“Igbo Enwe-Eze: The Strength of the Igbo Republic” By Rev. Fr. Chika Okpalike

“Igbo Enwe-Eze”, one phrase that gives me strength and pride being Onyeigbo; one nature for which the Igbo has remained unconquerable through decades of attacks, invasion and marginalization. Unfortunately many Ndiigbo, like in many other things, buy into the wrong narrative and lose their pride and confidence. My intention here is to make sense of the phrase, not to justify the possible exploitation and abuse of that socio-political disposition of Ndiigbo.

This phrase has been mistranslated as “Ndiigbo have no leaders”. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ujoukwu was decorated with “Ezeigbo Gbururgburu” by popular mandate because of his achievements; he was not a monarchy and the common Onyeigbo is at liberty to disagree with his opinion. It does not happen elsewhere. In the traditional Igbo society, there are no monarchies (rulership of kings and queens). What we had was like the Roman 'Paterfamilias' or in Igbo ‘Okpara’. The only place we had a monarch but that falls within the Igbo territory was Onitsha, but even Onye-Onitsha does not understand himself as Igbo. Surpringly, to the outsider, the monarchy of Onitsha does not extend to Obosi or Nkpor. No other place in Igboland will it be found that kind of monarchy which is the inheritance of Umuchima from the former Benin empire. So, Onitsha's monarchy cannot speak for Ndiigbo.

During the colonial invasion, the Europeans found it difficult to penetrate the Igbo territory by negotiation because of “Igbo Enwe-Eze”. How is it? To penetrate any little Igbo hamlet by negotiation would have taken them two centuries or more. A couple of hamlets in a settlement constituted an autonomous entity with the full features of a state and very sustainable. No settlement had a ‘King’. External relationships were representative and those who are selected to represent are those who had qualified themselves for it. So there was the elders, the titled men, the age groups, the cult groups, the social groups, the work groups etc; these groups play different roles to maintain the social order. The Okpara who bears the ‘Ofo’ is not a ‘King’. He inherits and custodies the ancestral deposits of the community and is laden with the responsibility of ‘a bridge’ between the living and the dead. His authority is spiritual, never political.

To negotiate with a set-up like this would have foiled or frustrated the colonial agenda. The colonialists, therefore resorted to military force and western education/religion to conquer the Igbo territory, which is reputed as the last region of Nigeria to submit to colonial rule. They used military might to injure the Igbo confidence and pride in their physicality which they severally referred to as foolhardiness and used education/religion to loosen their hold on culture and tradition.

 The first generation Igbo in education and Christianity did not embrace these two because they loved God or the western civilization but because they wanted to penetrate the secret of the avowed enemy in order to conquer them.

The British designed for the Igbo an education and religion that will rather damage his ego and keep him in perpetual subservience. For instance, Mathematics became superior to Afa, London had streets and Umudioka had pathways, God is white and devil is black. The beautiful places of the west were used to depict heaven whereas the beautiful places in Africa where used to depict hell.  The process of evolution had Africa at the beginning and Europe at the maturing. Professor Chinweizu called this whole exercise ‘retooling’ and ‘miseducation’.

The Igbo republic was abandoned by Ndiigbo who made for the heavens of their illusion but hung in limbo; they cannot get to the promised heaven they cannot go back to their abandoned hell. The last conquest was the restructuring of the social order where “Igbo enwe-eze” became a socio-political deficit.

Meanwhile the North and Southwest had established monarchical hierarchies whose territories are expansive and well defined; negotiate with the Oba at Ileife, the whole southwest is in the palm of his hands, negotiate with the Sultan in Sokoto, the emirs and sarkis are his surrogates and the whole north is at your beck and call. So the colonialist had no need of military force or education/religion in the north but needed it in the southwest to check and combat the products of the southeast. In the Southwest, however, education was not designed to erase culture and tradition. The intention of the colonial government was to create a conflictual social order for their exploitation, and they got it.

The present political arrangement in the country will continue to play against the Igbo republic and that is why the agitation for Biafra can never die.

But “Igbo enwe-eze” is our strength; how? Nigeria is a pretended republic and Alaigbo is a republic naturally. Our current social order can be re-designed if Ndiigbo will be free I sive again. A governor of a state can decide to strengthen our traditional social institutions – Umunna, Otuogbo, Nze na ozo, Umuada etc as integral parts of government, place these groups in their proper ministries, create commissions for them and work with them. What we today have as “Igwe” should be understudied and given its proper place, the Okparas restored and given their proper privileged place with republican bye-laws. That way, we may not wait for every four years to share money, a bottom-up economy will begin to emerge, the populace will be more involved in their affairs and responsibility taken. Think of a situation where the Umuada is properly positioned in the politics of the state, your guess is as good as mine; just saying.

“Igbo enwe-eze” is the nature of the democratic Igbo republic; it is not a socio-political deficit. “Igbo enwe-eze” is the strength and social security of the Igbo nation. Eze in the Igbo nation is predicated upon achievement; that is the nature of the Igbo competitive and egalitarian economy. Eze is not a ruler/king, he is an achiever or an inheritor of an order which he must, however, merit. If an Igbo excels in yam production, he becomes Ezeji, in Music - he becomes Ezegwu, in mystics - he becomes Ezeigwe/Ezeulukpu and so forth. Nobody sits back and becomes a royalty, the kinds we see of Pete Edochie and Olu Jacobs in Nollywood, those are complete aberration. “Igbo enwe-eze” is the nature of our republic and the sooner we use its specifications to design our democracy, the better for us. If we do not indigenize this democracy, some Igbo miscreants will continue to use our nature as cheap means of bargain with our enemies to get their stomachs filled with the illusive ‘national cake’