The Ebiras and the World - By Ebira Vonya International Organization, Inc.

Tuesday: Washington D.C. - Michelle Obama's grand European tour: The fashion week in review on Shine

2009-04-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: Washington D.C. - Michelle Obama's grand European tour: The fashion week in review on Shine

March 14, 2009 Meeting Minutes - EVI Monthly Meeting

2009-03-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

Minute Written by: Dr. Sunday O. Abraham

Attendees: Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, Mr. Abraham Okomanyi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The President thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting and asked that the meeting be started.

2009 EVI Scholarship Awards – Posting Ad in Schools.
The 2009 scholarship awards will be extended to four successful applicants (two females and two males). The scholarship awards are open to both secondary school graduated and those already pursuing graduate studies in Nigerian institutions and universities. Effort is underway to ensure that Ads are posted in schools and institutions.

Celebrating Ebiravonya International 5th Anniversary
Celebration of this event may be performed via global video/teleconference and the scholarship award ceremony may be used as an occasion for this celebration as well.

Financing EVI’s 2009 Avtivities
Despite the financial crunches, EVI executive members are confident they will be able to raise the required fund for its activities in 2009. Discussion is on-going on further reinforcing EVI’s base at home and providing a financial backing as well.

Meeting AdjournedThe President thanked all the participants for the good discussion and adjourned the meeting.

Ebira Vonya International - EVI Scholarship Program 2009

2009-03-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

EVI Scholarship Program
EVI, the abbreviation for Ebira Vonya International, was created in April of 2004. Its headquarter is located in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. The members of EVI are citizens of Ebiraland-Nigeria, and the world at large. Our members reside all over the world.
The organization, a non-political movement, was established for the benevolent and charitable purposes of promoting and developing the unity, social, economical, justice, peace, moral, educational, cultural and general welfare of all Ebira people and community all over the world by maintaining their social and organising, supporting and promoting mutual help and succour to those of them who are in need.
The motto of this organization is "AVUVOBE" which means let us join hands together in unity for the uplifting of the Ebiras. Our goals are:
To promote unity and achieve lasting peace among Ebira People .
To educate, and ensure good quality of life in Ebiraland, Nigeria at large and the rest of the third World Countries.
To leverage the potentials of individual members to create a formidable force for positive change in Ebiraland.
In 2008 EVI introduced scholarship program for students pursuing University education in Nigeria. This program will be an on-going yearly program geared toward promoting academic excellence amongst Ebira youths.

2009 EVI Scholarship Program

Outline of EVI Scholarship Program
For 2009 University Students
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Scholarship will be provided every year. It will be a one-time assistance to Ebira students starting university education in Nigeria.

WHO IS QUALIFIED?
Students (one male and one female) with excellent academic standing, who are pursing further education in one of the Universities in Nigeria.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Good WAEC Results
Record of last three years of academic achievements
Record of good conduct
Essay on “Impact of ethnic Divides on the lives of Ebira People”.
HOW TO APPLY?
Visit EVI website (http://www.ebiravonyainternational.org/) on guidance on submitting application. Application must be received not later than May 30, 2009
HOW AND WHEN WILL I KNOW IF I AM SUCCESSFUL?
It will take one month approximately to review applications. Names of successful candidates will be published through the colleges. Fund will only be provided once admission is confirmed.

EVI Scholarship Program

Application Deadline

Application must be received before May 30, 2009

Topic of Essay

A three-page essay shall be written on “How to Bring Unity to Ebiraland”.

How to Apply
Visit EVI website (http://www.ebiravonyainternational.org/) on guidelines for

An Open Letter to President Umaru Musa Yara'Dua: To Make Nigeria Competitive, Builder Fiber Optic Networks Across the Country.

2009-01-30T22:50:00.000-08:00

Authored by: Luther Ismaila, Technology Infrastructure Specialist, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Moderated and Published by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, President of Ebira Vonya International/Assistant Principal New York City Schools, USA.

Do you think that the 21st Centurydeveloping nations such as Taiwan, Hong-Kong, South Korea, India, Singapore, and Sweden achieved progress through luck orchance? You can bet your bottom naira Mr.President that it’s not. These countries made progress through hard-work based onleadership & vision. Some of these countries have long figured out that – fiber optic technology is the infrastructure they need in order to make a quantum leap and compete favorably with the rest of the world.

No matter how great your presidential administration ended in the long run, it is virtually impossible for you to cater to the needs of all Nigeria. Nigeria can only become a great nation through the efforts of her people and your job is to empower them with fiber technology. If you think about it, Mr. President, despite the availability of fiber technologies in the USA, President Obama is asking Congress to spend 6 billion dollars to help mend the “digital divide,” so that every American villages and towns can compete with China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong etc.

European nations are building fiber networks every where with more open access. Cities across the United States are laying fibers and getting ready for the next playground. For example, an Atlanta-GAcompany – City Links is planning to deployfiber to residential homes in Nashville,Tennessee, Verizon has signed an agreements with the Trump Organization to bring FIOS services (another form of fiber–video, data, & Voice) to the building Trumpmanages so that large-to-medium sizedcompanies can use Web office, a collaborative Web-based too for enabling employees to work with their mobile peers, suppliers or vendors. This is happening across the world, Mr. President.

Further example: A Dublin based company has won a contract to run fiber-to-the-home sand businesses in Sweden. The city ofManchester in England has planned to lay fiber across the city by the end of 2010.

China is spending a significant amount of her Gross Domestic Products on Fiber-to the-home networks. Private companies in South Africa are meeting with the SA government to request tax based assistances so they could expand fiber connections across the country. In Ghana, West Africa, the government is planning to connect the city of Accra to the Kwahu Plateau and into the Ashanti regions and the list goes on and on Mr. President.That leads me to one question: What is Nigeria – the self proclaimed giant ofAfrican doing? Do we really have a technology minister in Nigeria? Not sure!

Current Fiber Development in Nigeria: I am aware that some companies including“Glo Network” is currently laying fibers in Nigeria, but that is not the fiber revolution that I am calling for, Mr. President. It’smuch more than that. The current internet cafes scattered around the country most in the Southern Nigeria will not do it. We need a “true fiber optic backbone” that willsupport the country for decades to come.Over 1000 strands of fiber could be laid in Nigeria from coast-to-coast in two years.Why not? After all Nigeria is a small country compared to India, China, Brazil etc.

With 1000 strands of fibers laid across the country from coast-to-coast, multinational companies in the USA will be knockingdown on our doors asking to invest inNigeria because we have the in-built markets hungry for technology. Don’t get me wrong. These multinational companies understands that we have electric problems in Nigeria, but they’ll be willing to invest inelectricity-power generation as well – just because we have fiber optic technology.

Vision 2020: Simply put: Nigeria will not become one of the top 20 developed countries in the world by 2020 and perhaps– will not maintain its competitive edge inthe African continent without a fiber-based broadband technology. The reason I said that is because, bandwidth is the currency of the new economy and I have never seen, read or heard anything of that nature thaty our administration is doing regarding fiber revolution in Nigeria. With broadband or fiber optic technology, Nigeria can overcome so many obstacles. With fiber optic technology, the Nigerian economy will be driven in most part by the Nigerian people’s ingenuity and not any federal or state governments. The optic technology is so important that I urge you to make yourself the Chief operating officer of the project.

The person to head this national priority must be someone who has done similar projects in Europe and or America before and not another untrained and unaccountable Nigerian politician. You will be responsible for setting the goal, the commencement dates, the completion dates and as well as the accountability, – which should include consequences for failures interms of financial loss to the bidding company or companies.

There is no lucky magic for achieving your vision 2020 objective without hard work and proper planning. We cannot be that lucky as a nation to have other country do for us –what we ought to do for ourselves.

Fiber will make Nigerian economy compete and accessible to the world: Not only are countries around the world deploying fast, reliable fiber-based networks, but, today, many are far ahead of Nigeria in terms of both broadband penetration and broadband speeds including Libya and Ghana. Fiber optic is the cheapest and reliable way for a businessman in Okene, Kogi state to link up with a supplier in Germany. Nigerian people and the small businesses need “true broadband”in order to be at par with the rest of the world as well as have access to real-time business data and capital. Nigerian needs to have true telecommunication systems andthe way to achieve that is through fiber based backbone. Enough of the “bullshit.”True telecom is when a petty Lagos trader selling puff-puff off a small Web site, or a yam seller in the city of Benin can communicate effectively or when the governor of Kogi State is able to communicate government services and information with his/her people in different languages off a video conferencing technology made possible by fiber.

Quantum Leap: As an information technology professional, I recommend that you: Build fiber optic networks to connect every Nigerian homes and business to the Internet before the end of your presidency. Fiber optic is the single most essentia lingredients that can help to even the plainfield for our people and allow Nigeria to make a quantum leap into the 21st Century. Fiber optic technology will allow small to medium sized Nigerian companies to build IT infrastructure without regard to distance.Banks and Insurance companies in Nigeria will be able to create true “WAN” engineered through fiber optic as well as take advantage of ATM technologies. My younger brother recounted the number of times he spent looking for an ATM-Bank machine that truly worked in Abuja as well as in Lagos.

May I remind you Mr. President that, thet hird bullets in your “Vision 2020” planning said and I quote: “Develop a comprehensive plan which will ensure that Nigeria joins the top 20 league of developed countries by the year 2020.” If there is any one single road to achieving your “Vision 2020” objective, it is through fiber networks connections to the homes and offices.

As a high-level telecommunicationsexecutive in the state of Florida with over 15years of experience, I know this is possible and can be done in two years. After-all, Nigeria is only the size of Texas, and a share size smaller than Brazil. If the state of Texas and the country Brazil can do it, we obviously can–if the right people are put incharge.

A National Director of Infrastructure Development: And that lead me to another point Mr. President. Notice that I said if youput the right people in charge. When people asked me why Nigerian politicians are not doing for Nigerian people what they’ve seen abroad, I answer them this way. Most of the ruling class in Nigeria studied overseas on government scholarships in the 60’s, 70’sand early 80’s. All they did was drive to the Nigerian embassy to collect their scholarship funds (thanks to General YakubuGowon). In most cases, they even rioted in front of the Nigerian embassy if the scholarship funds were delayed.

Furthermore, I have long theorized that Nigeria will one day become a great nation –when a Nigerian that went abroad in the late 80’s and into the 90’s becomes thePresident. Those are the tough times – when Nigerians were hated and still hated around the world. And those are the Nigerians who worked the degrading jobs, cleaned the toilet (myself included), worked at McDonald restaurants for $3.00 an hours, washed dishes, ran from the police and immigration (as we did in Canada in 1986)for fear of being deported back home, married women old enough to be their grandmother – only to enable them stay in the country.

My theory is that Nigeria will become truly great when on of these Nigerians that suffered humiliations abroad becomes thePresident; but we cannot wait that long. I urge you Mr. President to please, select a Project Manager to direct this laudablev enture from the list of those late 80’s Nigerians that traveled overseas – just because they suffered, worked hard, they are smart, educated, and intelligent and above all – really do appreciate to have a great Nigeria. Circumstances forced them to be patriotic. I have lived 20 years of good life in both Canada and the United States only to realize that I need to go home and build my own country. There are other Nigerian professionals living a good life inEurope and America that feels the same.

Capable Nigerian Engineers: There are many Nigerians capable of making the fiber optic project a reality. Personally, I have met so many Nigerians that worked for the “bigfours” in America – including Cisco Systems that will proudly do this job for Nigeria. We have Melvin Ejiogu – a CCIE holder, highestlevel in Cisco certifications and was leadengineer for the defunct Anderson Consulting, we have Olanrewaju Ogunkoya– CCNP and currently working forAccenture – America’s largest tele-networking company, we have Adeniyi Ogunsua, the smartest Nigerian programmer that I have ever met and currently working for Deloitte & Touche an IT– Consulting company, we have Muhammed Ayuba – CCNP and working for Atlanta, GA firm, we have Thomas Ogan–a Cross River State born telecom expert – taught me traffic engineering at a University in Canada and many more Nigerians that I don’t know. All you have to do Mr. President is start this project today and call on these Nigerians to help their fatherland.

The Country India: Does anyone remember how poor the country India used to be? Does anyone remember that Indians used to come to Nigeria to work, mostly teachers, and doctors because Nigeria was a better country than India economically– at that time? I remember my Physic teacher – Mr.Chand from an Indian city Bombay now called Mumbai – I used followed him to the Ilorin market and he will purchase Omo, Joy soap, foods like rice and or beans when visiting India during the holidays. Not any morefolks! The situation has been reversed with fiber optic technology culmed with computer science education. The Indians revolutionaries their country with fiber technology which exploded their economy over night.

I apologize if I sound too simplistic, demanding and rude Mr. President, but I have seen what fiber optic technology can do to a country or a state or a city. If you love Nigeria as those of us living abroad does –, those of us who worked the nigh tshift as dish-washers, cleaned the gardens, clean the toilets in Europe and America in 80’s and 90’s, married women older than our mothers just to survive, went through degradation simply because our country has no place for us, please, go ahead and revise your “Vision 2020” project to include a serious and well funded Fiber optic technology – because the urgency is now. As Barack Obama, the newly elected US President puts it; “we are the one we are waiting for and this is time to act.”

Nigerian Unity: Connecting Nigeria fromUyo to Minna, from Benin to Owerri and to Sokoto and then from Maiduguri to Lagos is a sure path to a sustainable and inclusive society as well as make us a true united people of different tribes, religion and cultures. It is one element that has helped and is still helping to shape the world into a global village. Why else will you not begin this project as a matter of urgency Mr.President?

The fiber optic project will in the future help to offer the Nigerian citizens access to health and educational resources, to capital, to entrepreneurial and job opportunities, and to full participation in government, regardless of where they live. This project will erase distance without requiring travel, and it will help reduce traffic problems in major Nigerian cities such as Lagos, Porthacourt, Abuja and Kaduna. This project will help the environment because Nigerians will travel less and use less fusilfuel, and most importantly, this project is the key to modernizing the electric grid –the reliable and energy-efficient “smart”grid Nigerians have been dreaming of for years. This is what is happening all over the world and I can’t believe that your minister of technology is not urging you to do the same. This project Mr. President: will enable Nigerians to embrace new ways of living, our children will be able to work, play and be at par with children in Hong-Kong, India,Sweden, Singapore, South Korea and China.

Lagos Bridges: Just think about the Lagos bridges constructed by the then PresidentYakubu Gowon many years ago. What those bridges have done for the people of Lagos –from the mainland to the island, the fiber optic technology that I am talking about will create and diffuse wealth in ways we can barely imagine. I understand that we have one or two fiber initiatives across the country, but that is not the type of fiber projects that I am asking you to initiate. I am asking that you make this a national priority as well as make yourself the “Chief Operating Officer” of the project. That alone will encourage the US and European telecom companies to want to participate in the constructions.

I swear in Allah’s name Mr. President: that the fiber we put into the ground today from coast-to-coast will continue to meet our telecommunications needs for decades to come. Its capacity will be virtually limitless for more than half a century and it will help us grow the ever shrinking Nigeria’s GDP through the enterprising nature and willingness of the Nigerian people.

Other Benefits: Fiber optic is the way the rest of the world do business today and tomorrow. How then can Nigeria become one of the 20th largest economies if our small businesses and market women cannot compete in a global economy with access to– for example – the Chinese markets which is rumored to become the largest economy in 5 years time?

Mr. President: you cannot make Nigeria great single handedly; no one can. Only Nigerian people could do that. And to do so, every aspect of the Nigeria geopolitical is important if we are to become great, and that include the lady frying “kuse” or“akara” on the street of Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna, the woman selling gari or fufu ina “small joint” restaurant in Owerri, the enterprising Onitsha markets men and women, the man selling yams, cassava in Kano city, the cocoa plantation farmers inOndo state, – unless all of these national economic contributors can use (at comparable, competitive prices) the productivity and collaboration tools that are standard in Europe, America and Asia and at a lesser extent South America, we will continue to lag behind.

Government Programs: I was project manager for an e-government project in Cleveland, Ohio and it’s amazing how much government can do with fiber optic. With fiber optic, government agencies in Nigeria will be wired to communicate in real-time and serve the citizens better. You will be shock in the long run Mr. President as to the deepness of the Nigerian’s ingenuity as fiber optic technology will unleash the minds ofthe Nigerian peoples and many software companies will spring up from Kebbi to Lafiagi-through Ilorin to Ibadan and reaching back to Bauchi and then crossing into Enugu from Calabar and back toMaiduguri through Sokoto. Why?

This is because the fiber optic technology that I am talking about would have provided the needed links for the Nigerian people with their counterparts in Silicon-Valley –California, Dublin Ireland, Schengen China, Mumbai India, Cape-town South Africa, Riode Janeiro Brazil, Brussels Belgium, Hamburg Germany and that is all we need now.

Nigeria as Call Center: It’s already happening in Accra and Kumasi – Ghana today. Connecting home and businesses in Nigeria will allow company giants such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems to open call centers in Nigerian cities that could hire thousands of locally trained computerscience professionals. Also, back-office IT functions can be outsourced to Nigeria because of the low production costs. Homebased employees (a $10 billions a yea rventure in the USA) will be triggered in Nigeria because of this fiber optic connections across the cities and virtual offices will become a reality. As it is happening in India and China today, Nigeria will began to create knowledge workers.Customer-service and customer-support reps will develop as well so that a smallbusiness women selling “gari” in Okene –Kogi State will be able to communicate in real-time with those selling cassava in Ondo State or other isolated communities around the country to grow their businesses by selling their products and services nationwide, or even worldwide, over the internet that is empowered by fiber-optic. That is how the people of Nigeria can create wealth for themselves and increase standard of living.

Quality Health Care & Education: Ghana is currently practicing free-health care for her people and Libya has always had it for years. All of the G7 countries except theUSA are now practicing free and affordable heath care delivery system for their people.With fiber optic technologies and the amount of resources we are blessed with in Nigeria, perhaps we can begin to think about providing affordable health care delivery for all our people twenty years from now.

With fiber optic technology, Nigerian teachers and educators will have access to high quality video conferencing with other teachers and specialized doctors around the world in real-time. Remote diagnostic devices enabled by fiber optic technology will provide faster, more accurate road maps for treatments, especially in our sub-Sahara countries with so many tropical diseases. Also, in education, remote instrumentation will give primary and secondary school students’ access to specialized scientific data in real time. Think about music and art education that will become possible again with Web-based study and virtual museum tours and concerts so that we can showcase Nigeria’s lost cultures to the rest of the world.

Electricity in Nigeria: Fiber will help electricity production in Nigeria – that is if we ever decided to get serious about electricity. As the CEO of Cleveland Public Power, the largest municipal electric company in the state of Ohio, USA once told me, “Broadband is electric power plant,”because fiber to the electric meter lets electric company such as NEPA implements“ a Smart Grid” demand response programs that yield enormous energy savings, predictions and shave peak loads, reducing the need for investment in generating plants. Fiber optic will also help Nigerian building engineers to design and develop smart building controls that will improve security in a country that urgently need security for both residential and commercial buildings.

Fiber is “true Broadband.” We support your call for Nigeria to become one of the 20th leading nations in infrastructure and service delivery to its citizens in “2020”. However, we must lead by examples by leading Africa in both broadband penetration and internet access.

So, Mr. President: You must pledge after reading this open letter to bring “true broadband” to every homes, offices, community in Nigeria. The current slow internet access provided by some European and African Satellite companies at a speed slower than the internet access provided to high school students in America is unacceptable. You must raise the bar by declaring and defining the speeds demanded by the 21st-century Nigerian businesses and household needs so they can compete favorably.

Exactly what will be the 21st-century speed mean for Nigeria? In the short term, I think the answer is 100 Mbps of symmetric bandwidth – other nations of the world such as China and India are using the same measurement and some are already exceeding that speed.

In the long term, Mr. President, we can expect bandwidth needs in Nigeria to continue to grow exponentially. The crappy NITEL’s copper wire infrastructure (that never works since I was born and before I left Nigeria) cannot not provide these speeds, nor provide the reliability of fiber optic and neither can the wireless MTN Towers. I am glad that MTN made wireless phones a reality in Nigeria, but that is not based on a fiber optic technology, Mr. President. The foundation is faulty and the Nigerian people will loose in the long run if the foundation of technology infrastructure is not well defined.

MTN, Vodafone and the rest of them should have built a fiber backbone for Nigeria first and then began their wireless Cell Towers, but they made a business decision not to. I am not "hating" on the MTN company, but they did their work backward – so they could make quick money. I said that because, the greatest advantages of fiber optics is that you can create wireless access points, cables video transmissions, landline phone and an then Cell Towers from a fiberbased backbone.

Today, Fiber optic connections are available(few providers here and there) to less than 1 percent of Nigerian households and businesses, but we urgently need fiber networks that can deliver 100 Mbps as well as higher speed in the future.

We need to bring fiber to the homes and offices or premises and the wireless broadband needed for mobility, both compliments fiber and relies on it to carry traffic back to the Internet), which means farmers in the remote towns of Ondo State as well as those in Benue States will be able to communicate with each other via cellphones, or internet or video conferencing or email, or advertise their products off an Ecommerce website and or any other handheld devices, irrespective where they within in the farmland.

Costs: We have a long way to go Mr.President, but we can make a quantum leapwith fiber optic technology alone. Not counting the employment opportunities and the excitement this project will cause in Europe and America to companies such as Cox, AT&T, Verizon, Timer-Warner, etc that will be willing to extend their services to Nigeria as well. If you agree with the analysis I have provided so far you will also agree that no amount is too much for such a project. Government could ask all the Nigerian banks and oil companies to contribute or tax them separately so that wecan raise the money or sell a percentage ofthe revenues to them if they participate financially. So, a public and private investment on the order of $2 billion dollarswill be required to connect Nigerian homes and offices through a fiber based backbone, but the near-term return on that investment will be many times greater and that is oneway Nigeria can join the league of developed nations.

For the next three years, a significant amount of public funding should be directed to fiber optic networks, and not to the less-robust copper or wireless broadband or Cell Tower networks that MTN has erected across the country that will be obsolete from the day they are built. Increasingly, Mr. President, fiber optic is the locus of computing power and advanced application – and this is now called “cloudcomputing” in both Europe and America.

Lack of Funds: If we don’t have the money, please, go ahead and borrow the money from the World Bank. If you do, Mr.President, history will place you in the right pedigree with the likes of General Murtala Muhammed and other Nigerian heroes dead or alive. In my years as a computer science instructor, an engineer, an internet service provider (IS) and an application developer, Ihave met too many Nigerians that can help us achieve this objective. I alluded to this point earlier on Mr. President, we have Nigerians experts working for the “BigFours” in the United States and for the major telecom providers such as AT&T,Verizon, Cox, Time-Warner, Comcast etc.And these experts Mr. President – just so happened to be the Nigerians that suffered abroad in the late 70's and late 80's. It just so happened that these Nigerians were so lucky to travel abroad with the General Yakubu Gowon’s scholarship funds and these Nigerians are dreaming to get a chance to change their homeland so that we can all come back home for good.

As a Nigerian, I offer these guidelines for your consideration in the name of God and for the benefits of those who fought forNigeria’s independence. The day you begin this venture is the day the Nigerian independent fighters such as Tafawa Balewa, Zik of Africa, Awolowo and the Sadauna will further relax in their graves.

Luther Ismaila, BA, MBA, PMP, CCNA:Response to this email can send to my public email. E-mail me publicly at lismaila@yahoo.com. Please leave coments about this article on this webblog.

January 10, 2009 Meeting Minutes-EVI Monthly Meeting

2009-01-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Attendees: Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, Dr. Joseph Akomodi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and urged that the meeting be started.

2008 Scholarship Awards
The scholarship awards were handed over to the two recipients on November 29, 2008. The event was a very successful one and it marks a major milestone in the history of our association and Ebiraland. EVI executive members are very grateful to Mr. Ishiaka Shuaibu and Mr. Nathaniel Ochu for their effort in coordinating this event. Letters of appreciation are being prepared for these individuals. The ceremony was recorded and has been uploaded on “You Tube”. Earlier e-mail sent by the President provided some instruction on accessing this video. We encourage each of you to watch the video and would like to thank everyone that was in one way or the other involved in this endeavour.

Celebrating EbiraVonyaInternational’s 5th Anniversary
EVI executive members have agreed to carry out this event in Ebiraland. This event will happen later in the year and there is a plan to use the opportunity to launch several programs at home. The programs will include EVI Science Quiz and EVI Annual Soccer Competition. Details of the agenda for the event and programs will be provided as the date draws near.

2009 Scholarship Awards
EVI is planning on advertising for 2009 scholarship awards in so distant future. The ad will be available on our website and at the same time copies of the ad will be sent home for posting across schools in Ebiraland. If you know of a qualifying student(s) do not hesitate to encourage them to submit their applications.

Meeting AdjournedThe Chairman thanked all the participants of the meeting and adjourned the meeting.

Ebira Vonya International 2008 Scholarship Award

2008-12-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I am deeply touched with the success of the scholarship award that took place in Adavi Local Government Area on November 29, 2008. I will like to seize this opportunity to congratulates all Ebira in the Diaspora and Nigeria for coordinating this event. My special thanks goes to Engr. Isiaka Arudi and Nathaniel Ochu for masterminding the smooth running of the event. You earn our respect. My thanks also goes to Alhaji (Engr.) Usman Anivasa for making it home to attend the event with his wife.

My ultimate respect goes to Justice Usman Bello, All the Ebira OHIS and other Ebira Leaders that attended the occasion. We cannot be more happy to see that we have wonderful Ebiras who are looking for the progress of our Fatherland. Those of us outside the Country believed strongly that we shall one day return home and embrace our Fatherland. Don't ask what Ebira can do for you, but ask what you can do for Ebiraland and your Country Nigeria.

With that in mind, let us not identify our selves as Ozidu, Ozuka, Ozimoye etc, but instead, identify our selves as Anebira. This clannish divides need to be rooted out of our land. It has not help us to progress at all, it only divides us. Don't be ashamed to say to anybody that Ebira Vonya. By the special grace of God Ebira will be Vonya (Amen).

The Ebira Vonya International Scholarship Award that took place November 29, 2008 can be viewed in its entirety at: Click below

http://www.youtube.com/avuvobe

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA

August 23, 2008 Meeting Minutes EVI Monthly Meeting

2008-08-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, Dr. Joseph Akomodi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and asked that the meeting be started.

Scholarship Award Ceremony.
EVI is vehemently preparing to hand over the 2008 scholarship awards to the successful recipients by the end of September 2008. Award certificates have been designed and sent home to a member, who will conduct the ceremony. EVI is now finalizing plan on sending the required amount of money and providing press coverage.

Celebrating EbiraVonyaInternational’s 5th Anniversary
EVI continues to work on strategic plans to carry out this event in Nigeria. In the coming months, EVI will be assessing the situation at home, contacting other Ebira organizations in Nigeria that may participate in the event and reviewing activities for the celebration.

Meeting Adjourned
The Chairman thanked all the participants of the meeting and adjourned the meeting.

July 5, 2008 Meeting Minutes

2008-08-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, Dr. Joseph Akomodi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and asked that the meeting be started.

Comments from Home Concerning Liberation of Ajaokuta from the Indians.
EVI received a couple of responses from home regarding our report in the May 2008 minutes on the role played by Mr. Ishiaka Arudi Shuaibu in liberating Ajaokuta Steel Complex from the hands of the Indians. We have been informed that Ebira Peace Project and possibly other organizations within Ebira played significant roles toward the liberation of Ajaokuta. EVI has decided to work with its members at home to get a complete list of individuals and organizations involved. EVI is considering presenting special awards to all organizations and individuals that played roles in this endeavour. Awards will also be presented to modern musicians that have had positive impacts on the lives of the Ebira people. Award ceremony will take place in 2009 in Nigeria during EVI’s 5th anniversary.

EVI Scholarship Awards.
A plan has been set forth toward the award ceremony. Award certificates have been created and will be sent to our members at home along with an award sum of $1000 for each candidate. The award ceremony will receive press coverage and effort is underway to provide our members at home with means of videoing and taking pictures for EVI’s archive.

EVI will write thank-you letters to those who applied for the scholarship but were not successful.

Celebrating EbiraVonyaInternational’s 5th Anniversary
The executive members have agreed that this event should take place in Nigeria. A tentative time has been set. Detailed outline of plans will be drafted in the coming months but the events will include meetings with other organizatioins, community leaders etc. to discuss Ebira’s social problems and possible resolutions. We will be contacting home-based organizations in the nearest future for collaboration. EVI will utilize the opportunity to launch its magazine. Topics that will be covered in the magazine include EVI’s vision, achievements of the association, Ebira in Diaspora, the importance of ethnic identity/the menace of clannish divides in Ebiraland and Ebira culture and fashion.

Ogaminana Massacre: EVI’s Letter to the President of Nigeria
This letter has been approved to be sent to the President of Nigeria. The letter will be sent through a member at home.

Invitation from Home to Participate in Ebira Day Event
A home-based member will represent EVI at this event. EVI will send a congratulatory letter to the attendees of the event.

Meeting Adjourned
The Chairman thanked all the participants of the meeting and adjourned the meeting.

EVI 2008 Scholarship Topic: Impact of Ethnic Divides on the Lives of Ebira People - By Halimat Omengwu Siyaka (EVI Scholarship Winner)

2008-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Written By: Halimat Omengwu Siyaka, Ebira, Nigeria

Posted By: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

I should be considered for the scholarship for the following reasons:
I graduated from a reputable school (Ebira Community Secondary School Ogaminana) which has no record of examination malpractises with credits in all my subjects in the year 2007. I am a science student and the secretary of Junior Engineering Technicians and Science club (JETS) when I was in school. I have the aim of contributing to development of science and technology in Ebira land, Nigeria and the world at large. I intend to study pharmacy in the university and become a practising pharmacist so as to help my people and country.I am currently a desktop publishing student in Micronet International Computer Institute In Shasha Lagos state since the knowledge of computer is very vital in all human endevours.

I'm sure that if I am considered for the scholarship, I will realise my dream of becoming a legend to my generation who almost lost the hope of developing their talents because dreams do not seams to come true in this part of the country.I will also prove to the world that Nigeria can contribute to the world of science and technolgy. I graduated from a school that lacks teachers and teaching facilities especially science equipments but was able to make best use of the available facilities to come out in flying colours.Being a religious girl, I was the secretary of Muslims Students Society while in school. While in school, I participated in different quiz competition where we emerge winners bringing glory to the science students and my school.With all this, I am very sure that I will make the best use of the opportunity if considered for the scholarship.
Here is the statement of my WAEC result
Mathematics: C5
English Language: C6
Chemistry:B3
Biology: C4
Physics: C6
Economics: C4
Agricultural Science: C4
Geography: C5
Islamic Religion Knowledge:C6
NAME: SIYAKA HALIMAT OMENGWU
DATE OF BIRTH: FEBRUARY 15 1990
GENDER: FEMALE

THE IMPACT OF ETHNIC DIVIDES ON THE LIVES OF EBIRA PEOPLE
An ethnic group is a group of people belonging to a nation, race or tribe that shares a cultural tradition and belief. Members have rights to share in the natural resources found in the area to which they belong. Ebira is one of the numerous ethnic groups in Nigeria, located in the north central zone of the country, formerly in Kwara state and now in Kogi state.

Ethnic divides arises because of differences in the group that tend to separate them from their peaceful coexistence: such differences can be presence of clans, political groups and religious groups. These groups tend to rule over one another, and later results in permanent divides within the ethnic group. Ebira people who were peace loving, hardworking and honest people, had as a result of all this divisions, thrown away all those good attributes and embraced hatred, deceit and heartlessness which we are now known for all over the federation. Therefore, there is no way one can discuss the impact of ethnic divide without firstly, looking at the causes.

Causes of ethnic divides in Ebira land
One of the main causes of ethnic division in the land is the existence of different religious groups which are: Islam, Christianity and traditional religions. Before the coming of Islam and Christianity, Ebira was composed of only the traditional groups with the same cultural values and beliefs. After the coming of Islam and Christianity, the people divided according to the religion each found pleasing. Problem aroused when the traditional groups keep putting up attitude that infringes on the rights of other religious groups.

In the past, there had been a prolonged fight between some of the Muslims (brothers) and the traditional groups. The traditional groups are accustomed to masquerading and any time these masquerades are out, there must be one problem or the other. Their immoral actions are always responsible for the problem that may lead to loss of lives and destruction of properties. Even between the masquerade clubs, they knew no peace with themselves. They are always at war with each other and threatening the lives of one another.

In essence, masquerades have brought more problems to the lives of Ebira people. These masquerades are supposed to be a form of entertainment when they display their talents but are instead unbearable and ugly sites especially when accompanied with violence. The Ekuechi festival in Ebira land is one of those events that could be both cultural and as well tourist attraction in Nigeria. It has failed to be one because of the evils and immoralities associated with it.

One of the most important causes of ethnic divides in Ebira land is the existence of various clans such as Ezi-Uka, Ezi-Oogu, Ezi-Omoye, Ezi-Udu, Ezi-Apasi to mention but few. These clans are even further divided into sub clans for example: in Ezi-Apasi clan, there are; Ezi-Apasi Ezi-Oroko, Ezi-Apasi Ezi-Idakoriko etc. The true purpose of these numerous clans is for the people of Ebira land to live in peace and harmony with each other but our people have turned against themselves using this clanship as yardstick.

Therefore, some of these clans have been at war with each other taking Ezi-Oogu and Ezi-Omoye clan for example. These two clans have since history been at war with each other. The problem between them started in the olden days, in the days of their great grand father who spend their time insulting themselves while masquerading. This historical fight passed from generation to generation extending to the youths of today who of course, now it things worse. All the killings, maiming and destruction of properties going on in some part of our land for the past few years, is a product of this historical fight. In addition, the problem between Ezi-Emani and Ezi-Oha in Ihima is also an example of those problems between clans. This particular fight is one that claimed many lives, properties and rendered many homeless. The question is, was these numerous clans there to turn us against ourselves?

Another major cause of ethnic divides in our land is politics, political parties and political posts. Ever since the advent of democracy in Nigeria coupled with the desire to occupy some political posts by our top Ebira men, the situation has been from worse to worst. The politicians quickly fit in themselves and helped in causing serious damages to our dare land.

Those that are supposed to be our leaders, showing good examples to the youths, have also been at war with themselves because of their selfish interests and greediness. These so called leaders do not really care about the welfare of the people but form strong groups against themselves dragging our good names to the mud.
More so, those politicians now use our dare youths as political thugs. Instead of bringing to us good dividends of democracy, what our leaders have brought to us are: shame, underdevelopment and deprivation. These politicians to carry out their evil acts use the thugs as weapons by supplying them with arms to kill our fellow Ebira people. Politics has brought much bad than good to the lives of Ebira people as a whole because of the corrupt practices of the politician. In conclusion, all these causes of division in Ebira land are complement to each other. They all worked hands in hand to bring Ebira to its present status.

Impact of ethnic divides
The impact of ethnic divides is the powerful effect that ethnic divides has on the lives of Ebira people. Ethnic divides has brought nothing to us except disasters ending lives and destroying properties. Impact of ethnic divides is discussed under these sub headings.

Loss of lives:
Many lives have been lost because of various problems going on in the land, most of which are people of high reputations. Even the innocent ones have suffered for what they knew nothing about. The lives of Ebira people are no longer safe; it is no longer valuable in the hands of those unscrupulous elements of our land. It has worsened to the extent that Ebira people in the Diasporas now fear to visit their fatherland because they do not want to end their lives for a just cause. Is it that our land does not want us anymore? Our land has been violated by people who do not even live permanently on it, they only come to supply the youths with instruments of destruction and take their leave to far away land to settle with their families forgetting that there is no place like home.

Destruction of properties:
Apart from the lives that have been lost, destruction of properties is the order of the day in our land today. Buildings, cars and other properties are not safe from destruction especially when it belongs to people in any group that are at war with each other. Our people who have the means of building house(s) no longer have the courage to build them on the land. Developments of certain areas have been limited because of this destruction of properties. No reasonable individual will like to have a property in an area where it would not be safe.

Underdevelopment:
Ebira as a whole lack the necessities of life such as drinkable water, good roads, standard medical centers, good schools and electricity supply to mention but few. This is due to improper governance and greediness on the part of our so called leaders. The fact that Ebira people have refused to stand as one being an ethnic group, has gone a long way to affect the proper maintenance of our land’s natural and human resources.
More so, Ebira people lack the stamina to stand as one and fight for those rights. Those who are supposed to be in the government house representing our people are rather there representing their pockets. We as Ebira people have leaders who collect money from government for contracts that are far from execution. They spend the money meant for the development of our land in destroying it by building criminals and supplying them with arms and ammunitions. Then Ebira people may never witness the true purpose of democracy.

Lack of employment opportunities:
Due to all this forms of underdevelopments, our youths that are talented in various fields waste away as they are unable to secure employments. This in turn increases the rate of criminal activities among the youths conforming to the adage; “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. No individual or groups will like to make an investment in an area that knew no peace over the years, for it will be a waste of capital, time and resources. Even the government establishments like Ajaokuta steel company and National iron ore mining project Itakpe which are products of the natural resources found in our land, does not make any impact on the live of our people since they are hardly employed in these companies.

In all, the vast number of youths in the land either travel to other states in search of employments or stay idle at home and may later join the hooligans. What a shame to Ebira as a whole, the leaders in particular who only invest their money and time in building criminals whereas having their own children in other states or countries. Even those who acquire various skills, sometimes lack the capital to stand on their own. Therefore, employment and lack of skill acquisition have gone a long way to wasting many talented minds.

Poor standard of education:
The standard of education in Ebira land has fallen to an unbearable level. This is because of mismanagement of school facilities, lack of teaching equipments and indiscipline on the part of students to mention but few. Ebira is in an educational era where students no longer read to pass exams. Some of the school authorities collaborate with their students to help them in exam malpractices. All these violence going on in the land now, made things worse as students are permanently stopped from going to school. In conclusion, the impact of ethnic divides is more on the lives of the youths who are the supposed leaders of tomorrow. If the youths are suffering from the divisions of our people, if they are at the receiving end of the evil practices of those who call themselves leaders, the question is what is the future of Ebira people particularly, the new generation?

The way forward
To sincerely tackle the problem in our land, all citizens, stakeholders and associates must have their hands on deck. The land can always regain its sanity by reversing all the damages done to it. Our people should come together as one, bury the hatchet and be our brother’s keeper once more. To enable the youths engage themselves productively, there should be provision of employments opportunities and skill acquisition programs. Building standard schools and providing modern teaching facilities will go a long way to sanitize the educational system in the land.

In conclusion, associations like Ebira Vonya International (EVI), Ebira People Association (EPA) etc should organize seminars to educate the youths and leaders on the consequences of being and building thugs. Also, women empowerment and skill acquisition programs should be a priority.

EVI 2008 Scholarship Topic: Impact of Ethnic Divides on the Lives of Ebira People - By Oricha Adeiza Silas(Winner of EVI Scholarship)

2008-06-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Written By: Oricha Adeiza Silas Ebira, Nigeria

Posted By: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

EMAIL ADDRESS: sirich4all@yahoo.com

WHY I SHOULD BE CONSIDERED FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

I am fatherless. I was ten (10) years old in primary school when I lost my dad. My mum as a petty trader then couldn’t send me to school because of lack of funds. I managed to finish my primary and secondary school through the help of my uncle who is now old.
I finished my secondary school in June 2006 and apply for a remedial course at the Federal University of Technology Minna. My plan was to become an electrician but after several efforts to get a sponsor was unsuccessful, one of my leaders in the church; a brother collected this form for me to be filled as an applicant. These are some of the reasons why I thought I should be considered as one of your scholarship candidate.
My names are Oricha Adeiza Silas. My birthday is 12th August 1984, Gender: male.

IMPACT OF ETHNIC DIVIDES ON THE LIVES OF EBIRA PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION:
In order to do justice to this topic we need to understand the meaning of ethnicity. Ethnic group are regarded as social formation distinguished by the communal characters of their boundaries, the relevant communal factors being common language, culture, artifacts ideal and values system, social identifications and modes of dressing. Each ethnic groups has its characteristics, its members identify themselves and are so identified by others as being distinct. From this definition, it shows that the Ebiras shared a lot of thing in common and as such have the same historical background that is undisputable.
The effect of division among the Ebira people as a race has the negative part in which it has affected the lives of the Ebira people. Ebira people are one of the major ethnic groups that constitute the present Kogi state of Nigeria. They are noted for good moral stand, shared values of hard work, hospitality, accommodating and maintaining good relationship with their neighbours. However, recent scenario in the land live much to be desired. As our entire social cultural and political fabrics has been on the downward trend. Quoting from Chinua Achebe’s proverb in his introduction to ‘Things Fall Apart’ that “ turning and turning in a widening gown, the center cannot hold, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer”. This adage actually portrayed what this essay is focused upon. To examine our history in the past and compared our lives as Ebiras as at that good old days with the present reality of our days and crisis situation we found ourselves. One of the early writers on society Ibn Khaldum stated that “to understand the present it is better to know our past and from it predict the future.

FACTORS THAT NECESSTATE DIVISION AMONG THE EBIRA PEOPLE
As a ma matter of fact, ethnicity should serve as unifying factor for the Ebira people, rather than basis for division. Going by the gains members can derive from ethnic group organization, such as social security, social interdependence, mutual labour services, psychological satisfaction, economic assistance and common pool of sentiments.
With all these benefits it behooves on us to identify some of the factors that are responsible for these. Some of these include clannish sentiments, sectional party politics and cultural disintegration etc. to detail.

CLANNISH SENTIMENT:
For instance some of our elders or political elites uses ethnic or clannish ties as basis for employment for Ebira people and even career advancement which often causes animosity and destruction between members of the elites at the state level and this is often detrimental to Ebira unity but rather breeds division. So clannish sentiment often becomes a mark where political leaders hide to perpetuate their ambitions against opposing parties in the land. The sue this to recruit agile young men to unleash terror on their opponents.

SECTIONAL PARTY POLITICS:
On the political side, the growth of ethnic awareness in the society and communal orientation of our politicians. This is often manifested on the sectional character of party politics with attendant volatile nature of disagreement and intolerance of opposition even within Ebira people which usually leads to thuggery, violence and destruction of lives and properties.

CULTURAL DISINTEGRATION:
Closely related to this is cultural disintegration, which often finds expression in bastardization of our traditional festivals by the youth. Our leaders have failed in their duties to preserve our much cherished custom and traditions inherited from our elders of old. This is often manifested in the rate of violence and conflict that are witnessed during these celebrations making the government to always clamp down these festivities by forbidding their observance through suspension. With this the pride and colourful occasion to Ebiras has become a source of concern to our leaders who are in a dilemma of either to suspend it or banned it outrightly or to reform it to meet modern demands. Even among the traditional leaders there are no agreement or consensus, when it comes to addressing matter that relate to a common agenda on our way forward, as division based on points highlighted always creep in.
The impact of all these factors is the division of Ebira people along clannish parties and social/cultural background.

CONSEQUENCES OF ETHNIC DIVIDES OR VIOLENCE TO EBIRA PEOPLE:
The ethnic divides has naturally always brought negative impacts to the lives of the entire Ebira people especially those based at home. The suspicion of each other is so much, just as clans exist so also does divisions along clannish sentiments.

Lack of well-defined goals or political agenda for our future politics, our leaders find it difficult to assemble together and fashion out common political plan or the followers.
The attendant volatile nature of disagreement along party line in seeking for political power, with resultant conflicts often resulting into violence, killing and destruction of properties as witnessed recently in the land of Ihima and Okene areas recently.
Some of the areas that have witnessed these ugly incidents include Okene town, Ihima, Ogaminana and Ovehira communities to mention but a few. The causes of these crises are traceable to violence from traditional festivals, politically motivated, clannish sentiment and lack of proper relationship between the political and traditional authorities in the land. Most of these crisis witnessed heavy casualties from destruction of lives and property, burning of houses and markets including commercial and private vehicles worth millions of naira. People in the affected areas always run to neigbouring towns for safety and most of them became refugees in their father’s land because they were rendered homeless.

SUMMMARY:
Ethnic groups are regarded as social formation distinguished by the communal characters of their boundaries. The relevance of communal factors are common language, culture, artifacts, ideals and value system, social identification and modes of dressing.
Ebira means character. They are noted for good moral standard, shared value of hard work, hospitality, accommodating and maintaining good relationship with their neighbours.
Ebira is located at Kogi Central in Kogi state of Nigeria in West Africa. There are three ethnic groups in Kogi state i.e. Ebira, Igala and Okun.
The occupation of Ebiras are farming, hunting, weaving and modeling. Their religious beliefs are Christianity, Islam and traditionalist.
The impact (effect) of ethnic divides on the lives of Ebira people has both positive and negative side. The impact is also felt politically, economically and socially. The government presence in terms of projects, unemployment, cultural display and clannish sentiment is also noted.
Lastly, what is the way forward? This is by making suggestions that can revolutionize this division or negative trends. We need to embrace the path of unity and oneness, value reorientation, cultural revival. Our politicians/traditional rulers must unite to pursue a common goal and respect each other.

CONCLUSION
As earlier noted, ethnic divides will further leads to increasing the marginalization of Ebira people by other ethnic groups on the road map to national development. Hence the popular adage that: ‘united we stand, divided we fall’. It is only unity that can strengthen our social fabrics then it will usher in peace and development and follow on the road map to the national development.

RECOMMENDATION
Finally, it is youth restlessness caused by unemployment, indiscriminate and illegal acquisition of weapons into the land for our youths which is freely used in political thuggery, robbery and violent activities.
Religious acrimony, animosity and distrust among politicians and traditional rulers will lead us to nowhere but retrogression until they all embraced the path of unity and oneness.
Value reorientation such as discipline, honesty, hard work and hospitality:- These are the value we need to re-orientate and once this is done, Ebira people will be notably for good as we were before. We need to turn to our basic values.
Cultural revival to foster unity: our people need to be sensitized on the positive impact of ethnic solidarity for development purpose. If this is not revived, there will be no peace in Ebiraland and the crisis, violence, clannish and conflicts that took place in the land will continue and many lives will be wasted in the land. For now, we are noted as warring community.

HOW TO BRIDGE THIS DIVIDE TOWARDS A UNITED EBIRA
Leaders of various political groups must pursue a common goal and respect each other’s opinion and be willing to work as a team.

EVI Scholarship Awards 2008

2008-06-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the following recipients of EVI scholarship awards:

1. Miss Halimat Omengwu Siyaka

2. Master Oricha Adeiza Silas

These two recipents will receive certificate of awards from EVI and the amount that was awarded to them. These awards must strictly be used for Educational purposes.

The amount of award for each recipient is $1000 United States Dollars which is approximately N110,000.00 Nigerian Naira.

On behalf of the members of Ebira Vonya International Organization, we congratulates you on your accomplishments. The sky is the limit for your academic pursuit.

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.
National President
Ebira Vonya International

May 24, 2008 Meeting Minutes-EVI Monthly Meeting

2008-06-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Dr. Joseph O. Akomodi, New York, USA.

Attendees: Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Mr. Abdulyekeen Ozigis, Mr. Abdullahi Bello and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and asked that the meeting be started.

Winners of EVI Scholarship.
The participants of the meeting compared notes on the applicants based on the assessment of their academic performances and essays on “The Impact of Ethnic Divides on the Lives of Ebira People”. The decision reached was in favour of the only female candidate, Miss Halimat Omengwu Siyaka and one of the three male applicants, Mr. Oricha Adeiza Silas.

Dispatching Scholarship Funds to Winners.
Two home-based members have been identified as EVI ambassadors, who will ultimately deliver the funds to the recipients. The treasurer will first transfer the funds to an account in a bank in Nigeria in the name of one of the members. Once the money is collected from the bank, the two members will meet with the recipients to hand over the scholarship. A letter will be written by EVI to the recipients congratulating them on their success.

Advertisement Winners of Scholarship at Home
EVI is exploring means of advertising the winners of the scholarship at home. No medium has been chosen yet. This will be further discussed with home-based members to choose the most appropriate medium.

Celebrating Ebiravonya International’s 5th Anniversary
Next year, 2009, will mark the 5th year of existence of EVI. There is a strong favour to celebrate the event in Nigeria in order to use the opportunity to promote peace and unity among the ebira people. Several ideas have been suggested that will be covered during this event. These ideas will be discussed in more detail in due course. However, there is a strong need to start reinforcing our base at home. EVI will start making contacts at home, particularly, with people that despite the odds have continued to fight for the people of Anebira. One of such people that EVI has heard about is Mr. Ishiaka Arudi, who has unconditionally, selflessly and relentlessly fought for Anebira bringing about a positive change in the society. Mr. Arudi has single-handedly fought to ensure that Ajaokuta Steel Company is freed from the hands of the Indians, who have over the last couple of years been looting the properties. Mr. Arudi is a model for all of us. We would like to thank Mr. Arudi for his effort and we enjoin all our members to join in the crusade for the emancipation of our people from the burden of self enslavement.

Ogaminana Massacre – Approving Drafted Letter to the President
The letter is still being approved.

Invitation from Home to Participate in Ebira Day Event
This item is pending.

Meeting Adjourned
The Chairman thanked all the participants of the meeting and adjourned the meeting.

Letter to the President of Nigeria - Mr. Umaru Yara'Dua

2008-04-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

EBIRA VONYA INTERNATIONAL

To: The President of Federal Republic of Nigeria
His Excellency, Mr. Umaru Yara'Dua
Nigeria

From: The People of Ebira Origin in Diaspora
(Ebira Vonya International)
Date: April 5, 2008

Dear Sir:

The Ogaminana Massacre

On behalf of Ebira Vonya International (EVI), an organization formed in 2004 in Atlanta, U.S.A, to promote unity and peace among Ebira people, we are writing to you regarding the recent conflict between Ebira youths and the unit of police mobile force deployed to Ebira land to mitigate the interception of the truck loads transporting iron ore concentrates from Itakpe to Port Harcourt by the youths.
First of all, we would like to commend your government on the efforts taken thus far to ensure that the various clans in Ebiraland live in harmony. The recent election held in Ebiraland is a living testimony to the commitment by your government to ensure that the violence that has deprived the people of Ebiraland their pride and peaceful living is brought to an end. Even though we do not reside in Nigeria, we remain loyal to the country doing every thing possible to project a good image and integrity of the country. Ebiraland has been plagued by violence and clannish hatred over the past three decades with the situation reaching a climax over the last several years. Many innocent people have lost their lives and many more were rendered homeless as they lost their houses and other properties in the wake of the continued violence.

The Ebira people have loathed for a resolution to the violence for a long time. The recent incident in Ogaminana was caused by the same youths who have been the culprits of the violence in Ebiraland but it was the innocent people of Ogaminana that ended paying the price. The overall impact of this on the lives of the people is the complete lack of security in their own land and lack of belief in their government. We understand that the federal government has the responsibility of maintaining order and peace in her society, which is why the government deployed mobile police force to seek resolution to the interception of truck loads of iron ore concentrates by the youths. However, the situation went out of hand resulting in indiscriminate killing of people that left 50 innocent peoples dead and 5000 others without houses. We also understand that the Kogi State government has not properly briefed the federal government on the issue. We would like the federal government to be aware that innocent people (elders (women and men) and kids) were killed in the most barbaric way in the wake of the conflict between the youths and the mobile police force. The youths that intercepted the truck loads of iron ore concentrates have no right to act in this manner; the Itakpe and Ajaokuta Steel Company do not belong to the Ebira people; these are the property of Nigeria. Therefore, these youths deserve to be brought to justice under the Nigerian law. Many Ebirans are angered by the indiscriminate killings by the mobile police force and this anger will not go away soon. The result could be undesirable as this could cultivate other social problems in the long hull. The ultimate result could be undesirable as the people could forever treat the mobile police force with contempt. This can generate further conflict, which will be destabilizing to Nigeria in the end.
We urge the government to consider healing the damage caused by the mobile police force in Ogaminana by compensating the families of the dead ones and those without houses with some material relief. If this is done, the government will re-invent her good relationship with the people and prevent unwanted turmoil in the future. We are suggesting that the government should consider addressing the affected people and/or the people of Ebiraland on this issue. The government should also consider launching an investigation into this incident to ensure that all parties (both the Ebira youths, who initiated the problem and the mobile police force) are held responsibility and brought to justice.
Our association, EVI, is planning on providing some help to the victims of this horrific act.
We thank you for taking the time to read this letter and appreciate your prompt action on this issue.
Kind regards,

Signed by:

Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham
General Secretary

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi
National President

Mr. Abdullahi Bello
National Chairman

April 19, 2008 Meeting Minutes - EVI Monthly Meeting

2008-04-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Dr. Joseph Akomodi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

President’s Opening Remark
The President thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting.

Interviews of Scholarship Applicants.
The interviews of the applicants for EVI scholarship were wrapped this month and feed back on the results has been provided to EVI. EVI executive members will now go on to assessing the academic records and essays provided by the applicants. We should be in the position to decide on the successful candidates by the next meeting.

Ogaminana Massacre.
The concerns of Ebira people over the killing of innocent people of Ogaminana during the recent conflict between Ebira youths and mobile police force deployed by the Federal Government to mitigate the seizure of truck load of iron ore concentrates heading from Itakpe to Port Harcourt by the youths was brought to the attention of EVI. As reported, over 50 people were killed, and hundreds of people maimed and left homeless. This senseless killing has not been condemned either at state or federal level. EVI has drafted a letter to be sent to the President of Nigeria, asking that the affected people be compensated. However, EVI noted in the letter that both the youths and mobile police force acted irresponsibly and should be brought to justice. The letter is being reviewed by the executive members after, which it will be sent to the President of Nigeria.

Gubernatorial Election in Kogi State
News received from home claimed that the Kogi State Gubernatorial election was peaceful thanks to the deployment of mobile police forces by the Federal Government to the Ebiraland and other regions in Kogi State. It was noted that the violence in Ebiraland subsided for sometimes following the elections but then it was rekindled again as Oziogu and Oziomoye people were playing tits-for-tats burning properties belonging to each clan. There was a lengthy discussion on what role EVI can play in bringing a lasting peace to Ebiraland. As agreed, EVI will seek collaboration with other reputable organizations at home on this front. A plan will be drafted for further discussion in the next meeting.

Invitation from Home to Participate in Ebira Day Event
EVI received an invitation from home to participate in Ebira Day Event scheduled to hold in January 2008. According to the invitation, this event is supposed to engage in a peaceful project in Ebiraland. EVI will do some research on how genuine this request is.

Meeting Adjourned
The President thanked all the participants for role we they playing in this organization and then, adjourned the meeting.

FACEKUERADE: The Transformational duality in Ebira-Ekuechi festival performance

2008-04-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

Authored by: Dr. Sunday Ododo

Posted by Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

This essay theorizes the Ebira mask practices using the Ekuechi festival of Ebira
Tao of central Nigeria. The study is essentially a field work engagement involving
participatory observation in the Ekuechi festival performances, recording of these
events and oral interviews. The core of this theorization is located around the dual
transformation and doubling essence of maskless characters conceived and perceived
as masquerades. It is from this phenomenon that we evolved the Facekuerade
notion which is meant to capture the non-masked masquerade types, which abound
in Ebira masquerade repertory and some other Nigerian and African cultures. From
nomenclature to paradigm, the facekuerade notion is derived from the Ebira
concept of Eku (the domain of the dead and masquerade), the Ekuechi event and
the general understanding of the masquerade motif. Through this understanding,
the paper identifies the generic and conceptual distinction between masked and
unmasked characters otherwise bound together as masquerades. Consequently,
facequerade is, in this paper, recognized as a motif for the purpose of classifying
unmasked masquerade characters. The essay concludes by anticipating the
Facekuerade concept as theatre because of its performative essence with vibrant
ritual process.

Keywords Facekuerade; masquerade; Ebira-Ekuechi; transformation
duality; Eku’rahu; character doubling; ritual process; festival performance
The Facekuerade notion:

Mask is the iconic essence of masquerade art. Disguise and impersonation are
its key functions. In Africa, traditionally, masquerade art is an important
cultural event because of its ancestral manifestations. It is perceived as an
entity that embodies the spirit of the ancestors. The Yoruba, for instance,
considers the ancestors as ‘departed spirit of their forebears’ (Ogunyemi 1997,
p. 95). For the Igbo, according to Osadebe (1981, p. 23), ‘the ancestors were
the all-important link between the material and spiritual worlds, while serving
Cultural Studies Vol. 22, No. 2 March 2008, pp. 284308
ISSN 0950-2386 print/ISSN 1466-4348 online – 2008 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/09502380701789208
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as the source for obtaining other worldly knowledge by the Igbo’. Relying on
authorities like Horton (1963), Segy (1975), Willet (1971), Ojo and Oludare
(1977), Okoye concludes that:
All African traditions recommend that masquerades be perceived as
supernatural beings that are guests of the living from the extra-mundane
universe. They discourage the perception of them as representations by
actors wearing costumes and masks; rather, the costumed actors are
regulated as the spirits themselves, respected by the community
appropriately as befits their spiritual characters.
(1999, p. 74)

All these assertions combine to inform the African philosophy of life that
perceives the unborn, the living and the dead as one continuum or as Soyinka
(1976, p. 32) graphically captures it, a ‘dome of continuity’, a state of
transition. Sofola (1979 p. 127) refers to it as a ‘state of perpetual
transmutation’ which makes unbroken continuity possible. Thus, the annual
ancestral visit, in masquerade form, to the land of the living is revered and
respected with many functional values and socio-political controls. Within the
Igbo traditional context for instance, Masquerades are perceived as incarnated ancestors who have been reverently dispatched to the general conflation of the ancestral spirit world.

They manifest as guests to their living communities within which
they must be treated with regulated awe, respect and other reverent
attitudes. The general Igbo reverence for their ancestors as an essential
and supernatural extension of the living human community ensures that
this sanctified attitude carries over to the masquerades. Thus they are
credited with supernatural powers and supernal insights. They descend to
their erstwhile communities, at the ordinance of its members, to
celebrate or mourn with them, or dispatch some social actions of
consequence.(Okoye 1999, p. 74)

However, there are some performance characters without masks that are still
perceived as masquerades in Nigeria. Interrogating the Ebira-Ekuechi festival,
Husaini (1991, p. 148) has actually queried the application of the word
masquerade ‘since not all masqueraders use masks’. Unfortunately, this poser
is left unattended to. The answer to this nomenclatural problem forms a
pivotal plank of discourse in this essay. It is quite revealing that masquerade
can be conceived without a mask, which is a fundamental feature of the
masquerade art. First, let us examine some concrete examples of its
occurrence in some cultures in Nigeria. We shall however dwell more on
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the Ebira-Ekuechi festival in Nigeria to provide a theoretical framework for
this discourse.
In Yorubaland for instance, such performance characters without masks
can be found. Oloolu of Ibadan is a highly revered masquerade that carries
‘rituals to sacred spot to stop the spread of epidemic or to avert natural
disasters’ (Ogunyemi 1997, p. 99). The masquerade hangs his mask across
the shoulder to rest on his chest and appears once yearly. The intensity of the
potency of this masquerade can be judged by the fact that the performer of the
masquerade in a particular year does not live to do so the next season.
Jenju of Abeokuta is another mystifying masquerade that comes out at night
every three years for spiritual cleansing. He does not don a mask too. It is
generally forbidden to apprehend his sight. People are given sufficient warning
to go into hiding as the masquerade emerges. A human megaphone heralds his
arrival to the neighbourhood to get people off the street ‘aiwoo, aiwoo’ or
‘akii woo’, meaning, ‘it is forbidden to look at it’. Folklore has it that a woman
one day concealed herself inside a big pot in order to have a glimpse of the
masquerade. The masquerade character detected and poured some medicinal
substance on it. The pot and the woman transformed into a huge stone. A host of
other unmasked masquerades in Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria include
Okelekele masquerade of Ekinrin-Ade in Kogi State; Melemuku masquerade of Oyo
town, Atupa of Ilora, both of Oyo state; Olukotun masquerade of Ede, Komenle of
Agba and Akereburu of Owu all in Osun state.1
In Iboland, Ayaka, a night masquerade ‘does not wear regular costumes to
disguise’ the performer,
Speaking, chanting and singing in a disguised Ududo (spider) voice, under
the mask of the darkness is more than enough disguise since only the
initiated come out to watch and follow Ayaka.
(Okoye 1999, p. 99)
There is also Nmanwu-anyasi night masquerade in Anambra state that performs
without masking. In Akoko Edo area of Edo state, Ogbugburu masquerade of
Ososo is another unmasked example to cite just as Aboga exists in Idomaland.2
From all the foregoing, it can be conjectured that the concepts of mask in
masquerading art transcends the physical object of concealment. Night
(darkness), voice disguise, pseudonyms and fear have become potent masking
factors that sometimes de-emphasize the use of proper mask, the root word for
masquerades. The mysticism that surrounds the masquerading art reinforces
the image of a masquerade character without a mask. It is for these reasons, we
believe that the use of the term masquerade for a performer without a mask
has to be revisited. This is precisely what has informed our own term and
concept of ‘Facekuerade’.
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Facekuerade therefore refers to a performance masquerade character
without mask. Even though his audience encounters him face-to-face, the
spiritual essence of the masquerade character is not devalued. He is still
revered and held in high esteem. Facekuerade is an engaging metaphor in action
capable of transforming events, performance realities and even mediates
between structures of social systems. Face Eku rade is derived from the
following words: Face, Ekuechi and Masquerade. The organizing key of the
new word is Eku which accounts for why the word is not spelt as Facequerade.
It is pertinent to also state that women masking traditions exist in some
cultures in Africa. In Angola for instance, there are the Ganguela female
masquerades (facekuerades) that do not don masks. Their faces are sometimes
painted but their identity is unconcealed. Some specie of female masquerades
also exist in Kabompo district of Zambia (Guimiot 1998). The Sande
association masks offer a unique illustration of women as masked performers
in Liberia and Sierra Leone by the Mende, Vai, Sherbro and Gola communities
(d’Azevedo 1973, Jedrej 1976, 1986, Phillips 1978). In Nigeria, apart from
some conventional female masquerades like the popular Gelede, the Bereke of
Ijumu in Kogi state, Sagore and Ilebi female masquerades of Oyo town in Oyo
state, a somewhat masking ambivalence occurs in some cultures where female
gender denies men access to their masquerade performances. Even among the
Ejagham of Cross River state, masquerade is not all about masking but
unmasked mystic powers that is equally potent as masked essence. The women
of the Ekpa-Atu association in the area ‘use their nakedness’ to ‘affect male
potency in the same way that men’s masquerade can affect women fertility’.
This rear phenomenon occurs in the threatening naked dance in the night in
which anonymity does not depend on the wearing of mask. Relying on oral
account by Atabo Oko, Amali (1992, p. 59) writes that
From the Yoruba Iludun-Ekiti of Ondo State comes the strange report of
an existing women’s sacred society which is not seen by men. When they
appear at night for performance, men run into hiding . . . behind their
doors throughout the night.
From the different submissions cited earlier it is observed that most women
masquerades lack serious spiritual depth. The import is more social than
spiritual, while they perform mostly without a mask, the key essence of
masquerade art. They are therefore more facekueradic in features than being
masquerades.
In Ebiraland, women’s overt participation in Ekuechi performance is
forbidden. It is a men-dominated event. The star masquerade performer at this
festival, Eku’rahu, does not wear a mask as well as Akatapa (jesting facekuerade)
and Eku’ahete (feet-stamping facekuerade). The Eku’echichi (rubbish heap
masquerade) and Eku’Okise (prophesying masquerade) that perform during
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the day fully masked in Echane festival also participate in Ekuechi maskless.
The absence of masks notwithstanding, they are all still referred to as
masquerades. Towing the line of Okoye, Adinoyi-Ojo (1996, p. 89) submits
that ‘the night has masked them from women and children to whom eku is
supposed to be a mystery’.
Within the framework of Ekuechi ‘masquerade’ ensemble, the facekuerade
essence is essentially projected by all the participating ‘masquerade’ characters
without masks. The awe and mysticism that surrounds these unmasked beings
as masquerades are the disguising elements of the piercing sound of izeyin
(jingling bells) and ireha (waist gongs), guttural voices, tongue-twisted
renditions, esoteric chants and weird sounds verbally produced by Agadagidi
(maskless Eku’echichi) and some participant-audience. All these elements help
to heighten the masking reality of the facekuerade characters. Eku’rahu, being the
star actor of the Ekuechi event, forms the epicentre of the facekuerade concept.
Eku’rahu is a composite actor who wears ancestral face; speaks, sings, dances
and acts in that spirit. The respect that the custodian of Eku’rahu attracts also
signifies that his character as Eku’rahu is taken far beyond his real self. Because
of the ancestral connotations, his utterances during the Ekuechi event are taken
seriously.
It is therefore useful that masquerade characters can transform into
facekuerade characters because of the general caution people now take in
approaching whatever they do, knowing that the ancestors have human
agencies that can chastise them for their iniquities during Ekuechi performance.
It is in this sense that the Ekuechi festival has been perceived as
facekuerade performance, which forms the nucleus of the theorization in this
essay. We thus shall further pursue the dialectics of masklessness in which an
unmasked performance emerges from the process of conventional masking.
This connotes playing the opposite role of a masquerade, which basically masks
to remove illusion, whereas there is something anti-illusion still in the face one
confronts. The physical man therefore represents the God essence but
perceived more in the area of meaning generated in his performance. God is an
omnipresent and omniscient phenomenon. The intersection between the two
is what makes masquerading an art linked to the God essence; a potent tool for
unmasking the hidden truth, revealing the concealed fact and making visible
the invisible reality of human existence, while projecting clairvoyantly into the
future. All these happening through a human agency further underscores
the anti-illusionism in the facekuerade concept. Masquerades, for instance, have
the capacity to expose and ridicule deviant characters, which may not hitherto
be apparent.
To gain useful insight into the facekuerade notion, it is important to position
the Ebira worldview and their Ekuechi festival which should give us safe
landing into the heart of the theory.
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The Ebira and worldview
Ebiraland lies approximately between 68 and 88 north of latitude and between
68 and 108 east longitude in the south-west zone of the Niger-Benue
confluence area with a very pleasant climate (Mohammed 1986, p. 1). It
occupies a hilly sketch of guinea savannah grassland approximating 2,977
square kilometres.3 To the west and north-west, it shares common boundaries
with the Yoruba speaking people of Owe, Akoko, Ijumu and Oworo; to the
south and south-west, it is bounded by Ogori, Ososo and other Akoko-Edo
settlements; the Hausa, Nupe and Ebira groups at Lokoja are bounded to the
north and the River Niger to the east. To be found across the River are the
Igala and Bassa Nge. The word Ebira refers to the people themselves (or could
be called Anebira), their language, their character and their geo-political
location (et’Ebira or et’Anebira), when considered etymologically.4 Beyond
these,
The land is, however, more than a matter of territory: it is also a
metaphysical or mystical entity capable of having an effect on people’s
lives and receiving sacrifice. The land is, one might say, a force to be
reckoned with.
(Picton 1992, p. 68)
The worldview of a people is a reflection of their belief system as historically
and culturally determined by varied experiences that the people have gone
through together. Lessons learnt from such experiences, either edifying and
enduring or humiliating and injurious, help to focus their perception of life
human conduct and relationship with selves and God, human desires for selfactualization,
individual and corporate health of a people, ethos and mores,
ethics and morality, pride, honour and integrity, etc. All these cohere to
project an identity for a people. Inter-cultural encounters can also impact on
shaping a people’s identity. In other words, worldview presents a total picture
of the way of life of a people, which is the essence of culture. In all these, there
is usually a rallying point that coordinates all the aspects that constitute their
belief system. It could be a phenomenon or an institution with a primal force
that stands extant irrespective of other socio-cultural influences. For the Ebira,
that primal force is located in ancestral celebration, which is rooted in Eku
phenomenon, a masking performance art. According to Adinoyi-Ojo (1996,
p. xxxii),
The Ebira regard their ancestors as the medium between them and the life
forces. These ancestors are constantly appeased, summoned or invoked
through a complex system of symbols to meet the exigencies of life and to
ensure a balanced and harmonious universe. To concretise the ancestors
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and bring the realm of the dead nearer, the Ebira anthropomorphized or
objectified their spirits in masks. It is through the medium of the mask
that the ancestral personae is manifested at a celebratory event aimed at
blessing, healing, ridding Ebira of impurities, and renewing its sources of
energy.
Adinoyi-Ojo’s profound explanation projects the central position Eku occupies
in Ebira worldview, as a rich store-house of socio-cultural values and icons
with which Ebira people understand themselves, their history and interaction
with other people of diverse cultural backgrounds.
Generally, the worldview of the Ebira people is positively inclined. It sees
life as essentially well and worth living. The order of the universe is seen as
benevolent and predictable. There is justice and constancy in its rules and
regulations. This is why an average Ebira person would not hesitate to
vehemently question any form of injustice with every resource at his disposal.
This could be between him and his people or foreigners. The quest for justice,
if resisted, can sometimes degenerate to a very distasteful physical approach,
which are often construed as ‘vicious, wicked, and hostile’ attributes of the
Ebira. But Adinoyi-Ojo (1996, p. 81), obviously reconstructing Picton (1990a,
p. 198; 1990b, pp. 40 & 44, 1997, pp. 339 & 353), puts this in a lucid
perspective to approximate Ebira ethos that embraces ‘toughness, bravery,
physical strength, unpredictability and stubbornness’. During the colonial
period for instance, Ebira loudly resisted the low pricing of their cotton by the
British Cotton Growers Association (BCGA) in 1922 and 1923 effectively
backed up by Atta Ibrahim, the paramount ruler of the land at the time.5 They
also resisted the imposition of taxation with violent protests and outrightly
refused to obey. In 1908 for example, the Okehi clan group was forced to pay
tax only after an ‘escort’ of soldiers under Mr Lang destroyed their
settlements.6 On a greater political dimension, the people of Ohizenyi and
Eganyi declared themselves independent of the British rule in 1916, about 13
years after British occupation of Ebiraland. It took only brutal intervention of
Major Ellias, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, to suppress the insurgence
(Willis 1972, p. 48).7
It is on account of the positive bearing of their worldview that the cause of
justice is vigorously pursued. As a result, the Ebira is conscious of his conduct,
careful not to bring his name into disrepute and consequently denies himself
access to a good life. It is therefore not a matter of coincidence that the people
are known as Ebira which means character, conduct, behaviour and deed or
action.
The word (Ebira) ‘refers to the outward manifestation of a beneficent
destiny’ (Picton 1991, 37). It occupies a primary position in the description of
positive or negative conduct, deed or action e.g. ebira ohimi or ebira odivi or
ebira kenekene means bad character or conduct; ebira ozoza or ebira oyiza means
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good behaviour or character. Despite these dualities in meaning, when used to
refer to the people it has a positive bearing. In fact, Abdullah (1993, p. 3)
concludes that:
One is not mistaken or wrong to assume that either the Ebira people, or
the other people among whom they had settled took them to be a people
with a noble character and therefore called them Ebira, and since then
they adapted it as a collective name.
The Ebira philosophy of life is further interwoven with their belief in the world
of the unborn, the living and the dead, which is similar to Soyinka’s (1976,
p. 154) ‘dome of continuity’. The belief finds more visible expression in
Ekuechi festival, which celebrates ancestral transmigration. In other words, the
festival is ancestor reunion. The dead elderly ones are believed to have only
moved from the land of the living to a higher realm, from where they
constantly watch over their people in the world of the living. They take note of
their wrong doings, travails and progress. All these they address with positive
intent when they transmigrate to the land of the living through the Ekufacekuerades
that feature in Ekuechi festival. There are several of them. They
move individually from homestead to homestead, felicitating with the people.
They admonish them for the wrong doings of the past and warn against future
wrongs, pray for a blissful New Year, prophesise good tidings and receive all
manners of requests from the people with a promise to see them fulfilled.
These requests are usually centred on the desire to have children, build houses,
and generally to live a fulfilling life. In many cases, people find their requests
answered before the next Ekuechi festival. This explains why every homestead
goes into elaborate preparation (clean their environment, buy new dresses,
cook special delicacies such as pounded yam, bean bread and viand, and
provide drinks such as palm-wine and beer) to welcome home their ancestors
during the festival. Further requests are made for fortification against the
coming festival.
Ebira acknowledges the existence of God with utmost reverence. The
innate belief of the people places Him, Ohomorihi, first before any other thing.
These claims clearly manifest in the various attributes accorded the Supreme
God by the people. His very name is the first attribute to be considered.
Ohomorihi means the creator of rain. In most cultures and even in the sciences,
the essence of life and living is tied to water. Earthly fertility is predicated on
water; human conception and delivery is also located in watery substances. All
sources of life can therefore be traced to water. In Ebira religious belief
Ohomorihi is the source and controller of this water from which all other beings
are sourced because Orihi is rain and produced from a divine centre (Ohomo).
This belief establishes the absolute supremacy of God Almighty over all living
and non-living beings, material and spiritual matters.
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Other names and attributes of Ohomorihi include Adayi ebeba anayin abayi
(our father above who owns us all); Ikoko koi koi (the powerful, the
omnipotent); Ovaraka dosi (of limitless size, the magnificent with unimaginable
magnitude, the omnipresent); Ovaraka hiduma (whose stair roars like thunder);
Ochiji mokareyi (the silent Arbiter, unpredictable dispenser of justice); Oku’za
ohuru, oku’za atito (adorns one with gunpowder and soils with ashes); Ogodo
godo onuvo’za eme tu (so far removed from physical touch); Odu ajini osi uhuo teyi
(inflicts pains today and injects gains tomorrow; creates sorrow today and
restores joy tomorrow); Oda yoza ri odoza here (feeds you and drains you).
All these names and attributes position the unpredictability and
ambivalence, strength and compassion of God. From these names, one can
therefore also understand why He is the first point of reference in all matters
secular, ritual or spiritual. The conception of these names also signify the close
range at which Ebira apprehend and comprehend Ohomorihi, which ultimately
underscores cordial spiritual affinity. This was however cut short because of
man’s limitations and sinful ways; very much in tune with the original sin of
Adam and Eve, hence the need for intermediaries such as Ete (mother earth),
deities or lesser gods known as Ori, and Ohiku (ancestors).
Ete occupies a vital position in Ebira cosmology. It is a force of balance
considered next to God because whatever goes up must come down to earth.
It is on earth that human life is both sustained and buried, ‘a spiritual entity
from which all life derives’ (Aniako 1980, pp. 3536). Thus, when a child at
play eats sand, as is often the case in African traditional setting, it is seen as the
ritual process of reconnection back to earth, first initiated through the burial of
the placenta of the child at birth. Man lives mainly through the cultivation of
food crops and the exploitation of the crust of ornamental riches buried within
the earth. It also serves as man’s final resting place at death. Ete thus has dual
essence of fortune and misfortune, compassion and reversion. Ete is also a force
of equipoise between man and Ebira cosmology which is concretized by the
balance between mother earth and patriarchal dominance of man even in
the ancestral world. Women (mother earth) are therefore the alternative force
that checks the excesses of man and evil tendencies. The overriding importance
of Ete as the centre of Ebira universe is physically expressed at the centre of
every traditional Ebira home as Eteohuje (centre of the compound). It is at this
point that ancestral sacrifices and ritual observances are held.
God created Ori (spirit being or nature spirit) as an intercessor between
man and Himself. Ori is actually worshipped and celebrated in two towns of
Ihima and Eganyi in Ebiraland probably because of its intervention to avert
serious calamities in these two towns according to Ebira mythology. It came to
cleanse the towns of serious epidemics. As such, it assumes prominence with
shrines created for it with attendant devotees and echeori annual festival
instituted in memory of this ritual cleansing. Echeori is therefore celebrated as
New Yam festival for seasonal renewal. Okino (2004, p. 9) even claims that
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the ‘pioneer religion of the ancestors of the Ebira people is ‘‘Ori’’’ probably
because of its intercessory nature between the people and a higher order.
Ebira cosmology is also adumbrated by benevolent and malevolent spirits
which are also God’s creation and answerable to Him. They are also known as
Ori. Therefore a distinction has to be made between Ori the god and Ori the
spirit. The former has communal essence and is to be understood within the
explanation offered earlier, while the latter has individual essence conceived as
multiple spirits that dwell in ponds, streams, rivers, trees (big trees like the
silk cotton tree, Ucheba, and mahogany tree, Opapanchi), rocks, crossroads,
markets, sharp bends and village outskirts. Their particular places of habitation
are discovered through divination or mysterious occurrences around the spot,
for example, frequent accidents, hens laying, incubating and hatching eggs
without a recognizable ownership.
The individual essence of Ori spirit is underscored by the fact that
individuals can invite any of the spirits into his homestead as its devotee. Ori
spirit functions primarily to protect its devotees against known or imagined
enemies. They return to the source in double measure all evil machinations
hatched against a devotee. Blissful existence for all those committed to the Ori
is thus assured. If you commit yourself to an Ori spirit, you are insured against
human evil, and also forbidden from doing evil unto others. If you do, the
hatched plan shall become your lot. There are prescribed sacrifices to be
consistently observed. This must not be missed or else Ori spirit will react
violently against the devotee in the form of absurd and devastating experiences
including business wreckage, flood overrunning his farm, or whirlwind
removing his rooftop. It can even consume him and his homestead. Other
calamities attributed to Ori spirit include epidemics, drought, earthquake,
famine, childlessness, poverty, ill luck and premature death. Ori is usually
impervious to appeasement when angry, until it has sufficiently demonstrated
its anger through wanton human and property destruction. Their level of
comportment and anger varies. People take this into consideration before
committing themselves to any particular Ori. Ibrahim (1976, p. 57) records the
benevolent side of Ori to entail engendering peace, ensuring good luck, rain,
good harvest and prosperity. These also establish the dual essence of Ori.8
The other spirit Ebira relate to is Ancestral spirit which is Eku, an
embodiment of dead ancestors, Ohiku. Relationship can be established in three
ways, first through Ovavo (a diviner) who can through invocation set the stage
for intimate discussion with him serving as the go between; by self through ozu
ohihi (deep and fervent faithful declarations, that is, calling an ancestral spirit
to witness or charging him to intervene in one’s situation); and lastly during
Ekuechi festival when all the ancestors actually come visiting. This is the most
important channel of relationship to the people and they all eagerly look
forward to it because the ancestor are believed to be descending from their
heavenly abode, a superhuman realm, where they maintain close affinity with
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the Supreme God. By this, they have better insights than lesser spirits. This
makes them a better intermediary between man and God.
For the Ebira, and indeed for most Africans, even though invisible, the
spirit realm is as concrete as the human world. Writing on African religion,
Parrinder (1974, p. 10) claims that the ‘spiritual world is so real and near, its
forces intertwining and inspiring the visible world that . . . man has to reckon
with things invisible to mortal sight’. In other words, it is also a realm full of
forces, energies and dynamites that could be tapped to either positively affect
our situation on earth and to correct negative tendencies. It is this insight that
correctly informs Adinoyi-Ojo’s (1996, pp. 6061) submission that:
It was the impulse to initiate a dialogue with the spirit world, to channel
the forces that dwell there to better ends that led to the creation of eku in
Ebira. As the embodiment of ancestral spirit, the eku serves as a vessel for
the nether energies that sustain, revitalize, and rejuvenate the world in
which the Ebira live. Through the eku the essence of the superhuman
realm is transmitted and absorbed by the human world as nourishment.
The Ebira believe that when a person puts on an eku mask and costume
the ancestral spirit transmigrates or takes possession of his body and it is
this spirit which directs his actions and utterances. Believe in reincarnation
and the immortality of the soul is central to the concept and practice
of eku.
Eku is therefore not idolatry. It is not idol worshipping as Husaini (1991, p. 59)
claims. Also, the ancestors, (Ohiku) are not worshipped as such, they are
‘venerated and invoked in order to attract their constant cooperation and
favour’ (Okene 1995, p. 56). It cannot also be equated to Ori because the
totality of Ebira essence that connects his past to the present with positive
projection to the future is enshrined in the Eku phenomenon. And if the
worldview of a people ‘determines their artistic inclination’ as Ogunba (1978,
p. 11) proposes, then the Eku phenomenon cannot be isolated as idol but a part
of a dynamic cultural matrix that expresses the positive worldview of the
Ebira. This explains why in Eku pre-eminence is given to Ohomorihi (Supreme
God), Ete (Mother earth), Ori (gods and spirits), and Ohiku (Ancestral Spirit).
This is best demonstrated in the Ekuechi festival as shall be seen later in this
study. By this, Eku permeates all Ebira’s socio-aesthetic, cultural and political
interactions in which art, religion and ritual, especially, are closely
interdependent, meaning that it is in it that the people apprehend themselves.
It is also instructive to note that the Ebira society, like most African
societies, does not distinguish between culture and religion. What they have is
a culture that is all encompassing. It includes, religion, belief system, concept
of beauty and social relations, ethos, ancestral linkages, and taboos to guide
human conduct. This translates to mean that, culture informs their outlook to
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life and the way their social systems are organized. Everyone knows that the
punishment for breaking a taboo is swift. It could be in form of visitation of an
unusual ailment, trade or occupational misfortune and social stigmatization.
Therefore, no one will wilfully want to incur the wrath of the ancestors. For
the simple reason that people are born into culture and nourished by it, fewer
questions are asked in order to understand one’s cultural milieu. Unlike Islam
and Christianity, there is no need to preach to the people about themselves and
their own culture because they themselves are the valves that make that culture
breath and live. More importantly, the Eku phenomenon is the epicentre of
those cultural values. All over the world, Ebira is hardly mentioned without
being linked to Eku, but albeit in a pejorative sense, which accounts for why
Picton (1997), p. 341) acknowledges it as ‘a powerful medium of Ebira
identity’. Until the Eku essence is fully understood as a cultural coordinate with
social ethos that bear direct relevance to the people’s worldview, the
significance and the multifaceted nature of this all-encompassing phenomenon,
shall continue to suffer wild and wrong interpretations. The fundamental fact
about Eku is that it embodies Ebira culture and not a notion on its own.
Indeed, it is a melody of existence that strikes a perfect cadence of
philosophical systems ever known to man.
Ekuechi festival
Ekuechi festival is a celebration of myth, legend and traditional social events
meant to mark the end of the year and usher in a new one, which the Ebira Tao
of Kogi state in Nigeria celebrate annually. It begins from late November, runs
through December and ends in early January (about two months). The long
duration is due to the fact that its period of celebration differs from
one community to another in Ebiraland. Essentially, the practice is the same.
The priest of Ireba Eku (masquerade cult) shrine, the Ozumi especially, sets the
actual day of the festival after consulting with eva (divine oracle) for a special
sign that guides the timing of the festival. According to Ozumi Haruna Onotu,
one of the priest chiefs of Ireba shrine, towards the end of every year, a dead
mouse (Itapesu) is always found at the entrance of the shrine. This vividly
indicates that the current year is dead in order to give way to a new one. The
day this sign is confirmed puts the date of the festival at 28 days thenceforth.
The star event of this festival is a night affair from which women are generally
excluded. Only witches and Onokus9 may participate. Onoku is similar to nngmmanwo
in the Igbo society (Onitsha and some Awka towns especially). The
nng-mmanwo are women inducted into masquerade participation.10 The
presence of the witches is normally invisible to all present except men that
also have special powers to discern spiritual presence.
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Ekuechi is located within the Eku performance art of the Ebira which is
coordinated by the Eku cult. Eku is ancestral masquerade. Eku, which
represents the ancestors, is believed to ‘descend’ (Chi) from the world
beyond during Ekuechi festival. Eku and Chi thus respectively form the prefix
and suffix in Eku e Chi. Literally translated, it means, ‘the ancestors are
descending’. This partly explains how the name of the festival was derived.
As a popular festival, Ekuechi is celebrated with pomp and pageantry, with
a dynamic integration of poetry, chants, mimicry, mime, dance, ‘mask’ and
significant cultural symbols. It is very colourful, vibrant, vigorous, invigorating,
and has great capacity to induce audience participation. Songs, music,
dance, interpretative drumming and colourful and weird costumes with makeup
are its mainstay. It is an arena for assessing the creative ingenuity of the
Ebira because of the rich presence of cultural artefacts used to enhance the
artistry of the performance. The ritual essence of Ekuechi is firmly rooted in
the fact that it is not an enactment but a celebration of a living experience with
virtual existence foregrounded in the chthonic. As a coordination of the
temporal and spiritual essences, Ekuechi breathes a life of its own and
maintains organic structure.
A typical Ekuechi performance runs for one night and ends in the early
hours of the succeeding morning. It starts with consultation with Ovavo
(diviners) who project into the future of the festival and the people, procession
to ancestral temple/shrine (inori), singing and dance performance, intermission
and procession leading to the grand finale of assemblage of all participating
masquerades and participant-audience at the market square. A recession
leading to dispersal into various homesteads ends the festival.
Music is an integral part of Ekuechi festival as found in most other African
festivals. In fact, it is the pivot around which other activities in the festival
revolve. Songs rendered during this festival are always very rich in
entertainment, instructional and philosophical values. These songs touch
numerous subject matters but they mainly explore social and political themes,
while using historical hindsight and philosophical insights to navigate the
traditional and moral sensibilities of Ebira people. Some songs are satirical with
the capacity to enforce social control. They chide and chastise known wrong
doers in the society. The latitude of commentaries in these songs is not limited
to local issues alone but also preoccupied with national and international
matters. The satirical, pedagogical and philosophical nature of these songs
projects the core essence of the festival, which focuses on moral uprightness,
equity and social justice, aimed at social transformation.
Eku’rahu (singing night facekuerade) is the star performer of Ekuechi event
that engages in meta-critical narration of philosophies as well as interpretation
of cosmologies to humanize the society mainly in songs with choric essences.
The choric force in Ekuechi has both ritual and aesthetic imports. The ritual
essence is to invest the performance arena with necessary spiritual aura in
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readiness for the descending ancestors. Expectedly, this ritual process takes
place in Inori (ori shrine or spot). Rites of breaking Irevu (Kolanut) pouring of
Ohinae (Libation of palm oil mixed with salt), spraying of Aku (guinea corn),
etc. are observed before Eku’rahu proceeds into incantatory invocation that
eulogizes Ohomorihi (Supreme God), Ete (Mother Earth), Ori (Deity and Lesser
Spirits), Eyenne (women of wondrous means), Ijama (decent men), Ezueye ati
Ozoku (young and old), etc.
It is true that dance is not the main focus of Eku’rahu performance, but it is
significant to the total aesthetic package of the performance. How well an
Eku’rahu does in dance, as with other performative arts, depends largely on the
artistic ingenuity and dexterity of the custodian.
Eku is the pride of Ebira lineages, which Picton (1990a, p. 197) describes
as ‘a specialist business’. This is an apt description, but its aesthetic
conventions have communal input and they are collectively determined. All
these cohere vibrantly to attest to Ehusani’s (1991, p. 181) claim that ‘it is in
Eku that the vitality and vivacity, and also the artistic genius of Ebiras find the
highest expression’.
Eku performance art enjoys so much importance amongst Ebira people
because of its linkage to ancestral celebration. For the Ebira, Eku is an ancestral
spirit; the ‘masked’ performer is not perceived to represent the ancestor but
seen as the ancestor himself because the human agency in the ‘masked’
performance is wilfully denied. Eku is part of Ebira cultural cosmos; it is not a
religion but a significant part of a way of life because it is an organizing force of
the social system of the people. Every Ebira person, irrespective of
contemporary religious persuasion, is inextricably woven into the Eku concept,
because its ritual and performative essence are directed at improving the entire
society. Whether one is actively involved in the ritual process or not, the
derivative blessings are collectively enjoyed.
Facekuerade theory
Having hinted at the facekuerade notion, this section formally proposes the
Facekuerade Concept. Facekuerade is conceptualized as a performance theory.
This theory is advanced using the transformational process of ‘Self’ in Ebira
‘masking’/faceking tradition, the Eku and Eku’rahu performance in the Ekuechi
festival of the Ebira.
Transformation duality: the ‘self’ essence in Eku
Eku projects three central concepts in Ebira: heaven,11 the domain of the dead
and masquerade (masked performer). Isu (death) is the only route through
which one can reach Eku (heaven or the domain of the dead). However, Ebira
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culture provides a continuum plank between the dead (an’eku) and the living
(an’ehe) via Eku (masquerade) on a general term. The link between in’eku (in
the world of the dead) and in’ehe (in the world of the living) is determined by
the ‘self’ in temporal existence and dissolution of the being as Oku (corpse;
same word of the Yoruba for the dead), but moved to Eku (the domain of the
dead). This presupposes that the ‘self’ enjoys two levels of existence one in
in’eku (the world of the dead) and another in in’ehe (the world of the living).
The relationship between the two worlds is sustained by the capacity of
Eku, a metaphysical and heavenly phenomenon, to manifest in’ehe (in the world
of the living). This conceptualizes for the living a reality that thrives mostly on
imagination. There are three ways through which Eku can manifest in living
reality:
One as ohi’ku, when divination reveals that one’s ohi’ku should be the
recipient of sacrifice. Or as eku, i.e in the form we should translate as
‘‘masquerade’’ and the third as ozu.
(Picton 1992, p. 71)
Ohi’ku is ancestor, usually of minimal lineage segment.12 Through divination,
man from the living plane maintains constant relationship with his Ohi’ku in eku
(heaven) plane. Eku manifesting in living reality as eku is by ‘masquerade’
practice such as to be found in the Ekuechi event. Even though it is a temporal
encounter as an annual event, the experience is sustained throughout the year
by the expectation of the results of what that encounter would produce.
Besides, eku (masquerade) could be perceived as the physical manifestation of
Ohi’ku which affords one a direct interaction with one’s ancestor and not
strictly via divination, in this instance. After the masquerading event, one
returns to divination to continue his relationship with the Ohi’ku (ancestor).
One’s requests and Ohi’ku’s promises become the basis for continued dialogue
via divination on how to attain fulfilment. Ozu can be interpreted as
‘incarnated essence’ and ‘destiny’. Ebira would say ene vo’ihe? (who is
incarnated in him?), or yera’ne´ku ana vo’ihe? (whose resuscitation from the
domain of the dead brings about his re-incarnation?), in another vein one could
ask yera’ne´ku ana vi’resu ani? (which ancestor is being incarnated on his head?)
Just like in the Yoruba tradition, the human head (Ori Yoruba; Iresu Ebira)
is the repository and mediating centre of one’s destiny in the Ebira worldview.
One’s Ozu (male or female) is located through a ritual process of Divination
and Incantation, yielding Incarnation (an embodiment of ancestral essence
Ozu) (figure 1).
The Ozu ritual process is exclusively done by men, though not secretly
executed, to the exclusion of women who act as distant audience. Male and
female names of the lineage of the child/person whose Ozu is being sought are
called one after the other in oracular consultation (eva). It is when the oracle
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answers in the affirmative to a particular name that the Ozu is located. The
personage involved may be known to those involved in the ritual process.
Through divination, further steps are taken to know the personage’s heart-felt
desires and wishes for his/her next coming into the world. It is these desires
and wishes that ultimately form the core of the child/person’s destiny.
A relationship of Ozu (an’eku from the domain of the dead) and agama (the
child/person the receptor) from the world of the living thus commences.
This could be referred to as the commencement of Ozu/agama relationship. By
this submission, destiny cannot be ivehu as Picton (1992, p. 68) suggests. Ivehu
is conscience which is more attuned to character positioning than matters of
‘‘fate or destiny’’.13 A corollary of Ozu concept is expressed in the Yoruba Itefa
rituals which Drewal (1992, p. 63) calls ‘Establishing the self’ through
divination. Itefa is about rebirth and personal destiny of initiates through
divination. Amali (1999, p. 46) in a novel theorization on ‘Cultural Creativity
and Change’ considers this complex phenomenon of interwoven linkage
between two worlds (the living and the dead), to be a ‘creative and recreative
processes’ that ‘link the life here on earth to the life in the hereafter or
beyond’.
How the ‘self’ transforms to enjoy dual existence from opposite but
integrated domains (ehe and eku) can thus be understood from the various
manifesting experiences earlier discussed as ‘creative and recreative’ enterprises.
First and foremost, Oza (aza plural), living person/people is/are
involved as an’ehe who inhabit the world of the living (ehe). They move
through isu (death) to another realm of existence eku (domain of the dead) as
an’eku and ohi’ku. This process therefore signifies how one enters eku both as
the domain of the dead and as masquerade.
These clearly demonstrate that eku and ehe constitute two realms of human
existence, while eku and oza constitute two modes of individual beings. Eku
therefore can be understood as both a realm and a form/state of existence,
reached/attained via death. It is such understanding that makes the unifying
force of death a necessity for the cross-relational activities that exist between
both realms of existence. Death then becomes a liminal bridge that makes
transformation from one realm to another possible. It is from this space that
Eku’s masking essence (masquerade) derives its mediating, creative and
Incantation
(Choro)
Ancestor
(Ohiku)
Divination
(eva)
Incarnation
(Ozu)
FIGURE 1 Ozu incarnation process.
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destructive potentiality. This ritual bridge approximates Soyinka’s (1976, p. 2)
‘Chthonic realm, a storehouse for creative and destructive essences’. As a
circus of ritual activities and the intermingling of spiritual and mundane
currents, the Ebira externalizes the liminal bridge and locates it at the oze’aheva
(crossroads). Indeed, most masquerading activities are initiated and conditioned
here because it is believed that the living and spirit beings intermingle
here. Crossroads are therefore regarded as sacred spots that connect extraterrestrial
forces above. It is conceivable therefore that Eku as masked
performer, being the only physical manifestation of the domain of the dead
(eku), is apprehended as a metaphysical entity imbued with mystical powers
mediated via the masquerade.
Eku is both a realm and a state of existence, which represents an allembracing
configuration from which all issues of existence can be delineated
for the advancement of humanity. It is this understanding that precisely makes
Eku the epicentre and core essence of Ebira belief system. Eku is a way of life
and not a religion. This view explains why all Ebira, irrespective of emergent
religious leaning, are attracted to the Eku concept in one form or the other
because, it is the organizing element of their belief system from which ‘all
ancestral laws, orders and rules emanated’ (Ibrahim 2000, p. 12).
Facekuerade essence: masking absence and ancestral presence
The base of facekuerade theory is formidably rooted in the duality and doubling
essence of Ebira masking practice. The transformational duality of the ‘self’
essence in Eku, which makes it possible for a person to enjoy interactive
existence in the two realms earlier discussed, shapes the Ebira cosmic view that
God created things in pairs. Some of the riddles and sayings of Ebira confirm as
much:
Riddle
Q: aavi eeva bau-bau (two broad leaves?)
A: ohomorihi onir’ete (heaven and earth!).
(Picton 1989, p. 75)
Saying
Ohomorihi eeva oo mee ni
God, two he made it (i.e whatever it was he made)
(Picton 1992, p.73)
Irakawo v’anee, eku v’onoru
Witchcraft is (for) women, masquerade is (for) men
More examples of things created in pairs can even be drawn from our earlier
discussion on ‘self’ essence and Eku:
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Oza/Eku person/masquerade
Ehe/Eku world of the living/world of the dead
In’ehe/In’eku in the world of the living/in the world of the dead
An’ehe/An’eku people of the living world/people of the world of
the dead
Ehi/Aare home/farm
Onoru/Oone man/woman
Opochi/Eku witch/masquerade
The significance of these examples is to contextualize the fact that in Ebira
worldview, there is a doubling essence in human and spatial interaction, and of
necessity the living realm (ehe) must interact with the domain of the dead (eku).
The capacity of the ‘self’ to effectively fit into this interactive doubling role
is best captured by Eku’rahu, which has the dual propensity to transmit
metaphysical reality into meta-critical reality without a mask in the presence of
seen/visible and unseen/invisible audiences.14 This masklessness helps his
transformation from a metaphysical character into a meta-critical character
the point at which he is able to make his seen-audience apprehend stage
happenings beyond the performance context. It is informative that, it is in
transformation that Schechner (1988, p. 170) locates ‘the essential drama in
conflict and conflict resolution’. He argues further that transformations are to
be found in drama, performers and the audience. All these eloquently validate
Eku’rahu’s transformative capacity as a vital performative ingredient beyond
mere ritualization. A performer must first transform himself/herself to
another ‘self’ before he can make any impression on his audience. This notion
indeed complicates the Ebira ‘masking’ tradition for Picton (1990a, p. 184)
when he concludes that ‘Ebira people have a theory of mask use, but it does
not exactly fit with the practice of mask use’. It is also an observation that is
obviously predicated on Ebira masking essence that is grounded in masking
absence which extols the full fiat of ancestral mystic presence. What Picton
(1990a, p. 184) considers as an ambiguity and ‘an apparent disjunction
between theory and practice’ is in fact the spine of the Ebira masking theory
which distinguishes it from the general masking norm. As Picton (1990b,
p. 38) rightly observes, ‘within Ebira culture, masquerade . . . embody a sense
of tradition that signifies difference from other people’. It is from this
discovery of ‘essence’, ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ of masking reality in Ebira
perception that our facekuerade theory conceptually emerges.
The Eku’rahu’s Face is apprehended in the absence of a mask; in the same
face, a split image of ancestral presence is acknowledged from eku (the domain of
the dead) because of the exceptional dexterity of the performer that is beyond
ordinary human capacity. In this captivating glitz, Eku’rahu raids the community
with warnings, sanctions, healing, renewal and prophetic utterances backed by
powers from in’eku that pivotal centre that equilibrates (ekuiliberates) and
balances up relationships between the Eku and Ehe realms of existence. Picton
(1990a, p. 188) perceives this reality of the Ebira masked performer ‘as still
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himself yet not himself’. Now, let us attempt to group the three key words
together: Face eku raid they transform into Facekuerade, eku being the linking
essence of unmasked face (absence) and a raiding ancestral presence.
Figure 2 is precisely how the ‘self’ hereby captured by Eku’rahu,
transforms into a facekuerade character in performance. When the mask is
absent we apprehend the ‘self’ presence of the performer but that same ‘self’ is
doubled by the ancestral mystic presence, which assumes prominence above the
‘self’ of the performer (as it recedes into absence). In this instance, the spiritual
performs the secular (a doubling effect), which then becomes the height of
ritual orgy. In facekuerade therefore, we have mask absence essence or face presence
essence, while in masquerade mask presence is the essence.
It is this reality of Ebira performance sensibility that variously finds
expressions as ‘The theatre and its Double’ by Artaud (1978), ‘role doubling,
role switching’ by Schechner (1988, p. 165) and ‘play-acting’ by Picton (1988,
p. 66, 1992, p. 81). Auslander (1997), p. 30) agrees that the ‘problematic of
self is, of course, central to performance theory’ and posits that
Theorists as diverse as Stanislavski, Brecht, and Grotowski all implicitly
designate the actor’s self as the logos of performance; all assume that the
actor’s self precedes and grounds her performance and that it is the
presence of this self in performance that provides the audience with access
to human truths.
This is exactly how the ‘self’ duality of Eku’rahu is to be understood because
every performance is directed at revealing some truths about human existence.
From figure 3, the masquerade essence doubles with facekuerade essence,
while eku is the mediator. In Ekuechi Eku’rahu is first apprehended as a
masquerade before his facekuerade essence gains prominence. It is in this state of
formation that the unmasked performance character attains a mystic face that
transforms into mystic mask, which then qualifies the personage as facekuerade
character retaining masquerade mysticism. The coupling, the doubling and the
[Face]
Eku
Eku – Masking (equ)ilibrium
Essence (the Epicentre
of Ebira Worldview)
Masking Absence
(Self-Presence)
Ancestral (Mystic) Presence
(Self-Absence) [Raid]
Transformational polarities
Direction of significance
Equilibrating (Ekuilibrating) grid
Facekuerade
FIGURE 2 Transformation into Facekuerade.
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shifting dualities of the self-presence and self-absence (masking absence and ancestral
presence, respectively) are the bases of the facekuerade theory.
Just as we have character doubling, so also spatial doubling exists in Ebira
cosmology. For instance, the physical space is doubled by the ritual space;
earth (ete) doubles with the heaven (Ihineba or Ohomorihi, which also means
God); both are equilibrated by the liminal space occupied by Ori (nature God
the go-between); the physical space and the ritual space are further
equilibrated by Eku’rahu who mediates betwixt and between both spaces via
the belief system of the people and Ori, respectively.
Taken together, it is the interaction that exists between human and spatial
realities that animates virtual worlds and virtual people (characters) in
theatrical creation and this transforms them into compelling verisimilitude in
reality. This verisimilitude and connecting notions give a facekuerade character a
virtual and concrete presence, a mundane and mystic appearance.
In his mystic essence, the facekuerade character effects changes in the
consciousness of his audience, but at the end of the performance, he returns to
his mundane essence. The ability for these transformational shifts gives the
facekuerader a continuous relevance in facekuerade performance, and not a
personage to be used once only, as is the case in some masquerading
practices.15
However, our conceptualization of the transformational capacity of
Eku’rahu as a facekuerade character and the vital presence of the unseenaudience,
adds a third dimension to the African performance concept that is,
the Divine Linkage. Whatever is performed on stage is divinely linked to the
epicentre of Ebira existence. This notion suggests an integrated concept of the
performing arts while giving further credence to the well-established ‘dome of
continuity’ that links the worlds of the living, the dead and the unborn. It is
therefore justifiable to assume that the African cosmic globe has the capacity to
connect the physical and the non-physical, the mundane and the spiritual.
The Mediating Character
Mask
Mystic Mask
Eku
Non Masquerade
Mask
Mystic face Facekuerade
FIGURE 3 Character doubling.
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Generically and theoretically, all we have discussed so far represents how
the transformation of ‘self’ in Eku translates into the facekuerade concept. It is in
this transformation that ‘godliness’ in masklessness is sustained in the Ebira
belief that ancestral masquerades/facekuerades are spirits and not human beings,
which further confers mystifying stature on such masquerades/facekuerades
thereby raising the people’s imagination to the point of ecstasy. Thus, like
‘Father Christmas’, the spirits, cloaked in ancestral mystic essence as
masquerades/facekuerades, usher a load of gifts, albeit spiritual, on the people.
Manifestations of these gifts are embedded in their message to the living that
takes the form of warnings against evil and witchcraft, threat to women who
defile their marital beds with the wrath of ancestral spirits. Such warnings are
usually very effective deterrents. Ekuechi festival provides leverage for social
control and the submission of the womenfolk to their male counterparts. On
their part, the people reward the spirits’ guidance and protection with gifts in
cash and kind, which their custodians, priests and acolytes collect. In all,
Ekuechi is a fulfilment of Ebira social obligation that is rooted within the belief
system of the people, which also reconciles them with their ancestral descent
while foregrounding their cultural heritage.
Conclusion
We have, in this essay, attempted to theorize the Ekuechi festival of the Ebira
Tao of Central Nigeria as a performance. The postulation is advanced by
considering the festival within the context of modern performance idiom in
Nigeria to position the Facekuerade theory. The mask essence in masquerading
art that transcends the physical state of concealment with its general mysticism
sufficiently prepared the ground for the consideration of Ekuechi as facekuerade
performance. More so, it is a festival that assembles and coordinates all
facekuerade characters in the Ebira masquerade repertory. The exploration and
utilization of this theory in practice should give a definitive expression to
masquerade aesthetic format in the contemporary Nigerian theatre.
The identification of the generic and conceptual distinction between
masked and unmasked characters otherwise bound together as masquerades,
opens up a fresh vista in performance discourse. Consequently, facequerade is,
in this essay, recognized as a motif for the purpose of classifying unmasked
masquerade characters.
The pursuance of the facekuerade concept as theatre shall therefore be a
worthwhile venture, as a follow-up to this discourse, because Ekuechi
facekuerade performance has profound artistic resources and potentialities as
theatre. Facekuerade as theatre can be explored as a performative mediation of
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the Eku’rahu’s performance within the aesthetic context of Ekuechi festival,
which can be quite engaging in theory and practice.
Notes
1 The information on these unmasked masquerade types are both a product of
our field research and discussions with the indigenes of these areas.
2 Still a product of our findings as a result of our interaction with some Igbos
and Idomas.
3 NAK Lokoprof: 301 Annual Kabba Province, 1952. This is in contradiction
with Adinoyi-Ojo’s (1996, p. 30) unreferenced claim that puts it at about 80
square kilometres north-east and south-west of the confluence of rivers
Niger and Benue. Picton’s (1974) map that he refers us to does not present
this detail. I therefore opted for the colonial record.
4 Over the years, the name of this people are variously spelt as ‘Igbira’,
‘Igbirra’, ‘Ibira’ or ‘Egbira’ until 1974 when it was formally corrected and
gazetted to read ‘Ebira’ by the then Kwara State Government. This
development was the fallout of the ‘comments at the general conference’ of
Ebira People Association (EPA) ‘held at Okene in December 1973’ which
also led to IPA (Igbirra People Association) ‘changing to EPA’ (Ibrahim
2000, p. 39). It is this new form that is adopted in this study. However, the
former varieties of spellings are retained in quoted passages. Wherever they
occur they refer to the same people.
5 NAK Lokoprof 64/1923 ‘Trading Communities at Ajaokuta Complaint
Against’. The British Cotton Growers Association (BCGA) seemed to enjoy
the Colonial Administration’s support to exercise monopoly over cotton
trade in northern provinces, but this monopoly was questioned and rejected
by Ebira Native Authority.
6 NAK Prof 14 Kabba Province Report, September 1909.
7 See also NAK Lokoprof 24 Kabba Reports, 1916.
8 For more information on Ori please see Picton (1989, pp. 7879).
9 Onokus are women born under very special circumstances. Whenever an
Onoku is born, whether at home or at the maternity, a multitude of small
hymenopterous insects such as soldier ants (ijija) or snakes appear
mysteriously around the mother and the child to welcome her arrival
They are predestined and super-human. Onoku gives spiritual support to
masquerades by prescribing some sacrifices and rites to be observed to avert
imminent danger. For more information on Onoku please see Picton (1997,
pp. 362364).
10 According to Osadebe (1981, p. 46), citing Henderson (1972, p. 351), nngmmanwu
(mother of the incarnate dead) are women so inducted because they
had raised successful sons. This is done only after they have passed
menopause. In spite of this, these ‘mothers’ were not permitted to embody
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or escort the ancestral figures, except to observe the preparation of the
figures in the okwulc mmuo (secret room of the dead).
11 Eku, when used without any further qualification means ‘heaven’. Qualified
as Eku’oyiza (good heaven) is to lay further emphasize on blissfulness of
heaven or to anticipate a comparative distinction with Eku’ira (hell fire).
12 Only death in venerable old age, as a grand parent with a streek of wondrous
achievements qualifies one to wear the toga of Ohi’ku (ancestor) in’eku (in
the world of the dead). Such deaths are usually celebrated with pride,
pump and pageantry including the staging of Ekuechi performance, if a
male. Any other form of death violates this concept in the understanding of
Ebira.
13 Please read Picton (1992) for detailed information on Ozu. Our understanding
of Ozu as ‘destiny’, a word Picton completely avoided in his
explanation of Ozu derive from the confidence expressed and positive steps
Ebira take once it is known that the desires and wishes of one’s Ozu is
positive. If for instance one’s Ozu wished to be very rich in his/her next
coming, (the parents of such a child would take practical steps to assist the
actualization of this wish by ensuring, for example, that one goes to school).
Not that this really matters in the final determination of the Ozu’s wishes,
but the anxiety to see the fulfilment of the good package propel parents to
take practical steps in positive direction within the understanding that
‘heaven helps those who help themselves’. Picton’s position that ‘A baby is
not born with Ozu’ (1992, p. 72) is also to be contended. If Ozu is destiny
and the deceased that comes on a person’s head, the African concept of
unbroken continuity among the Dead, the living and the unborn suggests
that these issues, regarding Ozu, must have been perfected and finished
before a child is born. The divination process of locating Ozu of a child/
person is not factored by the diviner during the ritual process, rather it is a
search for that which already exists but not visible to ordinary understanding.
Odewale’s destiny as dramatized in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods are not to
Blame is not manufactured by Baba Fakunle but foretold as the child’s destiny
at birth. By Ebira understanding, there is no strict regulation on when a
child’s Ozu must be located at birth or at adulthood, the choice is elastic. It
is an optional exercise too especially in modern times, as some parents may
not bother at all.
14 At Ekuechi performances, ‘‘‘strong women are there only you don’t see
them’’ . . . so likewise are the dead’ (Picton 1988, p. 75). Beyond these,
those behind locked doors in various homes are mostly awake monitoring
the performance from within. These people constitute a form of audience
too.
15 For instance, whoever performs the Lasere masquerade (in Ede, Osun State
of Nigeria) never lives to see the next year. This information was supplied by
Mr Tayo Arinde of the University of Ilorin.
3 0 6 CULTURAL STUDIES
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3 0 8 CULTURAL STUDIES

Olafemi and the Orgaminana Massacre

2008-03-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

Authored by: Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, Abuja Nigeria. http://odili.net/news/source/2008/mar/30/20.html

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York USA.

AS expected, there have been lots of finger-pointing and denials between the people of Ogaminana in Kogi State and the Nigeria Police since last month when a senseless orgy of killings and burning left over 50 people dead, hundreds injured, 5,000 rendered homeless and more than 20 vehicles, 65 houses and 150 stores burnt. The true sequence of events and the roles played by each group in the horrific killings of defenseless people in Ogaminana remain contentious. But here is what has been established so far:

On February 22, this year, six trucks loaded with iron ore concentrates were on their way to Port Harcourt from Itakpe Iron Ore Mining Company in Kogi State when youths from nearby Ogaminana intercepted and detained them. The youths, who were peacefully protesting against the systematic looting of the Itakpe iron ore deposits by Global Infrastructures Limited, the Indian firm to which it was concessioned in controversial circumstances by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, were said to have deflated the tyres and smashed the windscreens of the trucks.

Two days later, on February 24, a unit of the Police Mobile Force was dispatched to Ogaminana "to prevent further damage to the (detained) vehicles and products", according to Kogi State Police Commissioner Ibe Aghanya. It was in the process of carrying out this assignment that the police clashed with the protesting youths, leaving an Inspector, a Sergeant and a Corporal seriously wounded and Corporal Raphael George abducted. A search and rescue police team sent on February 26, according to police official report, found Corporal George's mutilated body along Kabba Road after another bloody clash that the police said claimed the lives of two of the intrepid youths.

Police Commissioner Aghanya cleverly left out in his report the fact that after retrieving the body of their fallen colleague the police descended on Ogaminana at 8.30 pm on February 26, killing and brutalizing mostly elderly men, women and children in a reprisal attack that has sent shock and outrage throughout the country. Aghanya also did not admit that it was the summary execution of one Haruna Sule - shot several times by the police - that provoked the youths into attacking his men.

Of course, Aghanya's selective account of the mayhem his men visited on Ogaminana is designed to demonize the community and to make the police look innocent. Already, the gullible Clarence Olafemi, the acting governor of Kogi State, is so convinced of the collective guilt of the Ogaminana people that he has been raining curses on them for the death of Corporal George.

Olafemi did not care to conduct an independent investigation into the killings before rushing to condemn the entire people of Ogaminana and the Kogi Central Senatorial District for their penchant for violence and other anti-social behaviour. He has not even cared to visit the community to see things for himself before apportioning blame. It will be surprising if Olafemi knows where to locate Ogaminana on the map of the state he claims to be governing.

This is the real tragedy of the April 2007 elections. The charade threw up all sorts of characters at the helm of our affairs, including those ill-equipped to run a hunters guild that have suddenly found themselves in charge of complex entities like states.

This Day correspondent Wole Ayodele has provided a graphic detail of the atrocities committed by the police in Ogaminana on February 26 which the acting governor, the chief security officer in the state, claimed not to know. In the March 10 edition of the newspaper, Ayodele wrote that the police "unleashed a reign of terror of an unimaginable proportion on the hapless and innocent residents of the community, killing, maiming and engaging in wanton destruction destruction of property...."

In a manner reminiscent of Odi (in Bayelsa State) and Zaki Biam (in Benue State) reprisal attacks by the army following the killing of their colleagues by the two communities during the Obasanjo administration, it was reported in the newspapers that the police ran amok killing anybody in sight including women, elderly men and children. They did not spare even domestic animals. Gated houses had their fences pulled down before being broken into. Petrol station attendants were ordered at gun point to fill up containers that were later used to douse houses and shops before being set on fire. Vehicles passing through the area, the report added, were stopped and passengers were ordered to disembark "and any Ebira man or woman found in the vehicles was allegedly shot instantaneously".

Who authorized the attack? Did the leadership of the Kogi State Police Command inform Olafemi about the plan to wipe Ogaminana out of the state? How much did Olafemi know and when did he know it? How come that Olafemi and Police Commissioner Aghanya are only concerned about the death of Corporal George? What about the 50 or so innocent souls killed by the police? Is each of those killed by the police less important than the one killed by the youths of Ogaminana? Has Olafemi ever queried Aghanya about the killings - assuming he did not know about the attack? Is it possible for the police to embark on such a murderous raid without the permission of the chief security of the state?

At a memorial ceremony for Corporal George in Lokoja recently, Olafemi spoke like a man who has just finished a drum of pito (a local drink made of fermented guinea corn). "May they never see favour in their lives again", he said of the killers of Corporal George while announcing some monetary compensation to his survivors. He went on to describe the killing of the police man as satanic and that "the incident has to be condemned in its entirety". What about the 50 victims of police killings in Ogaminana? Olafemi made no mention of them beyond categorically ruling out payment of any compensation to them. Barely hiding his disdain or contempt for the people of the Central Senatorial Zone, Olafemi said "nobody had briefed him about the magnitude of the damage". Yet, he was quick to blame the traditional ruler of the area for the crisis.

The Ogaminana massacre has already been raised on the floor of the Kogi State House of Assembly by Hon. Momoh Jimoh Anda and it was unanimously condemned by members. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have set up separate investigative committees to look into the killings - thanks to the efforts of Senator Salihu Ohize and Hon. Abdulkareem Salihu. Yet, acting governor Olafemi said he had not been briefed about its magnitude. Is he running Kogi from outer space? With such an incompetent and highly partisan fellow running the government - not matter how briefly - any wonder therefore that Kogi is in such a mess. Again, the state government has failed the people from which it derives mandate. The callous disregard for the plight of the people of the area by both Olafemi and the previous government of Idris Ibrahim continue to confirm lingering suspicions that the state government prefers to treat the area as a lawless fiefdom because it is the base of opposition Action Congress (AC).

This is one massacre that cannot be swept under the carpet. Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigations by the National Assembly, the families of those killed as well as those who lost their houses, vehicles and shops must sue the Nigeria Police to court and demand compensations. The Nigeria police will have to pay for this. It cannot be swept away like Odi and Zaki Biam. People must be held accountable, including the youths who killed Corporal George. Aghanya should be sent on compulsory leave pending the completion of the various probes. We will never have a country we can all be proud of if our supposed protectors kill us with such impunity.

The Nigerian police force has long been notorious for abusing the very people it is supposed to protect. Its style of operation, crime fighting approach and general orientation are outdated, crude, immoral and anti-people. The force behaves with absolute disdain for the rights and dignity of the people whose taxes sustain it. Members of Hitler's murderous special squad would appear far more civilized and humane than some of the men and women in our police force. The question being asked by reasonable Nigerians was why the police did not fish out the killers of Corporal George instead of waging a senseless war against a whole community. Was Corporal George killed by the entire Ogaminana community? Why visit the sins of a few youths on a community? Can the loss of 50 lives in Ogaminana bring back Corporal George?

A Onukaba, a journalist and playwright, lives in Abuja.

Ebiraland: What our Problem is

2008-03-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Authored by: Dr. Zakaree Saheed S, Lecturer
Borobudur University, Jakarta
South East Asia

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Foremost, I must thank you for creating this medium where Ebirans home and abroad can easily expresses their views. Moreso giving those of us in Diaspora the insight of what is happening back home. I have read people’s opinion on problems facing our land, especially on the recent catastrophe that befell our land, Ogaminana to be specific. One of the write-ups entitled, “Crisis in Ebira land beyond politics, but spiritual” was particularly of interest. The writer was of the opinion that “the Ebirans have no leader, whether bad or good!”
Is it true that Ebirans do not have a leader? If in the context of his write-up, leadership does not mean anything different, could the writer be right that there is no single person that delivers true value, integrity, and thrust transformational leadership? Could he be right that there is no single person that articulates an ideological vision congruent with the deeply-held value of fellow Ebirans, a vision that describes a better future to which all Ebirans have an alleged moral right? Could he be right that no single person displays a passion for, and has a strong conviction of what they regard as moral correctness of our vision, engages in outstanding or extraordinary behavior and makes extraordinary self-sacrifices in the interest of the vision and mission of Ebira land? Could he be right that no single person can set the stage for effective role-modeling because Ebira youths identify with the values of role models whom they perceive in positive terms? Could he be right that no single person has or can ever persuade fellow Ebirans to accept and implement change, engage in alignment, with interpretive orientations such that some Ebira interests, values and belief as well as that person’s activities, goals and ideology becomes congruent and complementary?
Well, having stayed out of the country for quite a long time, I may not be in a position to confirm or counter that view. Rather it will be safer to assume the writer may be right in his opinion, so long he did not mean that Ebirans do not have elders. We may not have a leader according to him, but we have got elders, at least.
Ebira land has elders who have been opportuned to take the name of the land to national level, and have done our land the honour of being identified with the name. At least, it is on record that Ebira land has once produced the Chief of Army staff, the Inspector General of Nigerian Police, and State governors among others. Is that not enough an honour? Even though they might not have been able to bring about any meaningful changes to our land, they could not be blamed much, since they were made to sit with half buttock while in office. Hence they are always gene in whichever office you find them. However, they deserve to be commended. Atleast the Ebirans have come to be identified with undiluted loyalty to their bosses. Our elders in public offices are known for being obedient servants, who however could not or failed to draw a line between loyalty and responsibility. They are only vertically oriented and never horizontally.
Even then, I still do not absolutely believe that the problem of Ebira land is that of leadership. Someone may then ask, “What then is our problem?”
The problem of Ebiraland is our unwillingness or reluctance to transform into a modern society. Our reluctance to part with our odd and outdated ways for a civilize society. The so-called Isohiku and the spirit surrounding it has really affected our ability to see the need for transformation of our society. The unruly and uncivilized behaviour that surround the performance of this aspect of our culture has transformed from annual headache into a daily lifestyle. Even the graduates and students, who are supposed to be a symbol of civilization and tools for reformation, are not better of, when it come to the so-called rituals.
“No one makes you feel inferior without your consent”. We have consciously or unconsciously given the impression that what matters most to Ebirans is their annual Masquerade, give it to them and they will let go any other thing, including political offices and resources control”. It deprives our youth the good reasoning capability. We fight without any objective, without any goal other than hurt our fellow brothers. We sacrifice life unnecessarily, achieving nothing other than to attract more massive retaliation and humiliation like what has happened in Ogaminana.
From being a single entity, we have allowed ourselves to be divided by the so-called clannish supremacy mentality. On their part, some of the so-called elders sacrifices the tomorrow of our youths for their own gain. They share weapons to our youths to destroy their fellow brothers. It is only when we become conscious of our loses, our only reaction is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think properly. And so we find some of our people reacting irrationally. They launch their attacks against wrong target to vent anger. Of course, the authority retaliates and pressurizes our elder, and they have no choice but to give in.
The writer said that our problem is not political but spiritual. He may be right or wrong. Are our weakness, backwardness and inability to positively develop our potentials spiritual problems?
Has God not said in the holy book that “He will not change the fate of a community until the community has tried to change its fate itself”. In that case, then which is the way forward? It is an undisputable fact that the world is moving fast with or without you. It is either you be part of a dynamic world or be left behind. According to Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to changes”.
Who takes the challenge to bring about the reformation that is needed in Ebiraland?
According to Niccolo Machiavelli, “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than to initiate a new order of things. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system and mercy lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.” Of course, the only person who likes change is a wet baby.
It might not be an easy task to change people’s attitude or behaviour, but it will be manageable to manipulate what influences their attitude, that is, the value they acknowledge.
VALUE BEHAVIOUR NORMS CULTURE

Value, especially moral value, or from philosophical view, values of life, encloses an element of judgment in the sense that it embraces individual’s view on what is right, good or desirable. The value may be clan supremacy, class, peace, democracy, material or whatever.
In every culture, value has certainly been developed over a long period of time, only time make it stronger as it passes from generation to generation. However most of the value people acknowledge today, arise from the parent, teacher, friends or other sources. Most of our perceptions today concerning what is right and wrong has been formulated from the views established by the elders.
Whatever value we acknowledge to be right from our own perception has a direct influence on how we behave, and our behaviour becomes our norms, and the norms become a culture. So any attempt to change our people’s behaviour has to be directed towards re-establishing the values that the people acknowledge.
In so doing, charity begins at home. Every family or a household in Ebiraland is an integral part of a society that makes up the community and many communities make up the town. These towns constitute the whole of Ebira land. A French philosopher once said, “You either influence your environment, or your environment influences you”. If we, especially the elites, can impact positive influences on our various families, our society will be positively influenced, and then our communities, towns, and of course the whole of Ebira land will be positively influenced too.
Most importantly, let us once again go back to round table. Call a conference and let all our elites come to the round table where we can collectively identify what are the problems of Ebira land. If we can successfully identify and define our problems, then we can easily establish our vision and mission. Our vision and mission shall guide us in all other aspects, including politics.
Such a round table talk is not to determine the leaders. Rather it is to re-establish a vision for Ebiraland. Where we are at present and where we would want to be in the near future.
It is time we embrace what unites as against what divides us. We can together develop our land, for, “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable”- Adam Smith.

Dr. Zakaree Saheed S. is a Lecturer @
Borobudur Uiversity, Jakarta
South East Asia

Leaders to begins Disarmament in Ebiraland

2008-03-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Written by: Idris Ahmed and Turaki A Hassan

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York USA.

Leaders in Ebiraland in the Kogi State Central Senatorial zone have begun the process of disarmament of warring youths in the region.

The disarmament is expected to be the beginning of a peace process to quell the violence that has ravaged the zone for weeks.

This is part of decisions taken at a reconciliatory meeting convened by the President of the Nigerian Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Moses Bello, to find a lasting solution to the crises in the region.

Addressing stakeholders in the region, Justice Moses said previous meetings were held to soften the ground for a peace parley: "I have no doubt in my mind that peace will come to stay.

We are now out for real peace.

"I was at home during the weekend to meet people, even the so called Generals, the stakeholders who are fighting on the field have been invited and they have all agreed to embrace peace. I don't look at the youths as thugs, they felt angry about some issues, that is why they came out. They have assured me that whatever decision is arrived at today, they will take it home and will all agree on that."

Justice Bello also reacted to the recent massacre and mayhem visited on the people of Ogaminana by the men of the Nigeria police. He called on the government to urgently come to the rescue of those affected.

Among those at the meeting were Senator Salihu Ohize, representing Kogi Central and Senator Muhammed Ohiare, the Action Congress (AC) gubernatorial candidate in the April 2007 general election.

Senator Ohize told journalists that the current disarmament moves was all embracing and total.

Ending Violence in Ebiraland

2008-03-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

Wriiten by: Mr. Adoke, Retired Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO)

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA

To get a solution to any problem, one has got to get to its root cause or genesis. Like all races the world over, the Ebira race has its own intractable problems. What, in fact, are these problems? Without missing words, they are mainly political, social and economical. In looking at the first one, one cannot help recalling the reign of the late Atta. Under his reign, Ebiraland was a peaceful, calm and placid. In a dramatic turn of events, towards the end of his reign, some kind of terrible wind of change came sweeping across the North rocking the boat of feudalism.

In the wake of this change came the birth of Igbirra Tribal Union (ITU). The ITU was a revolutionary mass movement formed to challenge the absolute authority of the Late Atta. That was in the early 50s. Even though the Atta enjoyed absolute power, historians are divided on whether the elements who constituted feudalism were exactly in existence in Atta’s land at that time.

It is natural that he who enjoys power never likes such power wrestled from him. The Atta vigorously resisted this. Atta had his staunch and loyal supporters. Though fewer in number than the ITU followership, they were highly enlightened, richer and influential. They formed a counter force known as the Igbirra Progressive Union (IPU).

With the formation of these two political camps, each with its own military wings, Burma Boys for the ITU and Cow Boys for the IPU, the stage was set for a long drawn-out battle. Naturally, one should expect bloody clashes. And there were indeed many such clashes but surprisingly, nobody lost his life apart from bloodied heads and bodies left in their trail.

Unable to cope with the rising tide of opposition, the Atta finally threw in the towel by formally abdicating from the throne after the ITU had gained the upper hand, having been actively supported by the then colonial maters. But his unqualified leadership, legacies and superb stewardship cannot be easily forgotten. His successor was a political one. Whether this was right or wrong is better left for the generous or ruthless verdict of history.

Most historians and political analysts agree that the leadership of the adventurous ITU predicated their revolution on a tissue of lies such as the bandying about that the Atta was a dictator, that he blocked the education of the children of the poor and also that he exploited the poor masses for the education of his children outside Ebiraland and overseas. If these were so, how, where and when did the few enlightened leaders of the ITU get their education from?

Unfortunately, what the ITU revolution left behind was a legacy of the neutralization of the flow of genuine and absolute respect for the elders from the younger ones. Where such respect ceasesto exist, an otherwise decent society will crumble like a pack of cards.

This is the situation with us today. This has led to a rapid decay of our society. The established political camps are still very much with us today with a yawning gap of opposition between the two and with little or no difference in their shape, colour and philosophy. For easy understanding, the ITU appeared to be wearing the toga of the progressives and the IPU that of the reactionaries.

In the course of the ITU pursuing its revolution and the IPU its counter revolution, both of them often used all kinds of social and cultural festivals to sponsor singers of their respective parties to fire salvos of abusive and provocative songs that in most cases often triggered off bloody clashes. This trend has continued till date and being actively supported and fuelled by sinister and unregistered social clubs.

Before the advent of the colonialists, what the Ebiras have were clannish leaders, each feeling very superior to the other. This is not good for an organized society if it has to be effectively governed. What the colonialists did was to establish the Atta dynasty. The ITU revolution destroyed all this, thus leaving a festering sore of chieftaincy problem. This problem has not been effectively solved as the recent arrangement of rotational chieftaincy among the component districts of Ebiraland had merely scratched the surface.

In my own considered opinion, a genuine and well conceived revolution should have given birth to a good and sound social and economic agenda for the general promotion of peace and the well-being of its people. This the ITU did not do. Failure of this has left our society a politically divided one, a malaise from which we are yet to recover. For what does it pay to replace an old order with one that is no better?

Today Ebiras are politically at war with each other. Internecine political clashes are occurring daily with sophisticated weapons being used in prosecuting them. With our mean and uneducated politicians supplying them with these deadly weapons, we are now near anarchy situation. If these politicians were educated, they should have used their wealth to give scholarships to the children of the poor to ensure a better future for them.

It is a pity that in Ebiraland, those who live below subsistence allowance like getting married to as many wives as possible. This set of people cannot afford to educate the children given to them by God. As they grow up, such children become wayward and soon become easy tools in the hands of mindless politicians.

This sordid can be arrested if we have the political will. As parents we must rediscover ourselves and begin to inculcate in our children the values of morality and respect for the elders. Once this foundation of fear is in our children, the temptation to commit crimes against each other and humanity generally will forever be kept at bay. Teachers, too, have a great role to play in this respect to achieve a wholesome result.

To keep irate youths and their sponsors in check and silence them forever, it is suggested that a military station be permanently established somewhere in the outskirts of Okene.

Poverty is a serious social malaise. It lures young unemployed people to commit grave crimes. This social problem is on the increase. It has contributed in no small measure in the destruction of our society today. A good government that is worth its salt should as an article of faith, effectively and immediately tackle this problem.

A soldier without a gun cannot bully or instill any fear in a fellow human being. Similarly, a thug or a hoodlum cannot do the same without a gun. The sophisticated guns in Ebiraland are too many. These have been made available to hoodlums by the politicians. If government is serious, these guns can be recovered through the arrest of the supplier-politicians and the hoodlums and anarchists coupled with a thorough house to house search by a joint team of the police and the army.

Provided we have the strong will and we, as a people, have a willingness to cooperate with constituted authorities, heads of which are not pro-growth and multiplication of thugs, hoodlums and anarchists, absolute peace will return to Ebiraland like in the late Atta era.

Adoke is a journalist and a retired Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO).

In Search of Peace in Ebiraland

2008-03-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

Written by: Olufemi Yahaya

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Like people groping in darkness for light, the Ebira people in Kogi State are now more than before determined and desperately seeking for peace to end the orgy of violence in their area. Not minding the cost, the stakeholders in Ebiraland have again stretched hands of fellowship for dialogue over what they say has brought shame to them with the incessant killings and destruction of property.

Although the search for peace appears Herculean, the setting last Tuesday under a very harmonious and conducive environment far away from the tension at home could be the beginning of a new era in the Ebiraland. As rightly encompassed by the host of the peace parley, Justice Moses Bello, who is President of the Customary Court of Appeal in Abuja, the devastating effect of the senseless communal, political and masquerade crisis ravaging the Ebira in the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State is of great concern to every reasonable Ebiraman.

According to him, within the last six years alone, the crisis had led to the wanton destruction of valuables, human lives and unprecedented razing down of buildings and other property. The recent carnage wrecked upon the people by men of the mobile police force where hundreds of houses and billion naira worth of goods and many lives were destroyed have further propelled the people to move for peace.
Justice Bello lamented that the crisis, which he said continues to go from one district to the other in the area, has given rise to arms build-up in the entire Ebiraland and the youths who are active players are making it dangerously impossible to effectively check mate them. According to the legal luminary, apart from the great set back it has caused to the socio-economic and political development of Ebiraland, the crisis have become a source of worry to non-Ebira as well who use the highway that pass through Ebiraland, thus creating bad image for his people.
Speaking on the recent alleged police role in the burning of houses, Bello said the crisis has assumed a new and more disturbing dimension in view of what happened. Sadly, the security agents, who are supposed to help keep peace and ensure the security of life and property, were alleged to have become participants in the destruction of lives and property.

“The recent mayhem in Ogaminana, till this moment, the police authorities have not shown any remorse. Similarly, the state and local governments have not made any tangible moves in sympathy with the innocent victims of the police mayhem,” he said.
Bello, who hosted hundreds of his kinsmen to an all-day peace talks, noted that it was on this basis of the sad state of affairs in Ebiraland that he felt the sense of responsibility and humility to convene the peace parley to reconcile all conflicting sector to help chart a way forward. His speech opened up the channel for other speakers to bare their minds on the calamity and to proffer a solution.

It was a moving and consoling gathering as the Ebira power brokers discussed freely under an atmosphere devoid of the hostile and tense environment that becloud their homes back in Kogi. Ebira politicians were taken to task as speaker after speaker pointed accusing fingers at them for the unnecessary power tussle.
Bello also berated the youths for allowing themselves to be used by self-seeking leaders as tools for negative activities that have caused Ebiraland great set back and serious ridicule.

The parley, however, turned out an open market of confession. A member of the House of Representatives, A.K. Salihu, advocated for another round of talks for politicians and community leaders only who had been identified to have engaged the youths. He lamented the Ogaminana police invasion and promised to table the matter at the National Assembly to force the police to account for their deeds
Alhaji Ahmed Adoke, a public affairs commentator and human rights activist, lamented that as a result of the crisis in the past six years, there has been arms build up in Ebiraland to the extent that over 40 per cent of households possess arms and dangerous weapons of war.

Some of these arms he said are more lethal or sophisticated than the ones used by the security agents, thus making it dangerously impossible for the police to effectively check the militant Ebira boys.
Adoke identified political activities, masquerades activities, clannish sentiment and senseless gangsterisim by an army of Ebira unemployed youths as major causes of the trouble in the area. According to him, short-term measures to curb the situation include the government providing immediate/result-yielding professionally determined police operation in Okene and environs to check the activities of the militant youths and an immediate re-orientation programme for the militant youths; urgent need for Ebira traditional institution to put heads together and the indefinite suspension of masquerade festival/activities.

Long term measures, he said, should include disarming the youths, creation of gainful employment opportunities, and a code of conduct for Ebira political leaders. Other measures would be to ban clubs/organisations that promote masquerades; putting in place effective peace committees; and mass transfer of policemen from the area.
A Reverend Father, Anthony Akande, advocated the evolution of community elders forum that would be saddle with the responsibility of maintaining peace and to ensure the youths went back to school.

Another view was the call on the state government to rather than conducting election in the area appoint sole administrators that are not politicians for the five councils in Ebiraland. At the end of the parley, which lasted over six hours, a 16-point resolution on causes and solutions of the crisis were identified.
Among the solutions agreed upon was the call on political leaders in the area to stop the violence, to work together for peace, a standing committee of elders to oversee activities of political class.

Other suggestions were the call on the federal government to make concerted effort retrieve the illegal arms in Ebiraland, review the sale of Ajaokuta steel complex, redeploy the police in the district, continuous enlightenment of the youth and an emergency programme by the state government to salvage the youths in meaningful activities among others. The roll call at the parley included Senators Mohammed Ohiare and Salihu Ohize, A.K. Salihu, Alhaji Nasiru Sodo, Hajia Ladi Ibrahim, Tom Adaba, and Talif Rajai.

Others are Bishop Haruna Wokili, former Grand Khadi, Alhaji Yunus Abdullah, Prof Abdulsalam, and the five Ohis (paramount rulers) in the area.

March 15, 2008 Meeting Minutes - EVI Monthly Meeting

2008-03-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

Written by: Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham
EVI General Secretary

Attendees: Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting.

Dues and Donations – deadline for 2007/2008 is March.
We have been able to collect a sufficient fund for scholarship. The President stated that several acquaintances (non members of EVI) of his have contributed up to $750 USD. Thank you letters are being prepared to be sent to these individuals.

EVI Scholarship for 2008 University Students – Applicants
There are three applicants thus far: two boys and one girl. We’re liaising with the applicants to ensure that all required documents are sent to us.

a) Profiling the current applicants
A contact has been established with someone in Nigeria to interview the applicants via phone. Once the interviews in Nigeria are complete, we will be advised of the results and then, we will proceed to reviewing the applicants’ documents and credentials. This process is a necessity in terms of ensuring that money is provided to well qualify students.

b) Spreading the News about EVI Scholarship.
We are beginning to see that the news about the scholarship is gradually spreading in Ebira land. As a result, we have extended the scholarship deadline to April 30, 2008. We have also asked our contact in Nigeria to approach Ebira students’ associations in Nigeria in an effort to further spread the news about the scholarship.

Violence in Ebira Land
We briefly discussed the situations at home and approaches to resolving the violence. Further discussion is differed until next meeting.

Meeting Adjourned
The Chairman thanked all the participants for the good discussion and adjourned the meeting.

CULTURAL AND IDENTITY CRISIS AMONGS EBIRA ADOLESCENTS A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

2008-02-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Authored by Dr. O.K. Abdullahi

ABSTRACT
The paper examined the dimension of Cultural and Identity crisis Amongst the
Adolescent in Ebiraland of Kogi State. Causes were traced to the misinterpresentation of the function of Education as an individual path to the
acquisition of status and as a social path to the removal of social inequality.
Solutions were suggested in the realms of cognitive restructuring of the
adolescent, who on the majority are drop-outs; providing free remedial programme at the initial stage, and improving the school conditions that will enhance positive development in the individuals that pass through the school system.

INTRODUCTION
The expansion of educational opportunity since independence in 1960 has been
universally acknowledged in Nigeria. Post primary institutions, especially during the second republic saw the greatest expansion in all parts of the country. The pressure for educational expansion could perhaps be attributed to the rising standard of living and/or the interpretation of the function of education as an individual path to the acquisition of status and as a social path to the removal of social inequality, (Number-Winkler 1992. p. 18). In Ebira land of Kogi State, an enormous expansion of the secondary education has taken place such that in 1979 there were no more than seven (7) post-primary institutions, between 1979 - 1982 there were thirty-seven (37) Post primary institutions, (i.e. over 500% increment) The expansion of the secondary education brought in a higher percentage of the adolescents into the school system. But this expansion has not kept pace, firstly, with the quality of secondary educational facilities, and, secondly with
occupational opportunities. Crisis arose particularly amongst the youths in the transition from secondary to tertiary education, and the crisis was manifested through cultural identity.

Cultural Festivals in Ebiraland:
The Ebiras are well known for their cultural festival activities especially the "Ekuechi", "Echeanne", and "Egbe" festivals, to name but a few. These festivals used to bring the Ebiras from near and far together and the occasion served as avenues for visiting kits and kins. Eminent personalities from other races were invited to witness the festivals. Essentially speaking, the cultural festivals served as leisure for the people and the festivals usually come up during the period of less farm work or in the dry season. The Ebira farmers used to dominate the festival activities. To maintain peace and order, the Local Government Authorities in Ebira land controlled the festivals through issuing permits to the custodians of the masquerader and othermusicians with certain undertakings.

Dating from 10 years back now, the Ebira "adolescents, on majority are drop-outs from
secondary education, began to edge out the farmers from the festival activities. The identification with the cultural festivals brought about changes best described as "cultural and identity crisis" of the adolescents in Ebira land. Crisis in the sense that, what used to be peacefully celebrated for leisure purposes, became a scene of crime." For the past 3 - 4 years now, there was none of these festivals celebrated without the killing of one or more people as a result of crisis amongst the adolescents. The traditionally peaceful nature and tone of these festivals have been completely lost such that the masquerades, which used to be treated as sacred, could now be brought out on any occasion and at any time. Masquerades can now be out for marriage ceremonies, for reasons of personal conflicts in public places, and sometime for undisclosed reasons.

On all these occasions, violence accompanied their activities or "celebrations." The
farmers became so disenchanted with, the festival activities and together with the elders in Ebiraland, they advocated for the banning of all cultural activities in Ebira land. Indeed, for a year or two, the then Kwara State Government in conjunction with all the LGAs in Ebira land, banned all cultural festivals. This action was very well celebrated but being the tradition of the people, the ban was lifted with the passage of time. The lifting of the ban brought about a higher rate of evils or crisis previously unimagined. The crisis reached its peak, March 1992, during the Egbe festival when the Ohinoyi of Ebira land with other eminent personalities had to use all the' available media to appeal to the adolescents in Ebiraland, to maintain peace and order. During that crisis, many people were injured, guns were freely used and death was reported of some people.

Psychological Perspective of the Crisis
Looking at the issue from the point of view of a counselling psychologist, it is argued that the expansion of secondary educational opportunities in Ebira land, as means of self-realisation and individual social path to the removal of social inequality amongst the adolescents has brought about what is best described, as "cultural and identity crisis". The term cultural and identity crisis of the adolescents may mean two things:-
(1) That the present adolescent crisis in Ebira land is a creation of by-product of educational programme particularly at the secondary level.
(2) That the magnitude of the present adolescents crisis as manifested through cultural festivals had been aggravated in the course of ill-informed secondary educational expansion during the second republic.
From psychological perspective, therefore, droup-out rate from secondary education is
one of the major factors responsible for the crisis. This assumption could further be explained by the concept advanced by Ogionwo (1983, p. 363) that droup-out with mobility aspiration, if they lack confidence in their choice of fulfilling their future plans, and have blurred image of the future plans, (i.e. drop-outs with inhibited aspiration either as a result of lacking mental resource or lacking school imputs to withstand the considerable demands made by the secondary education for scholastic achievement), a very strong aggressive tendency towards social mobility may be expected as a result of the adolescents' unique position in the social structure. With reference to Ebira adolescents, the drop outs having lost confidence in the educational programme of the secondary level, they developed insecurity as to the future success of their plans, They found alternatives in cultural festivals or they took shelter by identifying with the cultural festivals. These adolescents hold tenaciously to the cultural festivals and they used the avenues to dispense of their tensions to the point of crisis.

The contradiction between the manifested role in the cultural activities gave the
adolescents inner-psychological satisfaction even when their activities proved highly detrimental to the vast population of the Ebiras. The strong satisfaction derived by the adolescents from cultural festivals could again be explained as an overt manifestation of disrespect for the society which in itself is a by-product of the faulty educational expansion. On the sum aggregate, therefore, the choice of cultural identification by the adolescents is an easy escape from insecurity and frustration, and by this means, false inner psychological satisfaction was
developed.

Another point of focus is the visible deplorable condition of the school environment, which is a factor of school adjustment problems and a strong predictor of adolescents problem behaviour. This in part aggrevated the adolescents cultural and identity crisis in Ebira land which again is a by-product of educational system. The most central figure in the school environment is the teacher, it is true, with particular reference to Ebiraland, teachers live in manners that are detrimental to the school environment. Refusing to perform one's legitimate duty, only to remind the students that “they will fail" serves as motivation to allienation. No matter, the quality of a school environment, where the teachers are not willing, little can be achieved. But faced with milliard of socio-economic problems, the zeal of teachers in serving as models becomes a fake. There is also the problem of lacking occupational opportunities. Educational expansion, may be true, has widened the secondary education opportunities available to the adolescents.

But socio-economic and inherited cultural capital have significantly higher weights in determining occupational opportunities. This implied that money, connections and "good education" count mote in general than a person's own achievement as evidenced by certificates. This undermines the educational planners who viewed educational expansion as a path to the removal of social inequality. Such expansion has brought detrimental effects on the adolescents in Ebiraland andcreated crisis situation.Traditionally speaking, identity is equated with cultural values but the difference in culture and identity as it operates in Ebira land, is the crisis involved. The adolescents identified with culture aggressively or violently and frustrated. This aggravated the adolescents' problems and again is a manifestation of educational system. The traditional form of seeing oneself as the incumbent of social role corresponds to the theoretical frame work of culture and identity. This
identity implies the satisfaction of psychological well-being of the individuals' inner state of being.

But the Ebira adolescents, particularly held in the web, no longer recognise the ills of their deeds, and only use the antecedent of the conflict or crisis as creating individual uniqueness. This process is of course slowly built up by stressing the differences between right and the outcome of
right, between wrong and right and the perceived antecedents between youth and elders. Of significant to the adolescents, therefore, is the constitutive of self: "Whom am I? and What do I want to be? This again implies crisis.
Philosophically, one would have expected that the effects of schooling (from primary to secondary level) on the adolescents would have led to the modernization of the cultural festivals.

Because the changes in any creature will manifest itself in attitude change and will
change the views and opinions held by the individual, especially when we reconstruct these changes as involving a process of learning. But education process preaches freedom, egalitarians, liberty and autonomy of the individual, (i.e. I do what I wish). These concepts are limited by cognitive or affective detachment which an adolescent, especially being tagged as a drop-out, is lacking. Essentially, freedom and other concepts are restricted by reasoning and inclination to conform with the society's norms. It implies that one obeys the norm because he/she .thinks it right. The issue here is the justification of the validity of the norm. The decision
of the justification of the norm could be a factor of "Love". I obey the norm because I "love" to identify with the culture, and this related to the integrity and subjectivity of the individual.

The acquisition of this love is, therefore, autonomous. The intricacies of such autonomy played off the integrity of the Ebira adolescents because of their internal conflicts resulting from by-product of wrongful expansion of educational opportunities. The mass circulation of the low concept of the drop-outs' personality characteristics, had deprived them of any rational feelings and integrity. Towards this goal, crisis arose because, the adolescents, called drop-outs, perceived the elders as being non-challant towards their course, This' is similar to what Elster
(1987) expressed as conditions that are not necessarily produced Intentionally since they only arise as accompanying phenomena of actions undertaken for different purpose.

The issue, therefore, is that the mode and dimension of cultural and identity crisis in Ebira land amongst the adolescents, is a manifestation of faulty expansion of educational opportunities at the secondary level. Unfortunately, instead of the elders coming in dynamically at the initial stage, the elders wished to be neutral and this neutrality destroyed the incentive confidence and respect held by the adolescents of the elders. The LGAs being helpless in providing job opportunities for the system labelled drop-outs, and apparently for political reasons, lost control of the cultural festivals in the hands of adolescents "to do what they wish". The farmers for good reason chose to abstain from the cultural festivals because the authorities had decided to grant autonomy to the adolescents involved in the cultural festivals.

The false cognitive conclusion and psychological inner-satisfaction reached by the
adolescents through these processes, are the functions of the specific content and mode of the cultural and identity crisis in Ebira land. The adolescents introduced crisis or "alien culture" in the cultural festivals because it makes them appear unique. The kernel of the truth, therefore, is the intellectual fallacy of the then administrators claim that the expansion of educational opportunities, at the secondary level in Ebira land could be a function of an individual path to the
acquisition of status and as a social path to the removal of social inequality.

SUGGESTIONS
Based on the above psychological perspective of the cultural and identity crisis amongst the youths, the writer suggests the following:-
(a) That the services of counselling psychologists, sociologists, and school counsellors are required to assist the adolescents in cognitive restructuring.
(b) There is an urgent need to improving the school environment even at the primary level and with due emphasis on improving teachers' conditions of service.
(c) Remedial programme as oppose to vocational education may not as of now command the same prestige as academic education especially as the national policy preaches "equality of educational opportunities"
(d) Over and above these, there is need to reorganise the present mode oparandis of the cultural festivals in Ebira land particularly the activities of the day time masquerades.

CONCLUSION
Regardless the magnetite of the cultural and identify crisis amongst the adolescents, in Ebira land, the writer is of the humble opinion that the youths, if efficiently managed or guided, their talent could be a great asset in the national development.

REFERENCES
Elster, J. (1987). Subversion der rationalital. Franfurt: New York.
Nunner-Winklers, G. (1992). Adolescence and Identity as an educational problem. A Biannual collection of Recent Germany contributions to the Field of Education Research. 44. 18-34.
Ogionwo, W. (1983). Social Psychological affecting high school drop-out. West African Journal of Education. 357-366.

Febraury 16, 2008 Meeting Minutes - EVI monthly Meeting

2008-02-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Written by the General Secretary of EVI - Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham

Attendees: Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Mr. Abraham O. Okomanyi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, Mr. Abdulyekeen Ozigis and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting.

Dues and Donations – Method of payment and deadline for 2007/2008 is March.
The executive members were reminded that March 30 is the deadline for donation to EVI’s account for scholarship program. No member foresees any problem in meeting this deadline.

EVI Scholarship for 2008 University Students Any applicants yet?.
We have one applicant thus far. He is studying in Kogi State University. The executive members are surprised about the low respond thus far from students given the wide publicity accorded to this program (Fliers have been posted in schools and Ebiraview carried an advertisement in its Newspaper). The executive members thought the low respond might be due to communication problem at home i.e. the unavailability of computer/internet access. The executive members decided to wait until mid-March after which a decision will be reached on providing the applicants with alternative option of submitting their application (writing the applicant in a hand written format and submitting by postal mail). The executive members would like to implore registered members residing at home to disseminate the news of the scholarship program to secondary school students.

Development of website – Does Mr. Okomanyi need an assistant and/or should we pay for Mr. Okomanyi’s service?. The need to increase the pace of developing our website was discussed. Fund will be accrued for this important task to ensure that EVI website is fully functional. The executive members thanked Mr. Okomanyi Abraham, our Webmaster, for the job well done. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Okomanyi has developed the website to the stage it is in now without receiving any payment.

Chairman’s account of situations at Home – Mr. Chairman has just recently returned from home. The Chairman has just returned from Nigeria after a three-week visit to Ebiraland. The Chairman went home to get married. The event went very well. We congratulate the Chairman on his marriage and wish him and his wife a happy married life. We enjoin all members to send a congratulatory e-mail to the Chairman, Mr. Abdulahi Bello.

The Chairman was asked to give an account of the situation of things at home. The Chairman indicated that the only word to describe the situation is that Ebiraland is at war with itself. The Chairman indicated that he was very scared during his entire stay at home. There were gun shuts and fighting every where. Houses are being burned down sometimes with the intent to burn the residents alive. According to the Chairman, thugs enter houses at will with the intent to kill. Many prominent people have fled home. A prominent and talented teacher of FCE was recently shut dead apparently for no reason. The Chairman himself indicated that he escaped death as there was a rumour that the thugs would have attacked attendees of his wedding. The complexity of the political and ethnic situation in Ebiraland was discussed at length. The participants of the meeting concluded that the situation has degenerated to the point that there is no solution at sight.

Meeting Adjourned:
The Chairman thanked all the participants for the good discussion and adjourned the meeting.

Theatrical Aesthetics and Functional Values of Ekuechi Masquerade Ensemble of the Ebira People

2008-02-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Written by: Sunday E. ODODO
Department of the Performing Arts, University of Ilorin

ABSTRACT
Over the years Ekuechi festival of the Ebira people of Nigeria has drawn undue attention because of the energetic physical nuances that characterise its celebration. Little or no attention has been given to the festival as an art with functional responsibilities to the society. This essay explores the festival to investigate the dynamics of artistic theatre elements in a pure festive performance setting, and the functional relevance of the festival to the Ebira in particular and the wider society in general. Performative realities of space, spectacles, costumes, make-up, lighting, music, dance, props and the mise-en-scene, predominantly shape our aesthetic priorities in this essay.

The ethnographic documentation of this festival has become very important because of its socioaesthetic relevance in the understanding of the cosmology and artistic heritage of the Ebira people. The essay concludes that if the organisers take full advantage of modern theatre practice,the entire festival has potentials of becoming a major tourist attraction with meaningful economic and material benefits for the Ebira people. Key Words: Festival; Performance; Masquerade; Ebira People; Song.

INTRODUCTION
Analysing Festivals within the context of theatre practice is not entirely a new scholarly enterprise. Dionysian Festival of the ancient Greeks, for instance, formed the nucleus of a vibrant theatre culture in Greece, which now serves as a reference point for world theatre culture and the emerging new radical theatre forms. There have been raging arguments on whether African festivals qualify as drama or theatre. Eloquent voices that contributed to these arguments include Mahood (1966), Kirby (1974), Ogunba (1978), Adedeji (1978), Clark (1981) and Rotimi (1981). Others are Echeruo (1981), Horn (1981), Amankulor (1981) and Ibitokun (1993). It is not the intention of this essay to further excavate, rehash and reposition these claims and counter claims. What is important to us here however is Ogunba (1978)’s position, which Ibitokun (1993: 131) also identified with, that there are no universals of what constitute drama and theatre. He argued that:
We should for the moment cast aside the theory of drama developed in the Western tradition and see the African festival for what it is. We may then find that in its conception, articulation and artistic development the African Festival performs the same function and evokes a similar response to what literate drama does in the African Study Monographs, 22(1): 1-36, May 2001 1 Western tradition (p. 25). The import of this position for us is that what constitutes drama or theatre is culture referent. In other words it will be misleading to maintain that theatrical experience that does not conform to Western theatre cannon is no theatre. A theatrical analysis of a festival within an African culture therefore has the capacity to share similarities with Western theatre tradition and also present its own unique aestheticfeatures.

This paper focuses mainly on the activities that affect the artistic outing of Eku’rahu (the nocturnal raconteur masquerader); who is a composite actor who sings, chants, dances and directs the drumming ensemble and the audience on the general performative outlook of the Ekuechi festival. The aesthetic analysis in this case is informed by folk imagination, which is the imaginative collaboration of the virile artistic resources, anchored by the raconteur masquerade, to produce the Ekuechi performance. This research relies mainly on primary and secondary sources of information. The primary sources are derived from my consistent participation in
the festival within the last thirty years, and oral interviews with key traditional functionaries in the Ebira tradition in order to properly position the Ebira perspective of theatrical action in the festival. Secondary sources of information include the literature of relevant journal articles, textbooks, monographs, microfilms, and thesis. Ekuechi festival is a ritualistic enactment of myth, legend and traditional social events meant to mark the end of the year and usher in a new one. The Ebira people of Kogi State in Nigeria celebrate it annually. It begins from late
November, runs through December and ends in early January. The long duration is due to the fact that its period of celebration differs from one community to another in Ebiraland.

Essentially, the practice is the same. The priest of Ireba Eku (masquerade cult)
shrine sets the actual day of the festival after consulting with eva (divine oracle) for a special sign that guides the timing of the festival. Towards the end of every year,the priest of Ireba shrine always finds a dead mouse (Itapesu) at the entrance of the shrine. This vividly indicates that the current year is dead in order to give way to a new one. The day this sign is confirmed puts the date of the festival at twenty-eight days thenceforth. The star event of this festival is a night affair from which women are generally excluded. Only witches and Onokus(1) may participate. The presence of the witches is normally invisible to all present except men that also have special powers to discern spiritual presence.

Linguistically, Ebira-Igu or Koto, Ebira-Etuno, Ebira-Panda, Ebira-Oje, Ebira- Tao, and Ebira-Agatu belong to the same language group with dialectal variations. What binds them together perhaps is their claim to a common cultural ancestry. My focus is basically on the Ebira-Taos whose territory lies southwest of the confluence of the rivers Niger and Benue (Adive, 1989: 1). The Ebira-Taos dwell in a rugged, hilly area and are traditionally farmers. They are also well acknowledged for their artistry in handwoven cloth. The land they occupy is very small, when compared to the teaming population of the people. This small territory also has rocky topography, which makes settlement difficult. Paradoxically, it is in these rocks that a number of mineral resources are deposited. It is here for instance, that Nigeria’s steel industry is sited because of the large deposit of iron found in the land. Water is a scarce commodity and little space for expansion is a disturbing reality, which the people have to contend with. Despite these natural constraints to living, the people are optimistic and resilient. It is with this frame of mind, that majority of Ebira people eagerly look forward to Ekuechi festival every year to reunite with their ancestral descent.

As a popular festival, Ekuechi is full of pomp and pageantry, with a dynamic integration of poetry, chants, mimicry, mime, dance, song, music, drumming, mask, make-up, costume and significant cultural symbols. All these cohere vibrantly to attest to Ehusani (1991: 181)’s claim that “it is in Eku that the vitality and vivacity,and also the artistic genius of Ebiras find the highest expression.” Eku is ancestral masquerade. Eku, which represents the ancestors, is believed to ‘descend’ (Chi) from the world beyond during Ekuechi festival. Eku and Chi thus respectively form the prefix and suffix in Eku e Chi. Literally translated, it means, “the ancestors are descending.” This partly explains how the name of the festival is derived.

ORIGIN OF THE FESTIVAL
There are few accounts of how the festival started. However, the differences in these accounts are not fundamental. Generally, Ireba Eku (masquerade cult) was believed to have been formed under the divine instruction of God to check the excesses of women, apart from serving as ancestor worship. Myth has it that after creating man and woman as husband and wife, one day God sent for the man but he was too busy to honour the call. Instead, he requested his wife to heed God’s call on his behalf. God gave her Irakwo (an egg-like object that contains the secrets of life and has the capacity to manifest supernatural powers) for her husband. Having discovered its contents and being fascinated by them, she hid it in her uterus and later swallowed it without giving it to her husband. She thereafter became quite powerful, performing supernatural feats as turning into any animal and changing back to a human being. She could instantly grow wings to fly around in astral travels. She also became capable of all sorts of mysterious transformations. Her husband became envious of her powers. In sympathy, God enabled the husband to create the Eku masquerade cult from which women membership is strongly discouraged as a
counterforce to the powers the women posses. The Adeika of Eika, the traditional Chief of Eika clan in Ebiraland in an interview recorded by Shamoos Adeiza, collaborated this notion: Eika is the senior clan in Ebiraland and Ekuechi originated from them. The real origin of the festival is a traditional secret and I wonder whether I should reveal it. Well, well, I will...Ekuechi originated from necessity, for when witchcraft crept into Ebiraland it was the women who reigned supreme in the cruel craft and they cheated us men by it. Many people were being killed by them
especially men. In retaliation, we men also set up the Eku cult to dread the women. Women are made to believe that Ekus who perform during Ekuechi are ancestor spirits raised from the dead to come and admonish, warn and punish evildoers in their songs and ritual (Adeiza, 1994). This is one of the major reasons women’s participation in the night performance of Eku’rahu is highly restricted. According to Ogunba (1978: 24), Theatrical Aesthetics and Functional Values in many African cultures women are not admitted into the secrets of the masking art; indeed, they are often the favourite target of masking and satirical ridicule, the assumption being that they live a more poetical life than their menfolk, have secret powers, are more of spirits than human beings, and therefore an object of fear or veneration. A more encompassing conceptual thought on this phenomenon of female exclusion from masquerade cults within the African context resides in the understanding that:
Traditionally, like everything else of any importance, masquerading and its secrets arethe prerogatives of the men-and initiates at that. Women have been excluded from sharing in the secrets for they are weak and fickle and are therefore not fit to take part in them. They are also mysterious and sometimes unclean. They cannot therefore approach these ancestral
manifestations, whose character is diametrically opposed to their own. Any meeting between them would have adverse effects on both parties. Much harm would come to the women and masquerades would lose something of their virtue. Apart from this fear, there is the desire to avert the wrath of these spirits whose condescension to visit mankind in the form of
masquerades is a great honour, which must not be abused. They are mindful of the fact that ancestral spirits are superior to mere mortals and constitute an unusual phenomenon when they assume physical forms(Nzekwu, 1981: 132).

In modern times, however, women are beginning to pick information here and there on the secrets of masquerading without being participants. Nevertheless, the mysticism surrounding the masquerade cult is still intact, for previous attempt to neutralise this always met with stiff mystic and physical opposition from custodians and a cross section of Ebira people who believe strongly in the inviolability of such cultural practices
.
Please click the website below for the full research document:
http://www.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/22-1/1-36.pdf

Colonial Conquest and Resistance: The Case of Ebiraland 1886-1917 A.D.

2008-02-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Written by: Adam Ahmed, Okene
History Department
Nigerian Defence Academy,
Kaduna.

Introduction

From 1860, the British government sought to establish and maintain a
colonial state in Nigeria. This ambition, which for material
exploitation as motivational impetus involved some long processes,
was realised through the employment of carefully designed dubious
measures. The measures were characterised by the removal of all
visible indigenous African resistance and opposition to the
imposition, expansion and consolidation of British central authority
over the territory later known as Nigeria. The bid to conquer Ebiraland, like other pre-colonial independent states and principalities in the Northern provinces effectively began in 1860 when the British firm, the National African Company, had
become firmly established in the Niger-Benue Confluence area with
headquarters in Lokoja. As their well-known stock-in-trade, the British conquest was gruesome and brutal. Yet as dramatic as the conquest was pursued, it was typically inconclusive, because the Ebira put up resistance to this alien intervention in their geo-polity for almost one and half decades, marking it out as one of the polities where the British had a difficult task in establishing their political control and socio-economic order.

A study of this kind will identify the diversity in African resistance to
colonial imposition. The efforts of most historians have been
concentrated on the large centralised pre-colonial polities like the
Sokoto Caliphate and the Borno Sultanate. This study in constrast
brings to the fore the experience of polities that had no centralised
chain of command during the pre-colonial era, or had what is
generally referred to as a non-centralised or segmentary political
system.

Human Geography of the Study area

The Ebira, who constitute the focus of this research, are the people of
Okene, Okehi, Adavi and Ajaokuta local government areas of Kogi
State. The world “Ebira” refers to the people themselves, their
language and their geographical location. Using the name of the most
popular town of the land, we may refer to them as Ebira Okene.
Other Ebira groups are Ebira Igu in Kogi and Koton Karfi local
government areas of Kogi state; Ebira Toto and Umaisha of
Nassarawa (Toto) local government area of Nassarawa state; Ebira
Mozum of Bassa local government area of Kogi state; and Ebira Etuno
of Igarra District of Ako-Edo local government area of Edo state.
Other Ebira are to be found in Abaji in the Federal Capital Territory
and Agatu in Benue state.

According to Greenberg’s classification of African languages, Ebira
belongs to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo family, which also
comprises the Nupe, Gbari and Gade (Greenberg, 1966). But
Hoffman and Bendor-Samuel in their studies of Nigerian languages
set up Ebira as a separate entity (Adive1985:56-57). Recent in depth
research indicates that the Ebira have been part and parcel of what is
now generally known as Central Nigeria since 4000 BC (Ohiare 1988).
Studying the various groups in the Niger-Benue Confluence area
using linguistic tools, historians rely on its branches like genetic
classification, dialectology and glottochronology in which historical
time is a factor. Though Greenberg tried to resolve the problem of
languages of the Niger-Benue Confluence area, recent historical
research by Benneth, Stark, Blench, Williamson and other confirm the
antiquity of the human population in the region. They contend that
by 4000 B.C., the Benue-Congo proto-language from which most of
the languages spoken in this area evolved had already developed.
These studies derive Ebira language from the Nupoid group (also
called Niger-Kaduna), of languges including Nupe, Gwari and Gade.
The Nupoid, according to historical jurists took off from a protolanguage
described as the Benue-Congo from which other language
groups which included the Platoid group also evolved (Benth Stark
1992, Williamson 1967).

In terms of archaeology, stone implements recovered by Soper,
Davies and Shaw from the Ebira zone, extending from Keffi-
Nasarawa-Izom westwards to Jebba and further upstream, have been
associated with the Sangoan assemblage. The reading from this
implements indicates that man may have lived in this area as far back
as some forty-five thousand years ago. The Ebira zone is also
prominent in the prehistoric civilization of the Iron Age generally
characterised by the Central Nigeria as epitomised by Nok Culture.
Even recently the iron-working site of Ife-Ijummu (Kogi State) has
been dated to 260 B.C. Thus, it could be deduced that the Ebira as a
group existed for a long time in locations within Central Nigeria not
far from where they are located presently (Ohiare 1988, Willamson
1967, Beneth 1972). The Ebira Okene occupy the hilly stretch of land
southwest of the Niger-Benue confluence area and share boundaries
with the Yoruba-speaking people of Akoko, Owe and Ijumu to the
west; the various Akoko-Edo people to the south and south west; the
Hausa, Nupe and Ebira groups at Lokoja to the north; and the River
Niger to the east.

A common physical feature of Ebiraland is the conspicuous presence
of blocks of dissected hills and the metaphoric rocks enveloping the
greater part of the land. The hills rise to a peak of 2000ft and
probably represent the remnants of an old post of Gondowana
pediplain (Clayton 1957). The African laterite and plain which
embraces the greater part of Ihima, Okengwe and Ageva are
occupied by extensive undulating plains (1200-1400ft). They are
studded with smooth rounded rocks of inselbergs. The laterite soils
are derived from metaphoric rocks of greyish-buff (18 inches) and
clayed pan which overlay vascular iron stone (Omorua 1959:1). The
depth of the soil is however variable, ranging from two to three feet
to about three inches where the ironstone approaches the surface, as
in the Itakpe hills in Adavi district.

There is also the Niger literic plain forming a lower terrace below the
higher plains. This is conspicuous in Ajaokuta, Eganyi, Ebiya and part
of Adavi in the north and north-east of Ebiraland. Another very
important feature is the rim from the highland. This enscarpement
which extends to Ihima, Eika and part of Ajaokuta widens into a
broad zone of dissected hills. The soil formation of the rims are
mostly skeletal, consisting of pale brown and orange brown sands
and grits. The enscarpment contains quartz stones interspersed with
pockets of deeper sand wash (Omorua 1959:1-2).

The implications of these features to the past and contemporary
history of the land are many. A few of them are as follows. The
nature of the topography has affected the relief pattern of Ebiraland,
which is marked out of the dissected peaks with knife-edged ridges,
and steep V-shaped valleys. Valleys of this type occur in Okene,
Okengwe and Eika towns. Apart from exerting much influence on the
climate, the features in part provided security and protection for the
ancient Ebira. Thus they resisted external incursions into their geopolity
as in the case of the Ajinomoh jihadist wars in the 1880s
discussed elsewhere (Okene 1990:26-30). Furthermore, the features
influenced the pattern of the people’s technical know-how as it
relates to the production of crafts like pottery, dyeing and
blacksmithing and of the people instruments of production or
destruction such as hoes, cutlasses and spears and bows and
arrows.The Ebira were famous in Central Nigeria for the production
of these crafts (Barth 1990:510-515; Jones 1969:38). In contemporary
times, these features serve as a reservoir of the iron-ore deposit now
discovered in large quantity in some hills of the land. Itakpe hill in
Adavi district alone has an iron-ore deposit estimated between 37 and
47 million tons, and of more than 60 per cent iron content (Okene
1995:37).

This is meant to provide raw material for the Ajaokuta Iron
and Steel Industry set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Other minerals to be found in substantial commercial quantities in
Ebira include marble, limestone, copper, chalk and mica.
Economic And Political Organisations on the Eve of the British
Occupation The nature of the physical environment influenced not only the land
tenure system but also agriculture practices which in fact were the
main determinant of the people’s economy. Agricultural production
was geared towards both domestic consumption and exchange.

Almost every household, which was the basic unit of production, was
involved in farming. Over time the people, through production
efficiency, division of labour and specialization, took advantage of
both internal and external economies of scale. By early 19th century,
realising its potentialities, the Okengwe district specialised in the
production of beniseed which it traded and exchanged with the
groundnuts in the production of which Adavi clan-groups and
communities in the immediate north of the land had also become
specialised (Okene 1995:79-84).

Apart from fishing and hunting, which complemented farming, the
Ebira economy also to some extent depended on local industries and
Colonial Conquest and Resistance craft production like palm oil, animal husbandry, iron technology and blacksmithing, textiles dyeing, wood carving and basket, mat and
raffia weaving. Because of its unique nature, the textiles industry
requires a brief discussion. Cotton, the main raw material of the
industry, is a crop of antiquity with the Ebira. The Ebira had migrated
with the crop and with the knowledge of its production to their
present location, the soil of which was fortunately very favourable for
its commercial cultivation. An exclusively female preserve, the distinct
technique employed by the Ebira textiles producers was vertically
mounted single loom system, locally called Oguntoro. According to
Brown, Ralph Willis, Picton and Mack, (Brown 1970:60; Willis
1972:51; Picton & Mack 1979:17,77,80,82)the Ebira cloth weaving had
undergone series of styles, patterning and specailization that made it
excellent and one of the best in the Western Sudan before the advent
of the British rule. In the same vein, Henry Barth noted in 1851 that
Ebira Woven cloth favourably rivaled those of other areas in terms of
pattern, colour, decoration and texture. Barth did observe the
superiority of the Ebira Woven cloth compare to other regions in the
Kurmi International Market, Kano when he visited the City during the
same period (Barth 1990:511).

Generally speaking, the settlement pattern of the Ebira in their
present location was largely determined by the topography of the
area and their migratinal groupings. They settled in highly knitted
related families, kindreds, clans and clan-groups on several hills tops
which include Eikoku Okengwe, Okehi, Ukpai and Okerekere. The
socio-political institutions which became consolidated over time were
primarily geared towards the maintenance of discipline, social
harmony and peace which were essential ingredients for social
relations and economic progress within and without Ebria ecological
zone.

The basis of political organisations of the Ebria started from the
family. As the smallest unit, the family consisted of the father, wives,
children and grand children. The unit lives in a specially designed
Ohuoje (compound), while the Ovovu (outer compound), was the
exclusive use of other people under the custody of the family. These
include the family slaves, war or famine refugees on asylum and
family labourers. The oldest surviving male was the head of the
family. He personified the cultural, clannish and economic heritages
as the respresentative of the ancestors in the family.

Several families who believed they were patrilineally related by blood
formed the next political unit of lineage, abara. The head was the
oldest surviving male of the lineage. Though, his decision was not
final as he had to consult with the heads of the families that made up
the lineage, the chief had perogative power over the economic
activities of the lineage. The lineage land and relics were vested on
him and the sylvan produce of the lineage were gathered in his
palace annually for distribution to the various member families based
on the ancestral law of age grade. Several lineages have survived to
the present. These include Etumi, Avi, Adovosi, Egiri and Ogagu.
The clan was the next political unit of the Ebira of this study. Though
third in the strata, the clan was the main and most sensitive of all the
political units. Each clan had both a prefix in its name of either Ozi-
(i.e. children of) or Ani- (i.e the people of) and a totemic symbol
indicating either a sacred object or an animal attached to their clan
name. For example, Eziehimozoko, a clan in Okengwe district had an
additional eulogy of eziede, “children of crayfish”, attached to their
clan name. In the past, a clan name and a totemic eulogy served as
identification marks for the various migrational groups or parties. The
head of each of the clans, many of which have also survived to the
present, was the oldest surviving male. His power was nominal, as he
administered through consultation. Nevertheless, he was the
representative of the ancestors in the clan. He therefore executed
sanctions and controls over its members. These were thought to
emanate from the ancestors who watched over the affairs of the
people from the world of the ancestral spirits.

The largest socio-political unit among the Ebira was the clan-group
locally called Ekura. About six of such clan-groups survive to the
present. They are Okengwe, Okehi, Adavi, Eika, Ihima, and Eganyi.
Though each was self autonomous, they however related on issues of
common concern. The head of each was priest-chief, Ohinoyi-ete.
Each group was made up of several clans believed they had distant
patrilineal blood tie. For instance, the Okengwe group comprised of
Akuta, Ehimozoko, Avi, Esusu, Ogu, Asuwe, Omoye, Omavi, Eire and
Adobe. The chief-priest consulted the heads of the clans on any
serious matter affecting the group. In addition, he administered justice
in conjunction with his deputy, Ohireba, and the concil of elders of
the group.

Despite the obvious limitation to his authority, the priest-chief was
the highest spiritual and socio-political head of the clan-group. He
was believed to have a daily communication with the anscetors. He
ministered to, and indeed mustered the earth shrine to solicit for
fertility, adequate rainfall and good harvest. He exercised sanctions
and ensure control, discipline, and compliance with the societal
norms and rules. He was vested with the interpretation of the ancient
ancestral laws through divination, sacrifices and indeed long
experience. Through these, the six priest-chiefs in close cooperation,
consultation and communion with one another were able to
administer justice and maintain the society of Ebira in relative social
harmony uptill the eve of the British invasion in 1903.

The British Interest in Northern Nigeria

The British and indeed the European contact with the various groups
in Northern Nigeria dates back to the early exploration across the
Sahara Desert.Through trading and the trans-Saharan trade in
particular, the British became aware of some of the polities of
Northern Nigeria. This was infact a reason for the despatch of the
various expeditions and voyages of exploration. But it was only in the
mid-19th century that the British became more interested in
developing a close commercial relationship with the Niger-Benue
territory where their traders had been operating. By the last quarter of
the 19th century, the British firm, the National African Company
(NAC), had outflanked other European competitors in the Niger-
Benue trade (Blindloss & Co.1968:297).

In fact, so intense was the rivalry, jealousy and suspicions among the
competitive commercial European firms over acquisition of special
territorial concessions in Africa that the Berlin West African
Conference was convened to settle issues, and indeed to design new
rules of the game. The Conference, which took place from November
13th, 1884 to February 20th, 1885, tried to bring some form of
discipline and sanity to a situation that looked as though it might
rapidly get out of hand. With no African present, the rules for the
partition of West Africa into units that were to become the basis of
modern nations were determined. Understandably, the guidelines had
already been set by the activities of European traders, missionaries
and administrators in the eighty-odd years since the official abolition
of slave trade (Crowther 1976:63). With her firms already established
in part of the region, what was later become Northern Nigeria was
assigned to Britain under the terms of the Berlin Conference.
Convinced by the prospect of commercial and material gain in the
Niger-Benue trade and indeed the entire Northern Nigeria, the British
Government began to encourage its trading firm to consolidate its
control over the region. Through dubious treaties with some of the
indigenous chiefs and community leaders, the company, which had
by 1886 metermorphosed into the Royal Niger Company (RNC),
obtained a charter to administer the territories claimed. In an
apparent attempt to consolidate its hold on the trade of the region
and to ward off other European rivals, the company commenced
military conquest of Northern Nigeria, beginning with the states
bordering the Niger-Benue confluence area. This marked the end of
the independence of the indigenous communities of the region. By
1900, when Lugard formally took control of British affairs in Northern
Nigeria, a large number of polities, especially in the Niger-Benue
confluence area, had been incorporated into the British Empire.
These included Ibi, Donga (1885), Bida, Ilorin (1897) and Wase
(1898).

The British conquest of Ebiraland

The situation which finally culminated in the forceful occupation of
Ebiraland in 1903 by the British imperial power began to unfold
when in 1886 Goldie secured the seal of the British Privy Council for
his company, the National African Company. By this seal, the
company became the Royal Niger Company (Suleiman 1992:86-95).
During the same period, Lokoja, a confluence town bordering Ebira
which had nevertheless been the abode of the various British
officials, became strengthened as the operational base of the
company, and it was here the conquest of other areas of the North
was to be organised and executed.

However, this was not to be the first time an organised invasion was
plotted against the Ebira. Between 1865 and 1880, the Ebira had
successfully engaged the Sokoto Jihadists who sought to make them
vassals of the Caliphate conglomerate. For several reasons which are
beyond the scope of this research, the worriors Ajinomoh, Jihad as
the Sokoto Jihad organised from Ilorin and Bida against Ebiraland
was called by the people, were engaged and severally forced to
retreat.

Despite the considerable obstruction caused by the Jihadist activities
in the land, the Ebira of Okene, Eganyi and Eika Ohizenyi, principal
towns of Ebiraland which were not so much devastated by the
Ajinomoh Jihadists, carried on their trade and commercial transactions
with the Royal Niger Company in Lokoja and Ajaokuta. Trading in
articles like palm oil and kernels, cotton and beniseed, which were
much needed by British firms, and enjoying favourable terms of
trade, the Royal Niger Company soon carved out Ebiraland in 1890 as
falling within the company’s territorial jurisdiction (NAK. Lokoprof.
213). But the presence of the Ilorin and Bida Jihadists in the
territories immediately bordering Lokoja to the south and north
persistently jeopardised and offset the free flow of trade and the
commercial system. This could not be accepted by the Royal Niger
Company, which quickly set up a fort in Kabba adjacent to Ebiraland
to the west, under Captain Turner, an officer of the Royal Niger
Constabulary (Willis 1972:51). The fort served as a military base and
raw material collection centre. Hiding under the pretext of ensuring
free movement of trade in the region, the Royal Niger Company
annexed Bida and Ilorin in 1898. The conquest of these two areas
obviously should be seen within the general context of British
imperialism in Northern provinces (Abubakar 1980:449).

The collapse of Bida and Ilorin in the face of the Royal Niger
Company’s superior strategy and mercenaries was greeted with
marked apprehension and consternation in Ebiraland. Like their
encounter with the Ajinomoh Jihadists, the Ebira thought they would
be able to fight and protect their territorial integrity from the
company’s onslaught.

The opening up of the interior from Lokoja was a fundamental factor
in the economic interest of the British. Opening up the interior, the
British felt, was the only way they could guarantee constant and
cheap supply of raw materials and other products. Eventually when
Frederick Lugard took over from the Royal Niger Company in 1900 as
a commissioned agent of the British administration in Northern
Nigeria, the question of physical occupation of the interior areas and
linking them up directly with the maritime business was uppermost in
his programmes. It is thus not surprising, and indeed it was due to
deliberate design, that in the same year Lugard sent two of his
assistants, Captain Beddoes and Lieutenant Grant with eight rank and
file, to Ebiraland to negotiate the ceding of the land to the British
(Willis 1972:47).

However, the mission of Captain Beddoes and Company was not
successful as the Ohindase Avogude Okomanyi refused to grant the
British their request. As the most powerful clan-group chief of the
land at the time, Avogude of the Okengwe clan-group insisted on
equal terms of relationship with the British. He nevertheless promised
them, on behalf of the Ebira nation, free access to trade and
reciprocal social relations. (Aviniwa, Ihima, Eku 1994).
In addition, Avogude, a patriarch, introduced Beddoes and his team
to some of the leading men of Ebira. They included Agidi Ukako,
Owudah Adidi, Atta Omadivi, Achegido Okino, Agbo, Echimakere
Ihima and Adai Oricha. The leading men of Ebira were divided as to
what should be the Ebira relationship with the British. While
Achegido Okino, Agbo, Oricha and the delegates from Ihima and
Eika advocated frontal confrontation and therefore took up an
uncompromising stand against the British, Atta Omadivi, Owudah
Adidi, Akpata Ihima and company, realizing what could be achieved
in terms of material and social influence from the new order, decided
to compromise, and invariably made a deal with the British
(Badamasuiy, Onipe, Atta).

While the anti-British elements saw the stand of Omadivi and
company stand as a sell out, some informants claim that Atta Omadivi
through his eva, divination and Ako raiding business discovered early
enough the military strength of the British and therefore the futility of
resistance (Eku, Atta, Onipe). The anti-British elements won the day.
In their abhorrence of, and disdain for the alien negotiators they
attacked Captain Beddoes’ team and forced them to retreat to their
fort sin Kabba. In the same vein, the group also chased Omadivi from
Okene (Okengwe clan-group) to Obangade (Eika group), where he
took asylum with Owudah Adidi, another pro-British Ebira leader
(Atta, Onotu, Okikiri).

Atta Omadivi was not the type to accept defeat and communal
disgrace in such manner. Fraternizing and ultimate collaboration with
the British, he reasoned, would restore his image in his Okengwe
district. The raiding activities which he and other prominent Ebira
personalities had perfected after the Ajinomoh Jihadist war in 1880
and his dealing in the slave trade had brought him in close contact
with the British officials in the riverine areas. By early 1903, a close
collaboration between the likes of Omadivi and Owudah and the
British officials had made the latter acquainted with the topography of
the land. The result of this expert geographical knowledge was the
British plot to violently sack Ebiraland.

Thus, in May 1903, a punitive invasion under the British army officer
Major Marsh invaded Ebiraland. The team consisted of two companies
under Lieutenants Sparrenburg, Morram Calloway, Byng-Hall, Smith,
Oldman and Captain Lewis. Heavily equipped with maxim-guns, the
two combat companies sacked Ihima, Obangade and finally Okene
which harboured notable Ebira opposition elements (Willis 1972:47).
The Ebira Ajinomoh Jihadist veterans resisted the British mercenaries
with their utmost might without success. The people could not match
the alien maxim-guns. They realised the feebleness and inefficiency
of weak weapons made of bows and arrows, matchets and cutlasses,
even if poisoned, in the face of the colonialists’ superior arsenal and
effective organisation.

Generally speaking, this episode could be compared to the British
incursion into neighbouring Igalaland. In the conquest of Ankpa, for
example, the British organised a punitive expedition on 2nd January
1904 following the abortive first attempt in December 1903. The first
had led to the death of Capt. O’Riodan and Mr. Amyatt Burney, the
invaders’ two leaders, at the hands of the patriotic local people. As in
Ebiraland, the British organised a heavy retaliatory onslaught
consisting of eleven officials and 262 African rank-and-file with two
guns and two maxims, under the command of Major R.A. Merrick.
The British invasion of Igalaland as in Ebiraland, led to pandamonia,
brigandage and general disaffection. Yet while the resistance lasted
for almost one and half decades in Ebiraland, resistance to British
invasion in Ankpa, according to Abdulkadir, lasted for only three
months (Abdulkadir 1987:16-21).

With the conquest of Ebiraland, the British quickly consigned it into a
district of Kabba Division under the supervision of O. Howard and
Malcolm. The two British officers immediately “recognised” all the
Ebira notables that had conspired with them in the occupation of
Ebiraland. They included, understandably, Atta Omadivi, as the
“District Head” of Ebiraland, and Akpata Ihima, Owudah Adidi and in
1910 Ozigizigi Opoh as “Headmen” of Ihima, Eika and Obehira
respectively.

Resistance to the Establishment of British Administration and
Economic Regime
Though the British had conquered Ebiraland in 1903 through a naked
show of power characterised by brutality and coercion, by 1916 it
was yet to evolve a colonially envisaged centralised political economy
in the area. This was due to several reasons. The fundamental factor
should be located in the determination of the Ebira not to recognise
the alien system. The naked show of power of May 1903 had only
engendered social disorderliness and political disequilibrium in
which, according to Mr. Greaves, the then Division Officer, (D.O.)
each segment of the social system became suspicious of other
segments and of the British invaders. Mr. Greaves captured the mood
of this period when he noted that “not each community, not each
district, or town but each family was a law to itself” (NAK Lokoprof.

When Frederick Lugard took charge of colonial affairs in the Northern
Provinces in 1900, he formed the West African Frontier Forces
(WAFF) out of the existing constabularies. Various detachments of
WAFF were ultimately engaged in suppressing revolts of the Ebira
people. Thus one detachment of the WAFF was made to patrol
Ebiraland up to the Afanmai area of the present Edo State. In
addition, the British constantly sent military and police escorts either
to secure free traffic for its touring officers or to suppress uprisings
(NAK, Lokoprof 14). The presence of such security personnels was
abhorred to say the least, and consequently resisted by the people
for some time. This became significant when the British imposed their
alien taxation in 1904 and insisted that such taxes be paid in British
sterling from 1909 (NAK, SN P4636). From then onward, the question
of taxation hardened the people the more to resist British rule. In
other words, the issue of taxation became knitted with resentment
necessitating riots and uprisings against alien usurpation.

A good example of Ebira resistance to British hegemony was the
Okene riot of 1903. The town had just been made the second
headquarters (after Kabba town) of Kabba Division under Mr. Groom
as officer in charge. The people drove him away from their land. The
British in Lokoja had to send an escort of thirty soldiers under M.A.
Blackwood “in order to “reopen” Okene (Willis 1972:47). In fact, the
Ebiras also attacked Blackwood’s escort, which resulted in a bloody
encounter between the two parties. It was only when Lt. Shott
reinforced the first group with additional fifty soldiers that Okene
people were defeated. At the same period, Mr. Lang with armed
policemen organised a military campaign against Adavi-Odu for what
the British subjectively called their “truculence”. In Eika where the
village head, Owudah Adidi, lost control, the people in 1910 attacked
five police constables with poisoned arrows and seized their handcuffs.
The police retaliation was brutal and decisive. They raided the
village in the middle of the night burning several homes and
homesteads to recover their lost items (NAK Lokoprof 16).

Despite the persistence of Ebira revolts against the British and their
alien system, and the belief of the latter that the former were “timid”
and “suspicious of changes”, the British could not abandon Ebiraland.
This was because, according to M.A. Blackwood, the A.D.O., “the
people are good agriculturalists and traders”. When the First World
War broke out in 1914 the various districts and villages of the land
used the opportunity to throw off the yoke of British imperialism by
refusing to pay taxes. The understanding of the Ebira of Ohizenyi,
Ipaku, Eganyi and Ikuehi villages was that with the outbreak of the
war the British would pack their loads and leave. Local town criers
quickly rallied round, mustering enough will and courage to
announce to the people to disregard British taxes. Meetings, mostly
nocturnal, were held and open revolts were ordered by local
champions and disgruntled clan heads. The British acted quickly by
arresting those they considered leaders of the uprisings (NAK,
Lokoprof 23). In 1919, Mr. Greaves, the Resident of Kabba province,
was worried about the constant complaints of the Ebira of these areas
as to why “should they pay taxes here when they don’t pay in
Southern protectorates” (NAK Lokoprof 17).

Meanwhile, throughout 1914, there were riots, protests, or what the
official reports termed “general unrest” in Adavi district (NAK,
Lokoprof 24). At Nagazi, a prominent village of the district, the
people sang in the market places to the effect that there were to be
no more taxes for the British. But more worrying and disturbing to
the British was the mobility of powerful Okengwe notables dubbed
by the British as “trouble makers”, “truculent elements”, which
enabled them to move from their district to other to mobilize the
people against British highhandedness. The British soon reasoned
that the only way to deter the Ebira from uprisings was to station the
armed police forces on the land permanently. This move started in
August 1915 when the Kabba Divisional police headquarters was
transferred from Kabba to Okene. It was finally achieved in mid 1916
when the last batch of policemen were moved to Okene. What seems
to be the last main uprising of the people against the annexation of
their land by aliens came in November 1916. This month, about
thirteen years after the British had physically occupied Ebiraland,
Major Ellias, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, had to use force
against the people of Eganyi when they declared their district
independent of British rule (NAK Lokoprof 23, 24).

Colonial Conquest and Resistance

The British believed that these people were under the influence of
the Okengwe group whose leaders included Okino, Omaku, Adai
Eire and Onipe. It is not surprising that the British accused the
Okengwe group of leading the Ebira against the colonial order. For
by 1900 the Okengwe group had emerged as the torchbearer of the
entire Ebira people. Its principal town, Okene, had also developed as
the leading town of the land. Several factors account for this
development. The first was that one of the most powerful clan-group
chiefs of the Okengwe, Ohindase Avogude Okomanyi, resided and
died in Okene. Unlike to his predecessors, Avogude moved the seat
of the throne at coronation from the main Okengwe town to Okene.
As a powerful chief believed to have magical powers, his relocation
to Okene attracted people not only from the Okengwe group but also
from the other groups to Okene. So famous and influential was
Ohindase Obanyi, as he was generally called to distinguish him from
his predecessors and contemporaries, that all the Ebira groups had
rallied round him during the Jihadist incursion. Secondly, during the
Jihadist war in Ebiraland, the Okengwe war Generals led by
Ohindase not only prevented the Jihadists from entring into the
district, but they also led the various military groups that drove the
Jihadists away from other parts of Ebiraland. As the war raged on, the
enterprising Okengwe farmers and traders like their counterparts in
Eganyi carried on their economic activities with minimum
interruption. Two advantages could be noticed here. As a “safe
heaven”, the Ebira of other clan-groups and Ebira neigbours like the
Owe, Imorga, Ogori and Igbede migrated to Okene. This led to
increased population necessary for both the growth of ideas and
economic system.

Furthermore, as the Okene people were able to carry on their trade
with other Ebiras and the other peoples and the Royal Niger
Company (RNC) at Lokoja and Ajaokuta, they became more wealthy
than other Ebira groups. Even today, most non-Okengwe groups and
individuals who have become either politically or financially
important have done so through Okene. Thus the Okengwe group
had become socially and economically sophisticated enough to know
the evil of alien occupation. The British charge of their spearheading
the Ebira resistance and revolts should be viewed from this
perspective.

Meanwhile, the concentration of the police in Okene and the
constant harassment of the people helped to secure submission of the
Ebira to the British. Since the policemen were mandated to pursue
offenders down into the villages and the hinterland, the Ebira soon
came to appreciate the power and strength of the new order. Put
simply, the overwhelming presence of security personnel traumatised
the people and ultimately coerced them into submission. The report
of the A.D.O. on this matter is valid. It states that, “the stationing of
police at Okene has had a very salutary effect on Ebira” (NAK
Lokoprof23).

Apart from the people’s refusal to recognise the British order in
Ebira, two other factors are important in explaining the inability of
the British to establish an organised political economy between 1903
and 1916. The early British administrative policy was predicated on
the false assumption that every polity in the Northern region was
either centralised or at least had tasted the hierarchical suzerainty of
the Sokoto Caliphate. The consequence of this assumption was that
almost all ordinances and decrees of governance were formulated to
suit the emirate system (NAK Lokoprof 18). Thus until early 1916 the
British did not have any organised policy of administration for the
non-centralised states of Northern provinces.

Colonial Conquest and Resistance

The calibre of the British agent in Okene also prevented the British
from acting spontaneously on the serious matter of governance.
Though he had been well-known to the people as courageous before
1903, Atta Omadivi being a British loyal ally was considered a
nominal District Head of Ebira Division who was not recognised
beyond his immediate locality, Okene. Other village heads,
particularly those of Eika, Ihima, Adidi and Akpata respectively,
considered themselves of equal status in British service with Omadivi,
and therefore refused to recognise his central role. They dealt with
the British political officer directly. The British appointed Omadivi,
because, according to them, “he had always been most loyal to the
government” (NAK Lokoprof 25). But to the people, Omadivi was a
collaborator whom they remember today as the man who “invited”
the British in 1903 to take over their land. Meanwhile by 1916
Omadivi, who was about 120 years old, had become increasingly
“unsuitable to take active control of the Ebiras” (NAK Lokoprof 25).
In January 1917 Atta Omadivi died and the British was set to
reorganise its administration in Ebiraland. Ohindase Adano was
appointed as the D.H. of Ebira not because he was trusted by the
colonial administration but simply because, according to J.C. Walker,
the A.D.O. “he had always been promised since 1902 that he shall be
made the D.H” (NAK Lokoprof 15). Apart from the credibility
question placed over his head by the British, Adano was not accepted
by the chiefs of the remaining clan-group, especially Obobanyi,
Adeika and Asema of Ihima, Eika and Adavi respectively, who felt
that one of the clan-group chiefs was being imposed on them. It was
therefore easy for the colonial government to find excuses to dismiss
him in November of the same year for what they termed
administrative and judicial corruption.

In November 1917 the British imposed Ibrahim Onoruoiza, later
known as Atta Ibrahim, as the D.H. of Ebira Native Authority. A
number of factors that go beyond the scope of this paper were
responsible for the appointment (Okene 1990:130/133). One point
worth mentioning is that with this appointment, the British were
beginning to put Ebiraland on an organised polity which as discussed
above had been very much lacking. The colonial authority began to
fashion what they considered a sound economy in which the Native
Treasury (N.T) was central as an organ of colonial exploitation.
Atta Ibrahim was youthful (about thirty years old), energetic,
intelligent, and a loyal ally of the British occupation force. He had
been tested and trusted in the various services as an interpreter and
tax collector to the British before this appointment (Eku, Atta, Onipe;
NAK Lokoprof 25). Relying on the coercive apparatus of the British,
which included the police, prison and N.A. courts, Atta Ibrahim was
powerful, influential and somewhat overzealous. Atta’s N.A was the
kind in which the chief was the focal point through which the orders
and wishes of the British were seen to have emanated. His central
power was accentuated in the very early period of his reign when in
the same year of his imposition the British started to implement all
the judicial and fiscal ordinances which gave the chief a sweeping
dictatorial status. So autocratic was the position conferred on him that
the Atta could publicly flog or arbitrarily imprison any person whose
activities he considered a threat to the N.A. without recourse to even
the highly criticised established colonial judiciary processes (Okene
1998:131/123). It should also be stated here that with the coming of
Atta Ibrahim, sustained opposition to British occupation of the land
ended and a new method of resistance was initiated. This however
goes beyond the scope of this study.

Conclusion

Colonial Conquest and Resistance

The general pattern used by the British to dominate Northern Nigeria
was military conquest. In some areas, conquests were preceded by
fictitious signing of agreements and treaties. But within the general
pattern of piecemeal conquest were other noticeable styles
necessitated by the local peculiarities of the concerned polity. While
in the centralised states, especially the former emirates of the Sokoto
Caliphate like Kontagora, Zaria, Bauchi and Kano, a devastating
singular military onslaught was enough to coerce the polities into
qualified submission, in Ebiraland the British had to contend with
incessant and persistent opposition which lasted nearly a decade and
half. While the established centralised and hierarchical administrative
structures of, for instance, Zaria and Kano enabled the British to
instantly extend their political control, the lack of a centralised order
of command in Ebiraland before the advent of the British
compounded colonial conquest and occupation for the alien invaders.
Despite these observations, it is interesting to note that some Ebira
notables collaborated with the invading British forces. The first
generation of British agents, viz. Atta Omadivi, Owudah Adidi, Akpata
Ihima and Ozigizigi Opoh, were in this category. Whether they were
traitors or not depends on the analysis. Thus it is a truism that in the
occupation or threat to occupation of land by individuals or a group
of foreigners, there are always internal-cum-domestic collaborators.
In the final analysis, that Ebiraland succumbed to British occupational
force could be explained from many angles. The British had superior
fire power. Their maxim-guns were the type the Ebira never
comprehended. Ebira bows, arrows, matchets and clubs were not
comparable to the British firearms. The bombardment, for example,
of Okeneba in Okene from the valley of the present Ireba instantly
put a whole house on fire. The Ebira opposition efforts were also
uncoordinated; though concerted, each group was a law unto itself.

This was in contrast to the Ebira defence strategy used during the
Ajinomoh Jihadist war. There were also serious divisions among the
leaders, causing serious cleavages which the British favourably
exploited. Divide-and-rule was to be a stock-in-trade of British
administration in the Northern provinces and indeed in Nigeria.
Finally, the British had a goal to pursue and were determined to
execute their imperialistic agenda. They had made up their minds to
establish a colonial state of Northern Nigeria. Ebiraland was a small
though an important segment of the larger region.

References

A. Unpublished Sources

(i) Archival Materials
National Archives, Kaduna (NAK) Lokoprof 213/1919 Ilorin prov. Kabba Div., Igbira
Districts, Amalgamation of.
NAK Lokoprof 16 Kabba Div. Annual Report 1910.
NAK Lokoprof 14 Kabba Prov. Annual Report 1909.
NAK SNP 4636/1906 Kabba Prov. Sept. 1906.
NAK Lokoprof 17 Kabba Prov. Annual Report 1911.
NAK Lokoprof 23 Kabba Reports 1915.
NAK Lokoprof 24 Kabba Prov. Reports, 1916.
NAK Lokoprof 18/1922, Indirect Adm, Method of (2) pagan Adm.
NAK Lokoprof 25, Kabba Div Half Yearly And Annually Reports
1917.
NAK Lokoprof 28 1922 Gen. Adm.(ii).
Oral Sources
Yakubu Eku (Okene, Oct. 1989, Jan. 1994).
Suberu Onipe (Okene, Jan. 1995, Dec. 1998, Jan. 2000).
Abdulmumin I. Atta, (Kaduna, Oct., 1995, Feb. 1997).
Usman Aviniwa (Ajaokuta, Sept. 1998).
Sule Onotu (Okene, Dec. 1997).
Ismaila Ihima (Ihima, Jan. 1999).
Mamman Okikiri (Lokoja, Aug. 1999, March 2000).
Ahmad Badamasuiy (Ogaminana, Aug. 1999).
Unpubished theses and Articles

Colonial Conquest and Resistance

Abdulkadir, M.S. “Colonial Conquest and African Resistance: The case of Idah and
Ankpa in Igalaland (1864-1904).” History Department Seminar, B.U.K.,
January 27, 1987 pp 16-21.
Ibrahim, Y.A. (1968) The Search for Leadership in A Nigerian Community: Igbirra
Tao 1865- 1954. M.A. A.B.U, (Chapter Three).
Ohiare, J.A. (1988) The Kingdom of Igu and Opanda c.1700- 1939: A study of intergroup
relation Ph.D. A.B.U
Okene, Ahmed A. (1995) The Transformation of Ebiraland 1880-1960. Ph.D. B.U.K.
______(1990) History of the Native Administrative system in Ebiraland with
particular references to political & fiscal policies 1900-1966, M.A, B.U.K.
Suleiman, M.D. (1992) Politics and Economy in a Plural Society: Lokoja Since the
Colonial Era. Ph.D., B.U.K.
Williamson, K. (1967) “Languages of the Niger-Benue Confluence Region, their
classification & its implication for pre-History” National Conference on the
confluence Nigeria, Lokoja.
B Published Sources
Abubakar S. (1980) “The Northern Province Under Colonial Rule 1900-1959” in O.
Ikimi (ed) Groundwork of Nigerian History. Ibadan, Heinemann
Adive J.A. (1985) “Ebira Orthography” in Y.O Aliu (ed) In preservation of an
identity Kaduna, Nagazi Press.
Beneth, P.R. & Stark, J.P. (1972) “South Central Niger-Congo : A Re- classification”
in Studies in African Linguistics Vol. 8 No.3
Blindloss, H. and Pinnok, J. (1968) In the Niger Company (London, Frank Cass and
Co. Ltd.
Brown, P. (1970) Peoples of the Niger-Benue Confluence area: The Igbirra. (London;
IAI)
Clayton, W.D. (1957) A Reconnaisance Ecological Survey of Western Kabba
Priovince. Survey Reports. Dept. of Agric-Northern Region.
Crowther, M. (1976) West Africa Under Colonial Rule. (London; Hutchinson & Co.
Ltd.)
Greenberg, J. (1966) The Language of Africa Indiana; Indiana University Press.
Omorua, A.N. (1959) Agricultural Note book for Okene area. (Okene)
Willis, J.R. (1972) Gazetteers of Northern Provinces of Nigeria Vol. III - The Central
Kingdom London, Frank Cass
Kano Studies New Series 2000 Vol. No. 1
© Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
armoh@buk.edu.ng

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Akomodi
New York, USA

TOWARDS PEACE IN EBIRALAND

2008-02-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

Written by: Ibrahim Ahmed

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Critical analysis of the history of Ebiraland and its people shows that they were not born with the culture of violence in them. Rather, they were, known for their industrial and Productive farming activities, especially in such states as Ondo, Edo and, to some extent, Oyo states, lived peacefully with their brothers and sisters of the famous Kwararafa Kingdom of the 17th century.

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This is reflected in their name, "Ebira", which means "good manner", blended with rich cultural heritage that could hardly be eclipsed by any standard culture in the then Nigerian area of the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods, according to the available historical and archival materials of recorded human activities.

However, the down of modern political development and the selfish nature of the current political terrain of the country, which has set politicians and the electorate on the collusion course in the realm of rats race syndrome, for the survival of the strongest, has negatively affected the land and the culture of its people in many spheres of human endeavour, particularly in the political realm.

By implication, the negative effects of the political quacmire have continued to cast its telling results on both the culture and psyche of the people. Today, many people do not talk of the cherished culture of the people of Ebira land any more but the prevalence of political violence and thuggery, a negative phenomenon the impact of which has seriously dwarfed the positive side of the people.

A scenario, in the April 14, 2007, general elections in Kogi state and its impact on the political atmosphere in Ebira land, is a sufficient case in point. Twenty-year-old Saidu was an indigene of Okene town, in central senatorial district of Kogi state, who had just completed his secondary education, with flying colours. He was full of high hope to further his studies, up to the highest level of education, university, his country, Nigeria can provide her citizens, to enable him contribute meaningfully to the development of his father land, the country and the world at large.

Being the first and most brilliant child, in the line of six children of his petty-trading and farming-parents, in the neighbouring Owo town of Ondo state, his parents were said to have toiled to train him through secondary school education, with the hope that when trained up to university level, he would shoulder the responsibility of training his three younger brothers and two sisters. His peers disclosed that Saidu was fond of praising his parents, for their toiling efforts in training him, promising them that as soon as he was able to get his degree, as Medical Doctor and secured job, he would not only compensate them but take up the education of the younger ones. However, all that is now a painful history and a sad reminder of the evil effects of thuggery that has become the bane, of the land in question, stunting its desired development in the socio- political landscape of Nigeria, as Saidu is now lying quietly in his grave at Okene public cemetery.

Saidu's life and his tall ambition were cut short, in the cobweb of fierce political thuggery that enveloped Okene town during the elections, between the supporters of two dominant rival political parties; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Action Congress (AC) in the area. Much painful, according to sources, is the fact that Saidu, was of high level discipline, a virtue he acquired from his high, sound moral and humble background, which earned, him, the accolade of "Good boy", and "shining light for other youths" in the area.

He was said to be in his parents house, full of life and was helping his brothers and sisters to secure their tickets for brighter future, in their educational pursuits, through academic coaching, during their holiday, when death came calling, unheralded. An eyewitness said one of the thugs, apparently trying to escape the law of retribution, having caused the death of a member of the rival party, during a fierce battle for supremacy in thuggery in Okene, the previous day, was said to have run into the house, where Saidu was coaching his younger ones some lesson notes. The fleeing thugs, who was being trailed by other dagger-drawn thugs, was said to have raised to the house, were Saidu was and mixed with the group of students receiving lessons.

His colleagues, on revenge mission at all cost, were said to have launched missile attacks at him, immediately, but missed their targets and instead descended on Saidu, whom they thought was their target and beat him thoroughly, to the point of comma. Unfortunately, Saidu's plea for mercy, on account that he was a victim of mistaken identity, fell on deaf ears of his tormentors, who beat him mercilessly and left him in his own pool of blood. He was said to have been rushed to hospital, by some good Nigerians to a nearby hospital where Doctors tried but in vain to save his life. The agony of the parents of the innocent victims of political thuggery in Kogi state, especially the central zone of the geo-political entity, is highly imagined than said.

The issue of political thuggery is a general phenomenon in Nigeria, but political analysts observe that there seems a marked different in Kogi central, given the frequency and magnitude of its occurrence, even after the April 14 election and subsequent series of elections in the State. Ihima, one of the first settlements in Ebiraland was turned to a theatre of bloody political thuggery, during the general elections, and even after the exercise, where many lives and valuable property were lost, leaving the ancient town almost in desolate existence and absolute despair among the people and their well wishers.

However, it is a thing of joy to note that Kogi State government and peace-loving people of the land and the state are not resting on their oars, in ensuring that the ugly phenomenon, that has smeared the good image of Ebiraland and its peace-loving people and the state at large, is brought to its barest minimum, if not logical end. The urgent need to bring to an end the disturbing political problems in Ebiraland, led to the inauguration of an assemblage of wise men and women, into a committee, selected by the state government, to find the remote causes of the problem in Ebiraland, with a view to finding lasting solutions to them.

Submitting the reports of the committee to the state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, in Lokoja recently, after about two months of sitting, the chairman of the peace committee, Retired Major-General Chris Alli, expressed optimism that the political problem in the land would soon be a thing of the past. According to him, this is exemplified by the fact that many people in the land, especially the politicians, have now realised the futility of their unpatriotic actions and need for peace to reign in the land.

As the first step towards concretizing the sincerity of their purpose, for peace to reign supreme in the area, the committee chairman disclosed that many of the politicians, in the land who have dragged their perceived political enemies to courts, over some vexing political issues, have resolved to settle out of courts. Alli, also revealed that most of the political leaders in Ebiraland had seen the wisdom in shielding their swords and close ranks for meaningful development to take place in the land, as exemplified in their enthusiastic responses to the clarion call, by the committee to submit memoranda, for the lasting solutions to the problems. He called on them to see themselves as brothers and sisters, who should not do anything to divide their indivisible entity, as members of the Ebira nation, known for its peace, development and fame, noble contributions to the socio-economic and political process of Nigeria, for ages.

Another ray of hope that the political problem in Ebiraland will soon be a history, came to fore, recently, at the office of the state Deputy Governor, Dr Phillips Salawu, an Ebira citizen, when Senator Saliu Ohize, of Action Congress (AC), representing Kogi central in the National assembly and his arch-rival, Mallam Ahmed Ogembe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), publicly embraced themselves, to the utter astonishment of their followers. It will be recalled that many of the supporters of the two political giants, in the land have maimed and in extreme instances killed, on the platter of political thuggery.

The duo, who are leading the two prominent political parties in Ebiraland, within the current democratic dispensation in the area, were seen sitting, side by side with each other, holding their hands together and beaming infectious smiles to themselves, during another peace meeting, meant to further cement the current peace in the land. In their separate speeches, made voluntarily, in the presence of the commissioner of police in Kogi state, Mr. Ibezimako Aghanya, Ogembe and Ohize described themselves as "brothers", engaged in the game of politics, with the aim of contribute their quota to the socio-economic and political development of their fatherland and the state in general.

Political analysts described the meeting as unique, as it has brought together, an assemblage of politicians of different shades of opinion, who have not been on talking terms for some quiet some times. They further argued that for the brain storming session to have taken place in the first place is an eloquent sign of good things to come over the misty political climate in Kogi central and indeed, the state in general. All the stakeholders that attended the meeting left he venue with a optimism that the return of peace, to Ebira land is a task that must be done, uphold and sustained and that such the realisation of a collective dream would come sooner than later.

Ogembe and Ohize did not only speak in the voice of unison, condemning the political problem, caused by their supporters in Lokoja and Okene, they equally dissociated themselves for the dastard acts, with a call on their supporters to eschew such behaviour in the interest of peace in Ebira land.

The Ohinoyi of Ebira land, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim who was said have reconciled his differences with the state Deputy Governor, Dr Phillips Salawu, recently, was not left out of the re-union exercise at the meeting, as he was also seen, sitting majestically, in front of Phillips, whom he exchanged pleasantries, with smiles with during the meeting. Phillips reciprocated with respect, for his Royal Father, with infectious smiles while other political leaders watched with the air of internal joy, for the unfolding positive development in the political log-jam in Ebiraland and its people.

However, economic analysts have argued that, for lasting and meaningful peace to return to Ebiraland and indeed other dark spots in the state, the state government must, as a matter of urgency and decisively too, address the problem of youth unemployment and its youth restiveness that has become a frighten bane in the state. Mallam Mohammed Abukakar, an economic expert, based in Lokoja, contended that many employable but unemployed youths, in the state fell prey to the hands of selfish politicians, not because of their wish but due to lack of gainful employment, to occupy their empty minds and hands and shield them from the indulging in social vices, such as thuggery.

Mohammed, who commended the state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, for earmarking N42 million, for fish farmers, in the state, many of whom are youths, to engage in fish farming, said such step "is as a right programme in the right direction". He however called on the implementors of the programme, to ensure justice and transparency in the implementation of such programme so that the genuine objective of the government, in getting most its youths engaged in meaningful economic activities, irrespective of tribal, religious or political differences, is accomplished. According to him, the frightening youth restiveness that pervaded the political landscape of the state would be reduced to the barest minimum, if the government could fashion out more pragmatic youth programmes, as he promised the people, during his electioneering campaign to the electorate in the state.

Most importantly, it is high time the political leaders realized the fact that the nation gains nothing when they mortgage the life of other people's children in thuggery spree, to gain political selfish. Most importantly, the Ebiras owe the society a duty to look inward for the lasting solutions to their political problem as they are the ones that wear the shoe and know where it pinches. This they can do by retracing the glorious historical path of their land, which cherished sanctity of life, hard work, political sagacity and other positive Attributes.

With this positive development in place, they will be in proper vantage to struggle for what they call "Political justice", in the political equation of the state, their aged long dream, since the creation of the state August 27, 1991.

Ibrahim Ahmed is a Public Affairs analyist

EVI Monthly Meeting January 19, 2008 Minutes.

2008-01-29T04:52:00.000-08:00

By: Dr. Sunday Abraham
National General Secretary

January 19, 2008 Meeting Minutes
EVI Monthly Meeting

Attendees: Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Abraham O. Okomanyi and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

President’s Opening Speech
The President thanked the participants for finding the time to attend the meeting. He reiterated the importance of this meeting and hoped that whatever would be discussed will be meaningful in the life of our people.

Application for scholarship through EVI website
The need to provide the applicants with the ability to submit applications online through our website was discussed. The intent was to create the features on our website to provide a systematic guidance (according to the scholarship program outline sent along with the December 2007 meeting minutes) to those applying, and collect their identities and applications online. This is an elaborate undertaking requiring significant time to accomplish, and given the limited time available before application deadline, March 30, 2008, this task cannot be completed soon enough to enable applicants to submit applications. Therefore, the decision reached was to ask the applicants to e-mail all the required information (as detailed in the scholarship program outline) to EVI through our e-mail address. To access our e-mail address go to EVI website and click contact us.

Regarding collecting WAEC results, academic achievements for the last three years of college and record of conduct, it was decided that a home-based person would need to coordinate this activity. Someone has been identified, who will be contacted in due course.

Dues and Donations – Method of payment and deadline for 2007/2008.
The participants re-affirmed their commitment to donating $500 each before the end of March 2008.
Scholarship to 2008 University Students – How to ensure that students are aware?
In response to EVI’s request about advertising EVI scholarship program, Ebiraview wrote to EVI agreeing to cover the advertisement in its Newspaper. In the response, Ebiraview provided the costs associated with different coverage. EVI has decided to go with a one-page coverage. The advertisement will be in two stages: a) advertisement of the scholarship program; and b) advertisement of the winners of the scholarship.
The Treasurer, Abraham O. Okomanyi has been asked to touch-base with Ebiraview to discuss method of payment for this service.

In addition, fliers, containing the outline of the scholarship program have been sent home for posting in colleges throughout Ebiraland.

Downloading Images from Video of the Material Aid Event at Ihima to EVI Website.
As we continue to develop EVI website, the images from the video will be downloaded onto the website. This should provide information to visitors to our website of our unwavering commitment to serving the people of Ebiraland.

Meeting Adjourned
The President thanked all the participants for the good discussion and adjourned the meeting.

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Akomodi
National President

Ebira Vonya International 2008 Scholarship Program

2008-01-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

This is to inform you that EVI scholarship application is out. The detailed information regarding the scholarship can be found at http://www.ebiravonyainternational.org/ Interested, sons and daughters Ebiraland can visit our website under scholarship to view how to apply and the criteria for applying for the scholarship. I am sure we will be reviewing the applications from many Ebira youths who are currently in Secondary School looking forward to enter University in Nigeria. Successful applicants will get approximately $1000 United States Dollars. Hurry up to apply our young generations! The sky is the limit. Education is power when you get it. No one can take it away from you. It becomes you. We the members of Ebira Vonya International beliefs in you! Remember, you have to ensure you gain admission to the University in Nigeria for the scholarship to hold if selected!!

God bless you all.

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA.

Ebira Sovietnicks in the Former USSR

2007-01-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written by: Jimoh Boyi

Andayi,

Compliments of the season. I write to express my profound gratitude to all the EVI members, especially the executives, home-based and international ones.
The deliverance of EVI relief packages to the affected victims of some violent riots at home is commendable one and once again, a very big thank you to home-base guys for the time and commitments.
The issue raised by Brother Mathew (Murphy) concerning the fate of most of our brothers (ebirasovietniks) in the former Soviet regions is a very disturbing one. As at present, both socio-political and economic situations in these regions are in transient periods, and are as such, most Africans, Asians and Arabs here ( myself, I am on study leave in Moscow) are involve in menial (hand –to- mouth) jobs that have less prospects in future, especially, as one gets older. Coupled with the above is rise in racial hatred, which is being covertly supported by politicians for political gains.
From my personal assessments, if nothing is done to persuade, assist or encourage most of our brothers these regions to either relocate to west (UK, France etc)/ USA or to go home (back to Nigeria) in the next 3 to 5 years, it will be disastrous for them to stay put as age and hope will be weighing them down. I know and have respect for the views of most of them with family members and other reasons. But the fact is that a Blackman in his late 30s and early 40s doing menial jobs/ petty trading in a foreign society that is highly saturated with skin heads, socio-economic crisis and political instabilities will be better off either at home or in some other countries where those vices are less rampant.
I therefore plead with EVI as an organization to look into whatever can be done to make our brothers, especially, those willing to leave, to relocate and at the same time to persuade the rest to do think otherwise.

Once again, Thanks for your time and commitments

B. Jimoh

Report on the Presentation of Relief Materials to the Victim of Ihima mayhem by EVI.

2007-01-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr Joseph Ozigis AKomodi

Submitted by: Mallam Zakkariyawu

REPORT ON THE PRESENTATION OF RELIEF MATERIALS TO THE VICTIM OF IHIMA MAYHEM BY EBIRA VONYAN INTERNATIONAL (EVI)

FIRST MEETING

The first meeting on the subject matter by the EVI Nigeria based members was held on December 2^nd, 2006 at Dr FATTY’s residence (Obehira). In attendance were: Zakariyya Umar, Malik Suley & Family, Yakub Ochetengwun, Dr Fatty, Hajia Rabiat. The objective of the meeting was to redeem pledges by Nigeria based EVI members, discuss and map out strategies for the effective distribution of the Relief materials, Items to the intended recipients. Most of the home based redeemed their pledges those who were not present were called and they promised to remit their pledges to the Bank. The following activities were consequently agreed upon to be carried out the next day:

Gather Donations, Review the List of Victims and Types of Relief materials to buy.
Visit the newly installed OHI of IHIMA to inform him of our intention and when we intend to convene for the handover of the Gifts items
Fix a date for the formal presentation of the Gift items
Pay a sight seeing visit to the site of the Mayhem

The total donations stands at N336,000.00K comprising of $2000.00(N256,000.00) – from EVI members abroad; N50,000.00 from Malik/Zakariyya; N10,000.00 from Yakub Ochetengwun, N20,000.00 from Usman Anibasa(promised to remit to the bank).

We reviewed the list of 31 victims we had and decided that we obtain a more comprehensive list from the new OHI of IHIMA

Various suggestions were made with regards to the kind of items to be purchased for presentation and at the end we unanimously agreed to buy Bags of Rice and Clothing material.

Zakariyya offered to contact one of the textile factories in Lagos for the clothing materials and Hajia Rabiat was to arrange for the purchase of 45 bags of rice.

We reported to the OHI of IHIMA palace very early in the morning of the next day. Unfortunate, as at the time we got there, OHI was not at home. We were directed to meet him where he went and we immediately proceeded there.

He was full of praises for the EVI and what we stand for and expressed hope that such efforts will remould, re-orientate and transform the minds of most of our present day youths. He promised to relate the message to his kingmakers and the representatives of the two clans involved. He also promised to get a comprehensive list of the victims for us from the

After all considerations, the Gift presentation was fixed for around Christmas/.Eeidil Kabir period.

We made a site seeing visit to Ihima and level of destruction we saw was unimaginable.

RELIEF MATERIAL DISTRIBUTION MEETING

Presentation of the Relief materials around the Christmas/Eidil Kabir could not hold because we could not put up all logistics together as a result of the fuel scarcity that started exactly around the time. However, Yakub Ochetengwun was still able to travel home and together with other members at home we had conference call meeting with Malik and myself in Lagos and rescheduled another meeting for Friday, 5^th January 2007.

The meeting finally held on Friday, 5^th January, 2007. In attendance were Zakariyya Umar, Magistrate Ajinomo, Dr Fatty, Hajia Rabiat, Malik Suley(via phone conference)

We explored the possibility of contacting the victims directly without passing through the clan leaders but we were strongly advised against it by the new OHI of IHIMA to avoid further problems.

The list of Victims from both sides submitted by OHI was reviewed and the summary is as follows: EMANI CLAN(14 death, 128 houses/properties destroyed); OHONWA CLAN(10 death, 215 houses/properties destroyed).

The above list was far above our projection of 40-45 families. We therefore decided to discuss the best distribution method with OHI in a meeting scheduled for the next day. We also agreed to do the final relief material distribution Ceremony on Sunday, 7^th January 2007 by 4:00PM.

Our effort to get the local Radio Station to cover the event failed because their charges of N70,000.00 for logistics was too much and was not budgeted for.

We therefore decided to do a video coverage and later pass it on to the local Television Station to be aired.

We later agreed with OHI during our meeting with him to share all the relief materials equally for the two affected clans. He(OHI) promised to send to the two clan leaders but also advised us to personally contact the two leaders and inform them.

We then immediately left to inform the OBOBAYIN of IHIMA(Emani). The Obobayin thanked and welcomed us and promised to send some representatives to attend. He appealed that we advise our politicians to work together and present one candidate so that Anebirra can produce the next Governor for Kogi State. He wondered why this is so difficult to achieve among our politicians if they are truly vying for the position to serve the people.

The next point of call was to OBOBAYIN OF OHONWA. There we met him with all his king makers and other clan leaders. After our message, they thanked us for the efforts and the good gesture but expressed reservations about the VENUE which was originally scheduled to be in front of OHI of IHIMA’s compound. They insisted the venue is not completely safe for the two sides to meet and suggested ST PETERS CHURCH, IKUEHI. We promised them to discuss it and get back to them. The Obobayin of Ohonwa later prayed and thanked EVI for all the efforts.

At the end, we agreed to shift the venue to ST PETERS CHURCH, IKUEHI for the benefit of doubts. The change of Venue was also communicated to the EMANI side, of course citing other reasons for the change.

On the presentation day, we started by covering some site of the mayhems from 12 noon and ended with the presentation proper. The video cassette in VHS format will be converted to .avi or mpeg to enable direct viewing in our computers/laptops. These should be concluded within the next 2-3 days and shall be emailed to all immediately.

Present at the occasions were: The OHI of IHIMA; The Chairman, Ihima Welfare Association; The Chairman, Ihima King Makers, Representatives of both Emani and Ohonwa Clans, The Chairman, Okehi Local Government etc.

The Ebirra Peace Project representative also attended briefly on invitation from Justice Ajinomo. The video will reveal details of the presentation ceremony. The relief material was presented on behalf of EVI by Justice Ajinomo. The EVI message was also summarized in our mother’s tongue with a promise to make copies available to all.

In conclusion, the occasion was a very huge success. Both sides were full of praises and prayers for EVI. The Ihima Welfare Association Chairman, who received the Relief materials on behalf of the two sides, was also full of appreciations. The OHI later shared the Relief materials publicly as follows based on EVI advise:

Emani Clan – 20 Bags of Rice, 20 pieces of Cloths
Ohonwa Clan – 20 Bags of Rice, 20 pieces of cloths
Other Clan members whose properties were affected – 5 bags of Rice

The report will not be complete without recognizing the commitment, sacrifices, selfless and passionate service of the EVI team that made this a reality. The Regional Coordinator – Ya’akub Ochetengwun have had to travel home at least twice to ensure the success of this exercise, Justice Ajinomo offered himself fully and his Vehicles for the cause, His maturity and handling of issues very superb. Malik was also available fully where possible and on phone (conference call) where not available advising and offering suggestions. Dr Fatty was very wonderful during the entire exercise. Her organizational ability and follow up on issues are quite commendable. Hajia Rabi is another very mature and wonderful woman and a pride to EVI. Her vote of thanks on behalf of EVI as you will see on video speaks volume.

Although, Usman Anibasa was not able to make it to the presentation as he was away in SAUDI ARABIA for this year Hajj, he called directly from Saudi to offer suggestions and prayers.

Let me use this opportunity to say a big congratulation to Usman Anibasa for fulfilling one of the major pillars of ISLAM and pray that ALLAH accept the hajj as an act of worship.

I see a HOPE.

Statement of Account

Donations	Naira

EVI Abroad(Donation = $2000@128)	256,000.00

Home Based Donations	80,000.00

Total	336,000.00

Expenditure

45 bags of Rice@5400 each	243,000.00
Transportation and Labour on Rice	5,000.00
40 NICHEMTEX CLOTHING MATERIALS@ 1500 each	60,000.00
Taxi fare from Ikorodu(Textile Factory) to Ikeja	2,500.00

Sticker Printing Cost	4,000.00
Video Camera Rent	1,500.00
Video Coverage Assistants	2,500.00
Cloth Nylone wrapper@50/yard - 20 yards	1,000.00

Fueling and Transportations at home	4,000.00

Fueling To and from Lagos	9,000.00



Total	332,500.00

Balance	3,500.00
VHS conversion and airing of the event by NTA	?

THE EBIRA-SOVIETNIKS AND THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE IN THE EX-USSR

2007-01-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

By Mathew Raji Andah

For ten years, 1981-1991, there was a steady rise in their numbers. They were the beneficiaries of a contractual agreement, trained at the tertiary institutions of the host country. They studied hard to earn their PhDs or diplomas in medicine, engineering, economics, linguistics and other specialties. Upon graduation, many have gone back home, some have opted to travel to other parts of the world or stayed behind in the host country. Others failed to graduate, returned home, stayed behind or gone to overseas. No one knows exactly how many there are. Conservative estimate put their number at about a hundred. They are the Ebira-sovietniks.

The Ebira-sovietniks who went home upon graduation--probably about 30 percent-- are making their mark in the academia, the medical, engineering and other professions. Those who failed to graduate before heading home have enrolled and did so at home upon arrival. To both group of returnees, readjustment and settling down was hard. The vacancy sections of national dailies were perused with gusto, countless applications for work were written and resumés sent. Journeys were undertaken as follow-ups. The compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corp provided respite to most returnees enabling them to practise their skills and reintegration back into the society. Some lucky ones were retained as employees at the place or institution where they served.

Others who opted upon graduation or before it to other parts of the world especially the west constitute another 30 percent. Most gained entrance via the US or the Canadian equivalent of Green Card Lottery programmes, others through visitors’ visas that were then converted on arrival into residencies. Whichever way the entrance was secured, readjustment and settling down was also hard. It required doing the so-called survival jobs, retraining and integration in the new society.

The third group of Ebira-sovietniks are the hangers-on, those--about 38 percent-- who stayed behind after or before graduation in the ex-Soviet Union.

Most of the Africans in the Soviet Union in the early nineties were students and Anebira owe their being there, in large part, to Ajaokuta steel company. Shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and immediately afterwards, a wave of hustlers, “transit guys” began entering the country. Mainly from Nigeria, many were relations or friends of students already in the USSR. Others paid to facilitators to get taken there. All the “transit guys” have one thing in common. They were using the country as a transit camp to get the necessary travel documents to continue the onward journey to the western countries. Some succeeded. Others who could not were left to their own devices and the growing network of criminal gangs to cope. They became hawkers: selling shoes, wears and illegal drugs. Of “the transit guys”, only one Anebira has been identified and she now lives in Holland.

I recently returned from Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, after a thirteen-year absence. I was amazed at the extent of the transformation. There were banners everywhere in the crowded city advertising everything from mobile phone providers, PCs and latest Jeeps to fast food joints. There were the trappings of modernity and the Ukraine is revelling in its consciousness as a democratising and independent country with eyes firmly fixed on joining NATO and the European Union. Five political parties are represented in the Verhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, out of the forty-five that contested the parliamentary elections on the 26 March 2006. Other parties did not cross the 3 percent threshold imposed by the country’s electoral laws.

One of the main causes of disquiet amongst the African community in Kiev is the rise of xenophobic and nationalist parties like the Ukrainian Conservative party and the Freedom party. Then there are also the Skinheads who are inspired by the racist rhetoric emanating from the xenophobic and nationalistic politicians like Prof. Georgy Shchokin and Oleh Tyahnybok of the Ukrainian Conservative party and the Freedom party respectively. The Skinheads are young people with skin-deep haircuts, “omolo”. Fans of punk, rock music and heavy metal, their standard dress comprises of jackets, jeans and boots. They are usually violently aggressive. And they are found all over the world in various political stripes ranging from the far right neo-Nazi, racists to the far left extremists. Estimates from the human rights organisation put their number worldwide at about 70,000 of which 50,000 are believed to be in Russia alone.

It was easy to see the need for apprehension amongst the African community in Kiev. In the summer of 2006, Silavka, a popular bazaar-- where many Africans owned shops selling articles such as used car radios, mobile phones, wears and shoes-- was torched by arsonists suspected to be skinheads. On the 25th October 2006, few days after my arrival, skinheads attacked Dr. Godknows Mievi, a Nigerian from Bayelsa state with knife at the back in the spinal cord and died near the metro “Pozniyaki”. He had a PhD and was survived by an ex-wife and a son. Dr. Godknows was 44. According to Dr. Johnson Aniki, 45, the murder was the first of its kind to a Nigerian in Kiev. Attacks are common these days. A homeboy, Dr. Sheidu Onimissi on a visit from Maryland narrowly escaped being attacked by gangs of skinhead in late October 2006. According to Mr. Sunday Adelaja, 40, the Nigerian protestant minister, “Africans are assaulted on a weekly basis in Kiev”, linking “the rise of racist violence in the Ukraine to the growth of neo-Nazi movement in neighbouring Russia”. At an emergency meeting of the Nigerian community in Kiev to discuss the murder of Dr. Godknows Mievi there was a palpable sense of helplessness and siege mentality. Participants worry that the Ukrainian authorities are in denial of the existence of hate crimes to which foreigners are daily subjected and as such are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to book.

I want to re-emphasise a point once made by Mr. Justin Isa in the August of 2005. He suggested that the Ebira Vonya International should engage with the Ebira-sovietniks still in the ex-USSR. In my conversation with the president, Dr. Joseph Akomodi, I reiterated this point and suggested that a fact finding mission be sent to the ex-USSR to ascertain the plight of Anebira still hanging on there. Of the thirteen Ebira-sovietniks in Ukraine today, only one--Richard Aniki-- is a student. Others are hangers-on with PhDs or Masters but scrapping by in the bazaars selling articles or working in the factories. Six are living in Kiev.

No one, not even the EVI can force people to relocate. The EVI must take cognisance of the plight of the Ebira-sovietniks still in the ex-USSR because they fall well within its orbit and it can certainly encourage people in their late thirties who graduated more than a decade ago to make the right choices. In most countries of the world, people need to put in at least ten years of service to be eligible for pension. The Ebira-sovietniks hanging on in the ex-USSR should take a long-term view of their stay and their lives.

New Year Message From EVI National President

2006-12-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Written and Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

EBIRA VONYA INTERNATIONAL

Andai,

New Year Message from the President

On behalf of Ebira Vonya International (EVI), I am sending you my greeting. I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and pray that all your dreams and expectations are met in this coming year. I urge all of you to include the entire Anebira and our homeland in your prayers as the 2006 draws to an end.

Today, I would like each of you to reflect back at these past two years during which EVI evolved gradually to its current state, a more stable state. We have gone through difficult times and have emerged out of the woods several times by rekindling the fire that is in each of you keeping the organization alive. By all account and given its international nature, EVI is the first organization ever formed in Ebira land and hence, it is understandable that EVI had to face some difficulties along the way.

Today we all have every reason to be proud of ourselves, as we have been able to harmonize our differences and unite as one in the drive to aid our ailing society. Reflecting back on 2006, we have achieved some measure of success:

o In April 2006, we held AGM for Region #5– we were able to raise substantial amount of money.
o EVI is now officially registered in Atlanta, Georgia.
o We have sent a sum of US$2000 home to aid the victims of Ihima crisis.
o Our website is gradually being developed.
o EVI has been working closely with Ebiraview.
o EVI is growing as new members continuously register

We now look with great optimism to 2007. The preparation for the next AGM is already underway. We expect a record turn out of Anebira in Maryland, where the AGM will be held. The major focus of our meeting will be on helping the Anebira youths so that they grow to become useful to the community.

As we get into the new year, I urge you to reflect back on the lives of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, nieces, neighbours etc that are no longer with us as a result of the violence in our land and remember that we are lucky to be alive today. Let us now ask ourselves a single question: how can I be of help to my homeland? The simple answer is to look beyond personal gains and render any little help you can afford unconditionally. This is what EVI is all about. I am asking you to become active in EVI and render ideas on how we can put our hands together to rekindle the fire of live, love, togetherness, oneness, hope, joy, beauty, positive thinking, respect, kindness and eternity in Ebiraland. I believe that we can be all of the above only if we put our mind to it. The reward of helping our land is enormous and has no boundary as this will result in a vibrant society that our people will relish and others will admire. So, do not be left out as we achieve milestone after milestone on our way to reviving our society.

May you be blessed in this holiday season. Thank you for your time.

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

The Call for Duty by EVI - Miriam Ikunaiye as a Public Relation Officer and Grant Writing Committee Chairperson

2006-12-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

Written and Posted by: Dr. Joseph ozigis Akomodi

Dear Madam Miriam Ikunaiye:

I will like to seize this opportunity to thank you for accepting a double role as the Public Relation Officer and Grant Writing Committee Chairperson for EVI. We are most grateful for accepting such a demanding role that Ebiraland has bestowed on you. We are quite positive that you will perform your duty and responsibility to the best of your ability. Without a doubt, we understand how busy you are. Despite your busy schedule you accepted to serve your Community and Ebiraland. We thank you!

At this moment I urge Engineer Onipe to update our Executive Members information on our website and the National General Secretary and Assistant Gen, Secretary to make amendments to our constitution of the new role and Responsibility of a Public Relation Officer and grant Writing Committee Chairperson of EVI.

Such Amendment must be reviewed and ratified by the Executives. Therefore, I asked the National Gen. Secretary to start working on that as soon as possible. Our efforts will not be in vain by God's grace (Amen).

I urge all members to be actively involved in our organization. Remember, that a service to Ebiraland, Nigeria, Africa and the world is a noble service which we should all be proud about. Furthermore, we must humble ourselves as we serve our Motherland and the world. God Bless EVI, Ebiraland, Nigeria, Africa and world at large.

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

EVI Monthly Meeting-Minutes of the meeting November 9, 2006.

2006-12-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

Posted By: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi
Written By: Dr. Sunday Abraham Okomanyi

November 9, 2006 Meeting Minutes
EVI Monthly Meeting

Attendees: Mr. Mathew Raji, Mr.Boyi Jimoh, Dr. Yakubu Ochetengwu, Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Madam Miriam Ikunaiye and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

President’s Opening Speech
The president thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting. The president introduced a new member, Madam Miriam Ikunaiye, a journalist and who is strongly involved in a non-profit project geared toward rendering a variety of assistance in Africa.

The president also informed the participants of the meeting that a baby girl has been born into the family of Dr. Thelma and Dr. Stephen. The president asks everyone to send a congratulatory message to this family. Madam Miriam Ikunaiye will be traveling across West Africa to promote virtual incubator network and she promises to get in touch with some of the home-based members for acquaintance.

Highlights of the October 2006 meeting minutes
The main item of discussion during the October meeting was about the $2000 sent home as an aid to the victims of the Ihima crisis. As per Dr. Ochetengwu, the home-based members were planning on raising additional 100,000 naira.

The other item discussed was dues and donations.

Update from Home-based Members on Providing Aid to Victims?

According to Dr. Ochetengwu, the home-based members met with the OHI of Okehi LGA to discuss about the means of providing the victims with food stuff and clothing. The OHI was very excited about this mission. The home-based members have been able to raise 80,000 naira thus far in addition to the $2000. The distribution of food stuff and clothing will tentatively take place on December 26-27, 2006. The event will be videoed and pictures will be taken.

Dues and Donations
The president informed the participants that dues and donations can now be paid through the website directly. The General Secretary some people have already made use of direct payment through the website and that several others plan to pay soon. Regarding collecting dues from the Europe, specifically Germany, Mr. Raji Mathew informed us that the collection of dues and donation will be central in their discussion in the upcoming regional meeting. The president clarified to Dr. Yakubu Ochetengwu that each region will maintain their own account for donations received but every member is obliged to contribute dues to the central account.

NEXT AGM IN MARYLAND, USA

The President reminds everyone that the next AGM will take place in Maryland, USA in April during the Easter holiday. Invitation will be sent to everyone sometimes in January 2007. Each region is advised to start raising money to send at least one person to this meeting. There is a huge community of Anebira in Maryland and so, a good turn out is expected. The help of Madam Miriam Ikunaiye will be sought in rallying the Anebira in Maryland.

New Executive Position

The President nominated Madam Miriam Ikunaiye as Public Relation Officer and Grant Writing Committee Chair and this nomination has passed the approval process.

Other

1) The president advises everyone to register as a member of EVI through the EVI’s website (www. ebiravonyainenrational.org). We intend to conduct most of our activities through the website but first a complete list of members on the website is required. While registering, please ensure that you provide your photograph.

2) All the participants commented on the good work performed by Abraham Okomanyi on the website.

Next Monthly Meeting
Our next meeting will be in January next year.

Meeting Adjourned
The president adjourned the meeting.

President’s Suggestion After the Adjournment of the Meeting

The President also would like EVI to offer financial assistance to Ebiraview to pay for their website for a year. As there is no objection from the executive members, EVI will carry on with providing the necessary assistance to Ebiraview.

Africa: Under the Boost of Western Empire

2006-12-09T20:53:00.001-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written By: Miriam Ikunaiye
Email: info@etemeya.com

Africa: Under the Boots of Western Empire
Tue, Nov 29, 2006

Decades of misconduct of Western nations in African continent through selfish military and economic policies designed to access and plunder Africa's wealth at the expense of Africa's people has just been jacked up. According to the recent article in http://www.businessdayonline.com/ “The sum of N6.4-billion (E40-million) has been approved by the European Union (EU) to support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) towards successful conduct of 2007 general elections” in Nigeria. You can say that again; usual old trick of falsely pretending to be the friends of African countries while in reality they are foes in pursuit of their own selfish agenda. In the West, buying of election is a fraud and a misdemeanor or felony; depending on the state. It is punishable by a $500 fine, 90 days in prison, or both and so applies to Africa; Nigeria, to be specific. What does the EU get for donating to this worthy cause? Build relationships with the Nigerian key decision makers.
Without a doubt, policy makers are greatly influenced by their donors. This funding is purely to sponsor corrupt and malleable officials, brainwashed to be sympathetic to the EU government and corporate activities in Nigeria at the expense of the Nigerian masses. What about the Western claim of "Africa's problems are African made?" Whereas, for decades, Western policy toward Africa has always seek destabilization rather than stabilization and has been to support dictators and military leaders who assumed power by force. Remember the psychic (National Intelligence Council) prediction of the collapse of Nigeria in 2020? Of course, it is very easy to predict a man’s downfall when you've had him set up by the cliff’s edge.
EU's claim for support for democracy is a sham and here is why
Before the imposed Western values, African societies rely on communal efforts which promote peace and love while strengthening democracy. In contrast is capitalism, so ingrained in the collective psyche of Western society. Capitalism is the paradigm that drives the economic and the philosophical engines of Western world. How could democracy exist in a plutocracy— a system in which haves govern have-nots. Capitalism is the direct opposite of democracy. Therefore, how could you advocate democracy when you do not have one? Hence, no democracy intended in Western policies toward Africa. Instead they are made to make us suffer and expire at the altar of corporate greed; we are condemned to dispose our goods for pennies in order to generate enormous wealth for Western corporate CEOs. Western policies set Africa's people against each other; to die in wars, and ethnic conflicts— a device used to engage us from seeking advancement while they freely usurp our fabulous wealth.
Here we are; millions in the Diaspora, sitting in the limbo, brain-drained with dreams half fulfilled, always the second best, left to scramble for the Western crumbs that fall from the top down, yet too naïve to advocate homecoming.
To make matter worse, EU and America are no longer immigrant-friendly. The new policy, full of clauses is a reminder of the reversible-citizenship confronting immigrants. Running short of morons in the globalization era and coupled with increasing public awareness on Western stage-manage policies, I can honestly understand why these giants can no longer house both invited and uninvited guests.
Nigeria has Africa's largest population, estimated at over 130 million, including 250 ethnic groups out of which estimated 15 millions are in the Diaspora. Out of Nigeria's $20 billion annual income, 40% is lost to corruption and mismanagement. For these reasons alone, we should all, together, be saying loudly to the Western world to desist from evil propaganda that clearly stems destabilization, killings, hunger and poverty in Africa. If we stand firm and do not waiver, history will change for the better. To give up is to give up both the adopted nation and our beloved Africa. I am optimistic, the unification of the African’s poor will one day force the West to fess up to their evil policies, put in place to protect the financial interests of their wealthy investors; open world markets to the exploitation of cheap labor.

Click to read original article West's Involvement in Nigerian Election

EVI Website Future and Present Enhancement

2006-11-27T21:50:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

Written by: Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi

Hello Andayi,

I do believe you are all doing well.

At the time the President sent out the below message alerting you to the availability of the membership registration feature on the ebiravonyainternational.org site, I was still in the process of updating the site and fixing associated bugs. One of the obvious bugs was that the image upload was not working as required. I have fixed the bugs now and I have also refreshed the database, which means that the data for those of you that have already registered will be lost. The people affected are Joseph Akomodi, Onipe Suberu and Kabir Ismail. These individuals would have to re-register again. I do apologize for any inconveniences.

I implore you to try to register only once and as the site will only catch duplicate registrations if and only if you try to use the same login name but if you use a different login name there is no way the site will know that the registration is a duplicate. So, please register only once.

Here are the currently deployed features:
1. Ability to Register by clicking the Join Us link
2. Ability to login to members' area once suucessfully registered by clicking the Login link and entering your login information
3. Once logged in, the landing page provides you with the ability to
a. View the details of your profile
b. View the profiles of other registered members
c. Pay your annual dues to EVI account through Paypal
4. Also, you can also now make donation to EVI by clicking the Make Donation link

The following are features to come in the nearest future:
1. Ability to edit your profile information
2. Birthday alert on the landing page (the dashboard) for members celebrating their birthdays in the current month
3. Ability to send e-mails to selected members through t he site once logged in
4. Ability to upload publications and articles to the site - restricted to only the admin user
5. Ability to view such articles or publications that have been uploaded
6. Ability to reset your password
7. Ability to retrieve your login information if you forget it

Please let me know if you have any other suggested features you would like to see on the site. Due to my busy schedule, I am not able to turn around changes to site as fast as desired. This time, I had to use the Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend to work on the above available features.

Thanks!

Abraham O. Okomanyi
B.Eng, M.Eng, MISM, PMP
CEO ABEConsult International Incorporated
Atlanta, U.S.A.

EVI Website Enhancement by Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi

2006-11-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

Written and Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I am delighted to bring to your notice that EVIs' website has been enhanced by our dynamic Treasurer - Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi. It is available to us to join the Organization through our website, pay dues by members only, login to access information, we could also download pictures of a normal size to the website. I urge all members to have their pictures posted with their info so that we can identify each others and begin to know ourselves.

Donations can be made by members and non members. It is so easy just click on donations icon. It is self explanatory. I have tried the website by making donations to confirmed that it works. You can also print receipt of your payment. You can have account with paypal to monitor all your contributions. The annual dues for Europe and North America is $250 U.S. dollars. I urge all members to click on "Join Us" it will take you through the process as easy as ABC. When you join, to be able to view members' profile you have to login with your Users ID and password.

Remember that students' annual dues as agreed upon is 50% of $250 dollars , which is $125 dollars per year. This annual dues affects those of us leaving in Europe and North America. The amount for Nigeria members and Asia is different, contact your Regional Representative to find out how much. You should be aware that you don't have to make the whole amount of annual dues at once. You can be making installments payment month by month or week by week but by the end of the year, you most have made a total sum of $250 dollars for that year.

If you have not make payment of your dues for year the 2006, please go straight to our website: http://www.ebiravonyainternational.org/ Click on "Join Us" then after you are done with the info. go back and login with your user ID and password which you have previously entered. It is that simple. We also urge all members who can to make some contributions. Remember that at the end of the year you can use that as tax write off. Every penny counts no matter how small. Therefore, join me in your dues payment and making donations. God bless you all.

To the General Secretary, on behalf of the Organization you need to send an official thank you letter to Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi for his splendid work on our Letter heading.

Thanks for your cooperation in this endeavor! "Join Now and Join All."

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

15 Killed in Ebira Communal Clash

2006-11-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr Joseph Ozigis Akomod, Ph.D.

This day/Distributed by African Global Media ( AllAfrica.com)

The Chairman of Okehi Local Government area of Kogi State, Mallam AbdulRahman Danga has put the death toll in last week's communal crisis between the Emani and Ohionwa clans in Ihima district at 15.
The council chief confessed that the figure were those that were seen and enumerated officially and added that there are reports of casualties that were not reported.
Danga who gave the official casualty figure to Governor Ibrahim Idris on Sunday who was on spot assessment visit to the crisis- prone area, lamented that the crisis has made the people of the area destitute as they abandoned their home stead to live elsewhere.
But the governor who regretted the communal crisis vowed not to spare anybody linked with the crisis no matter the status or political standing of the patrons of the crisis.
The governor's riot act was on the heels of the allegations that his deputy, Phillips Salawu who hails from the community and the embattled Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim might have been part of the crisis as a continuation of their struggle for the control of the area.
Idirs said that the crisis was avoidable if the people had not listened to rumour or hearsay or had embraced dialogue.
Idris who fell short of describing the act as influenced by madness said, "it is easy to destroy but hard to reconstruct. You can destroy about 100 houses but you cannot build those 100 houses in 20 years. Why then do we need to destroy our property and burn our houses?"
The governor ruled out any payment of compensation to the victims of the crisis, saying doing that would be tantamount to encouraging the perpetrators.
He lamented that the crisis was a contradiction of the peace move initiated by the state government to bring the warring clans together.
Idiris who was shocked after going through the troubled areas and listened to the explanation of Dnga burst out, "enough is enough. Government will not take kindly to these senseless and mindless destruction of lives and property in the name of pursuing a communal agenda that has no basis".
The council chief who conducted the governor round the trouble areas hinted that the names of the perpetrators from the two clans have been compiled and submitted to security agencies for appropriate action.
The council chief added that the hoodlums approached the crisis in a war manner, inscribing the name of a conqueror clan on a conquered place.
"Your Excellency Sir, it is our belief that if the perpetrators are arrested, there will be peace in Ihima and that is why we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the perpetrators face the music."
Copyright This Day. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com)

Ebirra Peace Project: Another Clarion Call.

2006-11-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

Forwarded to be Posted by: Miriam Ikunaiye

Written by: Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye

EBIRRA PEACE PROJECT: ANOTHER CLARION CALL.

It was sometime in June, 2005, a group of young men gathered in Abuja to deliberate on issues that has to do with the security to life and properties in Ebirraland.

This, of course, has occupied main discussions among the people of this area in both seminars and privates concerns. It would be recalled that, at the close of the decade of eighties, a new dimensions entered into our lives; even though, thuggery and other sorts of violent behaviours characterised our daily lives but the introduction of negative ritual activities that surfaced left much to be desired.

So, in the nineties, the height of these menace was reached: scores of innocent souls were lost through violent and ritual activities. These has really brought to us negative pictures and required that something must be done.

These imperatives are what prompted these young men to embark on what is now known as Ebirra Peace Project (EPP). The principal actors are :-
Alh. Abubarkar Imam (Chairman)
Shaibu Chatta (National Coordinator)
Saqeed Saeed – Siasia (Secretary General).

This organization operates on a tight financial back-up. They have, nevertheless, embarked on a door to door campaign and at the same time assist the youth to subsidized their fees at schools. The body also take it upon itself to disseminate important information to through the local media known as Ebicom Newspaper and some time through personal contacts.

Recently, they met with this special correspondent in Nigeria to explain their own side of the story and as for understanding. They also promised to visit and patronize Etemeya News Magazine Website since the website has become a popular channel information among our people here and in diaspora.
Long live EPP.
Long live Ebirra People
Long Live Nigeria .
Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye.

When Anti-Crime Officers Came Calling.

2006-11-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

Forwarded to be Posted by: Miriam Ikunaiye

Written by: Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye

WHEN ANTI-CRIME OFFICERS CAME CALLING.
At the beginning it was like occassional harrasment of hoodlums by the state security services (SSS). But this time around it is a different ball game entirely.

The slave master is at war with his wards and his wards lost their security, confidence and “glory”. The Anticrime officers were drafted from the mobile police, the State Security Services (SSS) and, the Directorate of Military intelligence (DMI).

On the 26th of September, the squard, known as SASS (Special Anticrime Security Services) arrived in Okene via Lokoja to embark on a total cleansing of the crime prone neigbourhoods.
The first casualty was one Momojimoh (alias Emjay) in Adavi Local Government Area. This was followed immediately by the arrest of the notorious gangstar leader who was previously an informant with the police departments in Kogi, Edo and Ondo states. He is by name Ilyasu (informant). Ofcourse he was in the police in Lokoja to rescue his gang member that was in the police net. He had collected money from the kinsmen of the boy (Emjay) for the rescue operation. Unfortunately, he met his waterloo.

A record of forty criminals, thugs and street urchins has been arrested so far as at the close of last week, the 17th of November, 2006.

Therefore, the recently concluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election was peaceful due to this mass arrest. Kogi state would have been worse than any elsewhere.

However, the chieftain of these things and criminals the Chairman of Okene Local government, Alh. Salihu Ohize was caught napping as a result of wards that were arrested. This has created a serious dent on his political carreer.

Though, the SASS Operation continues and peace now reigns everywhere. The Operation cut across the entire Ebirraland. So the struggle continues.

Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye.

Clan as a Vehicle of peace in Ebiraland

2006-11-22T19:49:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written by: Mr. Mathew Raji Andah

April 28th, 2006
The inferno of communal violence threatening to wipe Ebiraland from the face of the earth is man made and the clans are the epicentres. Any serious attempt to douse the flames of this inferno must involve the heads of all the clans in the land who command considerable influence. They can prevail on the heads of all the abara and the heads of all the families under them. Responsible family heads in turn triumph over its members.
You may have forgotten which clan you belong to or the meaning of the word until you step onto Ebira soil. The pervasiveness of clannish sentiment is thick in the air. You smell it, feel it, see it and hear it. It is part of the vocabulary of the salutation, its invocation conveys sign of seriousness and no praise due to a man or woman is complete without mentioning the clan. Some Anebira even suggested the inclusion of clans in the questionnaire of the just concluded national census. No tribe is as discriminating and selective in Nigeria as the Ebira.
It is often said, without any justification, that Kogi State was created for us and that we ought to be the one running it as if Anebira are its only inhabitants. The reality however is that Kogi is a multiethnic state. Coming to the helm of its government, at least in the current dispensation, is through the sophisticated science of politics and electoral contest that requires the presentation of a formidable and enlightened candidate with a deep understanding of the issues and a strong support of the generality of Anebira. The candidate must also have solid following in the west and east senatorial districts. So far, Anebira have failed woefully on this score.
The failure to unite behind a formidable candidate, eschew clan chauvinism and engage in politics based on the actual and practical needs of Anebira rather than on equity and power shift is highlighted by the emphasis on the rotation of all elective posts amongst all the clans in the land. During the primaries on the 3rd January 2003 in Lokoja, there were roughly as many candidates as clans in Ebiraland paying N3 million each in the race to secure the nomination of the PDP. All of them stood their ground, convinced of their superiority and invincibility despite the fact that the total share of their delegates, divided between them, would not be enough for any of the Ebira contestants to win. It took a re-run when no clear winner emerged from the first balloting for dishonest deals to be made. Mr. AT Ahmed, the ex-chairman of the Nigeria Port Authority, two-term senator and the self styled godfather of Ebira politics lost the re-run to Mr. Ibrahim Idris an Igalaman and a hotelier who went on to win the governorship race in Kogi State three years ago.
The rivalries and the bitterness of the Lokoja primaries were carried over to the post-election period. Factions emerged within the ranks of the PDP in Ebiraland. Mr. AT Ahmed, Mr. Momoh Obaro, the late Dr. John Lawal, Mr.Philip Salawu, Ambassador Usman Bello and Mr.Nasiru Soso are leaders of opposing factions with the core base of support drawn mainly from the members of their respective clans, relatives and circle of friends. They build tenuous alliances with like-minded politicians in the west and eastern senatorial districts. Some of the factional leaders have amassed modest wealth from years in the public service. Others run moderately successful private business. They use their extensive contacts in both the state and federal ministries or corporations to procure lucrative contracts the proceeds of which are used to finance and arm the standing paramilitaries. Weapons smuggled into Nigeria made their way into Ebiraland, some are bought or stolen from the weapons cache of the Nigerian army and the police. The incidence of politically motivated attacks, contract killings and hired assassins, previously unheard of, are now rife in the area.
The politicians play up the clans in Ebiraland like pawns against each other. Ogu and the Omoye are engaged in endless and needless debate over the owner of Okene. They hardly agree on any political issue. Idealists have always dreamt of a united, indivisible Ebiraland but the fact is that the allegiance of Anebira is strongest to their respective clans. Disagreement or dissent is to be expected in a pluralist Ebiraland where people are of different religious, clannish and political persuasions. The method used in expressing such disagreement or dissent is the true test of whether Ebira would survive this century or become extinct like the Nok culture. The leaders of Ebiraland deserve commendation for adopting clan character, the practice of rotating elective positions such as the chairpersons of the local governments, members of the state and national assemblies among the various clans of the land before the practice become hip in other parts of the country.
The same principle of rotation applies to succession to the various chieftaincies. Titles such as Anayiwa, Asema, Obobanyi, Ozumi, Ohitakpe, Ohioviza and others are rotated amongst the abara of the appropriate clans. All the clans have their specific portion of land under the tenure system in Ebiraland making a big landlord out of the clan heads. Traditionally, succession to the clan heads and other Chieftaincies occurs through the fairly well defined lineage in the clans but over time, interference from the government, the proceeds from the sale of clan lands and the social esteem associated with succession have conspired to stoke up and accentuate some disputes arising from the exalted thrones. None of the thrones compare in significance, power, prestige and contention to the Ohindase and the Ohinoyi.
The Ohindase is a second-class chief and reputed to be the first indigenous chieftaincy in Ebiraland. Dogged controversy has always trailed the institution since its inception. Ete-Oniyewa, the powerful symbol of the Ohindase has been the cause of war between the communities of Adavi and Okengwe in the early 18th century. The illegal transfer of Ete-Oniyewa is documented as the cause of the first offer of a man as sacrifice in Ebiraland. Originally the exclusive preserve of the Avi, the Ohindase is now rotated between the Avi, Omavi, Omoye and the Evini, an abara in the Ogu clan. The inclusion of other clans in the line of succession was meant as a reward to the so-called Ozi Ohindase, someone from the clans, which participated in the war for the possession of Ete-Oniyewa. The present Ohindase, Chief Stephen Bello, 57, on the throne since January 19 77 is widely regarded as the first with a western education, Christian and most modern in the line of successors. In May 2005, contention and rioting have ensued with respect to the Ohindase as a result of some revisionist claim to the right of succession by the Eyire clan. The Ohindase receives N192, 000 per annum. He is the vice chairman of the Ebira Area Traditional Council, member of the Kogi State Council of Chiefs as well as member of Ebira Land Allocation Committee.
Politicians have complained bitterly about the marginalisation of Ebiraland in the scheme of things since the creation of Kogi state on the 27th of August 1991. They point to the fact that only the Ohinoyi is a first class chief in the Central senatorial district, whereas Kogi East and West have 5 and 4 respectively. A recent reorganisation in the state’s traditional council was supposed to partly address this imbalance but the ill-advised decision to create a brand new traditional institution, the Adanihima of Ihima, as a first class chief to be rotated amongst the six clans of Ihima ended up pitching two of the dominant clans against each other. Until January this year and as recently as last week, violent incidents have been restricted to low intensity outbursts and verbal attacks during performances by Avereho, a night masquerade from the Emani clan and Arijewnu, the rival from the Ohogwa clan.
The Obobanyi of Ihima, Mallam Lawal Siaka Okaraga, a second-class Chief on the throne since 1985 hails from the Edima, one of the seven abaras of the Emani clan and his supporters felt slighted by the elevation of a nascent traditional institution. Such an elevation would automatically dislodge the incumbent Obobanyi from the coveted post of the Chairman of the Okehi Local Government Traditional Council and ushered in another first class Chief in Ebiraland. In the circumstance, an alliance has emerged between Alhaji Ado Ibrahim, the Atta III as he prefers to be called and Mallam Okaraga, the Obobanyi of Ihima who blamed Mr. Philip Salawu, the deputy governor in charge of reorganising the state’s traditional council for the imminent threat to their prestige and influence. The Ohogwa, singled out for attack were perceived as the embodiment of the brand new Adanihima of Ihima.
The Ohinoyi, a creation of the colonial masters has evolved into the most influential and powerful institution in Ebiraland. Succession to the Ohinoyi, a first-class chief and vice chairman of the Kogi State Traditional Council on an annual pay of N276, 000 has never been trouble-free. Politicisation, corruption, selfishness, high-handedness and partiality have eroded the respect and prestige of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland. The controversy surrounding the appointment of the incumbent Ohinoyi is one of the longest running court cases in Kogi State and much of the violence in the land originated from that controversy.
Ebira must be rescued from crossing the tiny line of endangered specie into extinction. Patriotic Anebira must act, go home and talk to the heads of the family, abara, clans, members of the Ebira Area Traditional Council, religious and political leaders, women and youth groups as to the causes of the troubles and relay your findings to the government of the day for further action. The civic society in Ebira must also be prepared to work towards the reduction of the violence, enthrone orderliness and the peaceful coexistence of all Anebira and other inhabitants of Ebiraland.
The Raji Report
9 People had this to say...
Abdulkabir Said...
Andai,
I must admit, this article is a must read. Though it appears to be a personal analysis of the author over Ebira crisis, it is more revealing than many other similar reports on the subject matter.
Akoro, Mr. Andah
April 29th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Raji Ganiyu Said...
Akoro my man,
I think you need to be among the deligate Ebira Vonya International (EVI) is planningnow to send to our beloved land. Infact, I am highly impressed about your report. N:B I think you need to prepare to take one of the first class chiefif not at home, we can install you here as our Anebira first class chief,Germany.
Once again weldone.
April 29th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi Said...
Dear Mr. Mathew Raji Andah,
I am amazed with the level of indept understanding of the issues in Ebiraland you eroded. You are definitely gifted in your knowledge about Anebiras. You have hit the nail on the head. I will recomend you to EVI Executives as one of our delegates who will be representing the organization at home. Your analysis was well written and right to the point. EVI is gladdened to have you as one of our stunch member and also European Regional Rep as well.
Your involvement across all spentrum cannot be overemphasized. You are truely a leader and a writer. I will urge Engr. Onipe to immediately download this report to our website. All Anebiras in the Diaspora must read Raji’s Report.
Thank you for the light you have thrown into the real problems at home. God bless EVI! God bless Ebira view for desemination of the Report!! God bless Anebiras!!! and God bless Ebiraland!!!! God bless the entire Nigeria!!!!!
Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.National PresidentEbira Vonya International
April 29th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Miriam Ikunaiye Said...
It is unfortunate and tragic that we as a people so rich in culture and full of history have found ourselves in this mess. Until we learn to appreciate and recognize those who really care about us, just until that time we will be able to progress. Way back in Ilorin days; in Kwara Tech and all, I remember one particular senator from okene whose children were too ashamed to associate with Ebiras. Not only were they answering to Yoruba names, they preferred to be identified as one. An eldest daughter of his, a lawyer by profession was interviewed by the Guardian news paper and she was quoted saying she was “from somewhere in kwara state,” then Ebira was part of Kwara state. Obviously these children felt some resentment for Ebira. Yet, at each political period their father gets elected to the Senate without a glitch. Meanwhile, at the same time, in the same city, people like Musa Etudaye, Usman Bello, Dan Ikunaiye and few others have their doors open 24 hours to any soul that speaks Ebira. They gave assistance to many in respect to financial, education and employment. The last time I heard about royal recognition award flying around, names of the above Samaritans were clearly missing. As my father always say, adopt the principle of “inna na wa” (hausa) “Eza mi ya” (ebira). The literally meaning is learning to question things, evaluate your loss and your gain over that of your user. A typical example is, a politician wanting to buy your vote for two thousand naira; he gets elected and makes two hundred and fifty thousand naira a month. Will you not rather bargain with him to keep his money but to build a school that will benefit your children and grand children? As usual, all information is useful and Raji report is very informative.Miriam
April 30th, 2006 at 4:13 am
Sunday Okomanyi Abraham Said...
Dear Mr. Raji Mathew Andah,
I have read many of your reports but this present one is simply masterpiece. I am amazed at how current you are on these issues. Some of the issues you have addresed in your report were discussed during the EVI conference in Atlanta on April 15. This is what we need; the truth, an understanding of the fundamental of the crisis at home and strategies to employ in the search for resolution of these problems. Please keep it up!
Kind regards,
Sunday Okomanyi AbrahamEVI General Secretary
April 30th, 2006 at 4:37 am
Yakubu Ovosi Ibrahim Said...
Mr. Raji Mathew Andah,I appreciate your contribution. to solve any of our problems we must know the courses and the nature of the problem, how bad in relation to other problems. that is exactly what you are doing. you have sincerely brought the truth to us and we will begin our analysis. may God Almighty Allah give us the power to make peace in our home town.thank you (Avo)
May 1st, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Mr. Yusuf Henry Ovansa Said...
I think that something is wrong with Anebira. Why do some Clan should feel more superior than the other, expecially in Ihima. Afterall Inda Okenwe is the Eldest son of Adayi Ebira and they never claim the Ohinoyi of Ebira Land title as their property. This should be liken to Ihima. Emani should understand that the 6 Clans of Ihima are all the children of Inya Ihima and so therefore, they should all rotate the First Class title. One Clan should not feel more superior than the other because God give every body different talents. If we should exist in this new age, all Anebiras should come together and agree on modarlities of enthroning new Ohinoyi, Ohindase, Asema, Obobanyi, Adeika, Otu etc to avert calamities in future. No clan is inferior to the other afterall we call our selves Anebira.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Danjuma Mohammed Said...
I must say you have really tried in writing this article and the fact that you are in picture of what exactly is happening in Ebiraland given the fact that you are not at home. Thats Good!!! But i have this to ask you, Do you believe in the introduction of new Title that is the aclaimed first class chief or The fact that the present second class chief could be elevated to first class status?
The problem in Ebiraland today is more of selfish interest and lack of forgiving heart by our self acclaimed politicians.It is if and only if they have a change of heart and mental disposition towards eachother and ebiraland as a whole can we have a headway.
The primaries you talked about, we lost it because the two horses( Sen. A.T Ahmed and AbdulAziz Farouk) then refuse to forgive eachother and as God will have it, we lost the primaries and subsequently the election proper.
It is important we have a forgiving heart, because as for me i was not brought up in okene but came back home since early nineties and i do not really attach much importance to all this clanish thing.And forgiving people seems just too important for me…..
Mr. Yusuf Henry Ovansa, i think you are misinterpreting things here no clan feel superior than other,but if you say so you might be right somehow. What we actually have here is that, in every society we have elder and younger and i think this is what is happening. The elder clan feels they should be respected as elders and not making any clan inferior than themself.
Thank You. Commenting From Okene…..
May 11th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Ado Ebako Said...
well its very unfortunate what is happening in Ihima and Ebiraland at large.instead of our educated elight planing and focusing their energy on how we can move our dear land forword,all they are intrested upon is what benefited them.in everyland all traditional rulers has what roles they play in the soceity.can anyone kindly educate me what will be the roles of OHI in Ebiraland?I was there and i Saw the destructuon made in the name of OHI.destruction is waiting for those who course destruction on the land.
September 21st, 2006 at 10:43 am

Letter to Chief Momoh Obaro - Kogi State Gubernatorial Aspirant

2006-11-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

Posted and written by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

Dear Chief Momoh Obaro, Gubernatorial Aspirant of Kogi State:

Thanks for your e-mail and words of advise to EVI in general. Regarding the recent e-mail between me and the National Chairman, I do not considered it as a quarrel. Mr Chairman raised some issues which I think needs to be addressed. My e-mail is to clarify his worries. The organization of this magnitude needs check and balances. What has happened, I considered it to be healthy conversation between the National Chairman and I. May be we should not have brought it to the open. That is looking at it at another dimension.

The EVI is up and running all for the benefit of Anebiras. We have reached the point of no return. The EVI strongly support the National Chairman to be the Chair of the Organization. No one can dispute it. His silence for a while is best know to him. He was aware in all of the meetings. He was informed on several occasions to join us at the meeting which is web based. He can attend the meeting at the comfort of his home. We have more vibrant members than ever. I am getting calls from the diaspora on a daily basis. As soon as any sons and daughters of our land discovered the existence of this body they called for more information and how to become a member.

We the Executives, since the start of the monthly meetings, had had meaningful discussions. For any organization to function there must be transparency and that is what EVI have showed and continued to demonstrate to all and its' ability to unite all Anebiras. We are not at all divided thinking of how to bring us together. We respect our National Chairman, and the contribution he has to offer to the Organization. We urge him to attend all of our meetings and he will earn all the respect of our members. His refusal to attend meetings, is seen by many of us as being immature. What had happened in the past is forgotten by all members. We do not think it is to the interest of anyone to revisit the issues we have resolved and moved on. His views are his views and his pride are his pride. We have to put all that aside to govern and serve for the interest of all Anebiras. So that in years to come, our children's' children will be able to carry the touch that will continue to illuminate for ever and ever (Amen).

The monthly Executive meetings which takes place on a monthly basis, is not just North America alone but all the five Regions. Region one, two three and five have always participated. I duff my hat for them. EVI is a global organization, therefore the idea of decentralization without check and balances will not be appropriate. As we move on, I will expect to see branches in big Cities such as New York, Los Angele's, Boston, Florida Toronto, London Moscow, Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano etc to emerge. This will further facilitate the raising of funds and bringing more innovative programs to our land, Kogi State, Nigeria and the world at large. The vision is there and we will make it work. For example, EVI Region 5 New York Branch, EVI Region 5 Toronto Branch etc. That will lean towards decentralization with check and balances, which make it even more global with unified body.

EVI is a benevolent organization for the generality of Anebira, it is not an Institution set up to be governed by an individual. While it exists to serve the interest of all Anebira or while our plight is to unite everyone, EVI will not hestitate to weed out any individual including the National President and National Chairman that attempts to use it in his or her own interest and exert or vest personnal opinions on others. The greater mass of Anebira we serve is far more greater than just loosing a member. EVI will stick to its own constitution and will not tolerate an attempt to circumvent its effort to bring peace to Anebira. We urge all members to demonstrate respect, maturity, intelligence and flexibility in dealing with each other. These attributes are the very things that are missing in our society and since these things are EVI's traits, we will use them to determine who is part of the organization.

The aspect of face to face meeting can happen not on a monthly basis but annually. Which we feel at this point all the Regions should be encouraged to have annual meeting at their respective Regions. The western Europe started this which we considered to be very effective under the leadership of Mathew Raji Andah.

My special advise to those of you who are Politicians back at home to come together as one voice, one body, one Ebirans regardless of your background, the party you belong to or the clan you belong to, put all these aside and unite as one front to have any headway during 2007 Gubernatorial race in Kogi State.

I wish all our members in North America and in the diaspora HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

God Bless EVI! God Bless Ebiraland!! God Bless Nigeria and the World at large!!!

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D. National President Ebira Vonya International New York, USA phone: 718-484-0351 cell: 917-570-6876 e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.comglobal e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

A Letter From Chief Momoh Obaro - Kogi State Gubernatorial Candidate

2006-11-20T01:01:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

My dear President,

I have not visited this site for quite sometime now because as you know politics is heating up and that is taking a good chunk of my time. I came to the site yesterday and started reading the exchanges between you and the Mr. Chairman: Alfred Salami. As you will predict i am awfully disappointed. I was disappointed on several grounds. When EVI announced its debut some two years ago, the hopes of those of us at home were raised thinking that our sons and daughters in diaspora have risen to the occasion of intervening in our intractable problem. our hope was raised because we believed that our sons and daughters have overcome this jinx that Anebira cannot work or do somethings together. we believe that you have overcome the jinx because of your exposure and having left our land for such a long time you must have acquired new skill to hand human relationship.
So that when you invited us to London last year for the first EVI conference our hope was more heightened. one of the people who indicated the desire to participate liken the conference to the Nigerian conference of the 60s at the commomwealth office when Nigerian problem was discussed and resolved. The fellow said that was how the Ebira problem would be resolved at that conference. Needless to say that though the turnout was below expectation, a big progress was made. what we expect from the EVI was for the decision at the conference to be implemented but instead we are seeing some petty quarrels between the chairman and Mr. President. We must not allow this to happen.

what needs to be done now?
1. You need to spare us of these quarrels. Ebira nation is too traumatized to be given the gift of these quarrels. If you cannot help us do not add to our pains. whatever the differences between you please sort it out.
2. Make it your goal to make EVI a strong and virile body that can bring in all the Ebiras in diaspora. the organization first should meet the needs of its members in diaspora before delving into the problem at home. if i must mentioned it to you, the other groups in Kogi are having very functional group meetings that have annual conference. Please i beg you in the name of Ohiku anebira make EVI that kind of body
3. to run a global body is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. the key to make the organization effective is decentralization. the group in NEW YORK has been functioning by your monthly meeting but other areas must be made to function too. we should be concerned with what happens to EVI in Europe, Asia and Africa too. Even America is too big for just one group. because the cost of transportation to attend meeting will soon be too overbearing for people to be able to bear them. I still think while the power of on-line communication is very important, there is still an aspect of face to face meeting that cannot be replaced by the power of Internet. we need socialization too.
4. finally I offer to mediate between the President and the Chairman so that this matter can be laid to rest once and for all. if this is acceptable to members lets me know.
I thank everybody who has shown one concern or the other for our fatherland. I thank EVI for the $2000 you raised to solve a problem at home. Everybody contribution matters. If you send a dollar to your old parents at home it is contribution. If you pay a school fees for your cousins and brothers and sisters it is a contribution. Even when you offer to own a property at home you are contributing to development. if you help a relative to establish a business at home it is a contribution. this contribution from a wide perspective must be acknowledged. I thank all of you on behalf of our land who have even spare a thought for our father land.
May the good Lord bless you all. Amen.

Chief Momoh Obaro

A Letter from the National Chairman - Mr. Alfred Salami

2006-11-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Colleagues,

For a long time now I have kept a low profile to let the sleeping dog lie in order to allow the "experts" to carry on running the organisation in their own ways. However, I have continued to follow developments very closely. Whilst it is not my intention to wake up the sleeping dog now, I could not but air my view on what I think is double standard on the current development regarding the article by the National President "Your Move Mr. President. Why we went to war in Iraq".

Whilst I do not quarrel with his commentary but only a year ago I was trying to do the right thing by extending invitations to our brothers and sisters from Ebira community to invite them to a meeting to discuss the political crisis in Ebira land and on that occasion there was a concerted efforts by some group of people in the organisation who did their very best to castigate and crucified me because it was seen by them as talking to politicians which I was told was against our constitution.

If we take that scenario and compare it to the President's article which has been put across under the auspices of EVI,

I just wonder whether our constitution has changed since then OR is it the case that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander OR could it be that the whole efforts by the group then was pure hypocrisy or pure hatred. How can we run an organisation with rules to suit when it is convenient for some?. If the rules apply then I just wonder why not now.

I have always believed that if EVI is ever going to make any impact on the problems of our community we must talk to all concerned be they politicians or anyone else as long as we do not get engaged in party politics. I leave you to decide for yourself what you think.

Thanks

Alfred Salami

National Chairman.

Response to the National Chairman of EVI's letter - Mr. Alfred Salami

2006-11-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Dear National Chairman, Mr. Alfred A. Salami:

After series of e-mails I have sent to you to join us in our monthly meeting. You have decided at this point to come out an voice your opinion. If I had known that my reaction to an article which was placed on our secondary website will get your attention, I will have done that long time ago. I just want you to remember that I have not violated the constitution by commenting to an article which was published in www.frontpagemag. com Our Secondary website is not our permanent website. This is a web to store information until our main website is enhanced. If you read the heading of the website it indicated that Ebirans and the world - By EVI. The article you complained about "Your Move, Mr. President." My comment is a reaction to an article in the United States and it has nothing to do with politics either in the United States or Nigeria. I hope I have clarified some of your worries.

I am very open to constructive critics and EVI as whole is open to constructive suggestions on helping our ailing land. I thank you for your contribution at this time, We hope in the near future, you will join us in deliberating on some of the important issues facing our land. By the way we are still waiting for the annual dues from Ebira Vonya International Region 2 members. Please follow the information that the General Secretary have put forward to all members. The details about our account is included in that document. You can also get the account information from our secondary website: www.jakomodebiravon yainternational. blogspot. com

If I may recollect exactly, during our initial formation of EVI, we indicated that we, the Executives have to meet first before inviting our Politicians for a meeting. I do not think any of our members said we must not talk with Politicians. Ebira Politicians are sons and daughters of our land. We therefore, cannot do anything in Ebiraland without them. Our goal is to Unite all Anebiras including Politicians. Our Constitution clearly indicated that we are non profit organization and have no political motives to side one political entity than the other. We must threat and respect each political party that exists in our land. Therefore, we must not side one particular party if our organization want to prosper to bring everlasting change to our land.

We want to unite not divide. Mr. Chairman trust me, we all agreed that you should be fully involved in every activities that goes on in our organization. Thus, all meetings agenda were sent to you by National Secretary. and the minutes of the meetings were always made public. We have nothing to hide. EVI is as transparent as it could be. We have been able to have meaningful discussions amongst the Executives who attends our monthly meetings.

Once again I am grateful for voicing out your mind. Do not go back in the closet for another year.

I would like to thank those of you that have responded to the Chairman's e-mail thus far. We have demonstrated our abilities to unite not divide through the activities going on at home that we exist to serve our people. We will continue to expand our horizon to get everyone with good intention for our motherland on board. We should unite and work hard to prevent our selves from being side tracked from our course. I would therefore, ask everyone of you to move pass this incident without fueling it further. We must demonstrate maturity and intelligence at all times.

God bless EVI! God bless Ebiraland!! and God bless Nigeria and the World at large!!!

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo. com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail. com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogro ups.com

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