Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday falls today June 16th. Before Rome, before the red hat, before all of it, this man went to a war front at 31. Read his real story.
Today is Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday and honestly if you don’t know this man’s story the way it actually happened, you are missing something.
Not the ceremonial version. Not the church programme version where everybody claps and sings. The real version. The one where a young priest with shaky Latin got sent to Rome and just figured it out. The one where an entire diocese called him Kobo-Kobo to his face and he still showed up. The one where he heard on the radio, the actual radio, that he had been transferred, before any official letter reached him.
Born in Lagos, Built for More Than Lagos
He came into this world on June 16th, 1936. His father was Ishan, Prince Michael Okogie. His mother was Yoruba, Lucy Adunni Okogie. Both Catholic. They moved around the way Nigerian families did. Sapele for a bit when his father got transferred. Then back to Lagos.
He entered St Gregory’s College in 1951. Normal enough. But something was already different about this one. By the time he had done three years there, he had already decided. He wanted to be a priest. Not because someone pushed him. He just knew.
Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
So he left St Gregory’s and went to St Theresa’s Minor Seminary in Ibadan. His parish priest, Father John Kilbey, helped him find his footing there. Then on to St Peter and Paul Major Seminary. Step by step. No rush.
Then Suddenly, Rome
It was 1963. He was midway through theology. Archbishop Aggey called him in one day and told him he was going to Rome. Him and a younger seminarian, Felix Job, were both going.
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He was surprised. He was not the strongest in Latin and here was Rome sitting in front of him. But he went. And when he got there, they told him he had to start the theology course from scratch. Not from where he stopped. From the beginning.
He just did it. No record of him complaining. He sat down and started again.
The War Front Nobody Talks About
Three years later he came back to Lagos as a deacon and was ordained a priest at Holy Cross Cathedral on December 4th, 1966. The same day his sister made her first profession as a nun. Both of them, same altar, same day. Their mother must have not known whether to laugh or cry.
After ordination, he and Fr. Job went back to Rome to finish up. They were even enrolled in the doctorate programme. Then Archbishop Aggey called them home again. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
The Civil War was happening.
A lot of people, if we are being honest, would have found a reason to stay in Rome. Finish the doctorate. Sit it out. Come back when things cool down. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
Not this one.
Anthony Cardinal Okogie came back. And he didn’t just sit in Holy Cross Cathedral and wait for the war to end. He went to the actual war front. Thirty one years old, counselling soldiers in the middle of that horror.
That part doesn’t come up enough when people talk about him.
They Called Him Kobo-Kobo
August 1971. He was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Oyo Diocese at St Benedict’s Cathedral in Oshogbo.
Lagos people were already upset that he was leaving. But the Oyo people on the other end didn’t want him either. They said his Yoruba wasn’t good enough. They gave him a nickname. Kobo-Kobo. They actually tried to foil the transfer, tried to make noise enough that it wouldn’t happen.
He was consecrated anyway.
He went to Oyo. He served. He did not hold it against any of them.
The Radio Told Him First
When Archbishop Aggey died in March 1972, his secretary came to him one morning and said, did you hear the 7 o’clock news?
That was how Anthony Cardinal Okogie found out he was being transferred back to Lagos. Not a letter. Not a formal notification. The radio.
He tried to catch the 9 o’clock news to confirm but the reception was poor so he just went to say Mass. After Mass, people came to congratulate him. The same Oyo people who called him Kobo-Kobo and fought his coming were now saying we will write to Rome, we will not allow this. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
He told them plainly. Rome will not listen to you. You didn’t want me when I came. Let me go.
He packed his bags.
Archbishop of Lagos at 37
Back in Lagos for a few months as Auxiliary Bishop when the letter came. He was being made Archbishop. He has described it himself as a big shock. But on June 17th 1973, one day after his 37th birthday, he became Archbishop of Lagos.
Thirty seven.
He was younger than some of the politicians he would spend the next several decades making uncomfortable. And uncomfortable is putting it nicely. These were men who were used to the Church staying in its lane, blessing their cars and their new houses and their stolen money and keeping quiet. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
He never did that. He spoke about corruption when it was not safe to. He pushed back on military government. He said things from that pulpit that most people were whispering in private. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
He was never performing. That is the thing. You could tell the difference.
90 Years
The Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday is today and this country should pause for a moment.
Not because he needs the celebration. He has never seemed like someone who needed to be celebrated. But because men like him are becoming rare. Religious leaders who actually say something when power is doing wrong. Who don’t wait to see which way the wind blows before they open their mouth. Anthony Cardinal Okogie 90th birthday
According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, there are over 30 million Catholics in this country. A significant number of them grew up shaped by this man’s voice whether they knew it or not.
He is 90 today. And he is still part of the story of this country.
Happy birthday Your Eminence. Lagos remembers. Nigeria should too.
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