THE ARCHBISHOP WAS WRONG

University of Jos, Plateau State based scholar, poet and multi-disciplinary artist, OBU UDEOZO makes his intervention on the recent comment of Archbishop Valerian Okeke of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese
over the extravagant, ostentatious, and lavish burials in Igboland. He gives his reasons for concluding that the Archbishop was wrong. He writes :

LED by His Excellency, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, The Government of Anambra State, recently issued a policy injunction to address this social malaise.

Folk wisdom informs us that before the toddler –goat starts screaming over the curious object on the palm –tree, that his mother has already seen the palm-wine tapper; and continues munching the shrubs.

As a macroeconomist, and now pilot of the State’s affairs; there are vast events, dimensions, outcomes and consequences of human conduct – which Soludo’s training and qualification primes him to grasp more than the street wisdom. There is an array of higher order calculations and stochastic which only the professional acumen can discern and mediate. Our people also say in refreshing banter that: ’ekelu olu eke’!

Yet this same precious folks of mine are rather famous for their resistance and even outright belligerence towards novelty and policy changes, counsels, and directives. Quite often, and rather sadly Igbos can be – very wrong in their impulses and conclusions.

An Archbishop of a Christian denomination publicly disagreed with the State Governor on the need to curtail the extravagance and ostentation over burial ceremonies in Igboland. The eminent clergyman, by his excoriation, implied that the government was straying beyond her constitutional roles and mandate, by ‘stepping into trivial matters of human existence’.

Nothing is trivial. Philosophy calls it scotosis or blind spot. A people can have wisdom over salient activities of life; or suffer long-term incalculable consequence for foolishness. Orthodox thinking holds that insight, discernment, wisdom or stupidity; can only apply to individuals and not social groups.

But cognitive science and her pearls and perils apply to individuals as well as nations and continents.
Take for instance, the sheer quantity of money which our society and culture imposes on the covenant of marriage in Igbo land.

In some States in The Eastern Region, you need nearly a lorry-load of yam tubers, a rainbow of ‘Georges, Lace, Ankara and matching scarfs, to be bequeathed to a galaxy of kinsmen and women before you can pass the cultural validation of a welcome bride price!

So, for a young graduate seeking to marry from his home land, say – in Imo and Abia States, must first seek Miracle Wealth before he can fulfill the societal pressures imposed on him by his TRADITION. Otherwise, he must stay or stray – away from his constituency in choosing a life –partner.

All these states of affairs have social consequences which many people cannot fathom or see, or even give a damn!

That is why our young, precious, brilliant, anxious and nubile girls and ladies have become trapped ad incarcerated in cultural covens into a perpetual hope and prayers – against a creeping menopause before marriage – across the nation. Igbo ladies have become cheap and hapless commodities across all forms of suitors; because of the prohibitive conditionalities imposed on marriage rituals in our home land.
It takes philosophy to unravel the millennial crises a people that think and behave like this will encounter.

And fortunately, The Almighty GOD has not left us without insights and excellent stewardship. Na obodo adiro nma , bu uru ndi nze The disquiet, dissonance and discomfiture threatening a people, is a direct benefit if not profit to the elites and noblemen of that specific kindred. You need to witness where a handful of nobility; conclude the transactions extracted from the largesse levied on the wine carrying- ceremonies.

At the moment, like in all issues of anomaly in group behavior and sociology, a certain niche of privileged individuals have captured this nexus, in the village level, and converted it into a splendid and effervescent stream of livelihood. So, on a weekly basis pearls and treasures flowing from the diktat of this cultural sea are strictly guarded by these traditional gatekeepers who insist that nothing can be done to adjust, modify or mollify the omenana.

Indeed, and I dare not begrudge these gods of perks and privileges. But as a cultivated stakeholder and witness, is culture and tradition a fatwa; an irrevocable obstacle foisted upon us by our ancestors? At the latest checklist, it takes the equivalent of Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (450,000.00) to conduct and conclude the wine-carrying ceremony in a rational and benevolent community, in Anambra State.

Note that there is no compulsion to these stipulations. Nobody is forcing anyone to get married. You can always marry freely. And settle down. And even begin to have children with your spouse. But it appears that you must never Die. Because once you die, and must be buried, The Cultural – Gatekeepers will re-surface and exact their unwavering Toll!

You will notice that these are self-defeating and self-perpetuating catastrophe that our people continually howl upon themselves. It is therefore, not for nothing that before he came into governance, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo CFR; had lectured macroeconomics at 44 years of age in about 45 countries across the globe.

At this point in our lives, every citizen of this hemisphere ought to be calm and compliant; and support positive policies which are meant to rescue us from doldrums and quagmire. Let everyone, of us. Whether priest or parishioner beware of the Igbo Enwe Eze Trap And Paradox.

We are now upon Avon! The narratives and of our outlandish burial programs make us look foolish, obnoxious and ridiculous before other human communities in the country. Storylines of lorry-loads of cows, exotic wine, gun-salutes, clergy conclaves and convocations, vintage horse-wagons, and po chartered aircrafts service charges – have become an industry by themselves – alone.

Yet quite often, these rather quaint individuals whose burials we ostentatiously mourn and celebrate never tasted a fragment or decimal of that stupendous wealth expended on their internment. Some of those grandmothers and grand fathers could not have imagined that their loud offspring could compete with Mansa Musa or King Midas, of the Greek fable.

Certainly, Igbos cherish life and celebrate it – in living and in death – stupendously. But someone is more qualified than the others to calculate the social cost and consequences of such extravaganza.

Chukwuma Charles Soludo has not come with too much pretenses. Of course, Soludo is neither a soldier nor a saint. Instead he has chosen not to be caught up in unproven sanctimonies.

He is given to throwing his own hat into the turf of social issues. Recently he did so by conducting a sombre and solemn burial of his late father.

When the Anambra State Governor envisioned the ‘Thinking Home Doctrine For Goods And Services’ in the State, he introduced and has not veered from The Akwete – Hand woven fabric he campaigns about in order to promote local industry. And same thing with patronizing local wine producers by purchasing their commodities at a large scale for State functions. We may need another forum to fully appraise the far-flung profits of such supposedly simple executive gestures.

But there are Nigerians who would prefer 100% impunity to 73% honesty in public administration. And this is not just rhetoric, a former Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources, was sentenced to jail for corruption over accepting a cup of tea and a wrist-watch; when no other evidence of abuse of public fund was found in his stewardship. Again, there are multitudes among us who still choose Barnabas over Jesus Christ for crucifixion on The Cross of Calvary.

Certain issues are far from trivial. The cumulative force of these events precipitates unpalatable results and consequences –in time.

As a professional painter, I met a Director-General who blunted my persuasions that I deliver paintings which will last for centuries. After the manner of the Western Masters like Raphael Santi, and Van Eyck. He quibbled that by such a time –frame we would have been dead and all gone! But that is exactly the problem with our mindset in the continent of Africa.

There are people who do not care about tomorrow. Persons for who the future does not matter; provided they live pre-eminently in the moment. Posterity is not their forte or concern at all. They are wired spontaneity, satiety, gaiety, carnivals and pleasure –seekers for the moment. And The Holy Bible says about such people that: ‘Their Stomach Is Their god’!

That is why our landscape is breeding strange creatures like the current award-winning short film – Black – Hole persons whose greed can only be understood in psychiatric idioms. Hooligans who for the fantasy for upgraded mobile phones, chunks of jewelry, and SUV automobiles, will plot to derail passenger trains from Kaduna to Kano without blinking over the human cost. We live in a society were citizens creep out of their homes and exact maximum damage on road infrastructure like bridge railings, for the sake of trinkets and metal cutlery.

And because it has become fashionable for keepers of our public treasures that snakes and cockroaches swallowed our Millions of Naira in their custody –without a consequence.

After allegations of missing Billions and Trillions of Naira, our current overseers swear their innonce that they are innocent of all charges; while titillating us with supercilious dance-steps!

So very much like Donald Trump who stated T he AMERICA First Doctrine, in Charles Soludo, we have been availed a pilot that can spot certain deleterious social malaise by making us avoid the hubris which can bring s society and culture to her knees over ‘the longer – cycle’ in philosophical terms!