By Chidipeters Okorie, PhD
The unwarranted attacks on the Enugu State Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh, Ph.D, by scavengers that want to desecrate and decimate the age-long peaceful coexistence of Mburubu Community has been drawn to his attention. Ordinarily, the Honourable Commissioner wouldn’t have elicited a response if not for the need to set the record straight.
His father, Igwe E.M.O Ezeh (Ozulumba 1 of Mburubu Kingdom) reigned for 5 decades before his glorious demise in December 2021. He reigned in grandiose and grace, exuding peace, patience and love for his people. He was the first traditional ruler of the community. Therefore the traditional stool is not hereditary but rotational amongst the seven (7) villages.
According to Wikipedia, “Rotation or rotational motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as axis of rotation. It simply means rotation can be clock wise or anti-clock wise. In Mburubu, the late Igwe hailed from Umudala, common sense is that the next in the order of seniority is Uhuegbe Village, which should produce the next traditional ruler.
The order of SENIORITY goes viz:
Umudala (1)
Uhuegbe (2)
Uhuagu (3)
Obinagu (4)
Umunafor (where Mr Patrick Jerry Onuokaibe hails from) (5)
Amanator (6)
Amachi (7)
In view of the above, Mr Patrick Jerry Onuokaibe has no moral defense to hijack or procure the traditional stool whence it is not the turn of his village. The community in their last meeting on May 6th, presided over by the Mburubu Town Union requested Uhuegbe Village to present to the community their preferred candidates amongst which the community will elect one to ascend the throne.
The protest was ostensibly meant to drum the ember of war where there is none but why chose to isolate Prince Ezeh for attack if not to capitalise on his magnanimity and philanthropy to attract undeserved attention.
And what offense, if one may ask, has Prince Ezeh committed to deserve the attack? By all verdict the offence of the Honourable Commissioner is his boldness in speaking up for equity and fairness amongst the seven villages of Mburubu, against barbaric hawks that want to hijack the process and torn asunder the peaceful coexistence of the people of the community.
Continual unspooling of Mburubu community by overzealous parochial mundanes whose stock in trade is to always instill echoes of rancor, giving rise to vertigo-inducing sensation all in desperate attempt to caricature the people of the community is rather unfortunate. In applying the laws of gravity, the captains of the already doomed voyage of hatred egged and hatched by Onuokaibe will definitely mark calamitous woeful free-fall.
Onuokaibe has been sowing hatred and bafflement, furious discrimination and numb submissions about what he called, Ikenga and Odenigbo, and in some cases, a heady brand of dark glee. His only mantra of campaign of becoming the Igwe is hitched only on the same Ikenga and Odenigbo obnoxious and barbaric aged long practices. He has time without number tried to whip up sentiment in order to hoodwink Ikengas from other communities of Nkanuland who are not conversant with the history of Mburubu that Prince Ezeh is sponsoring an ‘Odenigbo’ to become the Igwe of the community.
In putting the records straight, Uhuegbe Village which is the next in line in the order of seniority and whose time it is to produce the occupant of the stool is one of the two villages (Uhuegbe and Amachi) in Mburubu that does not have a single hut of Odenigbo in their various villages. The rest of the five villages are a mixture of the Ikengas and Odenigbos who have been coexisting, intermarrying and living peacefully since time immemorial, of which today, Onuokaibe is promoting a division and discrimination in the community — as the only tool to occupy the throne which is never his rightful place.
Uhuegbe village houses Ani Mburubu and its ancestral deity, which is the only deity generally worshipped and celebrated by all Mburubu traditional believers and its chief priest has always been produced from Uhuegbe village but surprisingly in one occasions, Onuokaibe’s crony, Mr Edwin Ezeh (Edinburg) threatened Uhuegbe village, that should they failed to initiate the Ani Festival to favour the ascendance of Onuokabie to the throne, strange chief priests will he imported to take over the affairs of Ani Mburubu and the deity.
Everything that has been used as evidence of pathology to deride and malign the Prince of Mburubu – from their rough languages and jumbled disposition makes no common sense.
Mr. Onuokaibe has arrogated himself as one of the most impulsive, arrogant, ignorant, disorganised, chaotic, nihilistic, self-contradictory, self-important, and self-serving. His malignant abnormality is established — little-minded and birdbrained.
The very little poor rationale of Onuokaibe and his cohorts begs for a number of questions. It posits a failure, which intrinsically implies falling short of something that could be identified as a reasonable sense.
One wonders why the robust defense of the interest of Ndi Mburubu in general as peacefully conveyed by the Honourable Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, should anger vicious, venomous and vainglorious individual(s) desperately wanting to ascend and/or purchase the traditional stool of Mburubu community. The Mburubu traditional stool is not reserved for “boys” of youthful exuberance and character floors but for men of honour, integrity and experience, with proven capability to preside over the affairs of the community with maturity and fear of God.
Let all who are interested from Uhuegbe village throw their hats in the ring and let the people decide. The Prince of Mburubu has never at any time said anything to the contrary. So it would be mischievous to accuse him of intending to impose a candidate for the throne. His only point is that since Rotational Arrangement is enshrined and recognized by the Mburubu Constitution, it would be wrong and unjust to subdue Uhuegbe Village which is next in the order of the community’s seniority. Surely, no right-thinking person would fault such a sound arrangement except mischief-makers.
Contrary to their poor claims, there is nothing like Abuse of Power about Prince Ezeh’s past or present. His reputation as a royalty, community leader of high integrity and philanthropist magna cum laude which is well known by all and sundry even if the desperate individual(s) and scavenger(s) choose to pretend to the contrary.
It wouldn’t be out of place to emphasize Prince Ezeh’s personal efforts to speak reasons into the skull(s) of the desperado(s) to allow the rotational arrangement to play in line with Mburubu constitution which were repeatedly frustrated by entrenched interests predicated to scuttle the community and create atmosphere of rancor where there is none.
Right now, the situation is that after all entreaties by Prince Ezeh to convince Onuokaibe and co-travellers to respect and allow the position of Mburubu constitution to prevail on the election of the new Igwe failed, the people of Mburubu under the auspices of Mburubu Town Union dragged to court the faceless group, Mburubu General Assembly, sponsored by Onuokaibe. Knowing that the matter is already in court and all parties served, what one should have expected from Onuokaibe is to respect the sanctity of the Nigerian court and pursue his claims peacefully, if he has any merit, than renting and sponsoring war chanting crowd to constitute nuisance on the street of Enugu, thereby disturbing and preventing other law abiding citizens of the State from carrying out their legitimate businesses at the secretariat. Onuokaibe should have known that renting of crowd and disturbing the peace of the people cannot bend the hands of law as the court still remains the hope of the common man, where issues are decided on the bases of their merits.
Final line: Let the mundane go attend to other things. We simply commend them to the words of William Shakespeare: “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart… If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.” (Love or Hate Prince Engr Lawrence Ozemenam Ezeh, PhD, COREN, FNSE – both are in his favour. If you love him, he will always be in your heart ….if you hate him, he will always be in your mind).
•Chidipeters Okorie Is the Special Personal Assistant on Media and Commutations to Dr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh, PhD, FNSE, COREN
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