By Prof Joy Ezeilo
The weekend killing of the President General of Umuoji town in Idemili North LGA of Anambra state is one death too many of community leaders in Igboland.
It is time for stocktaking and re-tracing steps. It is worth studying the number of PGs of different communities that have been killed in Anambra and other states in Igboland in the last few years.
What is the cause or motivation for such actions? What is fueling and exacerbating this heinous crime? There are so many unanswered questions!
Igbos were known to be community development driven. Before the title President General (PG) came into vogue, these developments were championed by age grade systems, kinsmen (Umunna) and queens’ women, including “ Umuada and Ndi Inyom” (trying to be inclusive and gender-sensitive).
The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in the case of Agbai and Others v. Okogbue [1991] 7NWLR (pt. 204) 391 SC, took notice of this age-long practice in Igboland.
Still, it warned whilst appreciating the practice (which Igbos refer to as ‘Igwebuike’) that individual rights must not be breached in the quest for community development.
Why and how community leadership posts have quickly degenerated to highly contested local community elections, thuggery, violence and abrogation of the right to life and participation in community and cultural life remains to be unravelled.
The development is an ugly phenomenon that calls for urgent action to tackle. What used to be community service driven has turned to a highly contested position to kill for.
I urge the state governments in Igboland to immediately stop contributing intentionally or unwittingly to the politicisation by recognising or giving special status to these PGs in what may have departed from the “pristine ecology upon which it was founded” (as per Nwokedi JSC in Agbai v. Okogbue) and are now corrupted by the same quest for formal political power in Nigeria and access to control of resources hence the do or die affair deployed.
Some commentators have argued that some state Governments have turned the town unions into an unofficial fourth tier of government at the local (grassroots) level.
Of course, such a partnership would have been a welcome development in fighting insecurity and fast-tracking development at the grassroots level where it matters most. Unfortunately, it may have attracted considerable interest in contests for such recognition and access to “Government Houses and Government money”.
Whatever the case, urgent de-escalation and accountability are called for; the sanctity of human life must always be respected. Communities should return to how they choose leadership and organise using long age-grade systems to achieve community goals of peace, unity and development.
In most communities, the emergence of autonomous communities, traditional rulership, and president-general of town unions have become persistent sites for conflicts and acrimonious litigation in Igboland.
The village (villa), as we lovingly called our country homes and towns/villages in Igboland in the past, was the safest place to be. What has happened in the last five years in Igboland is despicable and begs for spiritual cleansing by both Christians and traditionalists to halt the dangerous trends of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, and kidnappings.
As one interlocutor puts it, “Things have indeed fallen apart. How prophetic Chinua Achebe was!”
I hope the souls of those who have lost their lives in the ‘PG Palavar’ can find eternal peace! R.I.P. to the latest casualty, Silas Onyima (late PG of Umuoji town). *Ezeilo, a former Commissioner for Gender and Social Development in Enugu, is a UN Rappouteur on Trafficking