In St. Mathew’s gospel of the Holy Bible, we were made to understand that Jesus Christ once admonished his listeners while chastising the Pharisees on the futility of placing much emphasis on what appeared frivolous to him while neglecting the important issues that enriched the soul. That misplacement of priority was trite then but is even more pronounced now. There is nowhere this is evident than when discussions on Nnewi historicity are held. It is akin to a contest to determine who can tell the fattest lie. Because of our rampant gullibilities , revisionists emerge competing among themselves on who would gaslight people the most. The pity of it all is that nobody bothers to interrogate most of the storylines to determine their consistency and logicality. Anybody who interrogates the stories is branded a troublemaker, anti-peace and nonconformist. People often mouth PEACE but rarely know what they are talking about. Basically, there are two concepts of PEACE namely; GRAVEYARD PEACE AND ENDURING PEACE. For example, when you poke somebody, humiliate him at every turn, make him feel worthless and belittle him, what exists between you and him is GRAVEYARD PEACE but when you mind your business, respect the feelings of the other person, observe boundaries and do the right thing, what exists between you two is ENDURING PEACE. Graveyard peace can never give you stability and sustainability but Enduring peace would, that is the difference. We should stop belittling knowledge because it is the greatest gift to mankind. But we must realize that knowledge is espoused through interrogation. That explains why a designer will not confirm the authenticity of his design unless it is reviewed and criticized by his peer. Anybody who is 40years and above is expected to think more of an enduring legacy than superficiality. That explains the cliché,A FOOL AT FORTY IS A FOOL FOREVER. But what do we see now? We see persons well past 70years in age and even centenarians tell and live out lies just to get by and be politically correct. In Nnewi historicity we essentially operate on two universes namely; PRE-AGBAN’ANO UNIVERSE AND POST-AGBAN’ANO UNIVERSE, the alternative universe. We are now living in the post-AgbaN’ano era. Most of the stories told about the pre-AgbaN’ano universe are borne out of fertile imaginations of the tellers as they have no documented evidence of what life was at that time and there was no attempt by the people who lived then to document their story. Historians and archeologists would readily tell you that ORAL TRADITION IS THE MOST UNRELIABLE SOURCE OF HISTORY. Stories about the pre-AgbaN’ano era are essentially based on oral tradition and the teller’s fertile imagination, fictions , hallucination or dreams. The truth is that Nnewi is made up of four different towns with different migratory histories and patterns. Before the AgbaN’ano pact, there was nothing like Nnewi as we know it now. What we had were four independent and autonomous towns namely; Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim and NnewiIchi. The four different towns migrated to their present abodes at different times but we are not told whether they migrated and settled on virgin lands or whether they met inhabitants when they came and what happened. We are talking about what happened over 500years ago spanning many generations. Broken bottle has no MEKWATARISM and this explains why this deficiency cannot be remedied by just surreptitiously feeding false information into the internet hoping that the dubious actions will with the passage of time melt into the our collective gullibility. It is criminal to turn an imaginary and phantom list of traditional leaders of Otolo town into a purported list of past traditional rulers of NNEWI-AGBAN’ANO which was not in existence then. In the pre-AgbaN’ano era, each town had its list of traditional leaders who operated as the system demanded. Some people are working hard to make us believe that the traditional leaders of one of the towns held suzerainty over the four towns that are called Nnewi now when that was not the case. You cannot write authentic history by falsifying events to suit your tripping ambitions. You don’t force people to buy into the story that your forefathers were as fearsome as the DINOSAUR when in actual fact, they were just ordinary human beings . A fifty year old man cannot tell the story of an event that took place over 500 years ago claiming that either his father or grandfather told him. How is he sure that his late father or grandfather did not make up the stories because they were not eye witnesses? We should exercise circumspection especially in retelling stories where we were not eye witnesses. That is why every book of the Holy Bible has a known author who was either an eye witness or wrote out of inspiration as Apostle John did in the book of REVELATION. In the absence of a documentary evidence on Nnewi history , independently uncorroborated stories have no moments and in fact go to no issues. Somebody told us that Edo was the wife of Ezemewi and both beget Nnewi, Oraifite and Ichi which collectively are called ANAEDO For this account to hold , it must be corroborated by both Oraifite and Ichi towns. Unfortunately, neither Oraifite nor Ichi would corroborate this account. In fact, while Oraifite and Ichi agree that they are part of Anaedo, they never agreed that they were sired by Edo and Ezemewi. How come that Ezemewi was never a king in Nnewi and why do Nnewi, Oraifite and Ichi not have a common family tree at any point in their long history? The worship of the Edo deity is the only thing that binds the two towns to Nnewi. There is no consanguineous relationship between them and Nnewi which itself is made-up of four independent towns. There are relics of Ikenga all over Igbo land but to ascribe human form to it in Nnewi and even call it a former king because people are eager to elongate the list of past and unverifiable kings of their town is an unfathomable madness . Like I said in my book, the founder of Otolo town was Otolo Digbo from ARO, Uruagu was AGU from Oba, Umudim was Dim AGU from Ojoto and NnewiIchi was EZEOBUO, ABUBOR AND MIGRANTS FROM ICHI. I imagine that the name , AGU in Dim AGU and Uruagu belonged to their respective fathers as first sons hardly left the abodes of their fathers. Ezeobuo and ABUBOR were children of IGUEDO whom I called by her other name ADAMBU throughout my book. NRI was a son of ERI but he was not the first son of ERI. The first son was AGULERI who resides at OBU GAD built by their father, ERI in honor of his own father, GAD. In Igbo land, the first male children of a family is usually called AGU, AGUM OR AGULU just like the first female child is called ADA, ADAOBI, ADAEZE etc It is instructive to note also that in Igbo land, DIOKPALA AHA’PU OBI. It is the younger male children that develop their homesteads outside the Obi where their father lived , died and was buried. They are the people that usually migrate and settle elsewhere. Those who claim that they originated from NRI should get Eze NRI to corroborate their storylines. Otherwise, it is nothing short of a COCK AND BULL. There is no records anywhere to show that there was a king for Otolo from which Otolo Digbo flowed talkless of those that preceded those fanthom and imaginary kings. IGBO ENWE EZE!!!! WHAT THEY HAD IN IGBO LAND IN THE OLDEN DAYS WERE TRADITIONAL LEADERS, PRIESTS AND DIVINERS. One IK Chidolue based in the USA requested for the use of DNA to trace the MIGRATORY AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS OF THE FOREFATHERS OF THE PEOPLE THAT CALL THEMSELVES NDI NNEWI BUT WAS SHUT DOWN BY THOSE WHO ADVANCED ALL SORTS OF ILLOGICALITIES. The reason for this was not lost on all discerning persons. The research suggested by Mr Chidolue would have exposed and unearthed the lies told by the people whom we know are doing everything possible to hide their ARO ANCESTRY AND IDENTITY for now until they are able to subdue the other towns in Nnewi. In this era of advancement in science, technology, archeology, innovations and artificial intelligence, it is unimaginable that somebody would flatly dismiss using DNA to trace migratory and settlement patterns of NDI Nnewi If he is not covering something. We should be scientific, rational and factual about our inquiries because that is how knowledge is incubated. Otolo was a descendant of ARODI while Uruagu, Umudim and NnewiIchi were descendants of ERI. ARODI was the younger brother of ERI but GAD was their father. This is a verifiable fact!!! The Nnewi we talk of today is a product of the AgbaN’ano Treaty of MUTUAL DEFENSE, ASSISTANCE AND NONAGGRESSION AMONG THE FOUR INDEPENDENT AND AUTONOMOUS TOWNS. The Nnewi I am talking about is the euphemism used to denote the AgbaN’ano pact. It was not a human being. Those who argue that Nnewi was their forefather who ruled their towns hundreds of years ago without any records are free to wallow in their fantasies. THAT IS NOT THE NNEWI AGBAN’ANO WHICH SHOULD CONCERN US HERE. NONE OF THE TOWNS THAT ENTERED INTO THE AGBAN’ANO PACT WAS BEHOLDEN TO THE OTHER OR ANSWERABLE TO ANY OTHER OUTSIDE AUTHORITY. In those days, you never laid claim to a territory which you did not conquer. When you conquer and subdue a territory, you either drive the inhabitants away or force them to observe some obeisance as evidence of your Lordship over them (IBU IHU). This is not the case in Nnewi, why then would one of the four towns in Nnewi feel self entitled to all the goodies that come to Nnewi? THAT IS GREED FOR WANT OF A BETTER WORD. All the people who support this greed should hide their faces in shame because rational human beings don’t reason and behave that way. Equality of parties is a basic principle of a binding contract. A slave and his master cannot enter into a valid contract because the fact of their unequal statuses can vitiate that contract. It is pertinent to note that the appellation, HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS (HRH) was not used in Igbo land to identify traditional rulers in Anambra and Enugu states until after the Civil war (1967-1970). The traditional LEADERS were called CHIEFS BY THE WHITEMAN who gave them WARRANTS as marks of their preeminent positions. The whiteman gave a warrant to each of the four leaders of Nnewi marking the four autonomous towns that make up Nnewi. Some traditional rulers were nominated into the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs established by Nigeria’s INDEPENDENCE CONSTITUTION OF 1960 and the REPUBLIC CONSTITUTION OF 1963. The 1956 Agreement signed by the four Obis of Nnewi nominated the then Chief Josiah Orizu, Obi Otolo and father of the present IGWE Nnewi to represent Nnewi in Onitsha including the then to be established Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs. It was when the House of Chiefs was being established that Chief Josiah Orizu suddenly died. Until he died, Chief Josiah Orizu was never addressed as HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS. It was out of empathy, deep feelings of love and magnanimity that the other three Obis asked his son now Igwe KON Orizu III to continue and complete the tenure of his late father. What they deserve are APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE and not the current false sense of entitlement and greed. None of them ever imagined that things would turn out this way or that the person they gave courtesy to would treat them with this type of contempt and disdain. When Chief Josiah Orizu died only villages in Otolo town were levied for the funeral and also took turns to cook and entertain guests at the funeral. It was never an Nnewi affair. If these happened, why would anybody in his right senses carry on the propaganda that Chief Josiah Orizu was the traditional ruler of the whole Nnewi? It doesn’t make sense.
It is important to stress that all sons and daughters of the four towns that make up Nnewi are CITIZENS of NNEWI- AGBAN’ANO. Those who claim sole ownership of Nnewi in order to advance their puerile agenda are only deceiving themselves and hallucinating. It is an irony that with the predilection with how great their forefathers were yet, they were easily conquered by the whiteman. However , what should concern us now is how to advance the social, political, economic, legal, technological and indeed the overall well-being of ndi Nnewi. The truth is that all traditional authorities are subordinate to political authorities. It is whoever holds political powers that matters and not whose forefathers were the first to inhabit the earth. For example, the RED INDIANS were the ABORIGINES IN AMERICA but they have never produced the president of the US in the country’s 250 years of INDEPENDENCE. The same applies to AUSTRALIA and many countries of the world. Why is NNEWI blind to this reality? Rather than concern ourselves with important things, we waste precious time on mundane things and inanities like Ikenga, Agbaja Nnewi, etc whose actual existence and statuses we cannot vouch for. That EME COURT was called AGBAJA COURT which the four Obis took turns to preside over did not give any indication that Agbaja was a human being and that he was once the traditional ruler of Nnewi. THERE IS NO TRADITIONAL RULER OF NNEWI TO THIS DAY. BEING IGWE NNEWI DOES NOT MAKE YOU THE TRADITIONAL RULER OF NNEWI RATHER YOU ARE JUST THE GOVERNMENT FOCAL PERSON ON TRADITIONAL MATTERS. Even of pre-AgbaN’ano era are good for the purposes of history and no attempt is made here to denigrate it. Therefore, I believe that what we need now in Nnewi is HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT. I end this thesis by calling on the leadership of Nnewi to establish the following councils to drive development in the enclave and empower NDI NNEWI. They should be; NNEWI ECONOMIC COUNCIL, NNEWI POLITICAL COUNCIL, NNEWI EDUCATION COUNCIL , NNEWI INFRASTRUCTURE COUNCIL AND NNEWI EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL.
Godson O. Moneke, a polymath with degrees, diplomas and certificates in many disciplines. He is the author of the the bestseller, NNEWI (AgbaN’ano). He writes from Abuja.
