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Enugwu-Agidi History - Administrative Structure
Before
the advent of the British in Igbo land in the first
decade of this 20th century, Enugwu-Agidi was
under the external control of Eze Nri. This
control was in the form of ritual sanctions through many codes of
abomination. The interpretation of
these codes, detection of their violation and their application, were
done internally by traditional
religious priests and Nze na Ozo society. Since there was no chieftancy
system as in the North and
West, internal administration was in the hands of
Nze-na-Ozo
society of titled men. Oral accounts of the last period of the
Pre-Warrant Chieftaincy
administration confirmed that whenever there was a need to summon the
town to a meeting, the town
crier (Osu-ekpe), Okaforocha Nwudu from Normu village, would sound the
wooden gong (Ikolo). The
instrument was beaten to sound different notes for different types of
meetings whether it was for an
exclusive class of elders, (Nze-na-Ozo) or for all adults.
The venue of the meetings was
invariably Agaba Dile’s Compound at Eke market square. Until
the advent of colonial
administration, Agaba Dile was the leader of the town both in war and
in peace. He was said to be a
strong and courageous man who so committed to the traditional system
that he carried out his vow not
to see a white man in his lifetime. He in fact died the very day
Europeans came to Enugwu-Agidi for
the first time. Meetings were also held at Ebe-akpaka at Normu for the
execution of decisions that
were connected with rituals; and at Ezi Okolo at Irunnebo village when
such meetings were to deal
with secret matters. Acknowledged spokesmen at such meetings were said
to be Onunkwo, Nwabude,
Onuora Isiona, Muo-Ebene from Etiti village; Nwuzoka and Ilozo Echebu
from Iruobieli village
Nwokafor-Nwanuta from Achalla village; Muokwuo from Normu; Okoye Mba
from Ogwugwu village; Okeke
Nwanyaozo and Nwokafor Chiemegwo from Ifite village and Nwokoye Okonkwo
Ucheke (Okoye Nwagboye’s
father) from Igbolo village. Everybody strictly complied with any
decisions reached at such meetings
in the town. Certain age grades were used in the implementation of some
decisions.
Written
account stated that the British took over the whole
of Southern Nigeria around 1905 and banned Nri ritual system of
external control of the neighboring
towns in 1911. This was done, as stated earlier, by forcing Eze Nri
Obalike who reigned from 1889
– 1935 to openly abrogate all codes of abomination and taboos
in the presence of Igbo leaders. To
put another structure of administration in place of the Eze Nri ritual
system, the Warrant Chief
system which had been in operation in Igbo land in 1911/1912. In his
paper on “The New Structure
of Local Government In The East Central State”, Dr. G.A.
ODENIGWE holds that the “Native Courts
Proclamation of 1900 consolidated the new system of local government on
proper statutory basis and
provided for two institutions; namely, the Native Courts and the Minor
Courts”. The Native Courts,
according to him, became Native Councils only when they were presided
over by the District
Commissioners. And as Native Councils, they functioned as the Native
Authority Councils of the
Northern Nigeria. It was in the Native Courts that the Warrant Chiefs,
the Native Courts “had
developed into omni-purpose organs of local government”. He
added that shortly before the end of
the Warrant Chieftancy System, some warrant chiefs were in the process
of being elevated into
Paramount Chiefs. This was designed to consolidate Indirect Rule
through the Native authorities
similar to the system, which had been developed in the non-Moslem areas
of the Northern
Nigeria. Chief Eric Okam thinks that appointment of Warrant
Chiefs in Enugwu-Agidi took place
in about 1912 and one would consider this correct, judging from the
above written account. It is
said that the first demand on Enugwu-Agidi to present a candidate for
appointment as warrant chief
was made when white men came to Enugwu-Agidi for the first time in
connection with the dispute
between Muofunanya Emegwo and Chinwuba Anago of Awka as reported
earlier. Muofunanya, over
Nwangboye, Chinwuba’s wife, seduced the dispute you would
recall. The two white men who came to
Enugwu-Agidi in the company of Chinwuba finally set
Muofunanya’s house on fire as a punishment for
his crime. They later demanded to be taken to the leader of the town.
They were told that the
leader, Dile had died and were shown the body. On their demand that the
town should produce one
person to be made a chief, the town hesitated a bit, requesting to be
allowed a few days. Seeing the
punishment meted to Muofunanya and remembering what happened to Eze Nri
Obalike , and the general
unfriendly attitude of the ‘toeless’ white men, the
town feared that anybody given to the
foreigners would not come back to the town alive. The leading families
therefore refused to produce
anybody, thus making a way for Udegbune from Igbolo village to offer
himself. It is said that
Udegbune was encouraged by his earlier knowledge of Awka, which he had
during his period of
apprenticeship to an Awka man. When Udegbune went to Awka in
response to the Whiteman’s
request, it was thought that would be the end of him. But he came back
after a while, conferred with
an official authority to rule the whole town as a warrant chief: A
sharp development that surprised
the town, especially the big families who in the uncivilized tradition
of that period, considered
leadership of the town by a small lineage an
aberration. Chief
Udegbune from then, started representing Enugwu-Agidi
at the Native Court Awka, until Okam, through the joint influences of
his brother-in-law Onwurah
Usoku of Awka and Chief Udegbune, gained recognition as a warrant chief
to represent Iruokpalenyi
village. That was followed by the recognition of Onubiyi through his
relation to Usoku, Onwurah’s
mother. Chief Onubuiyi represented Umakwuelo, Anofia, Irunnebo and
Iruobieli villages. These three
were followed by the recognition of Nwankwo Akunede through the
influence of his in-law, late Ojiako
of Adazi. He represented Achalla village. With three additional warrant
chiefs, Udegbune was
restricted to Igbolo, Ifite and Ogwugwu and Normu. At the death of
Udegbune, Okoli Ekwughe who
belonged to the same Umu-Sinyandu lineage with Udegbune was installed.
Thus he was the last to
receive recognition as warrant chief in
Enugwu-Agidi. There are conflicting reports
about Igboanugo’s effort to gain recognition as a warrant
chief. A version of the oral account
states that he was given recognition and that he in fact represented
Iruobieli village. Another
version, which appeared much stronger, holds that his effort to gain
certificate of recognition
failed to yield a positive result; and that he was therefore not
recognized. Whatever happens to be
the correct position, it is an acknowledged fact that Igboanugo was one
of the candidates from
established families in the town, sponsored for appointment as warrant
chief.
Aba women
riot of 1929 brought to an end the system of
Warrant Chiefs in the Southern Nigeria. The problem started as a result
of illegal taxing of women
at Abaja and Abak in the present Awka Ibom State. Protesting the
action, the women started by demonstrating against the Warrant Chiefs
in the above towns. As the
District Officer, Mr. Claude Wrightwick intervened, the protest spread
to Aba, resulting in enormous
damages and some deaths. The immediate effect of this was the
withdrawal of warrant from the Chiefs
in Eastern Nigeria.
As Dr.
Odenigwe rightly observed in the aforementioned
paper, the women riots demonstrated the failure of this system, not
because the Ibo communities had
no chiefs or leaders of comparable ability with those of the North or
that the people lacked respect
for traditional authorities. The failure, according to him, was due
to some of these factors: -
- The British
Colonial authorities failed to discover the basic units of Ibo
communities over which a Warrant Chief or Paramount Chief or a leader
derived authority and inspire
local and traditional support. Irregularly grouped communities were
placed under the charge or
control of Warrant Chief whose main source of authority and support
were the official letter of
appointment and recognition issued by the colonial administration.
- The
selected representatives of the lineage groups of village were regarded
individually as native authorities. Some were neither the traditional
heads of their communities nor
the choice of their people in most cases.
- The basis
for selection fluctuated with changes in the personnel of the political
officers or district commissioners: Some emphasized choice of the
people; others sought for personal
merit and ability, yet others regarded traditional office such as the
Ofor holder as the decisive
factor in the selection the Warrant
Chief. The
above observations, no doubt are borne out by Enugwu-Agidi experience
as stated
earlier. Apart from the selection of Chief Udegbuna , little or no
reference was made to the town in
the subsequent selection of other Warrant Chiefs. With the warrants so
withdrawn from Chiefs Okam,
Onubuiyi, Okoli and Nwankwo Akunede in about 1930, another
administrative system had to be formed to
take over their function which was mainly settlement of cases and
collection
taxes. That new system did not come
immediately from the government. What was
called an intelligence survey of the culture of the natives and their
traditional social system had
to be made by the colonial government before a new system was worked
out. It was during such a
survey that M.D.W. Jeffrey produced an intelligence Report on Awka
Division in 1930. To correct the
shortcomings of the warrant Chiefs system, a representative system of
Native Administration was
established. In this, the chiefs of leaders, as representatives of
their areas, collectively became
the Native Authorities. They carried out
settlement of cases within the town, and
where any of such cases could not be settled in the town, it was taken
to the Native Court. At that
time, Enugwu-Agidi was under Enugw-Ukwu
(Umunri) Court.
These Chiefs or leaders took turn, village by village, in representing
the town at the above
court. The house of
Nwegbu Ibe in Ogwugwu village was understood to be
their meeting place in the town. When he died, the venue shifted to the
compound of Nwakonobu Ikwele
of Etiti village.
This continued to be the position until the Local
Government Ordinance of 1950, which recommended the introduction of
County Councils. The government
thereafter officially requested each town to produce its most capable
group of people to represent
the town in the County Council. Thereupon, Enugwu-Agidi presented the
Okachanma age grade led by
Chief Aaron Okoye who resided at Gusau in the Northern Nigeria from
where he was invited home. He
therefore had to start from then to represent the town at the County
Council, which had shifted
location from Enugwu-Ukwu to Abagana.
Enugwu-Agidi Brotherly Union
As more of the
town’s
men ventured outside the town into
‘Olu—Oyibo’ (Whiteman’s work),
education and commerce,
the need to improve on the administrative structure of the town became
obvious, especially to the
tiny group of the town became obvious, especially to the tiny group of
the town’s elite. The
Okachanma was already in place to take care of settlement of disputes
and representation of the town
at Abagana. A job we understood the group did very creditably through
the able leadership of chief
Aaron Okoye. Since this group was not also taking care of the overall
development of the town, an
organizational unit was neede to keep kinsmen together in strange and
heterogeneous urban
environment and to serve as a vehicle for the overall development of
the town. This was
the problem, which a group of Enugwu-Agidi citizens led by the late
Chief Nathan Okam started to
discuss at Aba in Imo State in 1937. They thought of a development
– organization similar to the
existing Onitsha Progressive Union or Awka District Union. As they did
this, they also considered it
opportune to have the name Enugw-Osu-na Agidi changed, especially since
the corrupt version of it
offered some mischievous neighbors
a ready instrument
for taunting the town. So, in 1938, the town’s Union was
formed at Aba, with the name of the town
also changed to Enugwu-Agidi, dropping the middle word
‘OSU’ with its derogatory connotation.
This made the name of the town Union, ‘Enugwu-Agidi Brotherly
Union’ (E.B.U.). It
should be noted that the Aba people did not exclusively do the
discussions that preceded the above
decision. They kept in touch with members of the town at other stations
particularly Mr. Josiah
Onubuiyi at Kaduna, Aaron Okoye at Gusau, Nwoyeocha at Idah and B.J.
Morah at Onitsha. Both the
formation of the town Union and the new name of the town were published
in the Nigerian Observer in
Port Harcourt. Mr. Gabriel Nworji confirmed,
from his records, that the publication aldo
appeared in the West African Pilot of
15th Sept. 1938. And it is understood that the
person who first suggested the new name
was Mr. Simon Umechume Anikpe from Iruoma village.
For many years after the formation
according to Chief Eric Okam, the Union continued to be run at branch
units without central co-ordinating
body: Aba branch under Chief N.C. Okam, Gusau branch under Chief Aaron
Okoye, home branch run
through the two church missions under the control of Mr. B.J. Morah
etc. That continued to be the
position until 1947 when the first conference of E.BU. was held at
Enugwu-Agidi with late Chief
Aaron Okoye on the chair. From this
point, the picture, as to the relation between
the Community Council (Okachanma and the E.B.U. is not quite clear. One
source of our information
stated that Chief Aaron Okoye did not hold the office of President
General of E.B.U. at any time. He
was, according to the source, the Okachanma and therefore the
representative of the town at Abagana
Customary Court. He played a leading role in the E.B.U. but did not
chairman its central body.
Though some of those who share this view could not say readily who was
the first president general
of the union especially from 1947’s conference, others,
including Mr. Jerome Nwora Igboanugo,
stated that late Joseph Ndupuechi was the first President General, with
him, Jerome Igboanugo, as
the first general secretary. He confirmed categorically that their
tenure lasted from 1947 to 1949
during which period they addressed a letter to Mr. Aaron Okoye at
Gusau. Through the District
Officer (D.O.) Awka, requesting him (Aaron Okoye) to come home to
represent the town at Abagana
Customary Court. Mr. Ndupuechi, according to this source, was voted
out, when he suggested that the
sacred Eke bush be cleared. That was in 1949 when Chief Okoye was
installed the Okachanma of
Enugwu-Agidi. Others
held the view that Chief Aaron Okoye was the first National President
of the E.B.U.;
that he took the office from the conference of 1947. It should be
remembered that the function of
town unions then was not as heavy as it is now that they are
responsible for the overall
administration of rural towns. They only acted as cultural
organizations then. So it was believed
that, as the town’s representative at the Abagana Customary
Court, Chief A. Okoye also acted as
the Union’s first president general. The post he later
relinquished to Mr. Josiah Onubuyi December
1955.
Functioning Age-Grades
It should be noted
that what has over the years metamorphosed into the
‘Ulo-nabo’ existed then as
‘Egbenugo’,
and acted as the main executive arm of the towns’
administrative system before and after the
formation of the E.B.U. This group of two age grades was formerly named
Ekwueme and then Egbenugo.
That was when it drew its membership from Umu-Agidi group of villages.
When the membership broadened
to include members of the age grades from other villages in the town,
the name again changed to ‘Ogbanabo’.
The present name Ulo-nabo id the result of the last change of the above
name Ogbanabo.
Our source stated that before the formation of the E.B.U., the
Community Council of Nze-na-Ozo
members made use of the Egbenugo functional age
grades in enforcing decisions
and maintaining order.
When Aaron Okoye acted as the Okachanma, the age grade participated in
settling cases. Where they
failed to resolve any case, appeal had to be made to Chief
Okoye. Indeed it
is understood that the Chief used his more civilized influence to make
the town desist from washing
its dirty linens in the public by taking cases involving community
members to the Native Court at
Abagana. He insisted that every case, no matter its gravity, must be
settled in the
town. That continued to be the position immediately
after the formation of E.B.U., until
the union with its more democratic base assumed greater administrative
power. The age grades which
now answers Ulo-nabo still constitutes a branch of the executive arm of
the E.B.U. It is still being
used in the implementation of certain decisions of the union and in
maintaining order, especially in
the market. But its judicial function is no longer as wide as it was
before the formation of the
town union. It settles only such cases as delegated to it by the union,
or the Traditional
ruler. Other people who held the posts of President
and Secretary General of the Union from 1955 are as
follows:
(a)
Dec.1955 – Dec.1958 Mr.
Josiah Onubuiyi (President)
Mr. Daniel Ilozo (Secretary)
(b)
Dec.1958 – Dec.1961 Mr.
B.J. Morah (President)
Mr. David Onyibor
(Secretary)
(c)
Dec.1961 – Dec. 1976 Mr. Daniel
Ilozo (President)
Mr. E.O. Morah (Secretary)
(d)
Dec.1976 – Dec. 1981 Mr. Bennett
Okoye (President)
Mr. P.C.D. Obianyido (Secretary)
(e)
Dec.1981—Jan.1983 Mr. Tony A. Umeano
(President)
Mr. P.C.D. Obianyido (Secretary)
(f)
Jan.1983 – Sept.1984 Mr. Gabriel
Nworji (President)
Mr.
P.C.D. Obianyido (secretary)
(g)
Sept.19884 -- Dec.1986 Prince C.C. Okam
(President)
Mr.
P.C.D. Obianyido
(Secretary)
(h)
Dec.1986 -- Dec.1989 Prince Ike Okoli
(President)
Dec. 1986 – May 1987 Mr. P.C.D. Obianyido (Secretary)
May.1987 – Dec.1989 Mr. Alex Onubuiyi (Secretary)
Re-introduction
of Chieftancy
If we had a choice,
this part of our history would have been skipped because of the ugly
past it brings back to our
minds. But we have reached a level of social development where it is no
longer easy to gloss over
important historical facts. It is against this circumstantial
background that we have decided to
briefly state only the facts of re-introduction of Chieftancy in
Enugwu-Agidi.
At the end of the
Nigerian civil war, which started in July 1967 and ended in January
1970, Enugwu-Agidi, which was
sacked during the war like many other communities in the former
‘Biafra’, got committed to a
painful process of reconstruction rehabilitation and re-organization.
To facilitate this process, it
became necessary, as it was then in vogue, to appoint somebody who
would serve as the link between
the embattled community and Government. Because of his connections with
those in the corridor of
power, chief S.O.N. Okafor, was readily considered the most qualified
for this position. He was
therefore installed the Okpalariam I of Enugwu-Agidi in 1972. The
installation owed its validation
to a chieftancy agreement signed between chief S.O.N. Okafor on one
hand and the Enugwu-Agidi
community on the other, on the platform of the former Enugwu-Agidi
community council. Shortly
after the installation, there arose a conflict between Igwe S.O.N.
Okafor and the Community Council
cum E.B.U., in which Igwe Okafor was said to have violated the terms of
the chieftancy agreement.
All efforts to resolve the conflict failed to yield positive result.
Thereupon, with a gook support
from the community, the E.B.U. and Enugwu-Agidi Community Council were
obliged to determine the
Chieftancy agreement by resolving to de-stool Chief S.O.N. Okafor as
the Okpalariam I of Enugwu-Agidi
in 1975.
As was the case in
many rural communities, that created a Government’s emphasis
on rural
development.
List of
Enugwu-Agidi Age Grades
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S/NO
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NAMES
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AGE RANGE
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
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EKWUEME
OKACHAMMA
AJILI
OGBUEFI
OKPATU
AFULUKWE
IRUGO
AMULUNAMMA
UDOKA
IGWEBUIKE
IRUKA
UGOCHUKWU
UZODINMA
UZODILI
OGANIRU
OGUEJIOFOR
EBEEOGU
UBAKA
NJIKOKA
OFU-OBI
ANADUNMA
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1895 – 1897
1898 – 1900
1901 – 1903
1904 – 1906
1907 – 1909
1910 – 1912
1912 – 1914
1915 – 1917
1918 – 1921
1922 – 1925
1926 – 1928
1928 – 1930
1931 – 1934
1935 – 1937
1938 – 1940
1941 – 1942
1943 – 1945
1946 – 1948
1949 – 1952
1953 – 1955
1956 – 1958
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We have chosen to take
the above list from Enugwu-Agidi citizens who were living during the
period of writing of this book.
As such, the age grade (Ekwueme) to which Mr. David Okonkwo (Akaku)
belonged is the starting point.
Though David died in 1988 as the oldest man in the town, he was one of
the many towns’ elders who
were kind enough to freely supply information for this book: A much
more reason why his gentle soul
should be disposed to rest in perfect peace. His death lives Ozo
Nwannna Anuta (Ozo-nwelibe) as the
oldest man in Enugwu-Agidi at the date (3/5/89) of this writing. He was
the only member of Okachanma
age grade alive. It should be understood that the popular former
functional age-grade ‘Egbenugo’
was made up of Okachanma
and Ajili age grades. And that
the current ‘Ulo-nabo’ age grade installed in 1987
is made up of Udoka and Igwebuike age grades.
Back to main history page
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