Now the Center is No Longer Holding

By Odey George Ogbaji

Chief Obiugu Okonu is the present king of Ekpa Enehi Kingdom. His father was Chief Omeka. Stories have it that when Chief Omeka died, the whole village allowed his corpse stay for eight days thinking he would still wake and continue his leadership as the king. This was simply because of the love they had for him. He was wealthy, tolerant,

and to crown it all a peace lover. On one of those occasions when the land of Obime was about going to war against the people of Obiayi over the land beside Omogugu stream, he called the king of Obiayi and paid him alongside his chiefs. When Okonu finally became the king after the demise of his father, as royalty demands, he had the right among many other rights to marry as many wives as possible. So Okonu married four wives from the four communities that make up the Okpa Enehi kingdom. His late father had been married to two wives with in-laws cutting across the four communities.

Okonu married Omgbonya from Okame community; Agbo from Obime Community; Ekor from Obiayi community; Onya Oko from Eneayi community respectively. He tried to give the best of his attention to all irrespective of the fact that some of the wives were older than the others. Every festive period he sent messengers with yams, cassava, goats and cowries to his in-laws in the four communities. They enjoyed the unity as a kingdom.

Years passed, and people of Okame community became uncomfortable with what they were being given. They complained about hectares of land and the appointment of a chief priest. The king in his wisdom tried his best to manage the situation because his wife who is the mother to his heir is from the Okame community. But over the years the agitations increased so the king decided he would ignore some of them. The Okame people seeing that he wasn’t yielding to their demands, threatened that they would take back their daughter alongside the heir to throne. The other wives hearing about the threats decided they were tired and would leave also as they had tolerated Omgbonya and his people for too long.

We can comfortably relate happenings in Okpa Enehi Kingdom to what is happening in Nigeria today. Just on the 6th of June, 2017, some Arewa youth met in Kaduna and asked the Igbos to vacate the North within three months, the reason being that they were tired of the Igbo agitations. On the other hand, a coalition of Niger Delta militants on 10th June 2017 in Port Harcourt called on the federal government to return all oil blocks being controlled by Northerners to the people of the oil producing region. The group said that they would declare their independence on October 1, 2017 and free themselves from what they called enslavement.

Is this union (Nigeria) actually enslavement? Even if your answer is yes, how do you describe a “marriage union” with one wife let alone that with many wives? As if that wasn’t enough, the youth of Oduduwa Republic comprising Osun, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and Lagos warned the Igbo residing in the South-West states to desist from mentioning anything Biafra and if they fail to comply they would be evicted. The Oduduwa Republic is tired also and wants to be alone.

The one million-dollar question is: What happened to the love we once had? We loved this union so much that thousands were sacrificed on the altar of ‘unity’. What happened to the unity we always pledge to uphold? To me, we are ‘married’ for over a century now. We no longer belong to our various tribes, regions and geopolitical zones alone. We simply belong to our husband (Nigeria) and are supposed to be used to living with ourselves and not quarrel. We have to make Nigeria work. It’s time to put our sword down and visit our dialogue table. We are better as Nigeria than as Biafra or Niger Delta Republic. Let all hands be on deck to make the center hold.