I had to suspend till next week, a piece I had concluded on the October 2009 second African Synod of Bishops scheduled for the Vatican City between African Bishops and the Holy Father Pope Benedict, the sixteenth, to feature this piece on the longstanding but unnecessary bickering over the appropriateness, propriety or otherwise of the adoption and use of the appellation or title of EZE NDI IGBO by appointed leaders of the Igbo speaking people residing outside the traditional predominantly Igbo speaking South Eastern States.
It must be stated from onset that in the last three years that I have maintained this column in Leadership Newspaper, I have never written on the issue affecting the Igbo people per se. The nearest I have done that in the recent times was when I actively campaigned for the appointment of the most senior Police officer Ogbona Onovo to rightly assume office as the first Inspector General of police of Igbo extraction since Nigeria became Independent. I have no apologies for writing this piece you are reading since I have equally written to campaign for child rights in Nigeria with particular reference to the issue of almajiris or kid beggars in the North.
The reason for putting on hold such an important piece on the very strategic meeting of the most cerebral theologians of African extraction with the eminently respected theologian of the finest breed Pope Benedict, the sixteenth, to run this one is because of the urgent need to make a clear statement that the argument is not only unnecessary, puerile, but the threat by the Chairman of the South East traditional rulers council Eze Cletus Ilomunya to coerce the traditional rulers from the indigenous tribal communities outside of the South East to ban the use of the title of Eze Ndi Igbo for the popularly appointed or elected leaders of the Igbo Communities in their areas, if carried out, amounts to the fragrant abuse of the fundamental rights of the Igbo people to assemble freely, associate among themselves for the purpose of promoting their culture and tradition in a convivial and peaceful atmosphere.
This must be resisted actively.
Chapter four of the 1999 constitution which encompass the fundamental rights provisions which are enforceable and binding recognizes the right by all Nigerians to reside and do legitimate businesses in any part of the country and to actively associate freely under a legitimate umbrella for the promotion of the public good which includes the freedom to choose which name or title to give to those among them that have been chosen to lead these Igbo communities as Eze Ndi Igbo of that particular community. In Abuja, the Igbo community democratically decided to appoint a respectable statesman Eze Ibe Nwosu as the Leader of the Igbo people in the Federal capital territory just like what the Igbo community members in Lagos State did by elevating an immensely astute and successful business man Eze Nwabueze Ohazulike, a holder of Nigeria’s national honour of an officer of the order of the Niger, to become the leader of the Igbo community in Lagos State. It will be preposterous for any traditional ruler to seek by unconstitutional and dictatorial means to demystify or denigrate the choice of title made by the Igbo people residing outside the traditional Igbo home States in the South Eastern section of the Country.
Another very important reason for doing this piece at this auspicious time is because of my determination to put it on record that as the executive chairman of the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, I commissioned a group of researchers to work on the issue of whether title or name of the title for the leaders of the Igbo communities outside of the South East is the basic problem of the Igbo speaking people in Nigeria. The result turned in shows that those who have elevated the issue of trying through subterfuge and the deployment of immense financial resources to prosecute a well coordinated campaign against the decision of the majority of the Igbo speaking people residing outside of the South East to adopt the title of EZE NDI IGBO for their freely chosen leaders have a warped idea of what constitute the basic Igbo problem in Nigeria.
The researchers found out that it is a misplacement of priority for Eze Cletus Ilomunya to waste public funds in the sponsorship of newspaper adverts, hosting of meetings of different traditional rulers from outside the South East to urge them to ban the use of the appellation or title of Eze Ndi Igbo by the chosen leaders of the Igbo communities in the domains of these traditional rulers in the North, South West and outside of the shores of Nigeria. Our researchers found out that rather than waste scarce resources chasing shadows, the chairman of the council of Igbo traditional rulers should engage with his counterparts in other parts of the country especially in the North to seek for ways and strategies for ending the intermittent religious crises that have flared up in those places that have unfortunately resulted in the gruesome murder of thousands of Igbo people and the wanton destruction and coordinated looting of the wares of the South Eastern people and the reprisals that have taken place in some South Eastern states.
Our researchers found out that the traditional rulers in the South Eastern part of Nigeria have not lived up to the general expectation of their people by refusing to speak out against all traces of oppression and bad governance that have become the unfortunate experience of the majority of the states in the South East with the possible exclusion of the Mr. Peter Obi led administration in Anambra state.
The question asked by most watchers of development in the South Eastern section of Nigeria is why the traditional rulers who ought to provide leadership and always speak out against injustice and corruption irrespective of what it may cause them, have rather chosen to align themselves actively with the corrupt political office holders in places like Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, and Enugu States. Why for instance wont the chairman of the South East council of traditional leaders Cletus Ilomunya not call Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state to order as he goes about frittering scarce public funds in frivolities like placement of outrageously expensive newspaper advertisements congratulating the likes of Senator Jubril Aminu who to a large extent has not contributed to the well being of the Igbo speaking people?
+Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.
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