By Umeh Kalu
For some months past, it has been consultations and meetings within various segments, groups, associations, traditional institutions and even the clergy in Ohafia on the modalities that will constitute or translate to befitting rites of passage for the Udumeze of Ohafia.
Udumeze is the traditional title of the paramount ruler of Ohafia Ancient Kingdom in Abia State, southeast of Nigeria. The Udumeze sits and presides in council over 26 independent communities consisting of the Ohafia clan.
Ohafia is arguably one of the largest homogenous clans in Abia State in terms of size and population. The Ohafia people are acclaimed warriors and known to have embraced western education earlier than most communities in Nigeria.
The subject of this writeup is Professor Emmanuel Ume Lekwa Imaga. Professor Imaga was not only the Eze Ohamoha of Ohafia Ancient Kingdom, but also equally the Ebiri of Elu Ohafia and was on the throne of his forefathers as Udumeze for 14 years (2010 to 2024).
Come July 5, 2024, the earthly remains of Udumeze will depart the Abia State capital, Umuahia, on his last journey to his land of ancestry, Ohafia. This heroic and historic movement promises to be a carnival of some sort with notable Ohafia traditional dances accompanying his remains in celebration of his life and times.
As it is customary in the movement of the remains of every great Ohafia son, the remains of the Udumeze will follow the ancestral migratory route of the founders of Ohafia from Ibeku, Umuahia to Bende to Abam and finally to Achichi Ohafia.
Professor Imaga was born into the Umualekwa royal lineage of Lekwa Otike dynasty on September 20, 1942, as the last child of Ezie Nna Lekwa Imaga of the Okochi-Uyom maternal family and Ije Lekwa Imaga (nee Igwe) of the Umu Olugu maternal family (Ikwu).
He was fortunate to have acquired early western education. On completion of his elementary education, he obtained admission to Coronata Secondary School, Ohafia, as one of the founding students. He, thereafter, attended the Federal College of Agriculture, Umudike, where he obtained a diploma in agriculture.
As a result of his academic prowess, he received a grant from the World Council of Churches in 1977 and the Federal Government Bursary Award from 1976 to 1979. This bursary award enabled him to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with honours from Delhi University in India.
He later on obtained a master’s degree in Business Administration, specialising in Production Management, in 1979, and a further Doctor of Philosophy in Human Resources Management in 1985.
Prof was an agricultural extension officer and later took up a lecturing job in 1981 at the College of Technology, Owerri. He internationalised his service to humanity when he took up service with the United Nations Development Programme in the South Pacific as a Macro economist and management analyst. This assignment took him to Australia, New Zealand and other countries.
On his return to Nigeria in 1989, he joined the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, at the Enugu Campus and, with his catalogue of publications, books, articles and journals, rose to the rank of professor in 1990. As a professor, he supervised and produced several PhDs, MScs, MBAs and other postgraduate diplomas.
Prof. Imaga was equally involved in the distance-learning programme of the University of Nigeria and was at various times the head, Department of Management Studies, dean, Faculty of Business Administration, and the director of the Institute of Development Studies.
In 1992/1993, during the transition to civil rule, the federal government appointed him as the Abia State chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC) political party.
Prof. Imaga, on one of his visits to Nigeria in 1977, fell in love with the delectable Ola Ume Imaga (nee Udo Kalu) and they got married in the same year. The union was blessed with three children.
In 2002, Prof. Imaga attained the elder statesman status in the Ohafia community and celebrated his Ota-Omu ceremony with his age grade, Ife Mba. He had great love for Ohafia and his people, and was coronated in 2010 as Ezie Ogó Ebiri of Elu, the ancestral capital of the Ohafia people.
As Ezie Ogo of Elu, he automatically became the paramount ruler over the 26 villages comprising Ohafia. Hence, his position as the Ezie Ohamoha, the Udumeze of Ohafia Ancient Kingdom.
His reign was centred on giving the Ohafia people unity of purpose, enhancing infrastructural development and maintaining peace among the 26 villages of Ohafia and with Ohafia’s neighbours. His academic and professional accomplishments brought so much reverence and recognition to the Ohafia Udumeze stool.
The Udumeze of Ohafia, the Ebiri of Elu, His Royal Paramountcy, Professor Emmanuel Ume Lekwa Imaga, joined his ancestors on the 17th day of January, 2024. His death is a great loss to the Ohafia people and, indeed, Abia State as a whole.
Prof’s life was indeed a life of service and total commitment to the ideals for which the Ohafia people are known. He raised the bar of traditional rulership in not only Ohafia but also in Abia State and Nigeria, having attained the utmost height in the academia and equally being a traditional ruler.
It is our prayer that Ohafia will in the years to come be blessed with more rulers like Prof, and, may his likes never be found wanting in our domain.
Farewell thee well, great king.
• Chief Umeh Kalu, SAN, Life Bencher