FR. Edeh Founder of Madonna University:
The truth about Him
AGENTS OF CHANGE AND THEIR PAINFUL PRICES
Reality is evidently characterized by opposing forces prominent among which is
the opposition between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The perpetual
struggle between the two sides underpins change, hence, the veracity of
Heraclitean assertion “change is permanent”. More interesting is the fact that
both forces have human beings as their agents. Thus agents of positive change
are not only saddled with the task of overcoming the force of evil but are
constantly faced with the brutality and machinations of evil men.
In the area of education, the struggle for the triumph of the good manifesting
in character formation, instilling of moral values and the holistic up-bringing
of the psycho-social aspects of the human person is more complicated. More
complicity is involved when the youths (the direct objects of education system)
are already attuned to the various ills that bedevil the contemporary education
in Nigeria such as cultism, exam malpractice, Sorting, abuse of students’
freedom etc.
Consequently, to spare the rod entails
spoiling the child, but to use the rod equally attracts the wrath and different
pranks of the child, just to escape. Within the circle of Nigerian educational
system, there is an apparent coven of corruption and a complicated cobweb of
mountainous obstacles that educators who refuse to follow the trend have many
issues to contend with.
The above has been the case of Very Rev. Fr. Prof Emmanuel M.P. Edeh CSSP, the
founder of Madonna University; a humble Catholic Priest whose three decades of
Priestly ministry has been very effective in touching positively the lives of
people across the globe.
It is equally interesting to know that Fr. Edeh has
established and runs various sensitive religious institutions such as religious
Congregations of both male and female extractions. He is also the Founder of a
Pilgrimage centre that ranks third to the biggest pilgrimage centres in the
world.
Worthy of
note is the fact that these institutions are approved by different panels of
competent ecclesiastic authorities from the Vatican made up highly intelligent
and uncompromising Priests and Bishops.
For those who are conversant with the Catholic
tradition, it is not news that such foundations are only approved by the Church
when it is proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the founder is a man of
impeccable character and the objective of founding them is to better human
life. In all his dealings with people of every calibre, nothing fraudulent,
nothing deceptive and nothing criminal has ever been detected of him.
Given the great feat he has made in religious and people’s spiritual life, he came
under pressure by Nigerian parents to save their children from the Nigerian educational system that was at
the very verge of collapsing. Hence, his establishment of various government’s
approved educational institutions of different degrees under the watchful eye
of both the Church and the government.
Consequently, Fr. Edeh has received myriads of
Local and foreign awards in relation to the debut he has made in rebuilding the
education system in Nigeria.
Prominent among these numerous awards are; the September 11th award
as “The Pillar of Education in Nigeria” by the Nigerian Union of
Journalists, the 2001 and 2003 honour as ‘the outstanding people of the
21th century” by the international Biography Centre, Cambridge,
England. This is documented in the Leading Intellectuals of the world
(3rd Edition, Published in 2004). It is on the bases of his
contribution to the growth of this country that the late President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Omaru Musa Yaradua bestowed on him the title
Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR)
Sequel to
this, for a 2nd year University drop-out to write and accuse such a well
respected person of fraud and theft is to down-play the intelligence and
credibility of the various bodies that supervise and recognize his activities
and it is on this ground that we call on every responsible person to take such
post as one of those prices that great men pay in their life time. Mandela
suffered it, Martin Luther King Junior suffered it, Mahatma Ghandi suffered and
so is the story of every other world figure. Fr. Edeh cannot be an exception.
In sum, Fr. Edeh should be further encouraged and motivated to enable him
endure and contain the various unsubstantial criticisms that have trailed him
on the account of his refusal to compromise his dignity in running the various
educational institutions.
While he himself has refused to be discouraged on
the ground of these baseless blackmails, we who have taken our time to explore
all his activities stand to say without fear of any contradiction that all the
accusations are false, unreliable and misleading and therefore should be
discarded by the general public.
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