By Nchumbonga George Lekelefac
On November 1, 2022, Cardinal Francis Arinze celebrated his 90th birthday. He Was born on November 1, 1932 in Eziowelle in Anambra State, Nigeria. The “Nchumbonga Lekelefac Institute of Research, Documentation, Language and Culture, USA” honored this great figure by publishing a 3-volumes Festschrift in his honor for the immortal legacies he has left over the years. In a recent research question and answer e-mail exchange with Cardinal Francis Arinze (Saturday, November 19, 2022) regarding his relationship with bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, Cardinal Arinze observed with lucidity that he had a brief account of his contact with some Cameroonian English-speaking bishops. One of his students at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria became the pioneer bishop of Mamfe, (Bishop Francis Lysinge) the other became the first Cardinal of Cameroon (Cardinal Christian Tumi) while one of his close friends (Bernard Fonlon) did not make it to the catholic priesthood but became an exemplary lay faithful and the first English speaking Cameroonian to earn a Doctorate degree in 1961 in Ireland. Cardinal Arinze earned his doctorate in 1960, just a year before Bernard Fonlon earned a doctorate. These two creatures – Cardinal Arinze and Prof. Dr. Bernard Fonlon have been described as “real genius” by late Mgr. Theophilus Okere.
Bigard Memorial Seminary: The Meeting Point of Cameroonian Seminarians and Nigerians
It is important to note that before the establishment of St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Bambui in the North West Province of Cameroon in December 1973, all the English-Speaking seminarians of the English-speaking part of Cameroon were sent to study Philosophy either at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu or at St. Peter and Paul Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan, Nigeria. Cardinal Francis Arinze studied philosophy in Bigard Memorial Seminary from January 1953 to August 1955. In those years at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, in Nigeria, the future Archbishop Paul Verdzekov and Bishop Pius Awa were his classmates of Philosophy, while Bernard Nsokika Fonlon was his senior in Theology 2. Cardinal Arinze had a very close relationship with Bernard Fonlon to the extent that on 26 August, 2020, after the request of “my humble self” to write a tribute, he wrote the following testimony:
“I hold Dr. Bernard Nsokika FONLON in very high regard. I first got to know him in Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria, in the years 1953 and 1954. He was in his second-year theology when I entered that Major Seminary in September 1953. When he and his classmates were due to be ordained sub-deacons in December 1954, the Seminary authorities and his Bishop decided not to admit him to major orders. As a seminarian, I saw Bernard as a learned seminarian. I still remember how with lustre he sang ‘Audi Benigne Conditor’ during Vespers in Lent. He took no breakfast. When other seminarians were at breakfast, he was studying, we believed he was at Latin and Greek! During holidays and in the years after he had to leave Bigard Memorial Seminary, he used to visit one of the Nigerian priests, Monsignor Peter Meze-Idigo who was very kind to him, as he also was to seminarians in general. Once during those visits by Fonlon to Monsignor Meze at Dunukofia, my parish, I took Bernard to visit my parents at Eziowelle and my father, a good wine tapper, gave him good palm wine which he took gladly. I still remember that my mother tried to converse with him in Igbo and was surprised that Fonlon did not speak Igbo. I had to inform my innocent mother that Igbo is not the only language spoken in Africa!I lost track of Fonlon in the years when he worked for a Doctorate in Ireland and another Doctorate in France. The next time I met him was during the Nigeria-Biafra war, probably in 1968 or 1969. It was a quick meeting because we were both passengers in Air France flying to Paris from Douala. At that time, Dr Fonlon was Minister of Communications in the Cameroon and I was Archbishop of Onitsha. After that Nigerian civil war, I visited Dr Fonlon in Yaoundé. It may have been around the year 1972. I first visited Archbishop Paul Verdzekov in Bamenda. Then I flew from Buea to Yaoundé. Fonlon met me at the airport. I stayed about two days with hm. I then learned that he was no longer Minister in the Government because President Ahidjo called him and explained: Bernard, I regret that we can no longer retain you in the cabinet because you put the rest of us ministers to shame, because you are your own driver and you drive an old car. My unforgettable memory of my stay with Fonlon in his flat was that one day his sister prepared a fou-fou lunch for both of us. During lunch, Dr. Fonlon was so absorbed in our conversation (which was more me listening to his wisdom) that I finished my lunch; he then put together his fork and knife, put his plate aside and continued his learned discourse. He forgot that he had not eaten anything yet! I have never in my life of 87 years reached that level of detachment from creatures. On 16 Sept. 1973 he wrote a 28- page booklet: ‘An open letter to the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda’ on the training of future priests. Excellent piece. Dr Bernard Nsokika Fonlon was a man of high ideals. He prayed. He said the Latin Breviary daily. He loved the Church. He was not bitter that he was not ordained priest. In my view, it was an administrative mistake of his superiors that he was not ordained. It seems to me that they did not understand him enough. He was the type of professorial intellectual who may seem not the routine parish priest. As a university priest, he could have answered many needs of the Church. However, as a lay person, he also did much good. The Cameroonians are the best placed to make a judgment on this. He lived a celibate life. When I visited him in 1972, I saw that he loved the Breviary. In my view, the Cause of Beatification of Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon could be introduced. I am happy to be writing these lines on this anniversary of his death. May he rest in the peace of Christ. + Francis Card. Arinze.”
Therefore, as a seminarian, Cardinal Francis Arinze was very close to Cameroonian seminarians as the above testimony has made us discover. To be continued in part 2.
Nchumbonga George Lekelefac
Doctorandus, University of Münster, Germany; Europe/ US Correspondent of “The SUN Newspaper”; Independent Ecclesiastical Journalist; Canon Lawyer; Scribe and Researcher; Founder/ CEO of the “Nchumbonga Lekelefac Institute of Research, Documentation, Language and Culture, USA.