RT. REV. MSGR. JOHN KANEBI ASUQUO ANIAGWU is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Lagos and Parish Priest of St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos. He turned 80 on Friday, March 2024. Ahead of the birthday, he granted an interview to The Catholic Herald weekly newspaper. In this interview with NETA NWOSU, Editor and CONSTAINCIA URUAKPA, Reporter, the indefatigable Priest, erudite scholar, seasoned administrator, Teacher of Teachers speaks on his priesthood, how life has treated him in the last 80 years, state of the nation and other contemporary issues.
On March 15, 2024, you will be clocking 80, what does this milestone of turning 80 mean to you?
I am still pinching myself to be sure it is real, because honestly, I don’t think I will turn 80, and I believe I don’t think 80 either. 80 is old, but I obviously don’t see myself as being old. That is what it is. 80 years as I said earlier, it’s a lot of years in any clime, in any situation, which is why I am so grateful to God that it’s happening to me. I don’t have a number of people ahead of me, who make 80 look not so old after all. I have already introduced Brig Gen. Fred Chijuka. In this parish, there are so many people who are over 80 and are still very active in the Church. Some are still lectors; others are church wardens. There are choristers who are in their 80s in this parish, still going strong. One man in fact, is 97. He will be 97 in May. He was reminding me that his 97th birthday will be in May. And he comes to Mass every day; mid-day Mass every day, Sunday, 8.30 Mass, kneels down comfortably, which was the reason we started the parish Elders’ Forum because so many people have reached advanced age and they are still relevant in the parish. They can still make contributions to the parish. So, it’s not surprising that I’m their spiritual director. So, looking at these people, 80 doesn’t look so big after all. So, I am taking it in my stride, so to say.
You were ordained a priest as far back as 1971, what inspired you to seek priesthood and what has sustained you so far on this path these past 53 years?
I always tell the story of how I first started thinking about priesthood. I was an altar server at the Holy Cross Cathedral, Lagos from the age of 10. And that brought me very close to the priests at the Holy Cross Cathedral and indeed, to the Auxiliary Bishop who later became Archbishop, late John Kwao Amuzu Aggey. Í was very close to them. I did a lot of things with them. Most of the priests were white, were missionaries, there were very few Nigerian priests at that time. I wasn’t thinking of becoming a priest, I was thinking of becoming a doctor, not until one day, our teacher in school, Holy Cross Catholic School, asked us to write an essay in the class what we would like to be.
So, of course, I wrote that I wanted to be a doctor. But another boy in the class who was my very good friend, also an altar server by name Fidelis Eke wrote that he wanted to be a priest. So, the next day, when our teacher was handing the essays back to us, she singled out Fidelis Eke’s essay. By the way, this teacher was a young lady, a spinster, she wasn’t married. She picked his essay and started talking about priesthood; what kind of life it was, you give your life totally to God and to the service of humanity. After her speech, I also wanted to be a priest, no longer a doctor. So, that was how the whole idea came into my head. I was 13 at the time. And from that moment, I wanted to go to the minor seminary. I didn’t want to go to a regular secondary school. Ordinarily, I should have gone to maybe St. Gregory’s College or Kings College which was opposite my house.
So, I decided to go to the minor seminary, Initially, my mother did not take it kindly at all. Well, there were only two of us, my elder brother and myself. My mother didn’t find it funny. But after some interventions, divine intervention, she let me go to the seminary. So, for my secondary education after standard six, I went to the minor seminary, St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary, OkeAre, at Ibadan. And that was how the journey began. And from that day, I never looked back. That was January, 1959. So, from then on, until August, 1971, August 15 to be precise, Solemnity of the Assumption, I was ordained a priest.

So, from that January, 1959 to 1971, I did not look back. I just continued. I believed I was called by God, and if God was calling, who was I to say no. At no point did I feel I wasn’t called; if I had felt I wasn’t called, I probably would have packed it up and done something else. But the moment I decided to embrace the priesthood as a 13-year-old, by God’s grace, I never looked back. What has sustained me for 53 years, the same thing. The conviction that God called me, and where God wants me to be. And I’m doing what God wants me to do. I wasn’t cut out for any other profession or state of life. That’s my conviction. So, even as a priest, I have never had any regrets at being a priest. I have been quite satisfied, contented living the life of a priest.
Aside from the grace of God, I’m curious about your routines, your diet and any secrets that could help us coming far behind to help us gain the waters of youth that you seem to have?
Well, I have given some thought to that, and I came to one conclusion. I think I can put it down to always being in the midst of young people. As a seminary teacher and rector, I was in the midst of young people for 16 years, doing everything with them, playing football with them, going on trips with them. I was like one of them. In fact, because of the cassock I wear, when people came to the seminary, I became rector at the age of 28, some would pass me, sometimes, they will ask me, ‘Where’s the Rector’s office?’ And I will tell them, ‘Go over there, his office is there.’ I will now come, pass them and sit at my desk.
There was a glass window, so, they will go to my secretary and ask, ‘Is he the Rector?’ So, I enjoy being with those young people. It’s just that a lot of them are my friends today. Sometimes when I travel abroad, I stay with them. And then coming to St. Leo’s, I’m sure you will testify that most of my time are with young people. Most of those who come to visit me, stay with me, spend time with me, are young people; children and youths. So, I think maybe that explains it. I feel much more comfortable, much more at home in company of young people. That contributed to my state of mind, feeling young and acting young. Of course, another thing is having been a very active sports person all my life, first of all football, then tennis and golf. I think I enjoy exercise, the outdoors a lot, and I think that might also have contributed to it. I’m very happy when I’m out there on the golf course, wide open place, fresh air for two, three, four hours. So, I think those things probably helped.
I have tended to be very active. If I’m doing nothing, I don’t feel comfortable. I always like to fill my day from the moment I wake up till I go to bed. Sometimes, I go to bed at midnight. When it comes to thinking and writing, I do it best after 10p.m. It’s after 10p.m that I start thinking and writing, preparing my homily. If I have to write anything, that’s when my brain is most at work, after 10p.m. Before then, there is too much distraction.
There was a function where you were described as the Rector of all Rectors. What do you think were some of those qualities that made you stand out as a rector? You have also been described as an erudite Priest, scholar, seasoned administrator, teacher of teachers and being compassionate. I would like you to tell us about yourself on these lines.
These things are really very, very simple. The reason I’m called Rector of Rectors is that quite a number of priests that I trained have themselves become Rectors of seminaries. For instance, the three seminaries in the South West and the South South, the whole Lagos Province, Saints Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan; St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary, Oke-Are, Ibadan; St. Albert the Great Major Seminary, Abeokuta, and All Saints Major Seminary, Uhiele-Ekpoma, Edo State. All the rectors there were my students, even their predecessors were my students. The current Bishop of Ijebu-Ode, who was Rector at Ibadan was my student, the one who succeeded him, Rev…was my student. I think that is the reason; that those who were my students have themselves become Rectors. Almost every Bishop in this part of Nigeria was my student at one time or the other. Now, about administration, well, I think that I am an organised person.
I’m an organiser. I organise myself and I organise people. I organise any sector where I find myself. I always boast to people that I can leave St. Leo for six months and nothing will go wrong. Everybody knows what to do. I don’t have to be here to be chasing everyone. So, we have organised ourselves. Everyone knows what to do. And I operate what you call collaborative ministry, that is sharing responsibilities. I don’t believe that I know it all by doing everything by myself. We share everything. I do my best to make the Councils in the parish work, for instance. The Councils meet regularly; everybody knows what to do, and they just do it. You come to the parish office; it is the same thing. So, I believe that being an administrator doesn’t mean you have to do everything. If you do, it means you are a bad administrator. Let people know what their responsibilities are, and you just supervise. I guess that was what contributed to my success in quote as the rector in the seminary.
In the seminary, every member of staff knew his responsibilities, and we had regular meetings where we reported, and if you were not doing what you were supposed to do, you were instructed how to do it. We gave ourselves assignments, timelines; you must do it by this date, if you don’t do it, at the next council meeting, we pull you up. Another thing I did was that I gave a lot of responsibilities to the students, the seminarians. I was at an event at the University of Ibadan, when I was still Rector, a professor was celebrating his 60th birthday, and we were all there, when it was time to say the closing prayer, the MC who was a professor said I’m now going to ask someone to say the closing prayer, someone who is head of one institution where everything works; because everything worked. We had no issues about things. And most of it was done by the students. I told my students if you have any gift, talent that you can use to better our lives in this seminary, come and tell me, I will empower you. And I told them, look, this seminary, I’m not going to choose anybody, it is your responsibility to make yourself known to me. Show me what you can do. If I cannot see anything that you can do, I will not recommend you for ordination . So, the students were falling over themselves and made themselves busy.
At that mass, everything worked between us the staff and students who took responsibility for a whole lot of things in the seminary. And I believed very much in them. I think that’s one of the reasons many of them are still close to me. They write to me. As I said earlier, if I go anywhere, they are there. One day, I was walking through Victoria Station in London and somebody ran after me, when he came, I said who are you? I don’t know you. He told me his name. He was my student in the seminary who didn’t become a priest. He was now living in the UK, and he was working with the British Railway. So, he saw me and ran after me just to greet me and let me know that he was there. I’m sure if I hadn’t been nice to him, he would have sneaked away. He’s not a priest. He’s married with a family, but he still wanted to acknowledge my presence. So, I think that’s the way I ran my affairs. I had no difficulty working with anybody, be it any tribe, any language, race, even religion.
I employ Muslims to work for me. When I was at Project T.I.M.E., Akoka, my driver was a Muslim, Jimoh, after I employed him, the college had him for 30 years. My secretary was an Alhaja, Tunike Lawal. So, I don’t have any problem with living and working with anyone. I believe it probably came from the environment I grew up in. I grew up on Lagos Island, in the compound, we all there, Yoruba, Igbo, Edo; we were all in the same compound; Christians and Muslims. We got on very, very well. So, I believe that was the foundation of being open to anyone of any tribe and any religion. The one about being compassionate, well, I guess I had a difficult childhood in that I lost my father when I was about two years old, and my mother had to struggle to raise me.
My brother was not with us, he was at home in Delta. There were days when we didn’t have what to eat, when we couldn’t pay house rent, and all that. And a lot of people helped us. Having been a beneficiary of people’s compassion and sympathy and assistance, I think it became part of me to also show sympathy and compassion to those who are in need now. I think I’m only giving back what I received as a young person.

From 2005 till late last year, you were the Episcopal Vicar of Ikeja Region, and in 2012, you were appointed the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Lagos. I would like you to share key highlights on these offices, and your most memorable experiences?
Well, first of all, as Episcopal Vicar, you belong to the inner circle of the government of the Archdiocese. We have what we call the College of Consultors. That’s the highest body assisting the Archbishop. It’s only about 10 or 12 of us there. So, as an Episcopal Vicar, you are automatically a member of that group. You are also a member of what we call the Curia. The Curia is the one that’s next to Consultors and made up of the Chancellor, Vicars and the Deans of the deaneries. We are the two groups that assist the Archbishop most closely. We advise him. In the Catholic Church, the only person who makes decisions is the Bishop, every other organ is mainly consultative. We advise the Archbishop. Now, as an Episcopal Vicar, you have the responsibility of carrying out the canonical visits to parishes within your region. So, that is the most important exercise that you perform as Episcopal Vicar. Now, there are new Episcopal Vicars, they are the ones who are doing that. When you are a Vicar General, you are not restricted to a region, you assist the Archbishop.
He can ask me to go and represent him in any parish or institution within the Archdiocese, unlike the Episcopal Vicar who is assigned to a particular region. And of course, any time that the Archbishop is away from the Archdiocese, he will normally tell me, ‘Am going to this place or that place for this length of time, you take charge as the Vicar. If any issue is arising during his absence, it will be referred to you. Thanks be to God, there have been no nasty incidents. Each and every time the Archbishop has been away, so far, I have been able to hold the fort. So, that’s what one does whether as Episcopal Vicar or Vicar General. At least for now, I’m still holding the post of the Vicar General no longer Episcopal Vicar. So, that’s the position I have right now. Rt. Rev. Msgr., you have witnessed 80 years of Nigeria. Nigeria is currently experiencing worst economic crisis and security challenges.
Please tell us, at what point we got it wrong as a country? We went wrong by being a country. We should never have been a country because we are just different people who should not even be together that were coupled together into what they called a country. We are so different; we are so divergent. I think that was the genesis of our problem. We have never really blended as a country. All those who worked so far, they did not do so much to help us to blend as one people. If anything, they have accentuated our differences and divergencies for their own selfish political reasons. So, right from 1914, we have never been without problems. And when they handed independence to us, the way it was handed to us, it was not properly done. Those who gave us independence, made sure what they handed to us would fail. The way they handed power to Nigerians in 1960, was designed to make Nigeria fail. And unfortunately, we ourselves have not checked those anomalies created for us.
For instance, since the colonialists departed, we have not fashioned any constitution that was in the best interest of Nigeria. All the constitutions that were fashioned so far have been very, very flawed, particularly the one we are using right now. In 2005, President Obasanjo instituted what he called the National Political Reforms Conference in Abuja, and I was a delegate. I was representative of the Catholic Church on the CAN delegation. One of the things we recommended was a new constitution, completely new. The one that was handed to us by the military administration of erstwhile Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar was poorly handled. Nobody listened to us. They are still tinkering with that constitution, trying to create the same terrible constitution. So, we have not got it right; I think there are people who are benefiting from the fact that we have not got it right. They don’t want it to be right because if we get it right, they will lose their interest.
So, they are much more interested in protecting their selfish interest, than serve the interest of Nigerian nation. There’s a book that by God’s grace, we shall present on Friday, a chapter on my vision of Nigeria at the moment dwelt on what I think we might do to make things better, to make Nigeria work. Nigeria is not working. Nigeria is a failed state. We should never have been one country, maybe three or four countries in the first place. We are having difficulty living together, and unless certain things are done, it’s going to get worse. Talk about insecurity; that’s part of it. The economy, I’m not an economist, but I believe there’s a lot of selfishness involved there.
All those who have stashed dollars in their soak away pits, in their overhead tanks and inside their walls should bring out the money. There are billions of dollars in private hands in this country. If they bring it all out, the dollar will be crashed to less than one thousand. But will they bring it out? There are more dollars in circulation in Nigeria, than in the US. It’s amazing. Who gives them those dollars? Until people are prepared to convert selfish interests to national interest, we are going nowhere.
What are the problems weighing down on priests that might make them want to renounce their vocation, and how have you helped them to go above these low areas in their ministry?
There are many things that can happen. Sometimes, along the line, a priest may start questioning his vocation, whether he was called in
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