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For some time now, the traditional institution of the Igbo has descended into the gutters since fraudsters and men of questionable character schemed their way onto the thrones of the land via ill-gotten wealth or political patronage.
People no longer have respect for the royal thrones because they are shorn of every semblance of royalty. The quisling characters have desecrated the thrones and made many abhor the sordid development.
In the good old days, the traditional institution was venerated. That was when the occupants had clout and honour, and deservedly so because it was meritorious. These days, however, fraudsters and petty criminals have been known to meander onto the thrones without the moral rectitude to command the respect of the people.
How would the people respect the known seeming clowns now wearing the crowns of their forefathers, who, instead of pride, are bedecked with shame and dishonour?
Sadly, the traditional institution has been reduced to political gerrymandering. Hunger and starvation have crushed the occupiers of the thrones such that they depend on the goodwill of politicians to survive, hence, their servile inclinations.
This sad reality was brought to the fore in Imo State recently when the public sphere was assailed by very troubling videos of some so-called traditional rulers showcasing a despicable conduct by some Orlu Zone.
As against dignifying conduct and expectations, a coterie of traditional rulers, including the chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, came together to openly support Governor Hope Uzodinma and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the November 11, 2023, governorship election in the state.
Nobody should have really bothered about the madness if they had not gone ahead to further to lay curses on their subjects, invoking Orlu land to kill any native who does not support Uzodinma’s bid for a second term.
This apparently aberrant conduct drew swirling condemnation across Igboland.
It is worrisome that the supposed monarchs threw caution to the wind and became pliable wimps in the hands of political office-holders.
In fact, it has become a battle of curses and counter-curses between the monarchs. While the ragtag gathering of some Orlu monarchs gathered to pronounce the curse, another group of traditional rulers in Owerri reversed it.
Whether manipulated by stomach infrastructure or coerced by intimidation, this fawning, shameless display of partisanship by the traditional rulers is repugnant, reprehensible, and unconscionable.
Uzodinma may be given the benefit of the doubt that the monarchs were on their own. They could be sycophants trying to ingratiate themselves into the governor’s good books. Whatever the case, the monarchs have allowed themselves to be willing pawns on the chessboard of political Machiavellianism.
Even former Governor Rochas Okorocha found them handy and handpicked the chairman of the traditional rulers’ council in his time while the rest bowed in slavish acquiescence.
It is inconceivable that Uzodinma, who, as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC in Imo State in 2016, berated Okorocha for reducing traditional rulers in the state to school pupils, would now do worse despite promising to restore the dignity of the traditional institution in the state, if elected governor.
Uzodinma was then reacting to the lamentation of a traditional ruler who narrated how Okorocha seized the salaries of some monarchs because they met with one of the former governor’s political adversaries.
Uzodinma regretted that Imo royal fathers could no longer speak out due to persistent intimidation and harassment from the state government.
According to him, Okorocha had reduced the dignity of our royal fathers, custodians of our customs and traditions, to nothing.
In fact, one of the traditional rulers confessed that Uzodinma reportedly paid them N200,000 each to ameliorate the hardship occasioned by Okorocha ‘s refusal to pay them.
A monarch from Ihitte Uboma had described Okorocha as another Pharaoh and Uzodinma as God-sent. It would be interesting to find out the views of that same traditional ruler now it has become obvious that, perhaps, something worse than Okorocha’s pharaonic age has befallen the institution in the state.
The brazen display of absurdities by the purported royal fathers, who should be light bearers of moral rectitude is, to say the least, highly unbecoming and condemnable. It does not sync with common sense and reason to subjugate the democratic rights of the people to choose who their leader should be simply because some compromised Orlu monarchs had chosen Uzodinma or were paid to compel others to follow suit.
This is actually what you get when you put the crowns on ill-fitting heads who lack the knowledge that, as father of all, they must not be partisan in political matters but are only expected to pray and bless all candidates, irrespective of political affiliations.
It is such missteps that have brought the traditional institution to disrepute and opprobrium. People now hold the stools in utter contempt because of the scurrilous and unworthy occupants that allow politicians to use them to achieve their nefarious designs.
The joy of democracy rests on the people’s right to choose whoever they want to govern them. For traditional rulers to lay curses on any of their subjects not willing to vote for the candidate they had endorsed is an invitation to chaos and disharmony in society. You can imagine what would happen if their choice eventually loses in the election.
However, they need to be warned in clear terms not to set the state on fire because of their selfish political interests and must retrace their steps.
Indeed, the traditional rulers are suffering from what could be described as ‘curse cirrhosis’, an inordinate affliction with the spirit of cursing. Some time ago, they had also converged on the Omuma country home of Governor Uzodimma and rightly condemned an attack on the governor’s house but it never occurred to anyone then that their threat to invoke curses on those behind the insecurity ravaging the state was the beginning of manifest a decadent mental syndrome.
To some extent, it may be agreeable that the attack was politically motivated. Therefore, warning politicians instigating the crisis in the state was welcome.
However, nobody knows if the ‘professional curse men’ had concluded that the marauders in the state were those who may choose not to vote for Uzodinma in the November poll. They owe Imolites explanations of who they know or feel are behind the rivers of blood flowing in the state.
It is indeed sad that the monarchs have sown the seed of violence, as could be seen in the destruction of the sprawling palace of an unnamed “Eze nd’Eze na Orlu” (“the king of kings in Orlu”) has been vandalised and torched by miscreants who boasted that they had reduced him to an online Eze.
The sickening video of the attack was uploaded on WhatsApp, stating that the palace was razed because he led Orlu traditional rulers to endorse Uzodinma’s re-election and for pouring libation and laying curses on any Orlu indigene that would not vote for the governor.
This barbarian act is not acceptable and must be discouraged; it must not continue.
Nevertheless, it is heartwarming that the real Orlu monarchs have disowned those who intended to mislead the people. According to them, Orlu has over 200 autonomous communities, which could not have been represented by the motley crowd of rudderless journeymen that partook in the cursing charade.
It is also noteworthy that Governor Uzodinma is getting restless because of the swirling support the Labour Party candidate, Senator Athan Achonu is getting. The governor knows that Achonu is the only candidate, who has what it takes to kick him out of Douglas House.
Achonu’s groundswell support base is increasing every day, as being confirmed by the huge crowds that have thronging his state-wide local government campaigns.
This is responsible for the governor’s desperate actions, in which the despicable (non)entities in the traditional institution are willing to play Judas because of some dirty naira notes.
However, the November election is a kind of referendum for Ndi Imo to decide whether to remain in Uzodinma’s Egypt or move over to the Promised Land that Achonu brings. Whatever, the people should be allowed to express their choice without any fear of molestation or manipulation from any quarters.
Certainly, not even the bloodbath at Ehime Mbano last week or backfiring curses can stop Imo’s new dawn. It is ‘Athanable’.
