By Jonah Michael
The idea that building an edifice will unite the Igala Nation is an outdated, stone-age fiction that does not represent the current realities and contradictions of today.
I must however be fair to the proponents of the Igala Unity House, they acted within their superficial understanding, in reality, Igala Unity is a structural problem but not in the sense of a ‘HOUSE’ or an EDIFICE. The cultural structure that binds the Igala nation together had suffered leaching of its nutrients over time, the custodian of the aforementioned culture went to sleep, doing nothing to birth and rebirth an ALL-INCLUSIVE Igala nation.
The number of Igala constituents who got disgruntled, disenchanted, betrayed and let-down by the Igala nation has continued to rise with no hope of any action towards redeeming the nation.
We, by ourselves, amplified and magnified the tones of division as we introduced ‘class-war’ into the Igala nation, Igala-Ogba, Akpoto, Ibaji, Abacha (Bassa), Odolu/Akpanya etc were the adjectives used to either force superiority or otherwise on another Igala fellow.
This class war has manifested in our social and political landscape, turning some sections of Igala land and it’s constituents to accept or grumble under the status of a second-class citizen of some sort, whose fate and share should be decided sometimes outside their geographical sphere, hence, the desperation, betrayal as payback which weakened the rank of the Igala Nation as seen in the last election.
The viral video of practical sodomy in the much celebrated IGALA UNITY HOUSE should add credence to my point that our unity is not in physical blocks of collapsible aggregates, and the building itself represent everything but Igala hence, a fiction of Igala unity.
Politicisation of our traditional stool
In as much as this is not limited to the Igala Nation, we seem to have taken our own too far that our traditional institutions which should sustain our culture have absolutely lost their voice and left the responsibility of giving a sense of direction in the hands of every deep-pocketed individual that can buy their conscience.
It has cascaded into an outright disdain for the traditional rulers we are seeing today. The Attah of Igala as things stands today cannot dish out an instruction and witness 49% compliance level (I stand to be corrected)
The Structure of Igala nation needs urgent reinforcements as it is collapsing beyond imagination. I hereby call on the Igala Cultural and Development Association (ICDA) under the leadership of Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Amodu to soft pedal on their rush to dine with the political class so much , they may get stained and lose out on the core mandate of leadership expected from them.
Michael writes from Abuja, Nigeria
