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The former President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, who passed away reverently, reportedly insisted that he be buried 24 hours after demise. His children and his people did as he wished. Ikedife, an accomplished medical doctor and politician, had reportedly written or said the following: “For me, a befitting burial is when you are sure I am dead, dig six feet, wrap me in a mat, put me in the ground and cover it. I will not be celebrated when I die. I don’t want a funeral. Once I am dead, put me in the grave and go away. Don’t come on condolence visit. Don’t come for a funeral ceremony. I don’t want it. Is it of any use to me, a dead person? You are just wasting your time and giving yourself trouble. If you invite 10 people, it does not mean anything to me. If you fire 100 gunshots, it means nothing to me. People waste energy, and sometimes money, sometimes they borrow or sell something to give somebody what they call a befitting burial. I don’t need it.”
Ikedife might have taken it to the extreme in not wanting condolence visits, but he has a message to pass.
I did an article at that time wherein I wrote some lines I wish to repeat hereunder: “The glaring fact is that Chief Ikedife has interrogated wasteful burials in practical terms. When a man who once held the cultural bastion of his people makes such a point, he is sending a message to his people. He wants us to redefine ‘befitting burial’ because the current definition is borrowing, and even selling property at give-away price in order to come close to an event that can be so described. What really is the definition of a befitting burial?”
Those comments of mine on the matter, and the attendant question seem to have been answered in the recent law passed by the Anambra State House of Assembly. The law insists that it will be illegal to keep a corpse in the morgue for more than two months. The reason most people keep their dead in the morgue for that long or more is to look for the humongous sums needed to execute the burial. That time lag enables some of them to borrow, beg or sell property, where they cannot muster the required resources.
I have seen people who virtually sold their lone family land in order to give their loved ones a ‘befitting burial.’ There are cultural nuances to this that I do not intend to denigrate but, if culture impinges and actually retards a peoples’ progress, the maxim of change as the only permanent indices in life must come to play.
The alarm was raised by the church. The Catholic Bishop of Awka, Anambra State, Most Reverend Paulinus Ezeokafor, began the campaign against expensive burials in 2017 in his jurisdiction of the church. He took the bull by the horns when he told the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Rita Maduagwu, that the trend cannot be tamed effectively by canonical fiat, insisting that a legislation would be needed. The entire Assembly gave ear to the canonical voice, and even made the bishop a resource person to bring the law into fruition.
In making the case, the bishop stated the obvious when he said: “I have seen families sell their real estates, property and personal belongings to meet up with the expectations of society as regards funeral expenses. Businesses have folded up, marriages have broken down, children have been out of school and sudden deaths have been recorded simply because people could not wriggle out of the devastating effects of the huge expenses incurred during funerals of their loved ones.
“I have always seized the opportunity to speak on the dangers of wasteful burials and funerals among our people. I have insisted that what we should be talking about is how to give our people a decent and befitting living, not befitting funerals, by which we mean mindless display of extravagance.”
The bishop took the lead in his diocese by banning the use of funeral brochures with effect from May I, 2017. He also prohibited the diocese from cooking and sharing souvenirs during the burial of their relatives. The bishop could only execute his orders within his sphere of authority. He could only get at priests and people in the Roman Catholic Church within his diocese, but the anathema had become deep-seated within society. Some individuals had stood against wasteful burials long before now and had not given a damn about societal expectations. They were a drop in the ocean. I once had a boss who buried his mum when she died before organising a funeral.
In Anambra, the lawmaker representing Anaocha II Constituency, Charles Ezeani, sponsored “A law to Control Burial/Funeral Ceremonies Activities in the State.” The law reads in part: “No person, including widow/widower, shall wear mourning cloth for the purpose of mourning after mourning period. No person or group of persons shall deprive a widow of sleeping during her mourning period. No person shall force a widow to shave her hair during burial ceremony of her husband. Magistrates’ courts in the state shall, to the exclusion of any other court, have original jurisdiction over matters specified under the law.”
Those who want to immortalize their departed ones must not do so through vulgar display of wealth. They can set up scholarships in memory of their departed ones than having people drink to stupor and the numerous excesses that seem to have become the norm.
The activities of Umuada and sundry groups who have long lists of demands at the funeral of people they hardly came to visit on their sick bed amount to insensitivity. Other states in the South East, and states who know where the shoe of burial pinches them, should borrow a leaf from Anambra state and break loose from the retrogression masking under culture.
