Life After Ordination

After his ordination, he had to wait one more year in Rome in order to obtain his Licentiate in Theology from Urbaniana Universitas Roma in 1959. After this, he went ahead to study and obtain a Doctorate in Canon Law, Urbaniana Universitas Roma in 1962. Before coming back to Nigeria, he also studied and obtained Diploma in French in 1962 from the Insitute Catholique Paris and Diploma in Education in 1963 from the University of London.

Coming back as a young priest in 1963, he was posted to Fugar (1963-66); he was privileged and challenged to work at a very remote area of the then Benin Diocese. He organized the extended families of the villages into small communities for the teaching of the catholic doctrines, prayers and other devotions. He trained young boys as catechists from the villages to run the communities under his supervision.

The results were spectacular and excellent as the young Church in Fugar grew rapidly with members deeply committed to Christ and active in building up a vibrant local Church in the place. Their works of charity were attractive and were extended to everybody both pagans and Muslims. He also helped to revive the almost fallen St. John’s School, Fugar, at some point coming to Onicha-Olona to get some teachers to help. When the Marist Brothers from St. Patrick Asaba came and took over the school, he continued as a teacher and chaplain.

From Fugar, he was transferred to St. Paul’s Minor Seminary, Benin-City at the heat of some sort of crises. There, he would work with Fr. Murphy, one of his professors in his philosophy years in St. Paul’s Benin-City. With the help of God and a march of intelligence, after getting proper permission from the Bishop, he was able to quell the crises in the Seminary. Through his solution to the crises, the lay faithful were thought how to collaborate with the Church in furthering her mission. The events of the civil war from 1967 changed the course of his mission at the Minor Seminary.

The Bishop got him involved with taking care of the refugees. When the war got worse, he was mandated to take the Igbo refugees in Benin down to Asaba area. Despite the risk, he never abandoned his pastoral duties among his people. This earned him a place in the bad book of the Nigerian soldiers, but with time, he got a clean paper which enabled him to move freely and work among his people. At this point, he resumed work at St. Paul’s Grammar School, Ebu where he stayed till 1968. However, the war did not give room for much progress there.

In 1968, he moved over to St. Thomas Teachers’ Training College Ibusa when African priests were needed to take over from white missionaries who were leaving due to the security crisis. With his qualification, he was chosen to take over the management. When the war became intense and the school was on the verge of collapsing, he took a swift action and temporarily relocated the school to Issele-Uku town till the war was over. With the help of certain individuals, he was able to begin the work of rebuilding the badly damaged infrastructure of the school. It is important to note that while primarily managing St. Thomas College, Fr. Gbuji was also attending to the pastoral needs of the Church in Ibusa, Ogwashi-Uku and Ewulu.