It was more than a seminar. It was a confrontation. At the 2025 Seminar of the Owerri Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Men Organisation (OACCMM), held at Obiri Odenigbo, Maria Assumpta Cathedral, Dr. Chima Matthew Amadi delivered a keynote that jolted the conscience of a people.

Titled ‘Where Are the Prophets?’ Amadi’s address was neither ceremonial nor convenient. He began with piercing clarity: “We are gathered in a Year of Jubilee. But how can we speak of restoration when children sit on broken floors, and our roads carry corpses on foot because ambulances cannot pass?”

What followed was a relentless call to spiritual and civic rebellion. Drawing from biblical prophets—Nathan, Elijah, Amos, and John the Baptist—Amadi reminded the audience that true prophets did not whisper from the sidelines. They confronted power, risked safety, and roused nations.

“We ask where the prophets are. But maybe God is asking us the same thing. Where are you?” he challenged.

Amadi exposed the systemic decay beneath Imo’s governance, particularly the ₦330 billion received by local governments between 2019 and 2025. He asked, “Where are the results?”—a question that hung heavy in the air.

He cited public schools in ruins, abandoned health centres, impassable rural roads, and recalled the horror of the Arondizuogu massacre. “We do not just have insecurity,” he said. “We have institutional abandonment.”

Amadi accused the political class of betrayal through silence. “We did not lack money. We lacked men—men who fear God more than they fear losing contracts,” he stated.

Far from political rhetoric, Amadi anchored his points in scripture, Catholic social teaching, and Vatican encyclicals. “Politics is not the devil’s playground. It is a mission field,” he said, quoting Pope Francis and Gaudium et Spes.

As the room swelled with conviction, he gave a final charge: “Let it be said that the Catholic men of Imo stood in the gap; that we refused to be complicit; that we remembered the poor; that we carried the fire of Jubilee into the streets.”

As the crowd stood in ovation, an elder leaned over and whispered, “This was not a seminar. This was fire from the altar.”

Indeed, Dr. Chima Matthew Amadi didn’t just speak. He ignited a fire.
And whether the system is ready or not, the prophet has entered the ring.