshing change.
While some modern day pastors take from the poor to feed themselves and their cronies, Bishop Ezeokafor takes from the rich and gives to the poor, while maintaining his simple lifestyle.
I’m sure many will not identify the man who often takes a walk in the evenings in his sportswear around his vicinity. He does this alone, such that only those who know him well can recognize him. There are no gun-wielding policemen following him as has become the norm with many so-called men of God today.
While I have seen many men of God move around in long convoys, with heavily armed security personnel following them as if they were politicians, our Bishop moves alone and sometimes drives himself. He is, indeed, a low profile person.
In line with this low profile disposition, he championed a crusade for low profile funerals. In a society where funerals have become show business, his effort to change that came as a refreshing change. I personally consider as stupid, the idea of turning funerals which ought to be occasions for sober reflections into garish displays.
This is one thing we have not learnt from our Muslim brothers. No matter who dies; be it head of state or minister, he will be buried same day without pomp and ceremony. The deceased is not even buried in a coffin but wrapped up in a piece of cloth and lowered into the grave.
Even though the body may be brought to the cemetery in a coffin, the coffin is removed before the body is wrapped and lowered in the grave. Thereafter, everybody gathers in the home of the bereaved family to condole with them. No food, no drinks, no music. Everybody then goes home and that is that. That is a typical Muslim funeral for you.

But here, roads are closed, music blares loudly, millions are spent and expensive coffins are bought. Yet, many times, the deceased never ate well in their lifetime. It is such that anyone who doesn’t do like others is derided, either as okpaku eri eri (stingy person) or regarded as poor.
Thus, many will borrow in order to perform the funeral rites of their dead after which they go broke. Is this not madness? Many of you that are reading this have been guilty of this and will still be. What example are you laying for the future generation?
Good, enough, the Anambra State House of Assembly passed a bill seeking to cut down on extravagant funerals which the state government assented to. No doubt, it is a step in the right direction but I want more to be done as many are circumventing it and still doing expensive funerals. Nevertheless, I doff my cap for the Bishop for initiating this.
He is also the beloved of journalists in the state who have often benefitted from his generosity. Until recently when the prices of things escalated, many journalists, regardless of denomination, would be invited at the end of the year and feted, after which they would depart with a bag of rice each and an envelope.
He is the only Bishop in Anambra who does this. The significant thing about this, is that it is not restricted to journalists of the Catholic faith, but to everyone, as earlier mentioned.
It is no wonder too that he allows his paper (Fides) to dedicate a page to Anglicans, a development that is a true reflection of one who not only believes in ecumenism but practices it. (The Anglican page did not appear in this edition because it is a special edition that contains only a few pages).
Our Bishop does not scoff at others’ religious beliefs but finds a way to marry good aspects of theirs with our Christian beliefs. Thus, every year, he organizes his own brand of celebrating the new yam, showing that it is a way of appreciating God for a bountiful harvest, rather than otherwise.
Bishop Ezeokafor is a man who isn’t loud but contemplative. He is also deeply discerning and takes decisions that surprise many when it comes to helping the needy.
As he marks forty long years as a priest of God, I want to join his friends to say, congratulations and to pray that what lies before him will be better than what is behind.