Augustinian involvement
The first missionaries that took the challenge to open a mission in Adamawa were the Irish Augustinian missionaries. The first three Augustinian missionaries arrived Nigeria in October 1938. They arrived at Jos to spend some time with their Society of Missionaries of Africa (hereafter SMA) colleagues. To be precise, they spend one year with the SMA and with the arrival of these Augustinian missionaries, it necessarily caused boundary adjustment and thus the boundary between the prefectures of Jos and Benue was adjusted, to bring all of Adamawa province under the jurisdiction of Msgr. William Lumley SMA, the Prefect Apostolic of Jos. At that time, that is around 1938 onwards Wukari was visited as an outstation from Gboko parish. Other outstations visited regularly include Donga, lbi, and Takum. In 1939, a Certificate of Occupancy was granted for the present compound in Wukari. The early community was made up of people of Cameroonian and Igbo origin. Wukari can thus claim to be the second oldest Catholic community in the Diocese. In 1941 Zing and the Mumuye districts were classified as ‘unsettled areas’ and hence no immediate Catholic missionary activity was undertaken for the time been.
In February 1944, Irish Augustinians from Yola marked sites at Lau andJauro Yinu, villages not far from Jalingo. The first was abandoned because it became waterlogged in the rainy season. So the lot for the development of the Church in the area of Jalingo fell upon Jauro Yinu. A fathers’ house with a thatched roof was built and it was occupied on St. Augustine’s Day, August 28, 1945.Earlier that same year, the late Frs. Tom Broder OSA and Malachy Cullen OSA made their way up to the Mambila P1ateau andmarked a site for mission and thus forged the unbroken link between the Augustinians and Mambila.
In October 1946, Fr. A. B. Kennedy OSA opened a Vernacular Training Center in Jauro Yinu and many local boys enrolled, among the early students were the late Michael Nokya and the late Raphael Kaigama (Archbishop I.A. Kaigama’s eldest brother). This also opened the floodgate of missionary engagement in education in the area.
On 14th July 1950, Adamawa became an independent Prefecture with one of the pioneer Order of Saint Augustine missionaries, the late Fr. Patrick Dalton OSA as the Prefect Apostolic of Yola. At this time, there were 17 priests and a community of Franciscan Sisters in Adamawa, while two priests were in the remote mission of Jauro Yinu. This remote mission was in fact the first mission in the present Taraba State and Diocese of Jalingo.
In 1954, the Zing area and the Mumuye environment was declared ‘settled in’ and no time was lost in commencing intensive missionary activity and in securing a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) for Yakoko and the task of building the place fell to Fr Denis Coleman who had arrived the country in 1949. At this time Jauro Yinu was closed as a mission (i.e. 1956). From the year 1956-1957, Fr- Timothy Cotter (later Bishop of Maiduguri) was alone in Yakoko. Outstations included Zing, Jalingo, Mutum Biyu, and Bali. During Fr. Cotter’s time in Yakoko contacts were made with the Tiv farmers in the Bali area and so the seeds were sown for the huge future expansion in the southern end of the territory. Soon Jalingo, Kona and Zing, and later Lamma became parishes. Wukari became a Parish in 1957.
It is worth noting that the breakthrough for the Catholic mission among the Mumuye occurred during the six years that Fr Hugh Garman spent in Yakoko from 1963 to 1969.
The church in Jalingo was built in 1956 by Fr Coleman OSA and dedicated to St Patrick. However, its administration was from Jauro Yinu until 1962 when Fr Justin (Andy) Hanly was appointed as its first resident priest. Fr Hanly built the first small residence and moved into in April 1963. Fr T.D. Hegarty worked between 1975- 1980 in Jalingo and it was around that period that the church was rededicated and changed from St Patrick to St Augustine.
June 1968 saw the arrival of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) to Yakoko. They are a modern religious institute based in Surrey, England. They were to remain the only sisters in the Prefecture for the next twenty years.TheFMDM Sisters undertook to care for the sick with St. Monica’s Health and Maternity Centre in Yakoko.
In the field of Education many Primary Schools were open and in January 1970, St Paul’s Boys Secondary School Wukari came into been on a 134 acre site along the Ibi road. However, during the taking over of missionaries schools in Nigeria in the late 1970s, the government of the then Gongola State took over the School in 1976.
In Ireland, on 29th November, 1969, the first Bishop of Yola, Bishop Dalton died. So ended the life of a great pioneer missionary and apostle of Yola diocese.
January 6th, l971 saw the ordination and installation of Rev. Fr. Patrick Francis Sheehan as the 2nd Bishop of Yola and this marked the beginning of unprecedented growth in the Church. TheNigerian Civil War was over and the Catholic Igbos who had been displaced in the 1966-1970 war have begun to return. More so, at a general meeting of the Diocese of Yola in 1971, a momentous decision to open a parish at Bali was taken. Hitherto,priests had been accustomed tocommunicating in Hausa with Jukuns, Mumuyes, Chambas and Verres. Now a new and powerful group began to emerge that is the Tiv.
The year 1973 saw the ordination of the first Nigerian Diocesan priest in person of the late Fr Aloysius Jella a young man from the Mumuye extraction.
In 1976, Gongola state was created and the Wukari Division became part of the new state which implies that two Church jurisdictions were in operation here. This led to a mutual discussion between the late Bishop Murray of Makurdi and the late Bishop P.F. Sheehan of Yola to let Wukari Parish and Takum which became a parish in 1976 be added to the Diocese of Yola, thereby making the civil and ecclesiastical boundaries the same. This amalgamation brought about an unpreceded growth and development of the faith in the then Yola diocese until 1995.
Birth of Jalingo Diocese
February 1994, saw the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, came on a Pastoral visit to Yola Diocese. He celebrated the English Mass in St Augustine Jalingo on 13th February, 1994. This visit, thanks to the ingenuity of the Bishop P.F. Sheehan of Yola, led to the birth of a new diocese with the name of Jalingo.
Jalingo Diocese was officially carved out of former Yola Diocese on 3rd February, 1995. This was shortly after Taraba State was created from the then Gongola State (now Adamawa State) on 27th August, 1991. The Diocesan boundary of Jalingo falls in place with the state boundary. From inception till date, the diocese has witnessed the leadership of three bishops:
1. Bishop (now Archbishop of Abuja) Ignatius Ayau Kaigama (1995-2001)
The ordination and installation of Most Rev Dr Ignatius Ayau Kaigama on 23rd April, 1995 as the pioneer bishop marked the beginning of the history of Jalingo as a diocese. The Bishops of Orlu and Makurdi dioceses joined Bishop Sheehan of Yola as the ordaining prelates, while the metropolitan Archbishop of Jos, the late Gabriel Gonsum Ganaka, gave the homily.
Being a largely rural diocese with high level of illiteracy, Bishop Ignatius knew at once that the task that lay ahead require lots of sacrifice and total dedication from all and sundry. The realization of this fact must have informed his choice of per crucern ad Dei gloriam (i.e. through the cross to the glory of God) as his episcopal motto. At the same time, the Sisters of the Infant Jesus were asked to relocate from Jalingo to nearby Kona, thereby freeing space in St Augustine parish for the diocesan headquarters.
When Jalingo diocese was born, there was only a single parish within and around Jalingo metropolis, namely, St Augustine Parish Dorowa, Jalingo with the then Fr Ignatius Ayau Kaigama as its pastor before his elevation to the episcopacy. St Augustine parish which incidentally became the first Cathedral of the diocese covered the area that is now the current St Joseph Mayo Gwoi, Our Lady of Assumption Kona, Holy Family Kofai, St Paul Sabon Gari, St Gabriel Sukani, St Theresa Kunini, St Joseph Lau, and Our Lady Queen of Peace Shavon, Mile Six. Others include, St Patrick Kpantinapu, St Peter Nukkai, St Theresa NTA, St Peter Abuja Phase 1, St Justina Mayo Dassa, St Peter Chaplaincy Jauro Yinu, St Thomas Aquinas Chaplaincy Jalingo, and Tudun Wada Jalingo, and recently St Ann Negatavah.
The first Diocesan Pastoral Council meeting took place in St Augustine Cathedral Jalingo on 11th November, 1995. It is an event which brought together the lay leaders and many of the clergy to rob minds with the Bishop on how to move the diocese forward. 13th November, 1995 witnessed the first Jalingo National Council of Diocesan Priests Association meeting in which Fr Richard Tyokohol was elected Chairman. More so, November 14, 1995 witnessed the dedication of the monastery in Zing of the contemplative Discalced Carmelite Convent by the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. Besides prayer, their apostolate includes catering to the liturgical needs of the diocese.
St Mary Wukari hosted the first diocesan priestly retreat from 15th to 19th April, 1996. It was conducted by the Carmelite priest, Fr Michael Fitzgerald ODC.
The Augustinians formally undertook to care for the parish of Zing on February 2, 1998. Two Spiritan Fathers were appointed to the parish of Chanchanji on February 26th, 1998, thus underlining the Spiritan commitment to the Diocese. The Dioceses of Yola and Kaduna have loaned men to the Diocese, notably Fidei Donum Priests: Rev Fr Otheran Bako, Rev Fr Lawrence Hammawa, and Rev Fr Julius Kundi. The Missionaries of St. Paul also; briefly sent Priests to work in the Diocese.
In 1995 the Diocese inherited 22 parishes and development continued at breakneck speed. However, the flagship of the Kaigama episcopate includes amongst others, new parishes created at Kunini, Ibi, Sunkani, Kona, Amadu, Kofai and Jatau. Lau and Baissa were later added. A number of Father’s houses and parish Churches were also built. A fine new pastoral center and diocesan offices have also been built at Shavou, Mile Six, Jalingo.
On 16th May, 2000, Bishop Ignatius was transferred to the vacant see of Jos, as metropolitan Archbishop of the ecclesiastical province to which Jalingo belonged. It followed the untimely death of the first Archbishop of Jos, Most Rev Gabriel G. Ganaka in America on 11th November, 1999. However, Archbishop Ignatius remained in charge as Apostolic Administrator of Jalingo diocese until his successor was ordained bishop on 24th February, 2001.
During his five year spell as the Bishop, I.A. Kaigama built his episcopacy on “unity and self-reliance”.
3. Bishop Charles Michael Hammawa (2008-)
4th of July, 2008 was yet another day of leadership change in the young diocese. This was the day for the ordination and installation of Msgr Charles Michael Hammawa as the 3rd Bishop of the diocese after the transfer of the Late Bishop James N. Daman to the new diocese of Shendam. Before his appointment, ordination, and installation, he was the substantive Rector of the St Augustine Major Seminary, Laranto, Jos, Plateau State.The new Bishop chose for his motto: The almighty works marvels for me.
