Whether government recognizes or not, Obi will emerge — Ejiofor, Onishe of Ubulu-Uku

Chief Emmanuel Ejiofor is the Onishe of Ubulu–Uku Kingdom, Delta State, the sole authority to crown a king in the town. in this interview with NOSA ERESOYEN, disowns the recently installed 17 year-old successor to the throne, Noah Akaeze I, as King of Ubulu-Uku. He vows that Noah Akaeze I is not and cannot be the right successor to the throne.

HOW would you account for the genesis of kingship tussle in Ubulu-Uku?
Normally, in a monarchy, there are not supposed to be anything like tussle because the leadership of a community is determined by the eldest person. What happened is that some people are trying to think that there is politics in tradition. Tradition is the way of living of a people. For a community to have gone to that level of thinking of having a king Years back, they may have reached certain agreement. Man is filled with history of migration. Everybody met a community. So long it has been monarchy that we met, we want to keep it. What is really happening in Ubulu-Uku is what I describe as miscreants who think that they can challenge the gods. Before our father travelled, Obi Ofulue II, he did so many great things to determine what should be; he had his first child, second son and third son. Nobody can imagine that such a thing can come up. It is insult to the community what they are doing.

How did this change in tradition start?
Well, change to the people who believe that but for traditional people like us, nothing has changed. When the Obi of Ubulu-Uku died, his first son was not seen. In our local palace in Ubulu-Uku Kingdom, if you don’t see the first child of the king, the people must go in search of him. This we did within two years. Now, the issue is that before our Obi became sick, the late Prince Akaeze appeared while the father was still sick. The process determines what would have happened to him based on the king makers’ findings. The late Prince Akaeze told me, specifically, that his elder brother sent him to go and carry the situation in the house; that he will be going back to London and that he will be back by December. The
following day, I came to the palace again only to be told by one of his brothers that I should greet late Prince Akaeze that is now King of Ubulu-Uku. I was surprised. I asked his brother with whose approval did it happen when his father is still sick. Normally, if the time father was sick is when the father dies, that is when you can now do anything of such, and that is when I dispatch from their self-style. I asked the man who has the authority to do the sitting on throne in the palace who is the “OGIBA” did you do anything without the Umuozim, the man said that he did not do anything. Even myself as the Onishe of Ubulu-Uku, I am not aware; nobody informed me. If anything of such should happen, I must be aware of it. So, when we now saw the way they were going, we went away because they were trying to apply a kind of fire brigade approach to it. The last was when the state government paid a visit; they couldn’t pay a condolence visit because a king doesn’t die. The state government decided to pay a visit because they had what happened.
I stopped going to the palace when I discovered there were threats to my life because they wanted to do what ought not to happen. On 20th September, the kingmakers, the owners of the stool, on getting information that he was pushing through some pressures to be recognized as a king, went to court that he should not be recognized as a king. Government recognition is not the probate of my community, Ubulu-Uku. Whether government recognizes or not, the Obi will emerge. That recognition is just for stipend from government. The staff of office, that is most important, is the traditional staff of office. Eventually, on the 19th of January 2016, they organized a charade that they have installed a king; who did, I don’t know.
I, now, walked up to the former Deputy Governor of Delta State, Chief Benjamin Elue, that what they were trying to do is not good, that this man is not the first son, why are you trying to give him staff of office. I left them because I have been branded evil when I am not. They were trying to apply one form of intimidation or the other without success.
What really happened in 2010, the Umuozium asked me to look for the heir apparent to the throne. To their own understanding, the man was made heir apparent in 1985, the ceremony was done publicly and there was public holiday in Ubulu-Uku. He has been visiting home, why the first that he didn’t come this time, should I go and look for him. I told them that I never met him. That is when we started the journey.
When I came home, I reported to the kingmakers that I have seen him. They wrote a letter that he should come and tell them the whereabouts of his father that they understand that he has been hospitalized somewhere but they don’t know the hospital; that he is the only authority that will tell them the where about of his father and the hospital. Based on that, he now has the courage to come home. Because himself had thought that the community shortchanged him against the father’s instruction. He said to me that his father told him that his position was never optional.
So, if the community now said because his father is late, and that they don’t want him because his mother is not from Ubulu-Uku; because his father told him everything that the community must look for it. He asked me if I were involve and I told him that I was not involved and he said who now crowned me (him) so that gave him and with the letter the Umuozium wrote to him when I came back and with others that the Idima wrote to him because the “Idima” is the administrative council of Ubulu-Uku community, the traditional council headed by the Onishe. We are about nine; both with the Idimas, we now met wrote a letter to him which we signed it was the one the Ozims wrote that gave him courage to come home. When he came home, he discussed with his family members and when they discovered that Mark couldn’t come back from his travelled: he was given that the throne can never be vacant; he was given a title which is traditional.

There was suspension placed on you by the Ubulu-Uku king makers. What is your take on that?
Do you give what you don’t have; if you were not crowned a king, even the king doesn’t have the right to suspend the Onishe. He was never allowed to do the process because by our own standard, Ubulu-Uku is the most ancestral home in Delta State. So, he was never a king and he even exonerated me. He also took a cow to the exception of my family and they now place some of my family members to take the cow to some persons and the persons whom they take the cow to, now asked if the Onishe was taking back. Even when the government gave him staff of office, because I am in position to give the king traditional staff of office, he must subscribed to an oath of office, even the president of Nigeria and others take oath of office. It is also the Onishe who install the king and if the king is not dancing well, it is also the Onishe through the installation or instrumentality of the king makers and the Idumas that can de-throne the king.

Did the late king recognised that his father has three elder brothers before him?
Yes, the late king was aware that his father has other elder brothers before him. One was born in 1955 which is now the Umuogwu of Ubulu-Uku. Even, maybe, the person is mad in the family and he is the eldest, he must be recognized. The late king was born in 1958; the last of that marriage while he is still existing because there was no dissolution of marriage; while the late Akaeze was born December 24th 1962. When the mother was packing to London it was done as option (B), the Obi Ofulue 1 (late) was afraid incase if they don’t come home let’s have option (B) and that ideal has expired since 1979 when the Umuogu came the first time to Ubulu-Uku and the women (Omu) who does the things of the land they have gone round the community to announce his presents which Culminated into his coronation in 1985 and he was also aware.

Who do you think is fuelling this urgly mess?
The Chairman of Aniocha South Local Government, Chief Isaac Awuzia, the member representing us in the Federal House of Representatives, Amaechi Marakpor, and some persons in the state are fueling this ugly mess in Ubulu-Uku.

What are the consequences working as a default in tradition?
Akaeze was never a king in Ubulu-Uku and government will not know how to manage Ubulu-Uku tradition, he (Akaeze) knows that he never be a king because two king cannot be on a throne, since Akaeze has never been a king of Ubulu-Uku his son Noah is not also a king because nobody crown him. And the consequences is an open challenge to the gods and whatever that will come up, they should have it.