The Blessing Of Nwa Ogaranya
What more did Nwa Ogaranya need in this life? He
was the first son of the richest man in Omambala, and
while his father was alive, he made sure Nwa
Ogaranya got every good thing the Earth can offer. He
gave him a hundred slaves and bought a portion of Ugbo - the most fertile part of Omamabala.
Nwa Ogaranya, unlike most sons of rich men, was
industrious. He never gave himself to women or
strong wine. In less than six new yam festivals (6
years), Nwa Ogaranya bought every piece of land at
Ugbo and became the richest man in Omambala. After the old man was buried, everybody thought that
Nwa Ogaranya would be fair to his siblings, but we
live in a funny world of greed, where wealth can
never satisfy the rich. Nwa Ogaranya - as the first son
- shared his father's possessions. He took the best
farmlands and the fattest cattle. He became extremely wealthy but was so unjust to his youngest
brother, Echi - who was born by a slave woman, yet a
son of his father. Echi did not even inherit a chicken
and the slave's son accepted his fate.
The 'Desire for the biggest ration' is not the worst part
of the greedy, but not knowing when to stop. When Nwa Ogaranya had possessed the best things his
father left, he wanted more. Because lands and cattle
ceased to amuse him, his greed demanded pretty
women. And of all the beautiful girls in Omambala, his
lust picked on Agborie, the wife of his youngest
brother, Echi. Echi could not take the heartbreak, so he decided to
end his miserable life. Before the young man drowned
himself in Omambala River, he sent a message to his
eldest brother, Nwa Ogaranya:
You will never taste death, my father's son, till you
see a hundred new yam festivals. Hearing those words, Nwa Ogaranya answered: isee!
Let it be so.
The people of Omambala could not understand why
Echi blessed Nwa Ogaranya. To them, longevity was a
blessing.
Getting to fifty, Nwa Ogaranya had everything a man needed. Nevertheless, his sons inherited his greed.
They stole from widows and fought against
themselves. The oldest of them became a loafer and
his creditors always stood at Nwa Ogaranya's door.
A land to settle a debt, a he-goat to appease a widow
so did Nwa Ogaranya's wealth started fleeing. At his sixtieth new yam, Nwa Ogaranya had sold most of his
possessions.
It is better for a mouth in a fast not to eat at all than
for it to taste the sweetness of Onugbu soup and then
stop suddenly. Nwa Ogaranya would have loved
being poor than falling from his grace. Before his eyes, his children sold the remaining properties; he also
saw as strangers sneaked into the huts of his younger
wives. Every passing day, he prayed for death but
death was not in a haste to take him.
When things became unbearable, Nwa Ogaranya
decided to take his own life. He jumped into Omambala River, but the River vomited him. He took a
rope to the forest, and every branch broke whenever
he stuck his neck in the noose. With his gun, he tried to
shoot himself but the rusted trigger could not fire a
shot. And even the poison he ingested gave him
terrible diarrhoea. He lived to the ripe age of hundred, but before he left the world, his eyes saw his ears.
When he was being buried like a pauper, the people of
Omambala murmured within themselves:
'Echi did not bless him after all. Is it not better for a
man to die at birth than to live a hundred miserable
years like Nwa Ogaranya?' Till date, the people of Omambala has not forgotten
the blessing of Nwa Ogaranya. They know that the
prosperity of evil-doers is their curse.
This is AJAMBELE!
- Be watchful against all kinds of greed, for one's life
does not consist in an abundance of possessions.' (Luke 12 Vs 15)