In order to protect their culture and tradition from being tainted and contaminated with outside influences, the Obosi people in Anambra state have gone into a frenzy of enforcing conventions and rules based on primordial feelings and sentiments and driven by nativist ideology and theory. In this case, non-indigenous wives of Obosi men are barred from becoming the president general of the Obosi Development Union (ODU) women’s wing. That state of things has provoked an online war on the Obosi Village Square (OVS) WhatsApp group platform. The raging debate on the matter has pitted friends against friends and relations against relations.
But as Obosi is an important town that is critical to the socio-economic and political development of Anambra state, happenings in it should not be treated with levity or swept under the rug. Contiguous to Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra state, Obosi is inhabited by people who are both natives and non-natives of the town. And the town is fast turning into an urban metropolis, with sprawling markets, schools, industries, and banks dotting the Obosi landscape.
More so, it has become a very densely populated area, as the overflow from the crowded Onitsha has made Obosi town their residential abode. And the great number of registered voters in Obosi, if tilted in favour of a particular politician, can tip the balance in favour of that politician during an election in the state. So politicians who belong to many different political parties court Obosi, the beautiful bride, during periodic elections.
Again, Obosi town is well-known to millions of Nigerians partly because of its legendary land dispute with its next-door neighbour, Onitsha. Their fight over land has spanned many years. And indigenes of both towns had died in their fight over land. The seven martyrs whose tombstones glitter and gleam in the morning sun at Obosi town hall bring back memories of the Obosi-Onitsha land dispute.
But then, it is Obosi town’s prominent natives who have made the town tick. Their groundbreaking and trailblazing achievements in diverse fields of human endeavours have made Nigerians talk about them and their hometown, Obosi. Obosi, lest we forget, is the home town of Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the first Black person to become the Commonwealth Secretary General; the late Chief Chimezie Ikeazor, legal luminary and founder of free legal aid; the late Igwe Isaac Iweka, the first Igbo engineer; Chief Osita Chidoka, former minister of aviation; and others.
So it cannot be gainsaid that Obosi town’s illustrious indigenes are contributing their quotas for the development of Nigeria. Even lesser-known Obosi indigenes who are professionals in diverse fields of human endeavours are doing their bit to remake Nigeria and take it to greater economic and technological heights. Those indigenes of Obosi can be found in the areas of medicine, engineering, politics, accounting, law, journalism, sports, and others.
Read also: Town Union Governments’ are Fillip to national development, the Obosi example
However, the Obosi people’s upholding of a convention/tradition, which is rooted in nativist sentiments, is incongruous with its history as a town of progressive-minded people. The efforts that are being made by Obosi people to entrench and enforce the rule/convention that non-indigene women who are married to Obosi men should not hold the post of the President General of the Obosi Development Union (ODU) Women Wing are obnoxious and repugnant to the principles of egalitarianism, fairness, and equality. We are not unaware of the stark fact that a person can become a citizen of Nigeria via these ways, viz., birth, registration, naturalisation, and marriage. By the same token, a female non-indigene of Obosi, who is married to an Obosi man, has become an indigene of Obosi by the virtue of her marriage to an Obosi man.
And as a native of Obosi by marriage, she will enjoy the same rights and privileges as are enjoyed by the daughters of the town. Therefore, erecting walls of division to prevent them from becoming the head of a women’s town union organisation is akin to taking a retrogressive step to the abyss of the Stone Age period. It is an antediluvian, barbaric, discriminatory, inhumane, primitive, obnoxious, vexatious, and injudicious act that paints the portrait of Obosi and its people in a very bad and deprecating light.
But common sense dictates that the enforcers of that obnoxious and retrogressive rule/convention should retrace their steps so as to create social harmony and unity in Obosi town. A town that is embroiled in turmoil and social disequilibrium cannot develop. But when unity and social harmony exist in a town, the people of that town can pool resources for the development of their town. Have communal efforts not become the linchpin for every town’s development?
Interestingly, Obosi people belong to the Igbo ethnic group, an ethnic group that is persecuted and marginalised in our country’s scheme of things. Today, Igbo people are regarded as second-class citizens in a country, which they helped to build. And they are treated with utter disdain, disrespect, and suspicion by people who do not belong to the Igbo ethnic group.
So it is unimaginable that Obosi, which is a town of progressive-minded people, is tending towards insularity, conservatism, and nativism instead of embracing egalitarianism and liberalism. Obosi people’s enforcing of an outmoded, vexatious, retrogressive, barbaric, and discriminatory rule/convention in the name of making their culture and tradition impregnable to contamination and outside influences is reprehensible and condemnable. But can a people’s culture retain and maintain its pureness or pristine nature forever?
The bottom line is that any town whose people desire and quest for development should embrace egalitarianism and liberalism and shun nativism and insularity. The people of a modernising town should adopt accommodating practices that will guarantee peace, unity, and development in their town. It is the only way by which it can navigate past the complexities and problems of modernisation and urbanisation.
Chiedu Uche Okoye, who is a poet and civil servant, is also the official communicator of the Obosi Development Union(ODU) President General.
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