DEFENDING OKEUDO EZIUDO AGAINST KINGSHIP CLOWNING: EZE ỌNỤ OTILE. Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

Let me remark at this beginning that at any day that our land will be humiliated and our great men flattened as weaklings, our mothers mercilessly raped and our daughters violated, I will not stand in awe and confusion, I will never negotiate for peace, I will discard and banish my cap of thinking and the only wisdom I will take up is a bloody fight unto death in absolute defence of our sanctity and inviolability. Even in defence of those who wish to disgrace our common existence today either by action or inaction, direct involvement or aloofness of treachery, or even sleep feigning. Keep it as a vow today between us, I will fight for you all!

As a growing child in Umuokoro Ikenga Okeudo Eziudo, I remember and can recall vividly when a Dede (an elder brother) gets himself so stupid before children, we usually hear this statement; Dede, Dede, whe iji lọ ụwa wụ otu amaguru shi.

That was the highest level of disdain and insult an elder can receive from younger folks. And this also reminds me of our rich Igbo tradition, especially in Mbaise. Let us be mindful of the fact that Igbo system of governance was the most advanced species of democracy and that is why in secondary school study of Government as a subject, that Igbo government method earned us an epithet of ACEPHALOUS SOCIETY. This was the apogee and highest conceivable degree of democratic existence and leadership. This very rich culture of governance had all arms of government intact. Umuokobia (the youths) were the soldiers, Ụmụ Ada or Ụmụ Ọkpụ (the daughters) were the purveyors of sanctity, the elders were special advisors and diplomats, the general assembly which was the highest decision making body comprised of all the important sections of the system - the Ụmụnna.

Nobody in the land goes against the decision of the Ụmụnna (the General Assembly). Whoever does this earns for himself or herself a commensurate sanction ranging from uhe (fine), ivu mbembe (public shaming), ikpikiri nkwụ (pariah or ostracizing), ịchụla madu umune ya (semi banishment), ịchụfu (banishment), and ịkpọba madu azụ ụlọ (Capital Punishment). This rich culture, though waning, has remained sustained by our folkloric chants and the likes. Essentially, the stories from and by our elderlies have been life mainstay of this elaborately vibrant culture. For some of us who grew up to adulthood at home, we got such blessings in the wisdom of those great minds.

What has happened in our land today as exhibited and outrightly exercised by the family of late Eze Desmond Oguguo and their co-travellers is a sacrilege, a taboo and an abomination. It's abominable for anybody to look at the entire Ụmụnna and jar his or her fully exposed anus at them. Ụmụ Oguguo and their "team of shame" ehuole Okeudo otile, ha avọọla Eziudo ike. This, as the saying goes that what goes around turns (sic) around, will return to them in due course. Now I sincerely doubt if that family and that group of sacrilegious bandits have elders amongst them. I feel very horrible for them. Our Igbo proverb says; onye n'enweghị onye ndụmọdụ, ihe ọjọọ mere ya. And again, the full arms of our traditional penal systems must be massively activated.

If there are still men with dual testicles, women of firm honour and daughters of purity in our land of Okeudo Eziudo, Mr. Charles Oguguo and those who practised this abomination should be visited with the full responsibilities of their actions. They have cast Okeudo Eziudo in bad light and they have gone on a shameful excursion and so must entertain the rhythm of their dishonourable action in an open dance of dishonour.

It will not just end in what many people have called me to refer him as - Eze Ọnụ Otile. It is not going to be enough to call him Nna Mere or Eze Ụmụ Oguguo. It won't end just there. I therefore exclaim to the octave and highest pitch of my voice that he and his company must be adequately punished.

In the first instance, Mr. Charles Oguguo has removed the toga of princely being from himself and should forthwith and henceforth be referred to as "Mr." and no more "Prince". This is more granted as his father who was the traditional ruler is now late. Maybe when this type of sanction is levied upon him and his woeful accomplices, they will regain some mental reset to the normalcy of knowledge that heredity is not a character of traditional stool ascension. That suffix "Prince" may have been the problem of Ndị Okeudo in all this extravaganza of bad communal lifestyle and so must be removed from him to let us have some deserving respite.

Besides that, Mr. Charles Oguguo and those who went on this taboo outing should be subjected to ikpikiri nkwụ. If he can be called anything that bears the name of eze, he must, going forward, be known as "Eze ndị ikpikiri nkwụ."

To our great people of Okeudo Eziudo and especially the youth who went to register our rejection of this madness, respectable Ndị Nze na Ọzọ and the Aladinma Chairmen who have stood firm in support of traditional righteousness, let me assure you that your efforts will be kept sacrosanct in the memory of posterity as the greatest of our land. This is an invocation of the real values of our culture - truth, honesty, and uprightness no matter what, where, when and how.

Once more, let me assure you that even if the leadership of Nigerian state decides to go wrong and foul of good consciences which I doubt that they will do, we shall stand firm in defence of our collective values and sanity. We shall never ever allow this desecration of our sacred coexistence and desacralization of our sacred culture, no matter who is involved.

If at any time, I consciously and brazenly kill the holiness and defile the sanctity of our land without any remorse or retraction, let the beautiful angels take away my soul. To this end, I therefore stand with the good and honest people of Okeudo Eziudo, the dictates of our ancestry and the approvals of our ancestors. Not this charade, not this illicit obsession, not in this gestapo act and never in the company of these shenanigans, we shall ultimately and in the penultimate chapter of this episode, elect an able, viable and acceptable son of the soil as our traditional custodian of leadership staff and thereafter hail him to mount the traditional stool of our dear land to the pride and honour of all of us.

Do not shake and do not wither; this is the drizzle of sham rain!

I am,

KEMKA S. IBEJI

Son of Ikenga Eziudo