•Culture is heart, soul of Afikpo people
Member representing Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Idu Igariwey is the Vice Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation. He recently participated in the community’s traditional change of guards based on the people’s age grade system. In this interview with MAGNUS EZE, he speaks on the age grade system in Afikpo, the traditional council system, local government system among other issues.
We saw a spectacular cultural display by your home town. What is it all about?
To answer your question, I think I can only explain what has happened today in the contest of Afikpo being a unique community that has been able to manage western influence and their traditional culture. Actually, Afikpo was one of the first places the white man came to and Afikpo has boundary with Cross River State. So, through the river, the white man came which is why we have schools here that were established in the 1920s, which is why my father, for instance, went to a primary school that was established in 1923. A whole lot of people have that history here. So, we had early contact with the white man but we very uniquely resisted western domination or subordination of our culture to the extent that today, Afikpo is probably one of those few places you still find so called elite still stuck in culture. We resist vehemently anything that interferes with the purity of our customs. But like I said, western in the sense that we have been able to accept that those aspect of our culture that are repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience, we have decided to set aside them. For instance, all those aspects of killing of twins, we don’t see such things anymore or anything that offends our constitution as we know it within the cronies of our laws, we don’t offend the constitution in any manner whatsoever. But we cling so tenaciously to our culture believing that it is the heart and the soul of our people. So, you see that in Afikpo when we have our new yam festival for instance, it’s our own end of the year, it’s like Christmas and New Year combined. That’s the effect you feel here, if you are not from Afikpo and you are here during the New Yam Festival and which is why myself as the representative of our people in the National Assembly, I have continued to have the Okpudo Iriji Festival Lecture Series as my own little way of reinforcing our culture, making sure that it still continues to pass from generation to generation.
So, the unique event we have today is the movement of age grade to other age grades. In fact, at the heart of our republican democracy is the age grade system where we have age grades and every eight years, an age grade evolves from that age grade to the next age grade. So, today, those who were isielia for instance, became ekpuketo. I was ekpuketo for the past eight years, I have now become ekpuke essa. Still within these age grades, you still have people who are a notch further within the age bracket. For instance, this my brother, Okpani Nkama Jnr, you may see him wearing the same cap as myself but he is an ichie within the ekpuke essa classification. So, it is a unique system where we bring ourselves together. It unifies us from wherever you come from, from whatever social classification you come from. The age grade system has nothing to do with wealth, it has nothing to do with education, it has nothing to do with your status in the society. It has to do with humanity. So, our democracy here has humanised the system of governance. It is so unique; it is the most democratic system you can think of. So, what we did today was this formal transition. In fact, it reminded me of where I am today which is the National Assembly. What we had today was the usual induction where people who were elected to the National Assembly, come together and they are seen for the first time, they get to meet one another. It’s like familiarization, that was what happened today at Uloubi Essa in the market, we all gathered and there was no special session. The next special session is going to be the next four days which is going to be like the inauguration. It’s like what we have in the National Assembly and today was the induction. The next Eke market day which is the next four days is going to be inauguration where the principal officers will be elected among the people. As we speak now, we don’t know who the principal officers are going to be and it is such a democratic system that is not going to be any form of rigging and on that day, it’s not going to be inconclusive, it must be determined and a leader of ekpuketo will emerge. The leader in this sense doesn’t have any special powers other than he is the first among equals but he doesn’t have executive powers. You have it in ekpuketo, you have it in ekpuke essa which is where I am, you have it in Onikara. So, what we have as the leader is just what we called the Chairman and that is just western way of describing him. He is actually the servant of the people. What he does is when we resolve on an issue, we just tell him, okay go and announce what we have resolved. So, he doesn’t have any other power other than that, he doesn’t have any other authority other than what the people have told him please, this is our decision, just say it and he says it. And this is why we call him Okabue. Before now, it was not a special office in any form. So, it is the most democratic institution you can think of anywhere in the world, what we have in Afikpo and this is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, the Afikpo traditional council.
You talked about electing a leader in the next four days. Is it like what we have in Nigeria where people go out to campaign to solicit for votes?
Not likely. The way it is done here is we just say, the last time, it was this village that was the figure head, he is the figure head, so the next time, it’s going to be another village that will be the figure head. So, that village is told to bring the figure head from amongst them. Meanwhile, this is a job that you are not paid, there is no salary to it, there is no allowance to it. The last time, the allowance was fifty naira until recently, it was adjusted to hundred naira which is what it is till date, every four days.
The N100 is for him to take a taxi because he must be there every Eke market day. Another person may have to exempt himself but he must be there every Eke day. So, the new salary scheme he has found himself is that N100. So, it’s a selfless office and the community whose responsibility is to select an Okabue looks amongst their age system and they look at who is it that has that garb of speech and will say it’s this person and they say okay, it’s this person that we are going to project as Okabue. So, you find out that there is no salary to it, your allowance is N100, so why will you lobby? You may even be dodging it because it means that every day, you are there (at the Eke Market Square). So, it’s not like Nigeria politics.
Is the N100 to discourage people from holding the Okabue position because you know that this amount can’t even transport the Okabue to the Eke market in every market day?
Like I said, the whole thing is selfless and the N100 is symbolic. Every other person is coming to the Eke market at his own sweat, nobody is paying you to come but you know you that you have to come as a civic responsibility. It is your duty because that is where the real government and governance of Afikpo is determined, not the local government system. The local government system is a new system that came that still does not really satiate the governance requirements of the environment. It is still traditional system that says we don’t want people to steal, we don’t want people to kill, we don’t want people to do this and that and they have that capacity to enforce it because they have power of enforcement. Like the age grade where I was, the ekpuketo is the age grade that has the power of enforcement. So, the ekpuke essa which is where I am now is the age grade that makes laws. We make the laws, then the ekpuketo enforce the laws. This is why it is a strong institution that can enforce laws or rules here.
Is it not high time the National Assembly recognised the traditional rulers and traditional institutions so that they can have the powers to enforce governance which is lacking at that level?
Well, you see, it’s a good observation but you will find out like I said, Afikpo is so unique in the sense that they have held unto the system for a very long time. You may not say that about so many other societies. A lot of people don’t have this connection anymore. We recognize a western government. I was once a local government chairman but I also knew as the local government Chairman that I needed to work with this traditional institution because that is actually the institution closest to the people. They are the people who can wake up in the night and say there is this thing that is happening and we don’t want it anymore and the people obey it because they have always obeyed it.
But we don’t have that in so many societies in Nigeria. So, it makes it very difficult to introduce it to political system where you no longer have such traditional structures. In a modern country like Nigeria which has a constitution, you find out that as a secular country too, you just have to follow the constitution and so far, there has not been any hope to allow the traditional institution in the National Assembly. But to me, we don’t even need to strictly specify it because like I said, we merely complement the government of the day, we are not an alternative government in Afikpo North, we have not substituted the local government system.
As a legislator, you make the law and now you are an essa in your native community that also makes the law in the Ehugbo (Afikpo) traditional council. How do you marry the two?
Like I told you, this is a republican system we run here. You won’t believe it that I am just Iduma Igariwey, they don’t believe that you are Honourable this, Honourable that. When I enter our chamber, I am going to sit according to my age grade, there is no special location to me as the member representing them in the National Assembly. So, it’s purely a different system where you have nothing but a system of equals. So, it doesn’t conflict with my work as a legislator at Abuja. The only thing is that I rather pick a lot from this traditional system in terms of how I even make my input in the National Assembly because this is a much more democratic setting we have. At this level, everything is democracy, the way it should be. It’s a system where there is consensus before you reach a decision on any issue. It’s basically consensus, nobody imposes anything. So, it’s not a matter of there is an executive bill which you are merely grappling with what do we do with this bill. We don’t know the interest behind it and so on and so forth. Here, it is the way it is.
What is the place of women in the leadership structure of this traditional council in Afikpo?
Yea, women have their own system. The Afikpo traditional council of elders is essentially a male-dominated system, that is the truth about it. But women still have their own system of handling their affairs. But when they have issues, they can still come to this traditional system to adjudicate for that because it’s like the government of the society. You don’t necessarily need to have a parallel government. Our society has accepted it as our council of governance. So, anybody, no matter your sex, whether you are woman or man, if you have any cause to bring a matter before them, you are free to bring the matter.