DEMYSTIFYING THE ASSERTION THAT IGALA LACKS UNITY FOR DEVELOPMENT, A NARRATION OF MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

 DEMYSTIFYING THE ASSERTION THAT IGALA LACKS UNITY FOR DEVELOPMENT, A NARRATION OF MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

PUBLISHED IN HONOR OF Mr LAWRENCE ONUH EKPAH ON THE OCCASION OF HIS BIRTHDAY, 1ST OCTOBER, ,2021 

I am Salifu Oguche Usman, Esq, an Igala by tribe who by the grace of the Almighty God has enjoyed over four decades of existence on planet Earth and all in a world that is clothed with Igalaness.

I make bold to say that my world is clothed with Igalaness for the fact that though I was born outside the shores of Ane Igala, I however gained all life consciousness there. I started my Primary School in Ane Igala, had my Secondary School in Ane Igala and my first degree in the then emerging intellectual hub, Kogi State University, located in Anyigba, the heart of Ane Igala. Though I was to pursue further educational studies elsewhere, I strongly think I hold my being, development and overall personality to the Igala Society.

Having spent the formative years of my life in Ane Igala and participated fully in all stages of a young Igala Man developmental life, I have come to see myself either rightly or otherwise as an embodiment of Igala society, culture and values. Even after graduation and subsequent sojourn in other parts of the country, I have kept ties with Ane Igala through constant visits to most Igala communities and participation in Igala Fora, events and Associations. I can boast of active participation in Ogugu Students Association, Olamaboro Students Association, Igala Students Association, National Association of Kogi State Students, membership of Igala Societies such as Project Igala/Igala Hall of Fame, Ane Igala Restoration Movement and founded Igala Consciousness Reawakening Forum including participation in most Igala events, lecture series and more.

In all of these gatherings, one issue has remain forever a life and of grave concern to Igala Leadership and followership alike. 'It is the quest for Unity of Igala People for development'

This sole topic dominated our discussion as students way back. Lectures were delivered in this wise by very Eminent Igala sons such as the Late Professor Francis Suleiman Idachaba of blessed memory, The Late Professor Ibrahim Omale of blessed memory, Prof Sam Egwu, Prof Idegwu and several others. All bemoaning the want of Unity amongst the Igala people and Nation and advocating the need for same if Ane Igala must develop.

Growing up and participating in Igala unification events often organized by diverse bodies such as the Igala Hall of Fame, ICDA, Who is Who in Igalaland, Oma Atta show, Arise Igala magazines and several other Igala organizations, there all have one thing in common, the cry for unity amongst the Igala people and Nation if she must develop and become relevant in the scheme of things within the Nigerian context.

I took time in my over four decades of existence as an Igala man to give some thoughts to this mystery called lack of unity of the Igala people and how it has impeded the development of Ane Igala and her People, I came to the conclusion that truly Ane Igala hasn't faired well in terms of infrastructure and human capital Development within the Nigerian context when compared to her competitors in the pre_colonial set up such as the Benin people, The Ndi_Igbo Nation and our Yoruba brothers and I set out to unravel the cause of our relative under_development and perhaps retrogression.

It goes without saying that for a Nation and People to attain and sustain greatness and steady growth as envisioned and bemoaned by most Igala commentators, organizations, lectures and events, a number of factors must congregate. Such include the following

1. Relative cohesion of  the people.

2. A firm and well defined leadership structure and ideology.

3. A well defined vision, mission and projection.

4. Entrenched values, scruples and taboos and finally

5. Unity of the people and patriotism.

In my mind, while we have often thought of our relative want of development as a product of lack of unity amongst Igala sons and daughters, we have failed  completely in addressing other key issues that often engineer development. In passing, I make bold to say without any fear of contradiction that the Igala Nation as it is presently constituted lacks a well defined ideology, purpose, vision and projection, we are a people without road map of what we truly want, where we want to be then let alone how we want to get there.

Sequel to the foregoing and as a corolary to same is the fact that we lack strong leadership and rallying points. Aside the traditional leadership that was bequeathed to Ane Igala by our forebears which came to be crystalized in the Atta Igala stool, we as a people confronted by the contemporary challenges of modern NIGERIA and her allied forces failed to evolve a strong leadership to define our subsistence and chart a cause for us. It goes without saying that the Atta Igala stool and the entire original Igala royalty just like all traditional institutions in Nigeria have been striped of powers and glory and only exist as a relics of our history, this was particularly worsened by the creation of several non traditional stools such as Ejes within Ane Igala which at the end of the day left us with no symbol of leadership and rallying point. 

As a step over measures, the Igala sacrificial spirits as enshrined by our earliest Princesses Inikpi and Omodoko have propelled and thrown up accidental leaders for us such as Senator Dr Ahmodu Alih, the Late Dr Steven Makoji Achema, the Late Prince Abubakar Audu of blessed memory but alas, they all got drown in the ocean of our want of leadership and leadership structure.

MY EXPERIENCE ON IGALA UNITY.

as a pointer to my assertion that the Igala Nation and People never lacks unity but leadership, I will recall just two momentary personal experiences and draw inspirations therefrom.

One point that I want everyone of us to ponder over is the fact that the Igala Nation is one of the ethnic nationalities with a high number of social cultural organizations with each having different mandates and outlets. The ICDA, Ukomu Igala,. Igala Hall of Fame, Ebulejonu Daughters, Ane Igala Restoration Movement, Who is Who in Igalaland and several other structures too numerous to mention. 

In all of these gatherings,. Igala people gather out of their love for Nation and the urge to play active roles in the development of Ane Igala and her People, often making huge sacrifices and raising the bars in ways possible to them. This shows one fact, that we have a sense of our Igalaness, we are United in preserving our Igalaness and we rally round this belief.

One experience that have come to sharpen my quest to question the mystery of Igala unity is the death of the Late Prince Abubakar Audu and the political development that trailed same. Prince Abubakar Audu died at the eve of been declared winner of an election that saw two Igala sons locked horns in an electoral contest, the whole Ane Igala was unofficially thrown into mourning to the point of chaos, the people were unanimous in grief and when the news of his resurrection surfaced, the jubilation was tumultuous. As God would have it, he died and was buried, Yahaya Bello, an Ebira by tribe inherited his votes and was declared Governor. The spirit of the Igala people felt short changed and the people save for the few opportunist in the Bello emerging government felt a sense of loss of our exalted position as the ruler of Kogi State. This feeling was deep amongst our people and largely came to define our relationship with Gov Yahaya Bello, the rest is history today but the point is made, that we were United in grief and in our sense of loss of privilege as a people.

The foregoing feeling and state of affairs subsisted and defined our approach towards the 2019 Kogi State gubernatorial election. Prior to the election, the Igala Nation, especially her young Men rose in condemnation of the maladministration of Kogi State by Gov Yahaya Bello, some purely out of patriotism but most was driven by the feeling of deep loss of privilege, his government was vilified and demonized in the most unprecedented manner, I was an active participant in this venture, the Igala youths were United by the quest to defend our lost privilege and restore same, they did this at great expense and to their credit, Gov Bello sure lost a lot of sleep. There stakes were raised and this conferred advantage on any Igala major contender in the 2019 Kogi State guber election, alas Engr Musa Wada got the ticket of the opposing People's Democratic party and rode on Igala unity, sympathy and zeal to restore her privilege and honor almost to power but was only stopped by the display of the greatest and loudest show of electoral brigandage and violence ever witnessed in the Nigerian electoral system. I must say that Igala unity made it possible.

A second event that brought it home to me that we are a very patriotic and United People happened sometimes in May, 2021. The Senator representing the very good people of Kogi East, an enclave the Igala Nation has been confined to in contemporary politics, Senator Jibril Isah (Echocho) sponsored a bill at the upper chamber of the National Assembly for the upgrade of Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa into a Federal University of Education, the bill was slated for public hearing and the Senator made effort at getting a representation of the Igala people at the National Assembly for the said hearing. I was requested by Professor Friday D. Atidoga, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics of Kogi State University, Anyigba to present his contributions in support of the passage of the bill on his behalf before the Senate public hearing committee.

The Provost of Kogi State College of Education Ankpa and the school delegations were in attendance, the umbrella body of Igala Professors was hugely represented, several Igala Social cultural organizations were represented including Igala Elder statesman and educationist Baba Sylverster Momoh Onoja, the hall was filled to it's capacity and contributions were outpouring. The committee was overwhelmed by numbers and contributions of our people and commended the Senator, the Senatorial District and the contributions. I felt so proud as an Igala man whose people can easily be mobilized in furtherance of their interest. The pick of the show of our unity lies in one occurrence at that venue, the same date and venue was equally designed for the hearing of the presentation in favor of the  bill for the establishment of Federal University of Steel out of the present Institute of Foundry at Ajaokuta, Kogi State sponsored by Senator Oseni and the Ebira Nation. Overwhelmed by the number of Igala representation and quality of presentation at the hearing, the Senator beckoned on his aids to embark on sporadic invitation of Ebira sons and daughters within the Federal capital territory to shore up their negligible numbers as compared to that of the Igala people. This was done through financial inducement and at great effort. I took one lesson home, we are the great grand children of Atta Ayegba oma Idoko, United by our rich history of patriotism and greatness. We are the unconquerable Amoma Igala, whose forbearers never tasted humiliation, we are United by the zeal to preserve our heritage as Igalas, our major shortcoming is lack of leadership and rallying point.  

IN CONCLUSION.

I wish to state that the above scenarios reveals the fact that our major shortcoming is the leadership factor, the Igala youths rose in defense of Ane Igala against Gov Yahaya Bello but failed because there was a missing link, the Public Hearing at the Senate was a huge success because Echocho provided Leadership.

Let us evolve a well structured leadership and leadership template for Ane Igala. 

God bless Ane Igala.

Salifu Oguche Usman, Esq writes from Abuja, FCT.

This Piece is dedicated to the Honor of Mr. Lawrence Onuh Ekpah on the occasion of his birthday.

Happy birthday Sir