All seems set fookey ikechukwur the national confab. The platform of the South East Leaders of Thought is one of the organisations which seems rather belatedly poised to contest the very basic underpinnings of the national talk shop. But even at that, the group is not calling for a boycott, or anything of the sort. It would be recalled that this geopolitical zone made one of the most structured presentations during the initial consultations on how to go about the conference. The recent public outing on the matter could have been avoided if the simple counsel of setting up a small mini-conference to debate, review and distill an Igbo position before the main confab, was heeded when it was given months back.
The perspective out there is that Ndigbo are at it again! Whether it is Leaders of Thought versus Ohaneze and sundry other groups from the South-east geopolitical zone or it is the South-east that is unable to say what it really wants, the stigmatisation stands. Each group appears more eager to be seen taking up its issues in the public domain, rather than consult and arrive at a domestic consensus. What is on display at the moment suggests that various groups are talking and possibly without consulting others who ought to be part of their main stakeholder group. The flak is coming by the truckloads, of course.

This brings up several issues of basic native wisdom, by the way.  The Igbo will tell you that it is the name you give your dog that people will call it. This is correct. How you present yourself determines how your observers will rate you. Ndigbo also say that a full-bodied man who elects to walk with a limp should not blame anyone if is called a cripple, or his name is not included among those who are to take part in a race. The Igbo also further say that anyone who enters the village square during a wrestling event without being prepared for a fight will find his back on the ground, sooner or later, and have defeat recorded for him; even if he argues later that he entered the arena by mistake. The woman who brings out a dreadful pot of bitter leaf soup cannot argue that she did not wash the vegetable well enough. She also cannot complain that her cooking condiments were not complete, since she was the one who brought out the culinary abomination for public enjoyment. She must be termed a bad cook.
The point being made here is that there are rules of engagement in all things. There should also always be the right decibel of dignity to the voice of elders, since they must conduct themselves with the appropriate dignity and grace. Perhaps greater and more open consultation would have helped? Perhaps the public presentation was a wrong move? Perhaps the failure to define who is really speaking for Ndigbo is an issue here? Perhaps Ohaneze which made a presentation to the presidential consultative committee on the national dialogue, after receiving, collating and collapsing common positions, should have done more work after the events in Enugu and Umuahia? Or is it just a failure to remember the philosophy, serious business and implications of the Kolanut ritual for group cohesion? I wager that it is the latter!
There is probably no greater forum for the solemn majesty of a mature Igbo elder than in the very process of breaking a kolanut. I speak of ‘process’ here because there is the process of dealing with the kolanut and then there is ‘the fact’ of the breaking of the kolanut among the Igbo. Some Igbo communities adopt the custom of allowing the youngest person in a group to break the kolanut. This is sometimes based on the belief that a young person is less contaminated by the evils of this world. The expectation, therefore, is that such a young person will be purer and be more readily listened to by the gods. Even then, the practice was not entirely acceptable since there was some residual debate about whether it could be taken for granted that the younger ones were purer than their elders.

The argument of those who prefer that elders should break the kolanut is that the ancestors and the gods are likely to take the offerings of an elder more seriously than that of a younger person who is not initiated into any of the mysteries of life. That is why you have the Igbo saying: ‘When an old dibia (native doctor) makes an offering to the gods it is as if he is the handing over of the sacrifice to the spirits by one who is seeing them face to face’. Even in this era that was recently described as one characterised by epidemic of irreverent young men, confused old men and insane traditions, there is still some seriousness to this thesis. Yes, even as we now see young men drinking during the day, while their elders are at the farms’.
As the confab looms, as discordant notes are emerging and are being fine-tuned, what Ndigbo seem not to have done is sit down and calmly listen to the name other Nigerians are calling their dog – as inadvertently named by the dog owners. Perhaps we should have a cursory look at the core community values encapsulated in the ‘process’ of eating the kolanut.
The person whose duty it is to break the kolanut does not just pick it up and break. He may sometimes begin by saying: “He who brings kolanut brings life’. To explain this common preface to the kolanut business in Igboland, we need only remember that when kolanut is served, no one eats it without first calling on the gods and the good ancestors for protection and guidance. This means that the presence of the kolanut at a gathering is, first and foremost, an opportunity for prayers. The purpose of prayers is to strengthen life and the living. Therefore, to bring kolanut is actually to bring an opportunity for prayers, for humble appeal for guidance and for the strengthening of life and the living’.

Since the living envisaged in the Igbo notion of community is always a ‘living together with one another in goodwill’, the kolanut is a symbol of communion. That is why the person praying over the kolanut before breaking it will say: ‘He Who lives above, the Giver of life, protect us’. He will also say that the river should not dry up and that the fish should not lack water to swim in. This is because the dancing fish enhances the economic value and aesthetic appeal and overall beauty of the river, while the life of the fish depends on the steady flow of the river. What is captured here is the reciprocity in nature. This demands that the fish should not pray for the river to dry up, so that the river does not pray for the death of the fish by simply falling victim to the prayers of the foolish fish.
The point of all this is that the kolanut is not something you eat because you are hungry. It is also not a snack, but a symbol of communion. Since the Igbo man does not eat it in the company of others without calling on all the good forces of nature for protection and guidance and since the purpose of prayers and supplication is to ensure life more abundant for the living, it follows that the bringing of kolanut is the same as bringing an opportunity to ask the gods for strength and for increased life. Therefore, ‘he who brings kolanut brings life’. It is because this is seen as what helps to strengthen the bond among the living that Ndigbo will say: “It is only when men no longer have fingernails with which to split the kolanuts into the tiniest possible pieces that we can hope to hear that the kolanut did not go round at a public event”.

Denial of kolanut is a statement of ontological exclusion. It is also a very serious matter. Thus the one who says: ‘Elders shall live and the young shall live” while breaking the kolanut, or the one who says: “Our harvest shall be rich and none shall pray for the misfortune of another, lest his farm be the only patch of earth without rain” are basically making the same point about reciprocity and mutual goodwill.
It is against the background of the foregoing that I invite Ndigbo to take a calm, sober look at their Ikenga, as displayed by them in the Nigerian Village Square. I suspect very strongly that they will not be impressed. A man’s Ikenga tells you everything you need to know about him. It is usually a carved image on which is reproduced all the attainments of the owner of the Ikenga. This includes all his titles. The Ikenga of Ndigbo on display at the moment does not look very good. Ohaneze, Igbo Leaders of Though, South East Peoples Development Association (SEPDA), Ndigbo Lagos, Aka Ikenga, and several others should come together and spare the nation the current spectacle. They should come together, understand and bring forth the virtue of the kolanut ritual for the good of all and restrain themselves from taking domestic matters to the monthly village market.