Arabamen's Analogy: Of Mace & Malediction
M. O. Ené
Saturday, June 10, 2000
First, let me say this: Debating who is the odious one in the latest Obasanjo-Okadigbo brouhaha is like searching for a camel under a desert tent. No matter the intentions of the stressed Senate president and the legality of his actions, the president should not have enabled the police raid. He did not? Tell that to the Tuaregs! If he did not, the police boss or the minister of police affairs -- or both -- should have "resigned" by now. Case closed.
THE CASE
On Friday, June 2, 2000, the world was entertained to a bizarre abuse of law enforcement and petty political power play in Abuja, Nigeria. Apparently, some senators led by Deputy Senate President Haruna Abubakar had lodged a formal complaint with the police allegedly accusing Senate President Dr. Chuba Okadigbo of "unlawful removal and possession of the mace." The Inspector General of the Police, Alhaji Muslui K. Smith, sprang into action. He sent storm-troopers (50 in five vehicles) to bring back the mace.
"Unprecedented executive lawlessness!" Okadigbo and company screamed because many of the lawmakers have accused the presidency repeatedly of masterminding moves to remove Okadigbo from the upper-house headship and Alhaji Ghali Umar Na'Abba from the lower-house leadership. There is even rumor going around that the president would then rezone the positions to get the Islamic Republic of Northwest (Arewa) off his back.
THE JUICE
Many Nigerians were outraged by this show of naked force. The police did an immediate PR mending of fences. Police spokesman Mr. Young Arabamen confirmed the incident at a press briefing he addressed on behalf of the police boss. Yes, the police stormed the Senate president's quarters Elián González-style to retrieve the mace, Senate's symbols of authority. Yes, they could confirm that the ADC to the Senate president, DSP Kene Onwumelu, and another person removed the mace from the Senate premises at about 4 a.m. on June 1, 2000. Yes, they could not find the mace, and the Senate president claimed he had been sent it southeast to the famous sacred cave in Ogbunike, Anambra State.
Huh?
Then he proclaimed: "The traditional Ofo would not even be desecrated the way the mace is being treated."
Aha! "Not even"? Ever heard of mangoes and oranges? Oh yes, they both have juices, but they taste a world apart. Not a good example, but you will get the juice of the matter. This is where I come in. I have been reserving comments on the Ofo and Okadigbo. This police PR officer just touched the tail of a sleeping lion cub. So let us start from the beginning. Let's exhume the corpse because I was there at interment. And we must start by identifying the right tombstone.
THE DEFINITION
"Ofo" -- with sub-dotted "o" and pronounced AWFOR -- is the powerful Igbo symbol of truth, the scepter of justice. According to Professor Michael J. C. Echeruo's Igbo-English Dictionary [Yale University Press, 1998], Ofo is the "ritual staff used to invoke divine vengeance on unconfessed offenders; name of idol or staff to invoke spirits in the spirit of truthfulness.…"
'Malediction' partly captures this essence of Ofo, but there is much more to it. Ofo is usually used in the concept of "ofo & ogu," where "ogu" (pronounced as in OGUN) is the spike of guilt or vindication. You can be certified not-guilty and still be as abominable as hell; "not-guilty" in law does not mean right or just. The Igbo ancestors therefore put together the two fundamental doctrines. You will hear the innocent say: "Eji m ogu; eji m ofo." [I am innocent (vindicated); justice (vengeance) is mine.]
To the Igbo, this doctrine of distinction constitutes life itself because truth is life. There is no known supreme Ofo in Igboland; everyone has one, and there is no superior truth. It is the height of clear consciousness; the inner core of our being that is taintless. It is also true that every community/clan has one lead communal ritual staff, "nne ofo" [mother of all that is right]. Therefore, there is "ofo" in Nri. Umunri (children of Nri or Eri) constitute the most popular priestly clan in Igboland. However, whether this particular Ofo is THE pan-Igbo staff of justice is an entirely different discourse for another place and time.
THE CHIEF
Let me confess that I was not initially in support of Senator William Wilberforce Chinweuba Okadigbo (Anambra North) clinching the senate presidency, which the ruling party PDP had zoned to the Southeast, and which President Olusegun Obasanjo had promised to hand over to Senator Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo (Enugu East). I told a friend that the best bet was Senator Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (Abia North). My friend recoiled. I knew why: He has a thing about "North-born" Igbo leaders (Zik, Ikemba, Jim, Nwachukwu, etc.). I sensed extra tacit deadweights: Nwachukwu's Hausa matrilineality and "matrimonial minuses," whatever that means. He didn't say so because he knows I would floor him with one sentence: The Igbo society is strongly patrilineal, and intermarriages are pretty entrenched. So Senator Evan(s) Enwerem (Imo Central) was railroaded in to become Obasanjo's political best buddy. Then they railroaded him out. Just like that!
Before you could say "William Wilberforce," Okadigbo was crowned chief of the Senate. Everyone I knew swallowed hard, even those who had supported him over Enwerem. (Nwachukwu was never seriously in contention, but he remained my first choice. By then I was yet to met Senator Adolf Wabara [Abia South] who has his own "matrimonial minuses," according to my pal.) Those who knew Okadigbo close and personal said the senators just got themselves into a big bovine funk, and that they would have to let him be the boss or we would be searching for yet another chief soon. Hey, the man is as Igbo as they come and with a premium dose of rugged republicanism, fierce independence, and avoidable arrogance. Soon enough the fireworks began: He is autocratic; he puts others down; he is this; and he is that. Haba, didn't the legendary Asaba woman say, "What you seek you'll see"? ["Ife onye cho ka o fu."] You got it; deal with it!
On Saturday, February 19, 2000, the traditional ruler of the Nri priestly clan of Igboland, Eze Nri, presented Okadigbo with the purported "Ofo Igbo" sacred staff during the annual Iguaro feast (Igbo traditional New Year according to Nri astrophysicists). To the uninitiated, the honor bestowed on Okadigbo (the Oyi of Oyi) is deserved. A native of nearby Ogbunike, a community of great shamans and home of the self-declared Jesus of Ogbunike, Okadigbo is a man of great professional, public, and personal accomplishments. He is his own man, as they say, and everyone knows that. And he shoots straight from the hip.
THE TITLES
Generally, I have no problems with giving out titles to deserving daughters, friends, and sons of the soil. Even when some of the titles are way out of whack, I still find some semblance of sanity in the rapacious revolt of rap royalty against the reality of our ancestral antiquity. This revolting rape characterizes current cultural bastardization and feeds the adoption of incomprehensible alien cultures warts and all. However, when a heavy dose of popular cultural artifact is injected carelessly into politics, people should stand up and say "STOP!" And I am now belatedly jumpstarted by Young Arabamen.
Assuming that the highest symbol of righteousness -- a symbol similar in significance to the biblical Ark of Covenant -- exists, and it is in the custody of Eze Nri, why would he turn it over to someone? Anyone! Why should someone not patrilocally linked to the priestly clan be entrusted to keep the holy staff? Nothing against Senator Okadigbo as a person -- he is a fine gentleman, I am told -- but the man is a politician. I do not think a practicing partisan politician should stock the religious spirit of any people, be it the Obi Onicha, Obong Kalaba, Ooni Ife, Tor Tiv, or Sultanan Sokoto. Politics is not about the truth; it is about managing and massaging a big pot of pervasive prevarication that keeps society in check while the politicians drink to their hearts desire from the communal fountain.
Assuming for argument sake that Ofo Nri is "Ofo Ndiigbo," how come the Eze Nri unilaterally hands it over to the chief of a body that is made up of overwhelmingly non-Igbo members? Have we forgotten the robust republicanism of Ndiigbo, the "oha ka eze" concept? Is the Ofo now a staff of office or still a symbol of righteousness, truth, and dedication to the cause of community? Is it now given out annually during Iguaro festivities, or just when we have a highly placed politician? Did Dr. Alex Ekwueme get to hold it? Was Chief Evan(s) Enwerem slated to receive the staff before he was forced out of the Senate presidency so the now disorganized PDM could install Okadigbo?
We read that such a staff was presented to then Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Ikemba Nnewi) during the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra War. Fair enough: He was prosecuting a generally pan-Igbo program, and he was in a position to preserve the staff while the Federal troops under then Colonels Obasanjo (now president), T. Y. Danjuma (now defense minister), Murtala Mohammed (deceased), Benjamin Adekunle, etc. ransacked Igboland. That was a good move, in my humble opinion, and it was nationalistically kosher: Israeli war commanders of yore were said to seek support from whoever had the Ark. How it ended up in Ethiopia is food for thought.
THE FUSS
Some will wonder why anyone should make a fuss about a symbolic conferment of titles. The Ofo tree (Desterium elastica) is readily available. Anyone can gather its branchlets and carve out staffs. However, when it is designated "sacred scepter" and handed down through generations, it should not leave the community. Assuming Ndiigbo have a sacred scepter of justice dating back to the arrival of Eri from Igala in the theatre of Igbo civilization about 1000 years ago, what is this powerful symbol doing in Abuja? Didn't Chief Osita Osadebe sing that "Nri ji Ofo," and Umunri progress with the Ofo? Why would the traditional custodian of Ofo Nri, the bedrock of Nri theocracy, hand it out? Now that the Nri no longer have the Ofo -- because Okadigbo has it -- what have they?
To non-Ndiigbo, the essence of Ofo may be hard to grasp, but it is so simple if you know the Igbo sociopolitical setup. As the highest sacred symbol of justice, only esteemed elderly and spiritual statesmen of unblemished records hold it. Many state-ordained, so- called "chiefs" do not hold their communal Ofo. It resides with the high priest or the eldest man. Only a truly popular Eze holds the staff. If Ndiigbo had adopted Ofo in place of a metallic mace, Enugu State would not have FOUR speakers in one year. You try taking the Ofo against popular wish only if you have about four days to spend on earth
THE POINT
And this brings us to the curious Arabamen's Analogy. Mace in Igbo is "ňjě," a ceremonial staff carried by a big masquerade or a king as a symbol of its authority. Mace comes in different designs and names: "alo," "mkpo," "okpa," etc. -- depending on its use and dialect. The senate mace is a symbol of authority lifted from ancient Celtic religious rituals. It should have a pride of place in the National Assembly. It must not be desecrated as was done in the Western House at Ibadan in 1960s and which eventually led to the nearly 40 wasted years of flag independence. But Ofo (malediction, for lack of better English equivalent and apology to Professor Akuma Kalu Njoku) and "oji" (mace) are like night and day: superficially similar but deeply different. Now that is the definition of "Arabamen's Analogy," and you can take it to the marketplace and quote me.
In Igbo religion, Odinani, mere mortals do not fight for deities. [Ofo is linked to Ani, the Earth Goddess, on which Igbo religion is anchored.] Anyone can claim to hold on to Ofo, but Ofo knows who has it. I am therefore not bothered by the fate of Ofo Nri. I am also no longer worried about the Mickey Mouse megalomania of disjointed PDP politicians. However, I will like to know -- if the report is true -- why the Senate Mace, which I call "Oji Okadigbo" [Okadigbo's rightful staff of office] should be sent to Ogbunike while the Ofo Nri [Nri King's ancestral symbol of authority] stayed back in Abuja.
Interesting, don't you think?
The reverse should be case. Thus we have a typical topsyturvydom. We are supposed to be in a democratic rule of laws, but force rules. Not even General Sani Abacha used such frontal storm-troop strikes to force his doomed power perpetuity ploys. No, not when he had Rogers, Autas, Mustaphas, Sobowales, Komos, and cloned "NADECO" bomb squads. As I wrote in "Adieu Abdullahi," the darlings of democracy are looking like dictators of democracy.
