By Gloria Ikegbule
In 1983 a clergyman, Very Rev. Monsignor Okechukwu Patrick Achebe, started the Man of Order and Discipline, a paramilitary organisation. His vision was to redress the security challenges that confronted the Catholic faithful at public functions.
Over the years, the organisation has grown, instilling order and discipline in Catholics across the country.
The organisation, Daily Sun gathered, believes that building Nigeria is not just a task for government alone. It also believes that the church and society are partners in progress in seeking orderliness and reducing crime, especially at church and community levels.
In Lagos, the organisation currently has commands in the church’s nine deaneries. The body recently marked its 2017 MOD National Fathers’/Founder’s Day celebration at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, Yaba, where the activities of the organisation first started before spreading to other parts of the church.
As part of the celebration, the voluntary organisation inaugurated its first set of power bikes to aid quick response to security issues in the Catholic Church in Lagos. Though it enjoys the encouragement of the church, the body, which is identified in the community for its security diligence, noted that, if it had government support, it would offer far better services in communities.
The chairman of the Lagos State command of the MOD, Major Anthony Ezeokoye, told Daily Sun that the body was a product of military transformation, adding that it was a good friend to the police, paramilitary and armed forces. He disclosed that MOD was disposed to giving its members adequate training to protect the church and to excel.
“We have grown beyond the Catholic Church and can extend our services to government and private organisations. We believe that the high level of indiscipline and insecurity in the country at the moment can be reduced if government commissions the MOD as a paramilitary force in the country,” he said.
Deputy Chaplain of MOD in Lagos State, Rev. Fr. Michael Onwudiegwu, said it was a friendlier and gentler paramilitary body in comparison with some other security agencies in the country, adding that the agency was willing to provide security services in various communities.
The founding fathers’ celebration, he said, was an annual parish-to-parish event that attracted youths and adults. According to Ezeokoye, there were about 15,000 trained and commissioned members of the organisation and 20,000 others currently undergoing training in Lagos State.
The mother of Iroanusi Obinna, an 11-year-old member, said she has been at ease, ever since her once stubborn son became a member of the MOD. Obinna himself told Daily Sun that the MOD training he received had dispelled the wave of stubbornness in him.
Also, an MOD Captain and Deputy Chief Patron of the body in Lagos State, Angela Jideonwo-Osadiaje, pointed out that her son had also benefitted from being a member of the body. She revealed that most parents were now enlisting their wards into the organisation, expecting them to be transformed.
Director of Recruitment and Commandant of MOD in Lagos State, Major Chinedu Oguegbe, said the organisation was meticulous at recruiting only serious-minded and disciplined youths and adults who undergo a rigorous six-month training programme; thereafter, only the successful ones are commissioned after their passing out examination.
Oguegbe said the organisation was registered and recognised by the Lagos State government and operated like a civil defence organisation. The MOD, he said, does not bear arms. Its mode of operation was such that it transformed rather than wasted the soul.
“We seek avenues of improving the lives of our members by encouraging them to learn various vocational skills during their service years. What we have invested in our service to humanity is in the region of billions of naira. But today, we can only achieve a power bike. Let government assist us to do more. We are appealing to government to provide us with vehicles and leadership centres,” he said.
Also present at the event were dignitaries, including Beatrice Agbator, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID, Alagbon; MOD Capt. Jacqueline Aaron Etim, and Lt. Sunny Bright Okafor, former 3rd Commander, MOD, Lagos State.