In this interview, the traditional ruler of Obi Orodo Autonomous Community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, HRH Eze (Dr) Samuel Agunwa Ohiri, says the traditional institution should be strengthened to play a role in solving insecurity and the maintenance of law and order in the country.
What are your roles as a monarch?
Generally, as the traditional ruler of Obi Orodo, I am the custodian of the traditions and customs of the people. First and foremost, I make sure that we promote the culture and tradition of our people. Our cultural and traditional norms are the things that define our ways of life; the way we should behave; things that we should do and things that we should not do. So it’s very important to guide us the way we should live as a people.
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Again, as a traditional ruler, apart from being the custodian of the culture and tradition of your people, you are also the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the place; to make sure that your people are secure by ensuring that criminal activities are brought down to the nearest minimum.
More importantly, the job of a traditional ruler is to promote peace in your place; to make sure people are living in peace and harmony.
We should also work together to make sure that we cooperate with the government to carry out developmental projects and execution of government policies.
These roles you have enumerated are actually what traditional rulers should do, but in most instances, politics has crept into the traditional institution so much so that the traditional rulers are entrenched in it to the detriment of their traditional roles. Do you think that that is proper?
I have been chairman of the state council of traditional rulers for nine years. To tell you the truth, it’s easy for somebody from the outside to say that traditional rulers are getting themselves politicised, but when you are inside, you will find that it’s the politicians that are dragging the traditional rulers into partisan politics. They will invite you to functions that you shouldn’t go and they insist that you must go. They make you say things that you shouldn’t say and insist that you must say them. They make you do things that you shouldn’t do and insist that you must do. And when you give advice as a royal father; honest, sincere advice, they are not taken.
So this idea that traditional rulers are involved in politics is something I don’t understand. If you are told that you are invited to so and so function by government and it’s compulsory that you must go, what do you do?
Having said that, I believe that there should be self-discipline among traditional rulers. You must know the line that you should not cross. You must also have your own intelligence and you must know the rules of engagement and know your job description.
When I became a traditional ruler, there were only nine traditional rulers in Mbaitoli. Today, we are 34 and counting. We have about 600 or more autonomous communities, and that means many traditional rulers in Imo State. Just one state. And when I go out there, I have some colleagues who are two, three or four and they cannot understand why we are more than 600 in one state. Some of these things are politics and our politicians find it easy to divide our kingdoms. So you journalists need to do a good job about this. I don’t think that you are being fair to the traditional institution. You people know why some of these things are happening
As somebody who draws power from the people, must you pander to the whims and caprices of the government of the state?
Assuming that there is a function and you receive an invitation that says that it’s compulsory that all traditional rulers must attend, what do you do?
You know who gave you staff of office and you know who has the power to take it away, and if the person is saying come and the law says that this is your job description, what do you do?
Go and read the law, if you read Law No 6 of 2006 setting up the traditional institution or Law No 15 of 2016, you will see that the function of traditional rulers is to make sure that there is peace in their communities and any other function or assignment that may be given to you by the government. If the governor is saying go and do this, what do you do? So it’s easy for somebody by the side to criticise traditional rulers. But in all and all, we all have conscience and we all have intelligence. If you go strictly by the law, my brother, it’s the politicians that have destroyed the institution. It’s not the other way round.
With all that you have said, do you not think your roles should be enshrined in the constitution?
Of course, the role of the traditional rulers were enunciated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria prior to 1999. It was the military dictators that came in and expunged them because they felt that the weight and influence of the traditional institution was a very big challenge for them. So they carefully expunged it from the constitution. Even our national council of traditional rulers of Nigeria is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Before, traditional rulers used to be members of the National Council of State (NCS). We used to attend, but not anymore. Last week myself, Etsu Nupe, Obi of Onitsha and other traditional rulers went to see Mr President about the security situation in the country. But, I and the Etsu Nupe and others were sent to NASS to make a case to include traditional rulers in the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution. So we went there and submitted our memorandum and defended it.
But every social ill that is wrong with our country, we can attribute it to the fact that we have totally and completely moved away from our traditional and social norms.
When you throw away the traditional norms that should guide you the way you should bring up your children and adopt the Western style, you will miss the point. These days, you now see a child conspire to kidnap parents or relatives.
So when you have a situation when that custom and tradition that should guide us have been eroded, the custodians of that culture and tradition would have been stripped of all their relevance and all their powers. What do you have? Anarchy.
All we are saying is that let the presidential system be, let the legislators be, let the judiciary be, but at the grassroots, traditional rulers should have a role to play and there should not be too much meddling by the politicians.
Look at what is going on in the country; our children are turning into bandits, kidnappers, rogues and all what’s not. Are the politicians not the ones in charge? Who is administering the country? Is it not the politicians? It did not start with President Muhammadu Buhari. It started long ago.
So right from the military administrations, you would have seen that there is a systematic attack and decimation of our culture and tradition, and we are paying the price for it. And we will continue to pay the price until we come to our senses.
You have just spoken about insecurity and you met the president on that issue. What did you discuss with him?
First of all, we told Mr President, that our people are no longer safe and everybody, including Mr President agreed with that. There is general insecurity in the country. From Boko Haram, bandits, killer herdsmen, armed robbers, kidnappers, terrorist, people peddling illicit drugs to militants, you name it. People are no longer safe. People are no longer going to the farm. If we don’t take time, there will be serious food scarcity next year, and if care is not taken it may start later this year.
We told Mr President, that he needs to do more and he assured us that he’s working hard on it.
Let me tell you, I am the traditional ruler in this community, though I may have an office in Owerri, I am from here and I know almost every person in this community. I know most families in this community. I know who is who. I have my internal security architecture here. I have three towns in my kingdom: Odummara, Ahaba and Eziama, with villages, and we have very strong structures here. We know every criminal in this community. But how are you going to get rid of him? You have no powers; you cannot arrest them. You can’t even summon them. They will call the police on you. They will sue you to court for violating their fundamental human rights.
Take for example, you invite two people for mediation over boundary dispute, one of them will go to court to get an injunction not to come, alleging a violation of his fundamental human rights. Then you see a letter from a court. But those that agree to come in to settle their disputes.
We need each other to survive. Our people from the North need the people from the South. It’s a symbiotic relationship. No man is an island. We cannot do without each other. We Southerners are mostly merchants. We are very good at doing business; buying and selling. Our brothers from the Northern part of the country are very good in agriculture and their land is very fertile. So we should work together. If the Northerners and Southerners think they can survive without each other, they are both making a mistake.
From Jude Aguguo Owuamanam, Owerri
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