BY Nwokedi Nworisara<\/p>\n
How can a government voted in by its people refuse to pay teachers
\nsalaries for 17 months ; refuse to pay pensioners for years? Something
\nmust be wrong in our priority setting. Maybe some other things have
\nbecome more important than conscience.Or maybe life is no longer as
\nvaluable as it was before. The Igbo culture used to\u00a0 prioritize life and
\nhard work\u00a0 ” Oruru rie; Omuru Zuo, that is to say He who works should
\neat or he who delivers a baby should nurture it to maturity. The other
\nadage is “Ometere vuru” which defines the Igbo priority – justice . He
\nwho soils his hands should bear the brunt.\u00a0 So how come that we now live
\nin societies where these molders of our conscience are not taken
\nseriously anymore even by our leaders.
\nThis leads us to serious soul searching. Have the Igbos lost it? Have we
\nbegun a descent down the part of death in place of life? This should not
\nbe acceptable.<\/p>\n
How did we get here? What should be done to remedy the situation? How
\ndoes it affect life and existence in Igboland? These are patient
\nquestions we should research and stress in our Nzuko or meetings.
\nNothing is beyond the Igboman to control and overcome as soon as
\nawareness of it becomes self evident.
\nLet us review our past and trace our journey down to this day to
\nunderstand where we stepped out of our usual cultural harmony and what
\nhas been the consequences<\/p>\n
The Igbo nation although made of many dialects have managed to remain
\nunited by virtue of their internal harmony arising from commonly shared
\nvalues; the most important of which is life.
\nIn essence abomination is literally defined as taking of life,
\nespecially that of fellow Igbos. Even at the time when intertribal wars
\nwere happening there were treaties established between towns kingdoms
\netc as to discourage the taking of life between Igbo kingdoms. So many
\ntribal practices abhore killing of people. Most of those ostracized from
\nIgboland are because of shedding of fellow Igbo blood. No matter how you
\nkill people,whether through rituals or through denial of rights,
\nkidnapping , refusal to pay wages etc it is the same. Such a person is
\nsent away to an unknown land just after the\u00a0 boundary of the kingdom
\nconcerned. Those\u00a0 people are declared no longer\u00a0 Igbos!\u00a0 Some of them of
\ncourse were sent to distant ‘Mbammiri’ often seen as uninhabitable
\nplaces in those days and they often retain their language or adulterate
\nit after many generations.
\nSo the point being made here\u00a0 is that any Igboman who commits or spills
\nblood of fellow Igbo is ostracized and no longer an Igboman. In modern
\ntimes this separation exists even if not physical. Those who commit
\nmurder whether known or undiscovered have a rendezvous with the Igbo
\nsoil often the most potent decider of justice. So in essence these
\npeople are not Igbos\u00a0 and even when saddled with leadership in modern
\npalance are no longer Igbos and therefore cannot lead igbos!!
\nBut such people within this category\u00a0 who have not been physically
\nseparated can receive forgiveness if they confess and may be required to
\ngo through traditional restitution. Those who fail to publicly confess
\nwill not be allowed to exit this earth until they do so.
\nBut where danger exist is when such people continue unrepentant of these
\ndeeds and even spread the punishment to their foot soldiers who are also
\ntied with them as if these people actually committed the atrocities.\u00a0 In
\nthe olden days such people are not allowed to present kola to a
\ngathering because they were seen as unclean and if they do then people
\nare advised not to chew them.<\/p>\n
It is the same with money or yam or gifts. Any one who accepts them
\nshares in their punishment whether you realize it or not. Now is the
\nexplanation\u00a0 of the numerous deaths inflicted in Igboland of late since
\nthese barriers established by our forefathers are now breached by modern
\npolitical or socio cultural organisations. Today everyone can present
\nkola to the elders or children alike simply because he or she made some
\nmoney! Indeed\u00a0 these money bags are always full of gifts to these\u00a0 less
\nfortunate undiscerning people who help them share their spiritual
\nburdens at every point. If Igbos will be circumspect henceforth in
\nreceiving gifts or sharing kolanut then there will be drastic reduction
\nin untimely passing of people and the Igbo culture will move away from
\nburials to more forward looking events like Egbeji, iri- ji , Ila-
\noso,Uma -Nwa, iru- Uba, Igboto mma ,ilu- Nwanyi etc.<\/p>\n
In the same vein we can easily change the tragetory of our life to
\npositive life we used to live if we can return to our original values in
\nmany aspects of life.
\nFor instance ” Igbo Enweze”
\nThis was how we lived before. It made it possible for us to survive the
\nwar because our unity of purpose\u00a0 saved many lives . Unfortunately those
\nwho did not want us\u00a0 to survive armed with power and many servants of
\ntheir course became our law makers. They reasoned that if they can turn
\nthis phase upside down then they can disunite the Igbos and ensure\u00a0 that
\ndisharmony would reign amongst kinsmen and\u00a0 women. So they showed the
\nseeds through their\u00a0 own whom we thought were our own\u00a0 . They called it
\nautonomous Community !! We did not need them to give us Eze but they did
\nand left in it’s trail conflict within the communities. In a short while
\nevery community had Ezeship struggles and deaths widened it’s grip on
\nour people. And when the Eze passes on\u00a0 then bigger trouble because the
\nlaw expects a rotation of the kingship. So if there\u00a0 were communities
\nnot previously affected by the earlier tussle they will join willy
\nnilly.
\nMy people have you ever seen where the pyramid of power decided by our
\nforefathers are turned upside down? Well that is what our not too
\nfriendly competitors have reduced the Igbo nation so that internal
\ncohesion\u00a0 is destroyed because society direction is no longer forward
\nlooking but in many directions at the same time.
\nSo the igbo nation can hardly survive a conflict situation as was in the
\nlast civil war.
\nIt has taken the invader in igboland\u00a0 so many centuries to finally
\nreduce her to managable proportions. It started with the British
\ncolonialists who used divide and rule but they never tampered so much
\nwith the culture aside from discouraging those violent aspects of the
\nculture. The\u00a0 colonialists juggled with the existing paramount rulers by
\nallowing the contenders,the aggrieved\u00a0 to mount the saddle under the
\nsame cultural arrangements. . After the civil war the military rulers
\nemployed the same tactics. It was as if the conquering soldiers realized
\nlater on that if\u00a0 culture\u00a0 was still intact then changes would be
\nminimal . So the coming pseudo military leaders\u00a0 or civilians fronted by
\nthe military thought it was better to internally wound the sturbon
\nculture into fighting itself and so the autonomous community edict or is
\nit law was put in place to complete the job. Now you know how to be more
\nunited and serve your purpose here without\u00a0 allowing your “leaders” to
\nlead you astray.
\n1234567<\/p>\n
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