Olafemi and the Orgaminana Massacre

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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