₦airaland Forum

Moves:
I believe that Col Umar and Pat Utomi combination will make a good presidency , both are progressives, Umar with being ex military will ensure national security stabilisation hence limiting the chances of the military truncating our democracy whilst Utomi diverse knowledge will asist in policy formation to move the economy forward whilst meeting the North/South; Muslim/Christian, ExMilitary/Civil Balance, with no detriment to quality or merit.

Umar is great. I don't think there is any Northerner I like like that guy - he does not hide under any ethnic cloak at all. But my fear is that he defends the South so much that the North may not even believe he is a Northerner anymore.

El-Rufai would have been my best choice but I am afraid that the Senate and Reps will resist him so much. (They have already passed a resolution that he should not hold any political post again.) The same goes for Ribadu - all the thieves in Nigeria will form a pressure group to ensure that he does not emerge - and you know that there are enough thieves in politics to form a MEGA PARTY in Nigeria.

On a more serious note we, should be talking about the person we want to rule us next year - whether we get our choice or not does not matter.

And I think in all fairness, it should be a Northerner but he must only run for ONE term. A South-South person should be the VP. Igbos in South-south may not fly because of the Niger-Delta sentiments. Fashola still has unfinished job in Lagos.

When we have got things in order in this nation, we can do away with zoning in all elections.

I suggest that in the spirit of fair play, let North & South-south produce President & VP in 2011. Let the greatest achievement of Goodluck Jonathan be to organize credible elections like he did in Edo and Anambra.

So I suggest Lamido Sanusi of CBN & Senator Udo-Udoma or Donald Duke. We need visionary people who can take bold decisions. We need business-minded Nigerians who can talk and the world will listen. We need vibrant men who can wake up the Nigerian pride in us and make other countries respect us and fight to be our friends.

I pray I see the Nigeria of my dream in my own time.

What do u think?

If you send your email address, I could send the pictures to you.

Picture shows Igwe KNO Orizu III being presented to Michael Okpara, Eastern Premier, in the First Republic, as the 17th Igwe of Nnewi.

Born in 1925, Igwe Kenneth Orizu is the Obi of Otolo Nnewi and the Igwe of Nnewi. He attended the Hope Waddel Institute Calabar and completed his education at New Bethel College, Onitsha in 1942. He worked under MCK Ajuluchukwu at the Eastern Nigeria Information Service, Enugu and later moved to Asaba as the Commercial Manager for Mid-Western Region.

Upon the death of his father in 1963, he ascended the throne of his ancestors on May 25, 1963 as the 17th Igwe of Nnewi. This year (2010) makes it his 47th on the throne.

Any day he passes on, his first son at the day of his passing on takes over as the 18th Igwe of Nnewi - no contest. That is the way it is with the Nnewi Monarchy.

Note that it is not only Nnewi that had kings before the advert of the whiteman. Many towns around Nnewi did. For example, the mother of the current Igwe's grandfather was married from the royal family of Ihiala. When the news of the Whiteman's entrance into Nnewi was received, it was to the royal family of Ihiala that the  young Igwe was taken to to avoid any harm to him.

The problem why there is this belief that there were no monarchs in almost all Igbo communities is because most of these communities do not have any writer in the mould of Achebe to publicize their people's history. But it must be noted that unlike the Binis, Yorubas, Hausas etc, the Igwes and Obis that existed in these Igbo communities like that in Nnewi were never all-powerful. In line with the Igbo spirit, they were respected but never treated like gods.

Nwosu Ezeodumegwu, the "regent" who refused vehemently to be made Nnewi Warrant Chief by the Whiteman in 1904 because it is a taboo for any other body to become the Igwe of Nnewi if he is not the heir.

Ezeodumegwu was so rich that a proverb still exists in Nnewi today in his name: Onye akochighi mbubo, o na-aza Ezeodumegwu? (If a man does not have enough yam seedlings to plant on a small portion of land, does he bear the the name Ezeodumegwu?)

Ezeodumegwu was the 'eze' (chieftancy) title he took. One of his descendants Dike Anagbalizu was also popular. Oliver de Coque sang a song for him in the 1980s. Prof ABC Nwosu, a former minister in Obasanjo's first term, is from that family.

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Igwe Ezeugbonyamba Orizu I succeeded his father Igwe Iwuchukwu Ezeifekaibeya in 1904, the same year the Whiteman came into Nnewi.

Andre Uweh:
All the Igwes, Ezes and Obis in Igboland came into being between 100-110 years ago. Most are British creations. In most kingdreds in Igboland, there were heads but not with authority. This heads were made warrant chiefs and Ezes later.
Nevertheless, Nri, Agbor and Onitsha had deviant cases. The later two may be as a result of Nri or Bini influence.
It is noteworthy to know that the current Obi of Onitsha --Igwe Achebe sees Bini ancestry of Onitsha as nonsense and ridiculous.

ezeagu:
Note: Igwe is not a relevant title, it's synonymous with 'your highness' or 'your majesty. I don't know when or where 'Igwe' was made a title, but it's a good way of identifying British made monarchies.

I am careful not to make a sweeping statement on an issue I am not 100% about. It is clear that your sweeping statements were made based on what you have heard. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God have also helped to instil this belief that among the Igbo, there were no monarchs before the advent of the Whiteman.

Maybe due to little or no publicity, most people know little about the Nnewi royalty. Because of that I am doing a book on it.

As I said, Nnewi has four semi-autonomous parts: Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim and Nnewichi. Each of these quarters has an Obi which has been hereditary since inception, but the Obi of Otolo (the most senior quarter) is the Igwe of Nnewi. Whoever is the Obi of Otolo is automatically the Igwe of Nnewi. It is not contestable. The Whiteman met it like that when he came.

When the Whiteman (Major Moorhouse) and his army marched into Nnewi in 1904, the young Igwe, whose father had just died, was spirited away for fear that the Whiteman would kill him. His uncle Nwosu Odumegwu, who was the richest man in Nnewi then, received the visitors. They thought he was the Igwe but he told them no that the Igwe was in mourning and should not see visitors while mourning the late Igwe. Given that Ezeodumegwu was wealthy and influential, the Whiteman sought to make him the Warrant Chief of Nnewi, but he vehemently refused. The Whiteman was said to have expressed his surprise that an African would refuse to be made the Warrant Chief of his people by the Whiteman. When Ezeodumegwu and other elders got a firm assurance that the young king would not be harmed, they arranged for a public meeting between the Igwe and the Whiteman at the Nkwo Nnewi Square. On the appointed day, Igwe accompanied by the other three Obi of the three quarters came out to meet with the Whiteman in the presence of the Nnewi People. Igwe was a young man of 23 years then.

That was why I said in my earlier post that, if you give an Nnewi man a trillion dollars to assume the Igwe throne, he would curse you and run away. If the Igwe or Obi throne of Nnewi was created by the Whiteman, it would be open for contest by the rich and influential, and Nnewi has the greatest cluster of rich men in Eastern Nigeria. Even though Dr Nwafor Orizu was the Senate President in the early 1960s when Orizu II died, he did not even dream of going near the throne as is done in other communities because he knew that he was not the heir.

The Igwe of Nnewi has been in existence for several centuries (I will give the geneology soon). In 1904 when the Whiteman came into Nnewi, the Igwe that was on the throne was Ezeugbonyamba, the grandfather of the present Igwe Kenneth Orizu III.

What marks the Igwe throne from any other throne in Igboland or most other places is that it is hereditary by the oldest son of the Igwe at the time of his death as long as that son does not have any traditional issues against him - like murder, stealing, abomination against the land, etc.

If you pay a trillion dollars into the accounts of Ojukwu, late Dr Nwafor Orizu, late Ekenedilichukwu, Ibeto, Coscharis, Chu Okongwu or Gen Sam Momah and hand over the Igwe of Nnewi throne to any of them, they will curse you for hating them and run away. That throne is a no-go area for any other person no matter your political, financial or military power.

The four quarters of Nnewi ie Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim and Nnewichi each has its own Obi which is always hereditary and non-contestible. All the villages in these quarters and even the big family called 'umunna' have their respective Obi. Each is non-contestible.

The traditional office in Nnewi can be compared to that of the UK. The difference is that in years past the UK throne was usurped and fought over. The UK throne can also be inherited by a daughter. But the Nnewi throne has never be fought over. Nobody knows what will happen to anybody who dares, but nobody has dared to find out.

I will give you the names of all the Igwe of Nnewi since inception and a profile of the current Igwe Orizu soon.