His Royal Majesty Eze Evangelist Dr. J. U. Mbamara IV, Obi and Paramount ruler of Obibi-Ochasi Ancient Town – City of David, in Orlu Local Govt Council Area of Imo State, in this interview with John Mgbe, bares his mind on the state of moral morass in the traditional stool in Imo State and appeals to his Excellency, Governor Rochas Okorocha, to embark on a surgical restructuring of the traditional institution in Imo State in order to restore the age-old dignity of the traditional institution in Imo State.
There is this ongoing scramble for the creation of autonomous communities and traditional rulers in Imo State. How do you feel about this issue?
Well, what I will say is that it is most sacrilegious and a desecration of the traditional stool in Imo State for people who are worth nobody to be listened to on issues that border on the occupation of the throne. The throne is a sacred place. The power of traditional rulers comes from God through our ancestors and not from man. Those who occupy the thrones are anointed by God. For example, I was born a king; that is an inheritance from God through our ancestors. My grand father and my father were all kings. I succeeded them because that is the tradition. Before I was installed an Eze , about 12 people died for their vicious ambition and lack of knowledge of God’s throne. Now, what I am saying here is that it has become a mockery of the traditional institution that all manner of dubious people who don’t even have the basic school certificate or moral Integrity, people who have very dirty backgrounds are given Chieftaincy titles and from being made Chiefs they begin to ask to be made Traditional Rulers. If you go to Anambra State, they are just less than 200 lgwes or Obis. In that place, they don’t believe in Autonomous Communities but towns. A Traditional Ruler is the Igwe of a whole town; while here in Imo State such a town may be made up of several so-called “Autonomous Communities”. So, it is a desecration of Imo Traditional Stool for vagabonds, miscreants and people who have no pedigree or antecedents to begin to ask to be made Chiefs not to talk of being made Traditional Rulers. It is a sacred place; it is a holy place, people that go there are anointed by God and if you investigate exhaustively, they have sound and respectable backgrounds, but today a former Governor of Imo state, due to licentiousness and selfish political ambition, was said to have made criminals, kidnappers, ritualists and drug barons, people with all sorts and manners of evil and criminality Ezes, because of his lack of knowledge and recklessness in policy implementation. For example, in my own Local Government Orlu, before the advent of the white man to Igbo land and this embarrassing development, we were 12 towns; but today they say we are 32.lt is outrageous, it is scandalous, it’s turning history upside down. Therefore, I am asking the governor of Imo State to use his discretion to make sure that these miscreants, these ritualists, these blood suckers who were made Ezes in the twilight of the last Administration are thrown out. Until this is done, the Igbo Traditional Ezeship will no longer command any recognition from right thinking members of the society. Ndigbo are known as Israelites, the Jews. The symbol and Identity of Ndigbo as a noble nation has been destroyed and desecrated. In the Book of Proverbs it says: “He who tears the garment of honour wears its mask on his face”. So, the Political leader who brought this disgrace to the Traditional Institution has torn the garment of honour of Imo State and he is going to wear the mask on his face through all his generation, because he not only challenged the authority and the throne of God, but indeed desecrated Imo traditional land and authority of God.
You seem to be very harsh on some politicians. Do you want me to use those expletives and labels you are using on some politicians and traditional rulers?
Yes, use my words and their names correctly because I know what I am doing. He (referring to a former Governor) destroyed the traditional system in Imo State and he will wear the mask of disgrace throughout his generation because by what he did his background should be questioned. He does not have the history of the Traditional Institution in Igbo land. In Anambra, before you become an Igwe, they will assess your background. The same stringent approach applies to Ebonyi, Enugu and several other towns and states. The difference is clear. There are people who have no job and legitimate means of livelihood yet they are made Ezes because they made money in one illegal business or the other. Somebody who is a drug baron and has killed a lot of people becomes an EZE overnight, maybe because of his financial ability and capacity. In this State, a dealer of fake and expired drugs paid money and he was made an EZE. That man who made him an EZE and Traditional Ruler has incurred the wrath of God on his family. So, what I am saying is that the laid down requirements for one to be made an Eze must be faithfully complied with at all times. Even, I heard that some Ezes today in Imo state are agents of armed robbers, kidnappers and ritual groups. So, with this group of Ezes, what does the future hold for Imo people and youths of tomorrow of our state as it concerns security and morality?
What are these prerequisite requirements for an ideal traditional ruler?
Of course, the laid down requirements have always been there but they were ignored by former political rulers of Imo State. In fact, a basic school certificate is a requirement; they should have the recommended population of 5000 people. The community should have primary schools, a market, a Church and the others. In Yoruba land, Benin or the North, The Oba of Benin rules a domain that is about a whole State. If you go to Sokoto, you may never be able to see some of the senior aides of the Sultan, not to talk of the Sultan himself; in fact, you may not even see his Prime Minister because you are not at that level.
How do we confront the malaise of creating emergency traditional or artificial rulers?
Yes, you have said it all. They are emergency traditional rulers. I wish we could introduce a Communist Government in Nigeria. This would have gone a long way in engendering discipline among our people. In that case, your financial muscle will be assessed and you are compelled to explain in detail how you became so rich overnight. After assessing you, the government will ensure you pay a tax that is commensurate with the size of your financial empire. Here in Imo State, most of these so-called super rich people don’t pay any tax and the tax some of them pay is an insult to the people. Some junior clerks in the ministries pay more tax than some of these moneybags/ emergency traditional rulers. There are people who are stinking rich but just in the same neighborhood or even environment, you see so many children who don’ t even go to school. But these shameless rich people prefer to pay any amount to be made Chiefs and Traditional Rulers. They have brought shame to the throne and authority of God and Governor Okorocha must step in now to clean the rot there. We cannot continue as if nothing happened because even the authentic and genuine traditional rulers are often embarrassed to sit on the same platform with these impostors who masquerade as His Royal Highnesses. In fact, some of them parade fake academic certificates. We have had enough of this menace of all manner of people masquerading as traditional rulers. So, those political leaders who aided and abetted the scandal in the Traditional Institution have torn the cloth of honour and with time their punishment will begin to manifest.
Are you insisting that the balkanization of your community is unacceptable to you?
Yes, not just my community, Obibi-Ochasi, in Orlu Local Government Area but indeed in all other Autonomous Communities in Imo State. These communities were split to enable the Governors boost their votes in elections. What happened was that a drug baron or 419ner would donate about N100M to the campaign fund of a politician and the beneficiary politician, usually a Governor, would create an Autonomous Community for him and he begins to parade himself as a Traditional Ruler. This is how most of them became traditional rulers, even though the royal blood never flowed in their veins. This is how the scramble for the traditional dynasty in Imo State started. So, as a Governor who has expressed massive interest in transforming the Ezeship stool in Imo State, nobody expects Governor Okorocha to turn a blind eye to these abnormalities. If you use fraudulent means to maneuver yourself into the Ezeship in Anambra State, the lgwes and Obis will rise against you and throw you out. The Igwes, in Anambra State will not allow you to bastardize the throne with your ill gotten wealth. Recently, some Ezes who the Governor appointed to settle EZESHIP disputes were induced with gratifications to the extent that they created more crises in the communities and so created anarchy and sacrilege on the traditional stool of Imo State. Go to South South Zone; before you are made an Obong, you must parade good antecedents. You don’t just wake up one morning and use your 419 money to buy an Ezeship from a Governor. A money launderer cannot be considered for the position of an Obong or an Obi or Igwe in those states and indeed in most other states of Nigeria. There is a dire need to restructure the traditional institution here. In fact, the Governor should treat this as an emergency. Governor Okorocha is the only Governor in Imo State that has shown a massive passion and commitment to uplift the traditional institution in Imo State; it will be unfortunate if he fails to correct these abnormalities before bowing out of office. I am confident that by the time the Governor has concluded with the ongoing review, the place will regain its original integrity and dignity. Go to those other places I mentioned above, you see people of integrity: retired permanent secretaries and top civil servants, retired Judges, people who have excelled in the professions and, of course, those who are not wealthy but who are there because the royal blood runs in their family tree. In this place, Imo, the background of some of the people who are called Ezes is very terrible and unfortunate; they have failed the throne; they have torn the garment of honour thus bringing the place to disrepute and shame. Here you see all manner of people answering His Royal Highness (HRH). Even those who made their money illegally by defrauding others or embezzled other people’s money over night became instant moneybags and this qualified them to be made traditional rulers. This is not what happens elsewhere.
When you talk of “all manner of people” on the throne, there may be a need for more clarification; more so, since majority of them are super rich and reputable.
Not all the traditional rulers fall in that category; those who are affected know themselves and they are the people who will be hurt by the comments in this interview. But your question shows where most of you miss the point. As a journalist, it is your responsibility to sensitize the citizenry that a traditional ruler is not measured by the number of exotic automobiles in his car parking lot. It is not dependent on the size of petrodollars in his bank account since most of the money was made through fraudulent means and shortchanging the economic policies of the country. A traditional ruler is not known by the expensive costumes and paraphernalia of office, his extended buttocks and his protruding stomach with an expansive and sprawling exotic palace to boot. This is a wrong assessment. As members of the Press, you have a job to educate and inform the citizenry on what should be the ideal way of doing these things. You know I practised journalism before I became His Royal Majesty. So, I am speaking as, not just as His Royal Majesty but also as, a Veteran Journalist. By using the agenda setting role of the press, journalists can transform society by raising the rot in the throne to a national debate.
His Royal Highness, why are you appropriating the title of His Royal Majesty(HRM) instead of His Royal Highness(HRH), I thought there was a ban on the usage of titles like His Royal Majesty, Ancient Kingdom and others. Why are you still using His Royal Majesty (HRM).
First of all, I need an apology from you for accusing me of “appropriating” the title of HRM. You mean that I have even committed a fraud here now when this is what I have been condemning here since.
His Royal Majesty, Sorry; I apologize. I merely wanted to draw your attention to this situation. But what is the difference between HRM and HRH?
I have accepted the apology and the question you asked is a brilliant one. A Royal Majesty is that EZE who was born a king. He hails from a ruling dynasty; the royal blood runs in his veins because it is hereditary. If you read the Book of Jeremiah 1:5 you concur with me. God said to him” Before you were born I knew you to be a prophet”. So, the ideal traditional ruler is the one that was a Prince from the womb. Recall that I told you earlier that about 12 people died before I ascended the throne. I was not the person that killed them. Heaven and the ancestors were monitoring events. Mine is hereditary, I did not buy it. I was not made King because of wealth but because those with wealth did not have a choice than to succumb to the tradition. On the other hand, the people you called HRH are all manner of people including… (Expletives) who paid money to politicians and some communities were carved out for them, and thus become self made Ezes. They are political Ezes who were elected like councilors, Chairmen, or NGOs, clubs, leaders of traders associations and the like. They call them” His Royal Highnesses” (HRH). By this therefore, and given the incontrovertible archaeological research, the throne of God I occupy dates back to the 16th century and that is why I am His Royal Majesty (HRM) not His Royal Highness (HRH).This is because I succeeded nine other kings-Ezes- who reigned and ruled Obibi-Ochasi land for many years before I was installed from the same Royal and Ruling family and dynasty, that is from father to son.
So, how can the damage be redressed?
It’s easy to redress the anomaly. The Governor should carry out a surgical operation/restructuring of the traditional institution. All those political EZES: the drug barons, economic saboteurs, and 4l9ners should be removed from the place in order to restore sanity and regain the integrity of the institution. All over the world, Ndigbo are regarded as the Israelites, the Jews, but is that still the case today? An Eze must lead by example; it is not good for you who should be exemplary in conduct to be led by the nose, Therefore the law Imo State Legislature made in regard to the requirements for eligibility as an Eze as well as an Autonomous Community must be faithfully complied with. This law is in the public domain, it is not a secret document. As an investigative journalist, I enjoin you to search for the facts and place them in the public domain for all of to read and follow what is going on. This is homework for you.
On Governor Okorocha’s personal intervention in the emergence of EZEs in the crisis-torn communities, is this an ideal way of resolving Ezeship disputes?
Ok, to be modest, the Governor’s action may be seen by some people as the use of self help. It is not his responsibility to have done that. He personally intervened because the people he appointed to carry out the task are failures. There is a Ministry of Community Government Council (CGC) and Chieftaincy Affairs, a Ministry for Local Government Affairs and others. They failed to perform because a bad workman quarrels with his tools. Therefore, the Governor saw that these people he appointed could not achieve desired results because they are confused. It was as a result of this situation that the Governor intervened. All they needed do was to constitute a committee to handle the task. What the Governor did could be understood because he is a man of peace. He wants sanity in the State as well as in the traditional institution. Truth is that if you leave it to the people, the matter will continue to degenerate. One day, you will hear that people have been killed. Remember what happened in 2004 or thereabout when some people organized militants from their community to waylay a traditional ruler who had just been recognized by the government and snatched his Staff of Office and broke it. Of course, this is a desecration of the Traditional Institution, a case of standing history on its head. They won’t know what they have done by confronting the authority of God and the government, thus confronting the words of the LORD. The anger of God will be upon them but they won’t know. There are places you go and witness incessant deaths; it’s because of what they did elsewhere. Some of these mysterious deaths are traceable to the criminal offences committed against the traditional institution without the people knowing what they did. God is the force behind the thrones. Some people died shortly after being recognized as EZES. This is because God is not behind such Ezes ascending his throne because, spiritually in the sight of God and his judgment, they did not qualify to be there. If you want to be an EZE, especially when the title does not exist in your lineage or family, seek the face of God and ask Him to guide you and pledge that you will not abuse the position. Use the position to praise, worship, and glorify His name and serve Him diligently. But because of too much cultism and idolatry, they use money to influence political leaders in order to become traditional Rulers.
What do you say about the 106 Ezes who were recognized by the former Governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim.
Those people do not know what risks they are taking. The biological fathers of some of them including their eldest brothers are still alive and well. It’s a big curse for one to become an Eze even while one’s father is alive. In the traditional Igbo cosmology and culture, no man rises before his father-otherwise you enter the grave before your father.lt is a traditional sacrilege. People suddenly run into money somewhere and decide to be bigger than their fathers. It’s an evil. It should be condemned by all right thinking members of the society. A situation where a father becomes the subject of his son and bowing before him is undesirable and incompatible with the tradition/culture of any normal society. This can make our ancestors to turn in their graves against such people and their sacrilegious conducts; indeed it’s a taboo for a man to buy the seat of traditional rulership with money and sit there while his father is still alive.
But the 106 group were recognized by the Government. Why do you think they are not genuine EZES?
To be a traditional ruler, you must first be recognized by the government and the Secretary to the State Government will write you a letter to that effect. There was no such letter written to the 106 so-called “self made EZES” and as such their names are not in the list of the traditional rulers in Imo State. The then Governor, Chief lkedi Ohakim, assembled them in the stadium and said: “Okay gentlemen, you are now traditional rulers”. They were given fake Staff of Office because that is what they paid for. No certificate was issued to them and no letter appointing them EZES can be seen in their files. We have our register and we know those who are traditional rulers. In fact, there is no record of the millions of Naira or dollars they paid for the Staff of Office given to each of them. Since they were not given the normal letter of recognition by the establishment, they lack the moral background to be called traditional rulers. The then Governor, Chief Ohakim, was quite intelligent in avoiding giving them any official letter of recognition by the government. So, it is left for Governor Okorocha to handle this matter decisively.
You seem to be very bitter with Chief Ohakim’s Administration. I am afraid that I may not use all the expletives.
Yes, of course; the last government was very reckless and had no vision. It was that last government that caused all the problems we are suffering today in Imo State. They created what they called 106 traditional rulers. What does that mean- 106 traditional rulers; what does that mean? He called them EZES and they were not recognized, he only gave them staff of office. You went to the university where you were supposed to graduate after, say, six years but you absconded after 3 and half years. If you claim to be a graduate of that university, the real graduates will call you a thief. So, we must condemn evil and any act that is capable of desecrating the tradition and culture of our people.
So, what do we now do to remedy it?
The state government must stand fair and firm in order to ensure that all those who are not qualified to be traditional rulers including communities that do not satisfy the laid down requirements for autonomous communities must be phased out now. Again, the number of the EZES must be brought down to about 200.Go to Anambra; go to Enugu; they are each below 200.ln Anambra State, Governor Peter Obi bought them brand new jeeps and each Igwe or Obi has one to himself. Governor Obi is able to do that because the number is manageable. In Imo State, how can a governor buy jeeps for over 600 EZES when there is a competing need for funds to develop the real sector and provide amenities? If the over bloated number of Ezes is not reduced, the Government cannot be expected to buy cars for the EZEs. The number must be reduced to a manageable size and Governor Okorocha can do that because he has shown so much passion to restoring the lost glory of the traditional rulership in Imo State and even in Igbo land. In other states, one person rules from here (Owerri Municipality) to Obinze to Emekuku. They talk of towns not autonomous communities. What is happening here is sacrilegious; it’s madness. Initially, I told certain politicians and office holders and even those who called themselves stakeholders about the dangers of proliferating EZEs, but they ignored my advice. You can see the problems this issue is generating in the State now. The problem is that some of our political leaders who controlled the levels of power went there and messed up the place. A person that is a material for special assistant is given a topmost position he did not qualify for. See how he messed up the whole place. When a hungry person is asked to take charge of item 7 in an event, he will leave the whole place in a mess and people will go home without eating anything. See what Governor Okorocha has achieved in two years; he has transformed the state. As a journalist, did you envisage this level of development just within two years? You can imagine what we lost in the years of the holocust. So, Governor Okorocha should remain focused in the task to restore the traditional institution. He should put a stop to the arbitrary proliferation of autonomous communities and EZEs. Meanwhile, the dubious EZES should be shown the way out. What we had before now was a situation where your politician friend would give you, say, N20m to go and spend as you liked but today the N2Om is used to provide amenities. Did you know that Imo State was that rich?
You hit the nail on the head there. In a place like IMSU, not even one classroom was built by the last government in 4 years. Anything you see there is by the courtesy of the Education Tax Fund (ETF).
Why are you telling me? I am an Eze, His Royal Majesty. I am not in partisan politics. As journalists, what did you people do when you found out these things? When I was a journalist I wrote features on the embezzlement of fund for the construction of Imo Airport. I was detained because I spoke the truth but in the end I was released and even they apologized. I accepted the apology and took the persecution as part of the occupational hazards of Journalism. So, Journalists should wake up and assert themselves. They should no longer be seen as mere Press Boys or brown envelope reporters who do not have vision or knowledge to write what the society wants to know about things happening around them from time to time. After all, they are called the watch dogs of the society.
Some of your comments against your fellow EZES are harsh.
Yes, some of them have attracted adverse security reports by the security agencies and yet they are parading themselves as EZES. Others converted factory sites and part of their palaces to kidnapping caves; they don’t manufacture anything. They simply use the purported factory as a base for collecting ransom from victims of kidnap gangs.
How do you rate the security level in the State?
I want to commend this government on its ability to fight crime. I commend Governor Okorocha for restoring security in the State. Today, kidnapping is a thing of the past in Imo State. The era of bank robbery has ended. I commend his ability to have transformed the state within a short period of his stay in office. Let the blind see that the man has come and has delivered. This is the man who deserves the best award by African people. He is the only governor who tells you what he wants to do and he gets it done. The governor imported school uniforms and bags from China and a cross section of the people have condemned him for that. If he had given that job of sewing school uniforms and bags to our local contractors, the items would not be ready in the next two years and they will not sew it to the standard specified. In fact, he would have left office without the items supplied. It is even cheaper when you go abroad to buy things because of the advantages of mass production. We are lazy here because every person depends on the money from Government House and this is not very good. The Bible said that those who do not work must not eat but the reverse is the case here.
HRM, you have been spicing your comments with biblical citations. This is not often the case with our traditional rulers.
If you go to the Bible, you see the Book of Kings. We are the first prophets of God and we derive our authority from Him. Kings are the first prophets of God. I quote the Bible often because I believe in God and I worship Him. Without knowing God, if you are put in office, you mess up there. Today it is on record in heaven that l may be the only Eze in the sight of God who truly worships Him with praises because l organize crusades every year particularly every January 7 to preach His Word and evangelize the people. Also as a member of Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship international, l host monthly prayer, praises and worship fellowships at my palace and the Chapter’s name is even known in the internet as City of David Palace Worship Centre. You may not believe that the dead was raised to life at one of my palace vigil prayer programmes: a daughter of one of my subjects and she is still alive studying at lmo State University. Many miracles from God have taken place in my palace which made one of the Ministers invited to declare it a “City of Refuge” and one other from Delta State calling it a mountain of Change which means the presence of God in my palace and this has become a nightmare to evil and wicked men and agents of darkness. I can go on and on telling you other things until you come and witness it yourself.
During your New Yam Festival of last year (2012), the community was dedicated to God by a revered man of God. Were your subjects happy about this affair?
Well, worshipping God does not destroy the culture of the people. Culture is far from worshipping God because without God there will be no culture. Culture is respecting your elders, do what is good and condemn evil wherever it is seen. Make sure the right things are done at the right time. Our culture has become eroded because our parents of today do not teach their children well on the basic demands of culture and the way of life. In Yoruba land, professors speak the mother tongue of Yoruba but it is not so here. In Igbo land, the uneducated prefer to adopt the English Language as the prefered mode of communication and even try to be more English than the English people. This is the bane of Igbo nation. If you believe God and worship Him, God will bless you. Somebody who worships a tree cannot go to ask God for help.
But are your subjects at peace with the banishing of the shrines and gods of their ancestors?
Well, I don’t know whether they are happy or not because God did not say I should find out from them if they are happy but that I should teach them His ways of life. That is why I uprooted that evil tree in my palace. The tree has been there for over 400 years but I gave orders that it should be uprooted. My forefathers worshipped it; I refused to worship it and ordered for it to be uprooted. It was called OMU tree and it was worshipped because it was seen as a symbol of the throne; but I rejected all that and brought it down. In fact, at that time, whoever climbed it would be given a he-goat and other traditional ritual items to appease the gods. I refused to accept all that because I know the God I worship. When the tree was being uprooted, my subjects fled to Lagos and other parts of the country in the belief that it would cause mass death. They believed that by the time they returned, the entire household of the Eze (i.e. my family) would be wiped out. Now, I am the only person using the firewood because they are all afraid to partake of it. Yet, some of them hold great titles in their churches and have special seats reserved for them in the front pews. As the spiritual authority in the land, my words abide. If you cut down some demonic trees without the anointing of GOD, you face the consequences. As a Journalist, have you tried to find out why traditional rulers allow their subjects to celebrate death as if it were a thing of joy? Often you see a poster asking you to come and receive salvation; people ignore it and go to a place where people are eating and celebrating nothing but death. Every Friday, you see youths in groups celebrating death, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarette and consuming drugs as they go to and from mortuaries. They are celebrating the dead and that is condemnable in heaven. Because they celebrate death, death always knocks on their doors.If you ask God to protect you and your community from death, God will surely answer your prayer and keep death away from you. If you continue to celebrate death, it will continue to visit you and vice versa. As long as you do not ask God to intervene in the problems in your land, you will continue to have such problems in the land. People should stop celebrating death and ask God for his mercy and to intervene and heal the land.
Do you discuss these things, the differences between hereditary and artificial Ezes in your meetings?
Well, as stated earlier, I am not His Royal Highness; l am His Royal Majesty (HRM) because l was born a king. I did not become Eze because l am too educated or wealthy but because according to Jeremiah 1:5 which says: “Before l formed you in the womb, l knew you; before you came to birth, l consecrated you; l appointed you as a prophet to the nations”. HRM are those who were consecrated Ezes even while they were in the womb. A person that has not trained as a journalist cannot be a journalist; he is a writer, no matter how proficient he is. Somebody trained as a chemist and tomorrow he turns up with all the paraphernalia of a medical doctor. Will society accept him as a medical doctor? Such a person is an impostor. It is the same thing in the traditional institution; those who were not anointed from the womb as EZES should not be parading themselves as traditional rulers. Most of the 106 so-called EZES have no moral high ground to ask to be made EZEs. This is where the last administration committed sacrilege and grave financial fraud. In fact, the EFCC has refused to do their work. There are some Ezes who have adverse security reports on them but they are allowed to parade as traditional rulers. Finally read the book of proverbs in chapters 18:1-13, 20:8, 15, 17, 21, 27, 21:1-37, 18, Romans 13:1-8 and from these biblical injunctions let the Ndigbo especially the church goers acquire knowledge from here and honour their elders, custom and traditional rulers to receive peace, favour and blessings from God.
