By law, the responsibility of creating autonomous communities in Imo State and indeed the entire South Eastern States rests with the State House of Assembly. The selection of an Eze is the business of autonomous community concerned. On selection, his people under the umbrella of the town Union presents him to the Local Government Council. The local Government Council in turn presents his credentials and other legally required documents to the government through the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs as the case may be. When an autonomous community is created by the State House of Assembly after due process, the House sends the bill to the Governor for his assent after which it becomes a law and thereafter put into gazette. For the Eze, the Governor presents him with Staff of office and certificate of recognition. The 106 autonomous communities and their Ezes passed through the said mentioned due processes. From the above analysis readers would agree with me that a Governor does not create an autonomous community and does not determine who becomes an Eze of any community in his State. On assumption of office on 29th of May 2011, Okorocha suspended the 106 Ezes and their communities. While the said Ezes remained under suspension, he set up a review committee to verify and screen them and their communities. The committee headed by a humble respected Jurist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Prof. F. C. Dike did a thorough job and cleared all the affected Ezes and their communities. Yet not satisfied, the acclaimed Rescue Missioner jettisoned the report but reluctantly lifted the suspension on the 106. From May 2011 till date he declined to pay them their monthly allowances. These Ezes from day one of their recognition has been carrying out their duties in their respective communities and attend to the need of their families, relatives and subjects at large. They along with their older colleagues attend to local, zonal and State functions mostly by the self acclaimed Rescuer and Drowner. Apart from few ones among them who are businessmen, others are suffering in silence and living in penury. What crime have these our fathers and brothers committed that Okorocha should continue to deny them their rights, humiliate and torment them. It is true that he’s bent in destroying every legacy of Ohakim, but these Ezes and their respective communities were not made by Ohakim. Like I pointed out earlier, creation of autonomous communities is by the State House of Assembly and Ezes are selected by the people and government accords them recognition. If Okorocha is seeing them as Ohakim products he’s making a grave mistake which the God in heaven and posterity will record for him. These Ezes and their communities have remained supportive of his Rescue Mission Agenda. In his so-called Community Government Council they are even ahead of their older colleagues in readiness for its successful take-off. They respond in earnest any call or invitation by Okorocha and his administration. Those who love him should advise him because the scriptures are clear on the fate of any Master who denies the labourer his wages. Secondly, there’s no bridge between God and the unjustly oppressed. What’s the rationale in paying stipend to primary school pupils in an Eze’s domain while denying him his own monthly allowance? If Rescue Mission is true, why rescue some and drown some? Okorocha wants to classify Ezes. Okorocha wants to merge autonomous communities on grounds of population but population is not the only criteria provided by law for the creation of autonomous communities. The number of autonomous communities in Imo State is the business of the respective communities and not the Governor or Government. How would Okorocha feel as a Governor, if the Federal Government decides to merge Imo with Anambra State at the time Igbos are clamouring for additional States. That’s retrogression and not progress. Abia State has close to one thousand autonomous communities and their numbers do not bother Governor Theodore Orji because he has more important government issues facing him than autonomous communities. The monthly stipends of one hundred thousand naira paid to an Eze in Imo are even laughable and if you multiply it by six hundred and thirty seven you would get a gross sum of sixty three million naira per month. If you exclude autonomous communities in Imo without Ezes following deaths or Ezeship tussle the monthly wage bill out of this amount is less than seventy percent.
Okorocha sees this as a burden on the State finance because States as a result of joint account system hijacked local government fund otherwise the payment of Ezes in the past was the responsibility of local government councils.
During Abacha era, a military junta for that matter compared with the so-called democracy today, he gave directive throughout the federation that five percent of every Local Government Council allocation be used to pay traditional rulers. Some States in the South East like Abia still maintain this system and that’s why the number of autonomous community in Abia doesn’t perturb the Governor. In Imo State reverse is the case and the Governor having destroyed the local government system. With the new constitution in the making local governments in the country would soon have a relief and control over their monthly allocation. But if payment of this paltry allowance to Ezes be an issue then the first to complain should be the Governor of Abia and perhaps Bauchi State Governor that created one thousand additional chiefdoms last year. Under Okorocha’s community government system law, Ndi Eze are the chairmen of the community councils. The same Okorocha recently set up a judicial commission of inquiry into autonomous communities thereby subjecting the 106 Ezes and their communities to another round of probe. The formation of this second probe is heating up the Institution as petitions are trooping in against the Ezes and their communities thus setting them up against themselves. This is an incitement to more problems and anarchy in the previously peaceful communities. Like the botched CGC election that fleeced prospective candidates of thousands of naira, the present probe is also fleecing the communities but worst of all generating animosities in hitherto peaceful communities.
The same 106 Ezes who for over one year and nine months had received no allowance are again subjected to another probe that involves money for documentations, hiring lawyers and other sundry logistics. Yet the Governor’s conscience doesn’t prick him amid Rescue Mission Agenda. What will he achieve in probing these Ezes and their communities? Under the Traditional Ruler and Autonomous Communities Law of Imo State, an Eze could only be suspended or probed for “grave misconduct” on his part. It would have made sense if “commission of inquiry is set up to reconcile and settle dispute in troubled Autonomous Communities like Ohakim did in 2008.
Every autonomous community has its own peculiar reason for creation and if his intention is to merge them, then this time around he must be prepared for its consequences. For instance any attempt to merge two communities that were demerged to avert war over Ezeship tussle is an invitation to anarchy. Some were demerged due to injustice, marginalization, cultural differences etc and no Israelite would want to return to Egypt after being liberated from Pharaoh’s slavery. That would be unacceptable! During Udenwa’s administration, two hundred and twenty-nine autonomous communities were created by the Imo State House of Assembly in October 2002. He signed them into law on 13th October 2003. Another one hundred and fourteen were billed to be created in 2004 before his departure. Inspite of Ohakim’s political imbroglio with Udenwa, he did not probe them out of vendetta, because he knew they were created by law. Only ninety four autonomous communities were created towards the tale end of Ohakim’s tenure and if you add eleven drawn from old autonomous communities whose Ezes were given staff of office together with the ninety four on the 23rd May, 2011, that gives you the celebrated 106. Ninety five percent out of the 94 autonomous communities created during his administration were from the 114 that began their struggle for autonomy far beyond 2004. So Ohakim was not instrumental to their creation save his assent to the bill/gazette as presented to him by the Lawmakers. So Okorocha is misled by seeing them as Ohakim’s making. To torment these Ezes, deny them their allowance and subject them to frequent probe because of Ohakim is a transferred aggression and inhumane. It is an aberration to the sacred traditional institution of Ezeship not only in Imo State but indeed the entire Igboland.
It is astonishing for a man who is addressed as Owelle Ndigbo, a traditional title of Prime Minister bestowed on him by the same institution to treat Ezes with disdain and ridicule. Most worrisome is that the lawmakers at the Imo State House of Assembly who are expected to checkmate this madness remained silent and unconcerned over this abominable act. Both Okorocha and the lawmakers would sooner than later rise to seek the mandate of these Ezes and their communities during up-coming elections. The Ezes themselves are not helping matters as most of them are afraid of confronting this injustice being meted out to them and their people.
Last month, the Abia State House of Assembly asked every autonomous community to pay one hundred thousand naira for verification. Consequently, about eight hundred Ezes stormed the government house. The Governor immediately summoned the House Speaker and he denied knowledge of such. There and then the matter ended. If it were in Imo State the Ezes would out of fear succumb to such exploitation. Heaven help those who help themselves. “Onye a na enyere aka, n’enyere onwe ya aka”.
Owele! Retrace your steps for tomorrow’s sake. “Onye huru ala egwu onu ewii chetakwa na onu ike ya ghere oghe”. “He who’s digging the hole of a rabbit should remember that his own anus is open” hence someone else could plunge a stick therein.
Owele! Remember that these Ezes are the Ofor bearers in Igboland and they are lamenting and weeping in silence. They may not confront you out of fear because you would quickly wield the big stick which you have been waiting for. But, remember! “what men fear, they hate, and what they hate they seek to destroy”.
And men around you won’t tell the truth that would save you because they need to protect their portfolio. “Truth is bitter but it sets us free”. Pay the 106 Ezes their entitlements spanning a year and nine months now. They are your fathers and brothers who have embraced your Rescue Mission Agenda like others. “Emee onye ka emere ibe ya iro a laa”. Stop probing the Ezes and their communities so that they would wish you well “ka ha gooro gi ofor oma na nke oganihu, n’abugi nke ila azu”. “He that has ear let him hear”, says Our Lord Jesus Christ. BY PROF. NATHAN PROTUS UZORMA Email profnathanuzomah@yahoo.com
