This
beautiful land 
of my birth, the ancient and sacred land of my
fathers, the birthplace of my ancestors, perched on the hills of tradition and
overlooking the surrounding towns of Nọfia,
Abagana, Agukwu, Nimo and the other towns, all of whom are family and
friends.
You
are envied by foes but protected and eternally blessed by He that gives life. You are a land of great rivers and mysterious
forests, the first son of Nri and the proud custodian of Ọfọ Nri.
You
are a land of great warriors, great statesmen, virtuous matriarchs and beautiful
maidens, your milk of kindness is ever flowing, just like the nimkpa, ochichi and ovolu rivers that encircle you. Your
benevolence to strangers has survived many decades, you beckoned and welcomed
the needy and strangers during the Nigerian/Biafran war.
All
your caves and nooks were filled up, you gave them succour in your virgin and
fertile
|
Advertise
here
|
|
|
fields,
they ate of your fresh ụdala fruits, your succulent mango trees shielded
and nourished them in the hot war sun, your cassava leaves gave them hope. They
savoured your sweet palm wine in the evenings while reminiscing your big heart,
as the women cooked dinner with earthenware pots with your sweet red palm oil,
surrounded by children staring and gazing into the beautiful and bright moonlight,
the sounds of fresh agụ ụmụakwụ firewood crackling away
in the night, as the shrills of the crickets completed the sonorous rhythms of
your night.
You have
produced great men; you have also produced great women; we are blessed to have Igwe Osita Agwuna, Eze Enugwu-Ukwu and
Igwe of Ụmụnri, the proud shielder and custodian
of Ọfọ Nri, his wisdom has nourished us, and his activism has
benefited Nigeria.
Oh! How
he fought with Nnamdị Azikiwe
and the other great Igbo sons and daughters in NCNC to gain the freedom that we all enjoy today. They still come,
till today, to the Obu Ọfọ Nri Palace to sample, taste and marvel at this wisdom, to drink
of this free flowing vine of mature and vintage knowledge. They have come from
everywhere, from America, from Europe, from within Nigeria and from other parts of the world, to witness in
their lifetime his annual Ịgụ
Arọ, and Ọfọala
festival, our tradition, our culture and our gift to the world.
You also
gave us Nze Nworah Okeke, (Nka ọna
adị), my forebearer and progenitor, whose encounter with the missionaries
later became a folk story, told by elders in the moonlight, Nze Nworah tried to
fight for what he believed in, and challenged the white missionaries in their
ways, though he lost in his one man crusade and battle against the whiteman’s
religious and cultural desecration, as did the other great men of his time, his
place in your history has never been challenged.
For his
punishment, he was made to carry the whiteman on his strong back, from Agu
Igbariam (Igbariam forest) back to Enugwu-Ukwu, a journey that took days. In
mother natures’s ways, he was rewarded even while here on earth and lived to
the age of 110 years, a record waiting to be beaten.
Enugwu-Ukwu,
you have also produced men of high business acumen, these pages are not enough
to do a roll call. In their days, some of them became symbolic of the Igbo man
and wealth: the Nwandus, the Nkwochas, the Udenzes, the Nkwontas, the
Onwudinjos, the Obiekwes, the Nkwojis, the Nwogbos, the Okoyes and the others are
all your children. This tradition still lives on.
We still
enjoy your different feasts and festivals, how can we not? We still try to keep
the tradition, our feastly masquerade stick fights (Ipia agba) at nkwo
market as well as in the
other
village squares are still carried on, and so are Ọnwa asatọ, Ngene,
Nimkpa, Ana Enugwu and the other traditional festivals. We try very much
not to let the torch burn out in our generation. We can not fail; we dare not fail;
our fate is tied to the fate of all Igbos, this is because we (Nri Kingdom) are the ancestral home of
all Ndigbo. Our success is their success; our failure is their failure.
How
very sad I am, and I am sure you must be too, to hear about all the atrocities
that have been committed in your land, the lootings, killings and burnings,
your name has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons, some people that
never heard your name before are now hearing it, but only in association with
mayhem, your honour has been tainted, your glory dented, you have been brutally
ravaged and raped by dark forces, masquerading in the name of politics, you
surely deserve better.
Sadly,
your son who is also a senator, Ikechukwu
Abana, from the Uruekwo tribe and village is caught up in all this. We are
hearing that it is his friends that have committed this abomination. You taught us that an elder does not leave his faeces in his door step, we don’t know
if his friends informed him of their intentions and if he was in agreement. We
are only concerned and worried that he could not do anything to stop them. Some
of the people they killed were your children. The FM station and the
Immigration offices which they burned were really important to us, they gave us
joy and pride, they also gave us jobs, they made us believe that we are once
again part of Anambra State. And, now
these are no more. Our fathers are crying, our mothers are weeping, and our
children are wailing.
When we got
the news that fortune had finally smiled on him and that he had won his court
battles to become the second Enugwu-Ukwu man to become a senator, we rejoiced
with him, just as we had rejoiced with your other son, late Senator Udenze (Lord mayor) in his time,
we hoped
that things will be
different now, that Abana’s good fortune will rub off on us by attracting
government presence to our town, The Nkwọ to Agukwu Road, Ring road to Nise road and Ezi Alias to Nimo roads
are in need of repair. We are still reeling in anger from our huge disappointment with our kinsman
and your son, Sir Clement Akpamgbo. His closeness to power, and eventual advocacy
during the Babangida junta earned us nothing but jeers, boos and shame. We had hoped for a reversal and blessing this
time.
We hear
that Anambra State is broke and so we don’t know when the FM station and
the other government buildings destroyed in the mayhem will be rebuilt. Also,
we don’t know if they will still be built on our land again, you know what
politicians are like.
Your
cries for vengeance have reached the heavens, you demand and deserve justice,
your Gods are angry and demand appeasement. This is not the way you want to be
known or remembered; you still have so much joy and gift to give to Nigeria. I can still see the smile on your face, mixed
with the tear in your eyes. Heaven will still smile on you, you will still take
your pride of place in Igboland and in Nigeria. I want to console you and also to remind you that
light always overcomes darkness. After
the rain comes sunshine.
Chris uba, Ngige, Obasanjo and co will come and go, the way Emeka Offor and Mbadiniju went. But you shall still remain,
a better FM station, better than the one that they burnt will be built, you
shall give birth again to warriors even as the cries and spirits of your
children killed in the mayhem battle the scavengers and give them no respite,
life will return to normal and your smile will shine again.
Oh!
Enugwu-Ukwu, the land of tradition, the birthplace of warriors, Long may your
history live, and far may it be told, in strange and foreign lands.
Your
son.