By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Saturday, 18th May 2024, though has come and gone, the scars of embarrassment and discourtesy, the day brought to the custodians of culture and traditions in Izhi Nnodo Ekumaenyi Clan in Ebonyi State remains unforgettable for the eyewitnesses.
Ebonyi state government functionaries amassed a large chunk of the political shenanigans besetting the traditional rulership system of the Izhi nation and Igbo land by extension.
The community people who were at the event have a grievous anecdote about the dwindling circumstances of the culture and traditions of the land.
Certainly, the coliseum if it eventually came to be a cultural habit would amount to the deportation of Izhi customs and traditions with partisan politics.
That fateful day was officially slated by the good people of Mbeke Ishieke Autonomous Community in Ebonyi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State for the anointing and coronation of their traditional ruler.
The venue of the event was Community Primary School Mbeke Ishieke in the Ebonyi council area, the country hometown of Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi, the Deputy Chief Whip of the Tenth Nigerian Senate.
Getting close to noon, the primary school field was already filled up by both the community people and their guests who came from far and near to witness the event.
Exchange of pleasantries was going on among the people even with their stakeholders including Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi, who is currently representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, the Executive Chairman of Ebonyi Local Government Area - Prince Chinedu Augustine Uburu and the Executive members of Oha Izhi Nnodo, the apex socio-cultural organisation in the clan led by His Royal Highness Sunday Nkwegu Oketa, State Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolutions, Dr Donatus Ilang, representatives of the State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, among others.
Security operatives including the Army, Police, Department of State Security Services (DSS), and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) alongside local vigilantes were well mobilised to the scene of the event to ensure peaceful conduct.
At commencement, the Reagent of Mbeke Ishieke Community, Prince Igwe Akputa was asked by Senator Nwebonyi to say the opening prayer. Prince Akputa even though said the prayer in his Izhi dialect attracted remarkable applause.
In consonance, the President General of the community, Moses Ogbaga officially welcomed the guests.
He noted that the state government has created autonomous communities to protect, promote and preserve their culture and traditions.
According to him, by the instrument of the Ebonyi State government through the edict of 6th February 1989 on traditional ruler and autonomous community of Mbeke Ishieke came into being.
He enumerated projects his administration attracted to the community, which in his words, included 20 million Naira through the World Bank Assisted Project for electricity project in the area.
"I want to refer to the year 2005 when Ezeoha 1 of Mbeke, Eze Akputa Igwe was installed, it was done amicably, and people were peaceful together. There was nothing like an election because we reasoned like the same people in the same manner and his selection was done peacefully. There was no bitterness or rancour," Ogbaga hinted.
After his address, Ogbaga read the procedures for the selection and coronation of the new monarch according to the community's alleged constitution but his pronouncements were vehemently rejected by the people of the community.
Notwithstanding, Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi directed Chief Chris Uchaji to collect a microphone and announced one Mr Peter Ukpamazi as their alleged consensus candidate for the Mbeke royal stool, and the ground nearly broke down following massive resistance by the aggrieved indigenes.
Elders and youth of the community became furious alleging complicity by the town union president, Moses Ogbaga and his cohorts, accusing them to have received a payoff to sell their royal stool to an unpopular aspirant against their preferred candidate.
Ukpamazi had already been asked to sit down to be decorated as the new Mbeke king by the town union President, but the aggrieved community people did not allow this to hold. Some of them, from all indications, had chosen to die instead of allowing the coronation to hold against the masses' choice.
As the song all over the scene, was "Iteshi kanyi-ga-eso" (Iteshi will lead us), by the larger population of the people at the premises, the State Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolutions, Dr Donatus Ilang urged Senator Nwebonyi and other stakeholders to address the people to become calm.
Dr Ilang urged the people for the peaceful election of the traditional ruler of the community.
He assured the personalities from the community who were denied the opportunity to make observations after the forceful presentation of Peter Ukpamazi as the candidate for their royal seat by the alleged selection committee and the town union President for his official decoration.
At that point, an elder in the community, Chief Lazarus Eze who was handled over the microphone, expressed dissatisfaction over the prohibition of observation from people by the President General of the Community and his cronies after reading the procedures used to select Ukpamazi as the alleged consensus candidate for the community's royal seat, awaiting for official decoration.
Eze said: "My first observation is that we don't have an acceptable constitution in Mbeke and I'm suggesting that anybody who wants to make an observation should be given the opportunity.
"We are not aware of Peter Ukpamazi's selection, and those who selected him and even where he was selected to be our traditional ruler as purportedly announced by the President General is unknown to the masses here."
Responding, Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi declared that the traditional rulership system of the clan abhors partisan politics right from the time of His Royal Majesty Eze Nwiboko Obodo, the most populous traditional ruler of Ishieke Mgbomeze who eventually ruled the entire South East region of Nigeria.
The Senator commended the presence of the son of Eze Augustine Uburu, Chinedu - the present Executive Chairman of Ebonyi local government area for the great sacrifices made by his late father to create more autonomous communities in Ishieke during his era.
He further described Mbeke Ishieke as a civilized community, and however explained that Eze Akputa Igwe was elected as the community's traditional ruler, from the Igboejima (Izhida) kindred and no person from Unwera (Amaeke) was allowed to oppose him during his election.
He observed that Igboejima and Unwera are equal before God and described the promoters of kindred dichotomy in the community as the strangers living in Izhi land.
He noted that as a lawmaker at the Red Chambers, it is not his responsibility to select the traditional ruler for the community but the town union leaders.
He argued that as the firstborn of Unwera in terms of kindredship in Mbeke Ishieke, he could decorate Peter Ukpamazi as the new king of the community.
The federal lawmaker emphasised the need to sustain unity in Izhi land, noting that the Igboejima man (Rt Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru) has become the Ebonyi State governor and nobody was kicking against him following the love, peace and harmony shared by the people of the clan today.
Nwebonyi advocated for balancing the allocation and sharing of power and positions of trust between Igboejima and Unwera, both in politics and human empowerment, saying that he had never thought of his kindred and political party while carrying out his empowerment programmes as a public officeholder.
He, however, urged the chairman of the Ebonyi local government area, Prince Chinedu Uburu to utilize his position to maintain peace and order during the event. He applauded the generous spirit of the late Eze Uburu and urged the Ebonyi council chairman to demonstrate the wisdom of his late father as well.
"We are not seeing the local government chairman, we are seeing you as Eze Augustine Uburu. We expect you to exhibit the personality of your father because we know him very well," Nwebonyi hinted.
He encouraged the community people to adopt his preferred candidate, Ukpamazi to be their new traditional ruler, insisting that conducting an election to democratically choose a traditional ruler in the community remains horrid in Mbeke and other parts of the Izhi clan.
He expressed optimism that, even if the election would be conducted, Ukpamazi must eventually win the Ezeship contest, and warned the people to be very careful in making a sudden decision.
He urged the state commissioner for border peace and other relevant authorities to adopt his viewpoints by decorating Ukpamazi as the new king of the Mbeke Ishieke community without any further delay before merriment would commence.
But Nwebonyi's notion for the decoration of Ukpamazi as the new Mbeke royal father was heavily opposed by his opponents.
The State Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolutions, Dr Ilang however, took over the microphone and calmed the tension down, maintaining that the due process for the selection or election of the new Mbeke Ishieke traditional ruler must be observed for the sake of posterity.
He observed that every clan in Ebonyi State has the modalities used in anointing its king. He, nonetheless, assured the Mbeke people of giving them the chance to make observations or contributions to ensure the success of the event as the state government representative.
As the commissioner gave room for observations, the Secretary General of Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum, Comrade Raymond Okokpa urged the state government representatives and other relevant authorities who came for the election of the new Mbeke Ishieke monarch not to consider the alleged piece of paper read by the town union President as the constitution of the community.
Okokpa noted that nobody from the Mbeke Ishieke community except the town union leader and his cohorts was aware of the constitution of the Ezeship selection committee including the date, venue and the stakeholders who endorsed the idea of zoning the royal seat and having a consensus candidate.
The Izhi Nnodo Youth Secretary General regretted that even the community's President General claimed that it was the turn of Unwera to produce the Mbeke traditional ruler in the dictates of political cabals and mischievous stakeholders, he however, declared Prince Chukwuma Iteshi as his preferred candidate for the royal stool.
Okokpa's words: "If you ask the President General to bring the constitution and to provide the signatories to the said constitution overseeing the election or selection processes for the traditional ruler and other activities in this community, you can see there was nobody but a personal opinion. No single elder or stakeholder in this community made input but it was his calculated effort to overrun the community with selfish interests leading us to crisis. It's because the selection or election of a traditional ruler in Izhi land has never been determined by kindreds, and I thank God we have leaders of Oha Izhi Nnodo here. We need to be given a chance to elect our king, a reliable and cherished personality to be our traditional ruler. Please, Honourable Commissioner if you are not working against massive interest we should be given a level playing ground to elect our traditional ruler. Let's go to the field for the election if Peter Ukpamazi wins then, he can be decorated as our king but my candidate for the royal seat election is Prince Chukwuma Iteshi."
On his part, the lawmaker representing Ebonyi North West State Constituency, Barrister Aloysius Nwodo recommended that individuals especially the stakeholders should not introduce political sentiment in the traditional rulership system, noting that tradition differs from partisan politics in Izhi land.
Nwodo recalled that during the anointing and coronation of the past traditional rulers in the Ishieke community, the issue of kindredship was not a priority and wondered why at the contemporary age, it (kindredship) becomes the determining factor of who ascends a royal seat in the land.
He, therefore, recommended that the Ishieke community people should base the selection or election of their leaders especially the traditional rulers on merit and not by kindred inclination.
He also suggested that the elders and stakeholders of the Mbeke Ishieke community should have indoor meetings to choose the best candidate who would occupy their royal seat, by considering a person with a decent character and has the people's welfare at heart, not a land gambler or a hooligan.
Holding the floor, the Executive Chairman of Ebonyi local government area, Prince Chinedu Augustine Uburu regretted that he was not officially notified of the event in writing by the organisers.
He recalled that about five autonomous communities within the Ishieke axis of the Ebonyi local government area have no traditional rulers, saying that Senator Nwebonyi had once harped on how to fill the vacant royal stools.
He urged the community people to play on maturity to enable them to produce a traditional ruler, if not the state government would have their stand to ensure peace and tranquillity in the area.
It could be recalled that some observers verbally protested against what they described as a forceful imposition of a traditional ruler in the community by the town union leadership, suggesting that the event should be shifted to enable the relevant stakeholders to meet and decide who would be their king.
The idea was resisted by Senator Nwebonyi and his cronies. Nwebonyi okayed for the election to start at the spot and singlehandedly raised the hand of Peter Ukpamazi and stood behind him, declaring him as the rightful candidate for the Mbeke Ishieke kingship position. The Mbeke Ishieke town union President, Moses Ogbaga immediately queued behind Nwebonyi too in solidarity for Ukpamazi in the field.
The Senator began rallying around the premises for more supporters to join his preferred candidate's line in the field.
When the Senator saw that the supporters of Prince Chukwuma Iteshi were massive in numbers, he began forcing women to join the line of Ukpamazi but the state government representatives opposed the attempt.
According to the state government representatives, female folks had never been allowed to be a party in the selection or election of the traditional ruler in other places they had similar exercises and described the idea as an alien to the custom and traditions of Izhi land as observed by the traditional custodians and revered elders at the event.
The Federal lawmaker, however, called the government functionaries, the Executive members of Oha Izhi Nnodo and other stakeholders for an indoor meeting at the scene of the event to harmonize interests.
At the indoor meeting which lasted up to five hours, Nwebonyi reportedly accepted that the two contenders for the traditional ruler seat should be allowed to go to the field and test their popularity. The agreement was that no female folks should participate in the election of the traditional ruler as the Izhi culture and traditions abhor such an ordinance.
Nwebonyi upon his approval for the election, having seen Prince Chukwuma Iteshi's line become three times doubled more than Peter Ukpamazi's supporters, asked women including those suspected to be none indigenes trading at Nwori Market square to join in his preferred candidate's line. The town union president, Moses Ogbaga then proclaimed that it was time to share the 10 million Naira donated to the Mbeke Ishieke Development Union to those who queued behind Peter Ukpamazi's line.
All efforts made by the State Commissioner for Border and Conflict Resolutions, Dr Ilang, the Ebonyi Council Chairman - Prince Uburu, other government functionaries and the Executives of Oha Izhi Nnodo led by Eze Oketa to ensure that Senator Nwebonyi and his cronies adhere to the traditional ruler election modalities proved abortive.
The elders and stakeholders of the community and beyond were visibly feeling disappointed, leaving the scene in groans.
Many of the stakeholders were already set to drive out from the scene angrily when the Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolutions in Ebonyi State Dr Donatus Ilang consequently cancelled the election and coronation of the traditional ruler of the Mbeke Ishieke autonomous community.
Ilang said the cancellation of the election followed the alleged imposition of a candidate for the position of the traditional ruler of the community by a group led by the lawmaker representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Onyedikachi Nwebonyi.
He added that Senator Nwebonyi's inability to reconcile with the aggrieved elders and stakeholders of the community on the processes and guidelines for the election of traditional rulers in the Izhi clan was a major pointer.
Dr Ilang said the people of the community must maintain peaceful co-existence and constitution of the Izhi clan.
"It is obvious that Senator Nwebonyi and his group do not want this election to be conducted, I therefore cancelled the election. The people of the Mbeke Ishieke community must maintain peaceful co-existence and constitution of the Izhi clan, for the election to be successfully conducted," the Commissioner declared.
In an interview, there was a divergent interest in whom to be the new traditional ruler of the community but the majority of the respondents aligned with the idea that female folks should not participate in the selection or election of a traditional ruler, describing the attempt in Mbeke Ezeship election as freak plaguing Izhi culture and traditions.
According to the Pioneer President of Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum, Comrade Edward Nwenu, allowing women to participate in such an election or selection is a strange thing in Izhi land and it must be resisted if the traditional stool should remain sacred.
"Even though I'm in support of zoning the royal stool of Mbeke, it's wrong to involve women in the anointing or election of the traditional rulers in our land. Some traditions abhor the full participation of women, example is the blessing of kola nut and the election/coronation of traditional rulers, just to be precise. We must always say the truth and above all, a person with no questionable character should be allowed to occupy the royal seat," he said.
The Mbeke Ward APC chairman, Stephen Nwankwegu and a businessman from the town, Chief Francis Nwankwegu advocated for the spirit of inclusiveness in the decision of the traditional rulership system of the community to ensure peace.
Speaking on behalf of the female folks, Mrs Josephine Nwite warned that women should not be entangled with cultural activities which are abhorrent to her colleagues in the community and other parts of the Izhi Nnodo clan.
She alleged that most of the women who were at the event did not know about the election and coronation programme because they were allegedly told by the town Union leader, that it was a day slated for the sharing of the 10 million Naira donated to the community by the Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State.
The woman advised all and sundry especially the female folks to rise and join boldly in the campaign against kindred dichotomy, saying they have been at the receiving end of the damages degenerated by the promoters of kindred bigotry in Izhi land.
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