For quite a long time now, traditional rulers have been clamoring for a constitutional role outside their primordial function as the custodians of the people’s culture and tradition besides being the chief security officers of their respective autonomous communities.
Those of them in Imo state got the much canvassed constitutional role on a platter of gold at the inception of the Community Government Council, CGC which involved them in governance. The traditional rulers further insisted and got one of the apex plum jobs in the fourth – tier government. This came their was in spite of the fact that their primary role as the custodians of the peoples culture and tradition overwhelmed them in its entirety and Igbo men and women became stripped of their culture. This is unlike what obtains in the core North andWestern Nigeriawhere the cultural life has not compromised its identity or cohesiveness under the irresistible pressure of acculturation in its subtle forms.
In pre colonial society and a little thereafter, the traditional society was devoid of violent crimes like armed robbery, burglary and kidnapping for ransom. Under its tripartite in – built social hierarchy, it was widely assumed that the dead, the ancestors and the gods of the land were irrevocably bonded to ward off calamities from their various communities whether, externally or internally.
By then, traditional rulership was hereditary not politicized to produce hybrid rulers, the preserve of the highest bidder. Were several cultural inhibitions which could not be breached without serious or terminal consequences while the endemic fear and reverence for the gods prevailed unchallenged. These days, royal fathers disguise their ineptitude and ignorance of their bearing by claiming to be Christians or Moslems, square pagans in round holes.
How can cultural and traditional beliefs and rites inherited from our ancestors be efficiently discharged by recanted products of the traditional society? In worst cases, two Moslems are royal fathers in Oguta LGA. How do these custodians of the people’s culture and tradition discharge these onerous functions which sustained peace and stability in the traditional society? Let’s get it right. The oath of office has not been able to stem bribery and corruption because the compassionate God has his ways and means of dealing with recalcitrancy.
To rid the society of its choking social luggage official oaths must conform to the cultural system of administering oaths.
The CGC can function without the involvement of traditional rulers because not all of them are well exposed educationally to handle intricate issues like governance.
What this generation needs most is the rehabilitation of Igbo man’s cultural identity so that other Nigerians will not mistake a cosmopolitan Igbo man for a Yoruba, Hausa or Tivi man. Enough of the prevailing cultural ambivalence.
