Pope John Paul II’s funeral on Friday was marked in low-key fashion in Nigeria — the nation from which one possible successor has been tipped to come — but thousands turned out for Masses and held days of mourning in other parts of Africa.
Nigerian Roman Catholics watched the funeral attended by an estimated one million mourners in the Vatican City on television in their homes and offices while the chaos of everyday life continued around them.
In South Africa’s largest township, Soweto, the biggest Catholic church, Regina Mundi, held a special Mass to celebrate the pope while his funeral was broadcast live on television.
Zambia and Congo called a day of national mourning. The Congolese government also declared Friday a public holiday with flags flown at half-mast, schools closed and bars and discos shut.
While some African countries held national celebrations, in the Nigerian city of Lagos, the continent’s biggest city, the day began as all other days begin, under a fog of traffic fumes and amid a clamour of car horns and the cries of street traders.
Sister Sophia Onuora, principle of the Holy Child Catholic College, watched the funeral on television in her office.
”It’s an inspiring event, it’s given me food for thought. A holy man lived in our midst, it’s a challenge to a lot of people and leaders. He lived as he preached,” she said.
Earlier, a special Mass had been held for children and parents at the school, but now all was quiet.
Before work began, barely 100 members of a 1 500-strong Catholic congregation turned out to mass at St Augustine’s Church in the Lagos suburb of Ikorodu. Father Rowland Onyenali did not mention the late pontiff.
The flag in front of the Marine police station on busy Ikoyi Island flew at half-mast, but the cleaner, newer banners on the row of gleaming banks along the same street flew high in the breeze coming in off the crowded harbour.
While Roman Catholics around the world have been intrigued by the idea that Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze is one of the front-runners to succeed the late John Paul II as pope, in Nigeria this has as yet excited little interest.
Doubtlessly, that would change if the 72-year-old conservative, who is currently number four in the Vatican hierarchy, justifies the online bookmakers’ decision to name him joint favourite to become pope at odds of 11-4.
But for now, the celebrations remain restrained.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is a Baptist, flew to Rome on Thursday for the funeral, but in Nigeria the event was a largely private affair.
”I’m glued to my television set. It’s a touching and moving experience,” Father Felix Ajakaye, Catholic Secretariat spokesperson, said by telephone.
At the secretariat itself, officials said that the church had called on both Catholics and non-Catholics to miss work, but in a country where barely one in six of the population is Catholic, this had little noticeable effect.
”President Obasanjo has directed that all flags at public buildings and places throughout the country should be flown at half-mast as a sign of respect to Pope John Paul II,” presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said.
Obasanjo was at the funeral at the head of a 13-member delegation, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Olu Adeniyi, Catholic Archbishop John Onaayekan of Abuja and Father Matthew Kukah, a well-known priest who sits on government committees.
But in Lagos, where reporters visited three Catholic churches, including the main cathedral, not much was happening.
At St Gregory’s church in the hard-working, inner-city market district of Obalende, Christopher Akabueze said: ”We are mourning, you can see the church is deserted. The reason I am here is that I’m a security guard.”
Equatorial Guinea public radio broadcast live the ceremonies for the pope’s funeral, which were also being transmitted by state television.
Masses and prayer meetings were also organised in the West African state of Cape Verde to pay tribute to the pope. — Sapa-AFP