Och’Idoma and the comedy of vanity

By Ejoyi O. Ode

Idu Oma, the progenitor of the Idoma people would be bemused from the heavens over the fate of Idomaland. A nation is either formed from history or philosophy or the combination of the two, with some other elements.This is how people acquire a cohesive core of values, meaning and identity.

The geography of the Idoma is also a marker of identity. Therefore, the collective culture, traditions, and customs evolve to form the essence of being of the people. Referents of Kwararafa confederacy, dispersal, and migration of the people over time and space to the present day only made the Idomas more resilient in their history and philosophy of experiential existence. Therefore, extraneous influences designed to humiliate and subjugate Idoma people to some Tiv ideology must be resisted and uprooted, and abandoned.

The Idoma ancestral entities and deities can not be rubbished and eliminated through subtle political designs or outright political violence.

The Idoma Traditional Council had existed and acted as kingmakers until Governor Samuel came to end it through an inferior substitute called ‘college of electors’ that is nebulous and alienating. How can you alienate a people by replacing a time-tested institution that had served them peaceably well? The newly created offices of first-class, second-class, and third-class chiefs are artificial, and therefore inorganic and rootless. This is so because the offices did not originate from the people. The beaded chiefs and the district heads have no linkage with them. The power and the authority of these chiefs are inorganic because they are disoriented and dysfunctional. They are a creation of the government. A traditional ruler must derive his power from the people. The ancestral spirits, the Alekwu, guide the conduct of the traditional rulership system. Ritualized celebrations of the traditional gods and goddesses are held in the land for peace, bountiful harvests and general development at regular intervals.

The Och’Idoma institution can not be desecrated by some artificial imports. This must be resisted by all well-meaning Idoma sons and daughters. The very soul of the institution is negated when the beaded chiefs and the district heads of Idomaland are violently cut off from the selection process of the Och’Idoma. The artificial import of the traditionally rootless first-class, second-class and third-class chiefs as kingmakers is crassly offensive as it is a gross repudiation of the Idoma tradition and culture.

It’s a trite notion of law that you can not build something on nothing. The very traditional council that elects and validates the institution of the Och’Idoma is not materially in existence due to Ortom’s subterfuge to minimize the Och’Idoma and thereby heighten the dominance of Tor Tiv. In truth, Och’Idoma and Tor Tiv are co-equals. And so, the chairmanship of the Benue state council of chiefs rotates between the two of them.

The ridiculous exercise that took place yesterday, proclaiming one John Elaigwu Odogbo as Och’Idoma is a moral blight on Idoma people of consequence.

The process was teleguided/micromanaged towards this ridiculous outcome. The significance of the office of Och’Idoma lies in the capacity of ennobling leadership provisioning. The office requires vast knowledge and experience in handling complex organizations and vast resources within the territorial boundaries of Idomaland and far beyond. Mr. John Elaigwu Odogbo does not have a demonstrable capacity to meet the challenges of modernity. He can not give inspiration to University undergraduates. He can not give a lecture at Chattam House in London. Can he attend World Economic Forum(WEF) or World Social Forum(WSF) and make worthy contributions? Can he deliver a meaningful speech in the British Parliament? Can he attend a UN session and make remarks of significance? Can he give hope to Idoma at home and those in the Diaspora?

It’s morning yet on creation day. Ortom would unleash arsenals to belittle the Idoma Kingdom, one step at a time. So, the only gateway open for the immediate challenge is to raise money through any source, one of which is crowdfunding, and go to court to halt this collective humiliation. John Elaigwu Odogbo can not be Och’Idoma through a skewed process. We should be prepared to go up to the Supreme Court to fight this collective shame. Nobody is fighting Agatu. Odogbo is not synonymous with Agatu. He is a negligible quantity. A reimagined scenario or a reset would provide a fresh opportunity for all the contestants in an unfettered space. If one’s mother’s co-wife is better than one’s mother, humility, prudence, propriety, and grace require that we say so, loudly. The more the self-vaunting of Mr. Odogbo through educational and religious/apostolic attainments, the more suspicious his claims become. What is coming out of the Inland Revenue Service about his exit is shameful, to say the least.

Given the full spectrum of the Idoma kingship system and the kingdom, this is an opportune moment for us to go all the way to the Supreme Court, if possible, to get abiding relief from asphyxiating Tiv hegemony and ideology, for us to entrench our cultural identity, meaning, and purpose.

The Idoma people stand vehemently opposed to Motor Park culture taking over the whole of Benue state.