...Reject Traditional Ruler
BY RAYMOND OZOJI, Awka
Indigenes of Ajali community in Orumba-North Local Government Area of Anambra State have threatened that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo will lose his second term election in the area, if he doesn't withdraw the Certificate of Recognition given to one Augustine Nwangwu now parading and posing as traditional ruler of the community.
Indigenes of the community who granted an exclusive interview to this journalist on the kingship imbroglio in Ajali on Tuesday 14th May, categorically stated that there is no traditional ruler in Ajali yet because the one who is currently acting as the Eze of the community was not selected by Ogbako Ajali as it was done in 1920 when Nwosu Nwafor was selected and Nwosu Calistus was also selected in 1982 respectively.
They maintained that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) will fail woefully in Ajali in the forthcoming governorship election if they continue with the chieftaincy problem in Ajali unresolved.
They contested that Augustine Nwangwu was never selected by the entire people of Ajali and should not have been issued Certificate of Recognition. That they don't know how the process was manipulated and got the governor to give him Certificate but all they know is that the Certificate will cost the governor his election in Ajali come 2025.
One of them named Uka Obasi Noel Obu, a legal practitioner and chieftain of APGA from Umuobu family in Ajali, told this journalist that the last Eze was Calistus Nwosu who died around 1987 and his father Nwosu Nwafor was the Eze from 1920.
According to him, Nwosu Nwafor ruled Ajali for more than 60 years and when he embarked on the journey to the land of the great beyond, his first son Calistus Nwosu became Eze Ajali. Obu noted that before Calistus Nwosu was crowned Eze, the entire able-bodied men of Ajali known as Ogbako Ujali came together and enthroned Calistus Nwosu as it was done in the days of his father Nwosu Nwafor when he was coronated in 1920.
Obu also recalled that before Calistus Nwosu was made Eze, the community extracted from him in a document he personally signed that he would be the last Eze that would come from their lineage because the community has opted for rotational chieftaincy or Ezeship amongst all the families that constitutes Ajali and Calistus Nwosu agreed hook line and sinker.
He recalled too that after Calistus Nwosu 's nomination and subsequent election which he said took two days, other contending parties approached the Court and got a so-called consent judgement that they agreed with Calistus Nwosu that the kingship of Ajali should rotate amongst them only.
According to him, Ajali people were not perturbed about the said consent judgement because they were not part of the court case. He said the parties to the consent judgement are currently flashing it and displaying it around saying that that was the rule.
The legal practitioner further disclosed that the so-called consent judgement was the origin of a certain tripod in the community where some elements maliciously claimed that Ajali has been sitting on a tripod where the Eze only emanated from a certain three families as against the age-long Ogbako Ujali which allowed the totality of the able-bodied men in the community the franchise to select or elect the Eze in accordance with their customs and traditions.
He said, " We have never had anything like three families ruling Ujali. So all the stories they are putting out are not correct. Ujali people agreed that we will be having rotational chieftaincy. That is why it has been difficult to produce Eze because all manner of tendencies are pulling the community down.
We have never sat to make anyone Eze and it is a fact that the Eze belongs to Ujali and only Ujali people will decide who will be Eze. There is nothing like three families in Ujali and there has never been such. All these talks they are doing now is to circumvent the rules. Even if the Eze will be selected from the so-called three families, it must be the decision of the entire men in the community. They know that ! "
On the issue of who the real aborigines of Ajali really are, Uka Obasi Noel Obu stated unequivocally that the real aborigines of Ajali were the people of Umuabiama village even as he accepted that Ajali was set-up by the Aro migrants.
Obu said, " The one who is claiming that he is Eze, when did he come back to Ujali ? When did his father come back to Ujali that he is claiming that they are the aborigines? We want to know. I will challenge him anywhere in public for him to tell us when it became the rule that only three families setup Eze in Ujali.
That consent judgement is a piece of tissue paper because it doesn't concern the people of Ujali (Ajali). There has never been anything like three families making Eze in Ujali. It has never happened. So if he claims that his chieftaincy is based on three families, then he is sitting on empty air and he knows it.
Only two families and one compound made Augustine Nwangwu Eze for their own compound and not for Ujali people. So why we decided to respond to their claims in the media is that if we leave all these things unchallenged, they will be peddling them all over the place as if it is the truth.
That was how they got the governor to give him Certificate of Recognition. Now I am an APGA chieftain. If we do election in Ujali, we will fall flat and then they will come and blame us that we didn't work hard, when the governor has put hands in what he is not supposed to. I can tell you 100% that the man who claims to be Eze can not summon the community because nobody recognises him as traditional ruler in Ujali."
Obu emphasized that Augustine Nwangwu is only traditional ruler for Umuokpalaeke-Otti, Umuorji and the Otti family and not for Ujali because the rest of Ujali people have said no because they never selected him.
He said for some obscure reasons, Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo was deceived into believing that Ujali people selected him and no consultations were made by the governor before the certificate was given to him.
He said the truth of the matter remains that only the government can explain how Certificate of Recognition was given to Augustine Nwangwu.
Obu maintained that Ujali people have insisted that the rules of crowning an Eze must be codified before selection. That they have not selected anybody yet. That Augustine Nwangwu was never selected by Ujali people and he does not represent Ujali community.
He was also of the strong opinion that the Anambra State Government can not make Eze for them. That they would make Eze and present to the state government for onward recognition not the contrary.
Obu also emphasized that there is no royal family or royal families or anything called royal dynasty in Ujali and that those were all lies, falsehoods and fallacies concocted by an insignificant disgruntled minority who want to foist themselves on the larger majority of Ajalians.
Uka Obasi Noel Obu equally made it categorically clear that from inception, Ajali Welfare Union has no business with chieftaincy matters. He therefore accused the President-General of the town union of working with the acclaimed Eze to set Ajali ablaze.
The legal luminary expressed deep concern and compassion for Ajali people who have been arrested by the police, following allegations orchestrated by some individuals that operatives of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were plotting to kill them. Hence police invaded the community on the invitation of the leadership of Ajali Welfare Union and arrested Ajali people for no just cause.
Obu however stated that the prayers of Ujali people was for all to have a roundtable dialogue where the modalities for selecting Eze Ajali would be marshalled out and codified as it was agreed in the past. Thereafter the resolutions would be taken to court as the decision of the entire Ujali people and for it to also become an official working document in the community to forestall future disputes regarding enthronement of Eze Ajali. Then they would ask those interested in the Ezeship of Ujali to indicate for the proper thing to be done and not dwelling on the fallacies and wrong postulations of a certain three families.
Contributing also, Chief Sunday Uzoigwe who is the chairman of Umuobu family in Ajali, disclosed that Ajali consist of 17 families not two and half families. Uzoigwe opined that as it stands at the moment, there is absolutely no traditional ruler in Ujali community.
He said only God knows how Augustine Nwangwu manipulated his way through to get Certificate of Recognition from the Soludo administration. Uzoigwe also recalled that initially the argument was father to son Ezeship. Thereafter a certain group of people came up with what they termed Consent Judgement and within a twinkle of an eye, somebody was made king without the consent of the entire community.
According to Uzoigwe, the self-acclaimed Eze can not summon the community for anything because nobody will obey him. He said there two New Yam festivals in Ajali. That one is being celebrated by the community while the other is being celebrated by the two and half families laying siege to the traditional stool of Ajali as no one attended programmes of the acting traditional ruler.
Another stakeholder in Ajali community, Mazi Mba Ifeanyi Douglas, who is a retired permanent secretary of the Anambra State Civil Service, who had ab initio spoken about the kingship problem in Ajali, noted that a particular family had held the traditional stool of the community hostage and now they have unanimously said no and that the status quo will no longer subsist as they want the Ezeship of Ajali to rotate amongst the 17 families in the community.
Mba however advised Augustine Nwangwu that if it is possible, let him do the honourable thing by returning the certificate wrongly issued to him back to the Anambra State Government so that Ajali people will select their Eze in peace and without rancour.
On the issue of slaves in the community, Mba maintained that they know those who are slaves in the community but according to him, Ujali freed everybody in the 30s and that different families came from different places and set up the present day Ajali community.
He said it should be known that Ajali is presently without a traditional ruler and anyone claiming to be traditional ruler is only chasing the wind as well as basking in the euphoria of his own imagination which he said is tantamount to living in fool's paradise.
##