Book Review: My Time As Chaplain by Nathaniel Bivan

A fluid biography of the man who preached to the most powerful man in Africa.

I appreciate this book for two reasons. One, it is the documented life of a man who was a public servant. Secondly, it was an easy read. I read it in one sitting.

It has been my opinion for a long time that Nigerians lack the record of their public servants. Presidents don’t have memoirs. Public figures don’t have memoirs. Governors don’t have memoirs.

A public servant spends more than 40 years in the public space, retires, and still refuses to put anything on record. In the interview with former President Jonathan in this book, he laments this situation too. We need more memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies. These are probably the only way to understand our public servants.

Nathaniel Bivan does an excellent job of telling the public life of Venerable Obioma Onwuzurumba. Nothing in his upbringing pointed out that Venerable Obioma would become the Chaplain of the Aso Rock chapel. It was not even in his ambitions. He just wanted to serve God by working with youths. He did that for 20 years as a school teacher using the FCS as his platform. Moving into full-time ministry was a big sacrifice for Obioma. He took an eighty-five percent (85%) pay cut to become a minister. That's a huge one for a man with a family.

Obioma fought in the Biafran war. He made a profound statement about the war that is worth thinking about “Wars have a thing to them. They make the world stand still. You think it’s the end of the world. You think you won’t make it out alive”. He made it out alive and went on to minister to the nation's President for eight years.

A pattern in Obioma's life is how his life seemed to be set by the wind, as the Bible would say. He just wanted a simple education in theology, but his Bishop insisted that he must be ordained. He just wanted to become a Coordinator for Youth Ministry; instead, his interviewer pushed him to become the Assistant to the Primate of the Anglican Communion. From there, he became the Chaplain of the Aso Rock chapel, a position he did not apply for. His credibility, character, and discipline were the outstanding qualities that spoke for him. As Chaplain of Aso Rock, he provided spiritual leadership for the Vice President and later President. Apparently, President Goodluck Jonathan appreciates him greatly. He speaks of him with fondness.

As Chaplain and Senior Special Assistant on Christian Religious Affairs, he made some achievements and created connections between the President and the Christian population. Obioma’s experience living in the North helped provide an important perspective for the President on key issues. He was able to add the right pressure on the President to advocate for the release of kidnapped Christians, ensure Christians in the North understood the President's thinking, and advocate for the establishment of the Christian Pilgrims Board. (Personally, I think the Pilgrim’s Board, both for Christians and Muslims, is one the most useless waste of government resources. Why da heck should government subsidize your personal spiritual journey? Well, we are a religious country, and whenever religion is involved, we are no longer thinking.) He was also able to facilitate the establishment of a relationship between Nigeria and Israel. He served as the President’s emissary on many occasions. For a man who thought politics was dirty just a few years earlier, he handled it all well.

I found the final interview with former President Jonathan to be informative on many levels. It tells you how the President was thinking about things. His explanation of fuel subsidy is so prescient. It is unfortunate that Nigerians did not understand this at that time and even now. The irony is that removing subsidies is one of Buhari’s government objectives as he leaves office; it will be one of his final acts. Goodluck Jonathan made this clear as far back as 2011.

This book is an important addition to the public record, and it is a fluid narration of life at the table of the most powerful man in Africa. Nathaniel’s narration was fluid and flawless. The legacy of Venerable Obioma Onwuzurumba is well secured.

You can get this book on Rovingheights.