I am proudly a native of Igbo-Ukwu, one of the largest towns in Anambra State situated in the Aguata Local Government Area. Igbo-Ukwu is unarguably, the cradle of Igbo civilization and was hitherto known as Igbo, until the town decided to differentiate itself from the entire Ndi-Igbo by adding UKWU to its name to yield its current name, Igbo-Ukwu, which means the Great Igbo(or IgboBig) The archaeological excavations from Igbo-Ukwu consisting of sophisticated bronze metal-working culture dating to 9th century AD, centuries before other known bronzes of the region, show how far our people have come, especially viz-a-viz the various contenders to the Igbo throne (Shaw,T(1977) Unearthing Igbo-Ukwu: Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria; Oxford University Press)
I have always been a “village man”. I did not grow up in Igbo-Ukwu because I was following my late father, Sir EzeamaluchiW.O Muo, (we called him “W.O” behind his back), the original Head Master from one rural community to another(Abba, Ebenator, Osumenyi, Azigbo et al). But Every Christmas, he ensured that we all visited home. One of his co-in-laws a Morris-lorry driver would ferry us all home and we sang and rejoiced as we left wherever his duty post was, to the village, where we would enjoy the Christmas holidays. There, we would mix and play with brothers, cousins and nephews and the elders, Uzoahia, Udoye Emeka, Gabriel-Nwagbe, who would tell us tales and give us the kind of affectionate attention that was scarce with the cane-wielding WO.
So, over the years, I have become increasingly in love, and involved, with Igbo-Ukwu and have attended Igbo-Ukwu meetings and events for the past 43 years. And thus, whenever I have some free time, I wish to spend it at home but the problem is that the time has never been enough. At times I get home on 24th December and disappear on 2nd January, when most of the festivities are just revving up.
Christmas, last year, was, however, a pleasant exception. Our “GO” approved a university holiday from 23/12/19 to 5/1/20. My Oga HOD also approved a part of my annual leave that set me free till the end of January. You are wondering who is our GO? That is our inclusive and open-minded Vice-Chancellor whose initials are “GO”. When I heard that appellation for the first time, I was aghast: How can we have a GO in an academic environment? But when I learnt that it was his initial and noticed his pro-people tendencies and attributes, I joined others in calling him the GO. By the way, we have many wonderful names at OOU. We have “The ROC(k)” (a Professor whose initials are ROC); an “MD”( who is just an ordinary student of Business Admin); “Government” ( a hardcore sociologist who had worked at the Governor’s office before) DIBIA(I am yet to ascertain whether his is a native or modern dibia) and of course we have the Spirit!
So, mobilised my resources and family and an emergency personal driver and set up for IgboUkwu. The first concern was how to make the trip, giving the 60+ security tollgates and the declaration by the IGP that since those of us from the east were the greatest criminals, he would not reduce that armada. So, I took a desperate and unusual step of leaving Lagos by 3 am on 22/12/19. (Yes; 3 am) And by the time we drove into the Ago Palace Way in Lagos, there were 1001 vehicles already on the road, all of them headed east and getting out of Lagos took us more than 2 hours. Somewhere around Shagamu, we joined a one-man alarm-blaring convoy and when the man noticed that we were following him bumper-to-bumper, he “adopted” us and told security men at all the “tollgates” that were a part of his convoy. He led us smoothly to Onitsha, where we shook hands and parted ways around 12noon. That was also where I discharged my emergency driver who headed back to Lagos immediately
We got home about an hour later, unpacked our luggage, visited my mother-in-law, where we had a sumptuous late lunch, attended evening mass, (since we could not attend mass in the morning), visited some of our neighbours for both routine greetings and Christmas handshake. The following day, we engaged a very dutiful lady to clean and de-dust the entire house and thereafter, settled down for the serious business of holidaying in IgboUkwu.
Over the next 20 days, we (self and at times, with the family) moved around and about Igbo-Big from morning(at times straight from the morning Mass, 6 pm) till night(at times, up to 10 pm and beyond!). It was all about weddings(traditional and modern), (I attended about 5 of them) funeral ceremonies and condolence visits(6), birthday celebrations(4), harvest and bazaar ceremonies(3) (the urban churches will always do theirs before the December Migration while the “village” churches would always wait for the returnees before doing theirs) ozo-initiation ceremonies(6) and meetings,(7) most of which ended up in fundraising. Key activities included the surprise birthday party which some musketeers(including the son of man) organised for Ezenwagu Okafor(26/12/19), my own birthday party on 1/1/20 (the only day I stayed indoors for a WHOLE day and attended by “small medium and large” compatriots, the 76th birthday celebration of my maternal aunt, Lady Rose Nwosu,(29/12/19) and the 5-in-1 celebrations by Ezeonyima Igwilo(Birthday of self and spouse, wedding anniversary, award of Moving Patron?? By his club +++).
The greatest meeting was the IgboUkwu General Assembly, where and when, in the presence of Anambra State Government representatives, we resolved the 8-year long impasse and elected Christian Ikeh as the President General. The funeral ceremonies of Chief EE Okoye, Odu2 of IgboUkwu took me two days, the first day as a member of the Idu Cabinet and the second as a member of the prestigious nze na ozo society. The highest Ozo initiation ceremony was the initiation of the 4 Ikwuetoghu brothers into the ozo-ship at a sitting, the first in IgboUkwu history. I also had time for my usual academic pursuits as I was the guest lecturer at the Achina Development Summit, 29/12/19(A new Model for Achina Development: The need for a paradigm shift) and the Youth Social Club of IgboUkwu 2019 Convention31/12/19(Preparing the Youths for Leadership)
I actually enjoyed the whole period without the usual stress of lectures, results and meetings. The weather was dry dusty and cold; NEPA, quite surprisingly gave us light for 80 percent of that period; there was traffic holdup everywhere and only those who knew the terrain very well could move freely and there were police escorts and sirens everywhere. Our people are now all doctors, all chiefs, all Sirs so that everywhere you go, you see Chief, Dr Sir XXX. And the latest status symbol is to have police escorts and sirens. Where did they get all these from? Were all these official? Anyway, by next year, I will have my own; even if they are OOU security personnel or the village vigilante!
By 11/1/20, it was time to pack and return to the madness of Lagos. It was not necessarily because of activity drought. My pocket was almost dry; NEPA had taken light for two days; two of my sisters took ill simultaneously and one of them had to be taken to 5 hospitals before being admitted in the 5th. And of course, it was just time to go because of 1001 demands on me and other members of my family. I left IgboUkwu by 7 am and we were on the road for 14 hours, and I was on the steering.
At one point, we veered of the Benin Sagamu highway and meandered through routes that looked like roads (and probably constructed by Lugard and used by Awo during his Western Nigerian campaigns), through Oniparaga, Onitea, Oke-Ado and Isale-Ijebu and, Ajebandele High School. The route was actually at the middle of nowhere, habited by people forgotten by their government and I thanked God that there was no emergency, even if a flat tyre) Eventually we busted out at the Ajebandele side of the Expressway and before long, the environment showed us that we were back to Lagos: the bumper to bumper traffic; the mad-driving, verbal terrorism and toxic exchanges among the drivers, mosquitoes that had been famished over the days and noisy generators. It was a wonderful holiday but I need some time for recovery: my body, my car and my pocket, and most importantly, the various official and official assignment that were abandoned in the spirit of Christmas migration and holidays.
Other matters: Will you sacrifice for Nigeria and Nigerians.
Fifty-six men signed the American Declaration of Independence that kick-started the struggle for freedom from Britain. 24 of them were lawyers and jurists; 11 were merchants, 9 were farmers and large plantation owners. They signed pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour, knowing fully well that the death penalty awaited them if captured. They were propelled by the untold sufferings for themselves and their people. Of those fifty-six, 5 were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died;12 had their homes ransacked and burnt; 2 lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured; 9fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War etc.
Here in Nigeria, we are independent but we all know that the fruits of that independence have been warehoused by a few from the North, South, East and West. We complain, complain and complain: poverty, unemployment, executive highhandedness, unpardonable government profligacy, decayed infrastructure, corruption, etc; but who is ready to pay the price to set us free from the deliberate misrule of the political, bureaucratic and military elites? Even the intellectual elites are involved by silence, acquiescence or providing strategic backbone! Yes; it is not just an APC, PMB and Hausa affair! So, who is willing to pay the price?
