By Emmanuel Ndukuba
Onitsha, June 30, 2024 – The Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Rev Henry Ndukuba has condemned all forms of discrimination in every strata of human society irrespective of tribe, faith or profession.
Ndukuba explained that discrimination was capable of taking humanity many years backward.
He made the condemnation during a memorial lecture in commemoration of 160 years the consecration of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first Bishop in Africa.
The lecture was held on Sunday at the C.J. Patterson Auditorium, All Saints’ Cathedral, Onitsha, Anambra state.
The Primate, who was represented by the Bishop of Lokoja, Kogi State, the Most Rev Emmanuel Egbunu, remarked, “Discrimination, whether racial or ethnic will hinder rather than promote the cause humanity.
He therefore appealled that all peoples, especially Christians should fight against discrimination in every form of it.
Also in his lead presentation, the Bishop Theologian of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, the Rt Rev Dapo Asaju, had in his paper expressed worries over what he said discrimination caused Bishop Ajayi Crowther.
In the paper, “Bishop Ajayi Crowther… the unsung hero” regretted how much discrimination he said Crowther suffered in the course of his ministry.
According to him, “Crowther was a victim of racial discrimination, his works were critisiced by young ambitious Whitemen who thought that the blacks could not be bishop over them.
“The charges against him were not brought to his knowledge for him to defend himself. He was suspended and later reabsorbed but he resigned the appointment and later died of stroke out of frustration because his work was not appreciated,” he said.
He, however, underscored a few of what he said Crowther achieved as, saying, “He was a seed planter and a pioneer evangelist to Nigeria,
“Was the man with the most remarkable human transformation of features to become a bishop like Joseph, former prisoner who became prime minister.
“He was the first black Bishop in the whole world”, among other contributions.
Also in his own lecture, Asso. Prof. Kanayo Nwadialo noted that Crowther was humiliated and insulted, in his later days, saying that most often “they pointed at him pured the most insulting language and called him a liar.
He said Crowther later died in 1891, “But we are remembering him today because of what he did for God and people East of the Niger.
Putting an end to the controversy of which Diocese is the first in Nigeria, Nwadialor, asked, if Niger was not the first indigenous Diocese in Nigeria, to which Diocese did Bishop Crowther, Lasbery and Tugwel belong?
