By Jude Atupulazi
One of the traditional rulers I had the greatest respect for was the late traditional ruler of Enugwu-Ukwu, Igwe Osita Agwuna, Second Republic politician and famous Zikist. Agwuna, in his day, was the quintessence of traditional rulership. He had dignity and attracted respect that befitted his giant frame. You would never see Agwuna gallivanting in any government house.
He would always insist that any governor, or, indeed, any politician, who wished to see him should come to his palace in Enugwu-Ukwu and that was how one head of state came to his palace to see him during a state visit. In those days too we had Igwe Angus Ilonze of Abagana and the former Obi of Onitsha. These men and a few others did not kowtow before any government because they had class and feared no one.
Today, we have many so-called royal fathers who have made government houses their second homes. They flood them like moths attracted to shiny lights. They have become government contractors and can do anything to be patronized. Any wonder that the traditional rulers of Igbo stock are the least respected in Nigeria today? The major exception is perhaps the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe.
There are a few others but they are very few indeed. These people do not depend on government patronage. They are their own men. They have their private occupations that sustain them rather than government’s stipends and contracts.
But for those others who genuflect before politicians to be recognized, they can do anything. That was perhaps why we witnessed the show of shame in Awka during the visit of the wife of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Anambra State. She was given a chieftaincy title by our traditional rulers through their chairman. One person observed that while that was happening, she was allowed to sit down beside the person conferring the title, rather than kneel before him as is usually the case. Yet, the person receiving the title is a woman.
What it means is that we traded our own traditional requirements on the altar of personality, the personality being whom they call the First Lady, a title not recognized by our constitution. And I ask, would the same have been extended to an Igbo woman in Yoruba Land if a title was being given to her? You well know the answer.
The Yoruba are known not to play with their tradition and no matter who you are, you are expected to toe the path. It is the same among the Bini people and same among the Hausa-Fulani. You must do it their way or you forget it.
But beyond this is the fact that the person so honoured by our monarchs is the person said to have threatened in 2019 to invoke local deities in Yoruba Land to chase Igbo people out, especially those who refuse to learn the Yoruba Language. Let any Igbo say that kind of thing against any other group in Nigeria and see if they will not be blacklisted. But here, anything goes.
What transpired at Ekwueme Square happened mainly because the traditional institution is still tied to the apron strings of the state government, which is why the traditional rulers are always corralled into doing the wishes of the government. It is not peculiar to Anambra alone but to all of the Igbo states. Remember, the wife of the president had earlier visited Imo State where she was also given a chieftaincy title and it wasn’t because they wanted to do so. Their governor wanted it and it was done.
Some have also questioned why the wife of the president should be doing the traditional handshake with our Igwes, arguing that she is a woman. I will not want to go into this because I’m not a traditional man. It is for those well versed in traditional stuff to be arguing on that. But the bottom line is that our traditional institution needs to be rescued from the grasp of the government before it is completely messed up.
There should be autonomy for the traditional institution and communities should be allowed to completely be in charge of choosing their king and whoever is chosen must be recognized by the government and that will only be for official purposes.
Until this is done, our once revered monarchs will continue to be treated like citizens looking for handouts from the state governments and the longer it lasts, the worse for our traditional institution.
Benue State and their peculiar priest-governor
That the Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr Peter Obi, has been the target of opposing politicians is no longer hidden. Each day the ruling party in the centre, the All Progressives Congress, APC, wakes up and starts looking for Obi. It is beginning to look as if Obi is the only Presidential Candidate for him to be so targeted. But now they have added a new dimension which is to attack his convoy, probably to put the fear of the lord into his supporters.
His convoy was first attacked in Benin but he was not got at. When he complained, the Edo State Governor said Obi did not tell him he was coming into his state and he went on to warn him against coming into the state next time. Obi replied that no one could stop him from visiting anywhere in the country, being a Nigerian. He has since visited Edo State at least twice since then.
Then, recently, in Benue State, Obi was stopped from visiting victims of Yelwatta massacre in Benue to give them succour. Thugs blocked the road and shouted at him to go back. But the intriguing thing in this latest one was that it happened in a state governed by a Catholic priest and remember that Obi is Catholic. Benue became the first state that stopped Obi from going about his business.
The Benue development sparked outrage among Nigerians who condemned the action of the thugs believed to have been sent out by the Benue State Government (the leader of the thugs was later discovered to be working closely with the Benue State Governor, with pictures shown of him at functions with the governor).
Also, following the claim by Governor Hyacinth Alia, the governor, that Obi did not inform him before coming to Benue, a letter was posted on social media in which Obi informed the Benue State Police Command that he was coming to see Yelwatta victims and asked for police protection. The Benue Police Command also admitted that they were informed, thus, conflicting the Governor’s claim that he was unaware.
However, the public anger was that the man at the helm of affairs in Benue was a priest who should be doing things differently. It was in the aftermath of this that a letter by the Catholic Diocese of Gboko suspending Fr Alia was republished. He had been suspended in 2019 when he decided to enter partisan politics against the rules of the Church.
Now, it is generally believed that Fr Alia’s refusal to obey the rules of the Church portrayed him as a man of indiscipline, a fact that should make people not to be surprised at his action against Obi.
Before Alia in the same Benue State, was Moses Adasu, another Catholic priest, who was suspended also for delving into partisan politics. Alia did not learn from that history and by deciding to go ahead into partisan politics, it meant he knew what he was doing.
And this is why I quarrel with his suspension which I feel is too light, unless it becomes permanent. You cannot know the consequences of an action and still take it, expecting to be let off the hook sometime in the future. This will only encourage others to do same thing. For example, if Adasu was expelled from the priesthood for willfully going against the rules, Alia may not have done what he did today.
But the shameful aspect of all this is that here is a state grappling with terrorism and appearing helpless about it. People have been driven out from their homes and have become refugees in their own land. Yet, the government which has not been able to provide security for them and also not able to adequately care for them, is actively barring others to come and give succour to the refugees.
People asked how the Benue State Government that was unable to confront the people killing their citizens could muster enough youths to come out to stop a well intentioned visit by a politician. They wondered where those youths were during all the previous attacks on the state by bandits/terrorists.
As fate would have it, days after the youths and the government stopped Obi from coming to do what he wanted to do, terrorists struck again in Ayilamo Community, resulting in the deaths of four policemen and seven civilians. It was as though the bandits laughed at the Benue State Government and its people when they were flexing their muscles against an innocent victim. This goes to show the tomfoolery of the Benue Government which decided to be chasing shadows and leaving the substance.
Can any lesson be learned? We are watching.
