Ogbunike: Ahead Of The Last Ofala, Please Think!

BARR. JOSEPH ANENE (JP)

Who am I not to love Ogbunike, the land of my birth? This land suckled and has nurtured me. This land brings peace to my soul and gives wings to my dreams. That is why I owe her my voice and my wits. I owe her my emotions; and no quantum of it expended on moving her forward will ever be enough. Never!

Each passing day, brings us closer to the last Ofala, which would eventually herald the crowning of a new Igwe of our lovely homeland, Ogbunike. It portends a thing of joy, but within, I am a captive of forlorn fear. I am being depreciated by the nonchalance of Ogbunike people as regards the unseen unfolding events over who would mount the throne. We must be at alert or risk politicians and their ‘robots’ hijacking our heritage, our cultural symbol. We cannot afford to sacrifice our legacy on the altar of political influence, manipulated from Awka and Abuja. Now is the time, to stand in unison to resist such gestures coated in deceit. 

We all will agree that Late Igwe Umenyiora was quite suitable and widely acceptable for that role before he was enthroned by our forefathers. The problem in the present day Ogbunike is how to get a successor, who the ancestors will accept and grant us communal progress, because if we get it wrong, our spirit of wellbeing would be in tatters. May God restrain us from such blunders! Of course, we are living witnesses to how wrong leadership rubs off on the rudders of nationhood by being Nigerians.

I have been asking around to know the great sons of Ogbunike, who would likely be stepping up to continue where our illustrious Igwe Umenyiora left off. In doing so, I have conferred with some of our youths and Ndi Ichie, and the feelers, I have been getting have narrowed the personalities to four. Although, they are all yet to publicly declare their interests, I have it on good authority, that they have been oiling their machineries in preparation. I am not against any of them, although, I still think we should search out more of our sons, both within and outside of our shores, to step up for this unique task of advancing our legacy as a people.Before these four men step up, I intend to use this piece to analyse them in a way my brothers will reason and make informed choices. In no particular order, my interactions, unveiled these men:

Mr. Elo Gwacham(Mayor):
He is popular in his own right and has invested substantially in properties and tourism, being the brain behind the popular Best Western Merloch Hotel in Awka. I have found Elo to be a jolly good fellow, well-connected to the powers at Awka and beyond from whom he is obviously benefitting in terms of contracts. I was told that he has been networking with Ndi Ichie in a bid to get the throne, but some Ndi Ichie have reservations about his level of education, which I don’t see as an impediment anyway. My concern about Elo’s hidden ambition is his age and attitude to our traditional institution. He is in his 60s, an age that will definitely rub off on his productivity, which is why, it beats some of us silly that he had not deemed it necessary to take a traditional title, which in my estimation implies nonchalance to traditional norms. I see his ambition as an afterthought, and it would be risky bringing this to our traditional stool. 

Chief Engr. Nnamdi Nwadiogbu,Ph.D (Etodike):
When his name popped up in respect of this article, what came to my mind was whether the people of Ogbunike have felt the impact of their son as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Oyi Local Government, a position Nnamdi has occupied for 3 years now. He is a close relative to the First Lady of Anambra State, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, but are there tangible dividends we can point at which have come from this relationship save from his appointment as the boss of our Local Government Council? Nnamdi is well-educated, well-travelled, overwhelmingly exposed and has the clout to change Ogbunike if he becomes the Igwe, but will he do so, having ignored us for too long in spite of his position? May be we should also not lose sight of his tenure as the President General of the Ogbunike Progressive Union. Are his achievements commensurate with the expectations of our people? Some people raise allegations of perpetual land dispute, especially with some of his less fortunate kinsmen, it is now that these issues need to be verified by our people in order to prove him worthy or not even as he is being fingered as being behind the factional squabbles in Ifite-Ogbunike.

Ogbuefi Dr. Harris Chuma Odili (Ogene na ara onu):
My investigations showed that this man was relatively unknown in our community until 2016, when he arrived Anambra with a box of films he had made as a filmmaker in Lagos, desiring to be the Governor of Anambra State. People laughed, fully aware that he lacked the financial wherewithal to stand the rigours of Gubernatorial campaigns. He soon proved them right, when he switched allegiance to the ruling party, APGA, from APC. But he has grown to become a voice in Anambra politics, and was able to win over the youths of Anambra, especially Ogbunike, when he became their voice. In Ogbunike for instance, he has consistently spoken against the state of infrastructure and is seen by the youths as a benevolent man, who regardless of his limited financial means, shares amongst all. With a string of academic and professional accomplishments and in his late 40s, age is fairly on his side, even as he has shown great appetite for the culture of our people having positioned himself as a culture advocate of National proportions, with titles originating from Ogbunike and beyond. In spite of these, his activities on the social media are a source of concern for me, although, he does online PR for politicians as part of his job portfolio. While I desire a vibrant son of the soil like him as the Igwe, I am restrained to forbid attempts at bringing pop culture to our traditional norms. Our youths, who form the crux of his support base, may not see this, but heritage is sacrosanct in this matter, nothing must dilute it. My question in his case is: Has he dropped his political ambitions to become the Governor? That he is not a man of immense wealth like the others does not perturb me as much as waking up to see the palace turned into a theatre for Nollywood people. Yes, you would say some actors in Yoruba land have become Oba, but we are from Ogbunike, not Ijebu-Ode.

Chief Obi Azodo (Okpataozuorah):
A core traditionalist and man of immense wealth, I appreciate the fact that he can shoulder the financial responsibilities of the stool, without recourse to our people. Lately, he has been involved in many philanthropic activities in our town but I tend to see these as part of his plan to woo our conscience, because the act of giving holds true when there are no motives.Chief Azodo, from what I heard has doubled his act of giving in recent times, but investigations also highlighted that he has always had an eye on the traditional stool of Ogbunike even while Late Umenyiora was alive. Aside constantly appearing in royal regalia, he built himself a palace a long time ago, signaling that he was the Igwe in Waiting, but Ogbunike cannot be negotiated on the altar of Naira and Dollars. Whoever his late forefathers can be awoken by the noise of money can follow, not me. A man could be so poor, that the only thing he has is money. 

On this note, I will remind us of the Biblical story over the search for King David in the House of Jesse.  I am tempted to ask if these are the only sons of Ogbunike. The more, the merrier!