A Bishop’s Burden
With thousands of displaced persons, especially women and children curling up to him everyday inside his church’s red-dust compound, the Catholic Bishop of Yola, Dr. Stephen Dami Mamza, has more on his shoulders than the burden of wearing the crucifix. Ad
On a balmy day, before the scorching sun of Yola seared the skin of the natives and the ground under their foot, Dr. Stephen Dami Mamza arrives his dusty compound of St. Theresa Catholic Church, Jimeta, Adamawa State for an important assignment. He’s there to distribute food and money to the internally displaced persons.
He looks ordinary, except for the small purplish-red round silk skullcap on his head, the dangling pectoral cross and his floor-length garment that flows according to the dictates of the breeze.
But Mamza is no ordinary person; he’s the Catholic Bishop of Yola with a dazzling smile stamped on his face. As he drives into the church premises, a motley crowd of children who have been displaced from their homes in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States curled up to him. His face is like a mirror to the IDPs. “Bishop I love you. You have been a good father to us,” says one of the children to him in his native Hausa language.
Yes, at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Jimeta, Bishop Mamza has the holy burden of using the rosary, Bible and Quran to pray for the IDPs to centre their minds on God as the protector and defender of lives.
His unusual role of combining the task of a spiritual head with that of a relief worker for Muslims and Christians, who have lost loved ones and have been displaced from their homes by Boko Haram insurgents makes him the IDPs herculean hero.
And with thousands of IDPs under his watch and a stream of others from different IDP centres in Yola coming to him for refuge, Mamza’s slender body may have been according to his gene, but there is no doubt that the pressure of his work contributes daily to his slim stature.
But, Bishop Mamza says he had been prepared for a time such as this. “My experience comes from the Master’s degree I had in Development Studies in Ireland. Issues like refugee crises were treated as part of the coursework. That has actually helped me a lot in order to help do what I’m doing now. So, God has prepared me to be here,” he enthuses.
Much more in 2009, when Boko Haram had its first sting in Maiduguri, Borno State, Mamza had just been ordained the Priest of Maiduguri Catholic Diocese. “I was working in Maiduguri in 2009 when the first activities of Boko Haram took place at the railway. I worked hand-in-hand with the Red Cross. That was my first experience. But you know the Catholic Church has a structure, and also the experience of attending to these kinds of problems. So, there is just nothing new. We have our own way of attending to whatever kind of problems that arises. But this is my major experience. My experience as the coordinator of Justice, Development and Peace Commission in Maiduguri Diocese has been quite helpful as well. So I used to get involved in providing support during any emergency situation,” he explains.
Bishop Mamza hails from one of the communities that fell under the siege of Boko Haram in Adamawa State, so recounting his experience is not any difficult task. Indeed, in the last few weeks, he had visited some of the communities to assess current situation. He says: “I was the first civilian to drive to Michika and up to Madagali, because at that time, the roads were still closed. I’m from Baza, and what I saw was something I never expected. A lot of destruction has taken place. There is no single church that exists in the whole of that area, at the moment. And even some mosques were also torched. Most of the houses that have been touched are those not by the roadside, but in the rural areas. The beautiful houses in the local government were being used by members of the Boko Haram; so, they didn’t destroy most of them.
“If you see faces of these people, you