Hon. Prince Nkemka Okoro Onuma presently at the Ebonyi State House Of Assembly is beyond the name we are acquainted with. Having spent the younger part of his productive life in the United of America with unassailable and undeletable achievements before coming back home to join politics.
A staunch Christian as well as a lover of his root and identity, in this interview with Eze Sampson speaks among others things his achievement at the Ebonyi state House Of Assembly as a third term member, the birth of Nzuko Edda Worldwide and his obvious role in the construction of the renown Igbo Village in Staunton, Virginia, USA as the president of an Igbo diaspora body “Onyeaghala Nwanneya”
Good Evening and how are you doing sir?
I am doing wonderful and awesomely well.
Tell us more about yourself Sir.
My name is Nkemka Okoro Onuma, I am the Chief Whip of Ebonyi State house of Assembly and I represent Edda West State Constituency here in Ebonyi state originally from Nguzu Edda, Edda Local Government.
One would wonder what is an Americana is doing in Ebonyi State how of Assembly, what informed your decision in this regard?
I don’t know whether I have joined politics yet, as for all the way from America it’s the same distance all the way from Edda to America. So, all I just did was come home, North East South home is the best, I went there and I came; is not all the way from America the only is that I accomplished what I was supposed to accomplished and God says its time to move and I left that is just that, and I left and came back not seriously interested in politics but conditions of God warranted me to dabble into politics. Unfortunately, Nde Edda dasi ekwa abali abughi uwa-oma but in my case ekwa abali biara burum uwa-oma. You know my two brothers died the same year in 2013, and I automatically became the first and the only son and the only way to preserve the family whatever my sisters insisted that I stay back and in staying and I am still happily married it was very difficult to conceive that I was separating from my wife for the sake of politicking and when I told my wife that this is what is been planned for me and she said well I can’t stop it because anytime you come to Nigeria you feel very comfortable, any time the say Edda you’re always free with your people, so I can’t stop you and I said wow which mean I have open approval and I took advantage of that. We came down she even assisted in doing voter registration in 2013 and so I am here.
You spent many years in the United States of America, at what year did you leave Nigeria for the United States?
Do I still remember? I think I was 24 years old, I left here from 1956 to 1981, and so do the mathematics.
During your sojourn in the US, you achieved something very spectacular and that’s coming up with the idea of an umbrella body for the gathering of Nde Edda ozuzuoha that’s called Nzuko Edda
Yes!
Can you please tell us about it, I mean how it all started?
It all started from the fact that, they were no many Nde-Edda in the US, so we aligned ourselves to the Old Bende people and I can remember my wife used to join me to that meeting, when we did an election she participated as an electoral team member. Anytime I am going to that meeting she will say “are you going kwenu meeting” because it’s always kwenu …general laughter… that’s what she recall. So, we did that for some time, the state was created and Edda was carved out to join Ebonyi we now looked at the fact that we had handful of people from Afikpo, we now started the Greater Afikpo Progressive Association. It was called GAPA so we now coopted Afikpo to join us and the person who was readily available to be that president was an Afikpo guy called Sunday Azu Ewa.
Sunday Azu Ewa’s mother is from Ebunwanna and he grew up in Ebunwanna and he speaks more Edda than most of us. He doesn’t speak it more than me but between myself, my brother, Uka and him we gave him a run for that. So that’s how we managed, you know sometimes things don’t always go that way. And the Afikpo people began to see themselves as superior; and we now began to ask ourselves how can they be superior while it’s the brain of Edda that’s running GAPA? So the likes of Ndukwe Ama Oji from Libolo added weight, so is not Nkemka and Uka moving the agenda reacting to the fact that we don’t have to contour to Afikpo people we now started Edda and that’s how Nzuko Edda was born. With the election which was done on my basement or my back yard, we continued especially my wife kudos to her, she was into computers little did I know about computers. She would surf the net, then internet was just coming out, while doing that any place she finds a name that looks like Edda, Afikpo, Ukpai, Udu she would ask me; do you think this person is from your place? We would Google and try to track them down. Jude Nkama who’s a judge in New Jersey was identified by my wife through the internet, Anthony Chima who’s also the current president was also identified like that. So we moved on, creating directories of Nzuko Edda people, I don’t want to brag too much, at the time I’d left US in 2014, I can’t say there was anyone who also a member of Nzuko Edda member who did not touch my abode. So, that’s how Nzuko Edda came up and we now began to take care of one another, and of the things that made that happen was that I had actually been a member of Nwanne Di Na Mba USA. Nwanne Di Na Mba was the premier Igbo organization that was created after a young couple got married and the spouse died within that monthand the woman was already pregnant, so the Igbos came together since I was already a member of this group it becomes necessary to get your own group moving. So, every member of the Igbo community was creating their own; Mbaise, Orlu I couldn’t be alone in that regard and then my elder brother of blessed memory Oji Okoro Onuma invested his resources to make sure that worked. He used to tell me that I’m the technocrat and he’s the businessman. He was funding activities…cuts in…
Are you talking about when you were heading the organization?
Yes! Even when Sam Egwu, our former governor selected handful of high school best students to expose them to the world, they came to the United States. They were being led by Anya Okorie if I can remember, my elder brother was into transportation he had vans, it was his van that was used to transport them then. They had a tour of Washinton DC, the US capital just to widen their horizon and all that. So, that’s what we have done and we began to look into other things in Edda but at the same time if you’re not a good swimmer you cannot rescue someone drowning. We couldn’t do much everyone in Nigeria was looking for help. We did all kinds of menial jobs and we were not ashamed of that, I drove taxi at night and I went to school during the day time because there was no money coming to bare. Our father may not have been buoyant but he was rich in wisdom and what he impacted on us we used, so driving the taxi was the most lucrative then, is comparable to driving Uber; you make your own time and do your things. You make your time to your classes and nobody tracks you.
You didn’t tell us if it was through that election that you became the first president of Nzuko Edda or someone else emerged…
General laughter…
Yes from that election I became the first president, and let me not claim that ooo for posterity sake, Chukwuma Oka from Ebunwanna was the first elected president and at the time of the election Professor Nnachi Ama a.k.a Atinga he has come back and my elder brother, they were sceptical about the image. While the election was going on, the election hasn’t been concluded and anybody you point at, they will say I decline! I decline!! So, Chukwuma then said decline! Decline!! Decline!!! Ha emezua mi ya. He accepted by nominating himself and declaring himself president and we said No! No!! No!!! You can’t nominate yourself and declare yourself. He was already off, people came back at that early morning and we said that’s not the proper way, you cannot declare yourself president you were not sworn in and so before he got to New York there was another election that early morning in one of our in-law’s house Dr. Igbani on that morning and they said it’s me that they wanted on that morning they said it was me, they wanted me who had been the interim to continue, so I was now officially sworn in as the president but if you ask other people, Chukwuma Okam will say he was the president but he was only for maybe 30 minutes …general laughter. Yes, I became the president, the pioneer president and worked to put Nzuko Edda in line with world Igbo congress. At that time Okwukwe Ibiam of Ebunwanna who was a PRO in the world Igbo Congress also strived to bring us into world Igbo congress so that we have that visibility. So we did all that, Okwukwe was there and I’m in there, I dragged people like Samuel Idika, he’s also from Ekoli he became a delegate in Nwanne Di Na Mba that worked with Word Igbo Congress. So, Edda people were fully represented, even if you go to New York you will see Agwu Ama Agwu who ended up being the president of the Igbo Union in New York. He was Eze Ndi Igbo in New York, so we the Edda people strived and achieved, made our dents in Igbo history. If you further google Igbo Village in Staunton Virginia. …Cuts in…
Yeah! Yeah! I know of it.
You know of it?
Yeah!
You know of it? …Laughs…
Yeah! Where they built those thatched houses signifying our home houses.
That thatch house, will I say it couldn’t have been built without Nkemka Onuma, Uka Onuma and Sam Idika. These are people around me and I told them, join me let’s uphold what Nwanne Di Na Mba the premier Igbo organization was doing, and that Igbo organizations
…tries to remember…
…what’s the other name? There was a group of intelligential that have conventions at interval and Nwanne Di Na Mba would annually host them and that Nwanne Di Na Mba president was Nkemka Okoro Onuma and that Nwanne Di Na Mba president worked with the Nigerian embassy with the assistance of one Ukpabi from Arochukwu to secure the use of the hall of the Nigerian Embassy for a party, and that party in celebrating the Igbo group, the academia, it was during that party that they presented that there is a museum in Stanton Virginia that was looking for Igbo support to build that Igbo structure. It was termed 17th Century farm house standard and they were looking for help, then they said Nwanne Di Na Mba you’re the resident Igbo group here and Nkemka took that challenge and beckoned on Uka, Sam Idika and a few others, even my daughter participated and my wife and we joined them. It is interesting to find out that the oturu was imported from Nigeria, the ogugu they were all imported from Ututu there’s a 40ft container parked by the side with all these materials and they wanted us to assist. So with Nwanne Di Na Mba with some other Igbo people we began to support them, expertise we found out that the soil texture was not sustaining the construction.
In the US, if the soil on the ground is not good you doctor the soil with cement. So we added some cement in the soil so that it can stick and that’s how it was constructed. So, the Igbo communities were now using the office of Nwanne Di Na Mba to challenge the other Igbo groups to come and join in creating this history, as we were doing that I now created the Nwanne D Mba’s young adult branch of Nwanne Di Na Mba Organisation who also were coming out because the youth were more Igbo centric than the other group. So, I introduced this other group let’s begin to think how we can marry each other and begin to tell them when you see an elderly person you call him uncle and auntie, they are not your uncle because the resultant effect is that my daughter will see your son, because I call you uncle and say that’s my cousin; I can’t marry my cousin. So this thing we impact on our children wasn’t accurate, so in that process we still have Nwanne Di Na Mba Youth Branch N.Y.A, if you google you will still see it. So, the organization grew hand in hand and they were the people that volunteered under my guidance and support in building that, and to also make sure that things worked out well, they created a board of trustees of the Igbo community that will support that museum; African American Stanton Museum.
Dr. Irem Ojihe lives in South Carolina from Amaigbo, he’s a heart surgeon. He has come to Nigeria severally especially in Amaigbo and carried out health programs. He actually does it every year and he’s a renowned Cardiologist, he was a board member of that committee. I was not interested in the money, I was interested that there was something being done and we have our finger print on it.
All of these happened when you were the president of Nwanne Di Na Mba?
Yes! When I was the president of Nwanne Di Na Mba. I doubled as Nwanne Di Na Mba and Nzuko Edda together.
What year was that?
Wow! When did I start?
I mean the construction of the museum.
I don’t have the actual date but it’s in there, I followed up to make sure that every other state have their branch. We have Ebonyi USA it is online. Ebonyi USA as a matter of fact I have had a lot of Ebonyians contributing. The famous Azu Ewa that I mentioned to you, Dr. Edward Nwachi Omeri who ended up to be the president of CISA Consortium Of Igbo State in America, who happens to be the most respectable right now, the most respectable Igbo group in the USA is the C.I.S.A and they can guide people in doing anything. So, they were now the group that clowned this museum and use it as an annual event. Unfortunately the weather is not friendly to the thatch (the oturu and ogugu) because the West Virginia Area has snow, so the snow will fall on this and the weight of the snow will continuously dampen it. The governors in Virginia were democrats and they were Afrocentric inclined but now there’s republican governor he doesn’t subscribe to that and says it’s a waste of money to continue to sustain the thatch because in Edda or in Nigeria you need hit in those house to keep the thatch material the oturu to be firm and okay, now the rain and the snow, the rate of detoriation is higher but in that his history the Edda man did not board last. If you see Uka Onuma and see Sam Idika and Nzuko Edda USA have gone on a retreat at that camp ground, before I left we celebrated our 10th year anniversary and it happened in that Stanton museum and it’s a scene to behold. Yes! It is.
Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! What a feat?
We didn’t know what we were doing but we did something.
Now you’re in your 3rd term of 12 years in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly…
Eheeehh?
How does that relate?
To? …General laughter…I don’t know how you mean…still laughing…
With all the exposure, western culture.
What happens is that! Well, it does relate I am much older, you know I will not claim that I am old and wise but I have had my exposure and based on that exposure I understand certain things that need to be done, know some of the bureaucracies that goes on I can now reflect on the things I did unknown to me where I was going and I have now come to realize that as long as I have done something diligently with an open mind the records will follow you, so in my 3rd tenure…ibunu onye Edda ipule ogo?
Ehenu, apulem ogo!
Ehee! “Nde Edda siri isugwu noro obi ogo efa esaa, adighi ezinkwaya ibe okuwa ekwa” …general laughter.
I’m in my 3rd tenure I can do and undo and that’s it. My elder brother would say he’s “flexibly rigid”, at my 3rd tenure I’m flexibly rigid are there. …the laughter continues… I can guide the state. I can guide Edda people, if and only if people have an open mind. There’s just nothing else in the government that I do not know just that I am not in the position to call the shots but I’ll guide. The present governor, it’s difficult for me to call him his Excellency because I knew him for 8 years, he’s my speaker. So, I will always say my speaker my governor, my governor don’t be upset he’s my speaker, so even if he invites the members of the 5th and 6th Assembly, I’m invited so he will now remove his excellency status and we will be putting it on him and still interact. Most of the things he’s doing now are the things we yawned, we talked about in our executive section that he put it together and that’s why we are proud for him. So, any of us could have been doing similar thing maybe to different degree but it’s his time and we are following it.
So, as a third tenure member I am not shying away it’s just that I am not an extrovert but if they call me upon I will do my share.
Let us not miss the complete meal after perceiving the enticing aroma, tell us how was the experience in your first tenure coming from a fair and decent clime like that of the USA, and here you’re in the Nigeria’s mucky pup, two different terrains politically?
Well, unfortunately when I was coming, I was told honorable members carry money in Ghana must go bags, I have not seen Ghana bag and I have not seen money …laughs… I also was told that our salary is so much, in one of my appearance in Ebunwanna town I pledged that my first salary I will use it to renovate the hall, not knowing how much was the salary not to think about renovation, and by the time the salary came. I didn’t know when it came and when it left, I thought my boys robbed me. … general laughter… I am still having that phobia till now. I now found out that you have to listen to the government and the direction they’re going. I can remember he told us that your constituency project you make sure you do something that’s affordable, something that’s feasible. I had a friend of mine and a colleague he teaches architecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, I told him that I will like to build something like a hall; I’ll build one in Nguzu, build one in Ekoli and build one in Ebunwanna. So, I said design me one and he designed a hall of 400 sitting capacity, elegant structure and when we starting talking about constituency project, and people said are you crazy?
Are you going to build this?
How much will it cost?
I called the guy, could you quantify this please?
At that time it was costing N180M and I screamed and they told me that they were giving us 20 million for constituency project. And by the time some other deductions are made and if you submit something the government will approve and if you fail to build its misappropriation, so lower your guides and select. Then I said okay, I promised Ebunwanna people that I will use my salary I can use this constituency project to that, so I quickly downgraded, downsized my project to renovation. And one other irony, the other day I was in Ebunwanna hall I spoke without knowing where I was, I thought I was in a one storey building I mean a rambler so when I started the renovation they asked me are you doing the ground floor alone, and I was doing the ground floor and top. Are you putting balusters, I thought I was roofing and plastering the floors because I said I was renovating, and then as an architectural student, renovation; where do you stop? You have to bring it to code and that code came into my head and for me to finish that thing that N20m entered into that project. And I am not regretting because that was flagship, so people now said he has done this. That building was started by Ebunwanna brethren in 1981; 1981 was when I left Nigeria to the US and for me to come back in 2015 I went back to finish the building that started in 1981, what an irony?
That project is what you got for them from the US. …General laughter…
That’s what I got for them from US.
And now you’re the Chief whip of Ebonyi State House Of Assembly, how does it feel?
Well, as the Chief Whip it feels so good that I will go to an event and a seat will be reserved for me in the state box, unfortunately I don’t have seat reserved for me in Edda. However let me not dug Edda, when we were having our APC meeting that’s the first time I knew that I was the Chief Whip and Senator Ogbuoji was the Chairman of the campaign he conveyed this particular meeting to seek out the direction of the election. I had some part of activity in the village because there was a problem between some part of Nguzu and Amiyi on landed issue they were calling me “where are you”? “Where are you”? Wo siri wo anighi ebido ba until Chief Whip abia” then my eyes opened so I remembered that I was the Chief Whip …general laughter… I remembered, I was the Chief Whip so…
And when was this?
Just about a year, we were talking about re-electing the chairman and the councillors they said Chief Whip must be the one to moderate, Nkemka Onuma Chief Whip! …the laughter continued… so when I came senator Ogbuoji said oghu bu onye ayi no echewo, Ejem Okoro wo sirim if you’re not here we are not starting and I was there and we started. And after that I just told myself and said wow the load has now been tightened and that is it. So, I try to carry myself in such a way that I don’t bring a disgrace to my office and to my people.
So, I am glad they don’t have any reason to doubt me so far, and that is why when I was thinking about that scholarship program I mentioned I didn’t mind going all the way even if it entails taking all my resources I will do that.
Now, can you tell us some of the projects you’ve had from your first term up till this term?
Well, in my constituency in 2015 which was the first thing that I did, I had some renovations of a the town square building, 2016 as I was doing that I was doing this Ebunwanna, because the Ebunwanna town hall was my first project as a constituency but this one that I mentioned about the community building and renovation, facelift for yam festival and Igba Nzu Nde Nguzu was just on me. In 2016 we were giving some money, we were giving like one million six hundred thousand if I could remember for Christmas and I am not a fan of Christmas. My wife calls me scrooge because I don’t like the celebration; it’s overrated celebration so I didn’t know what to do with money I added some money of mind and hired a bulldozer and graded a 7 kilometer road from Nguzu primary school on Ali-Okwa road. However that’s where my building that I started since 2016 is sighted, so I graded that road and I was grading it with the intent to creating access to the farmland so that people can have access. Once that grading was don I had to clear about 11 hectares I planned to do agricultural something and unfortunately it didn’t take off. The other one is that I renovated a classroom block in Nguzu primary school. The next one, the governor had a lot of projects at hand and we had an understanding with the governor not to have any uncompleted project. So, when you see the Ebonyi state Airport we contributed to that we’ve accepted to assist the governor in view of the constituency project, you see the building in Uburu that’s Dave Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences we contributed a quota of our constituency there. imalere ibe “Okpoo-Nta di?
Yes, I know.
There’s a road from Ugwu Iyere.
Yes! That links to.
Okpo!
Okpo-Nta, yes!
From Okpoo to Nde-Olughu
Nde-Olughu to Ama-Mini
That’s correct, have you been there lately?
No!
You need to go because they call that Uzo Chararaa! So there’s a road way that connects them good enough our governor has concrete road 2 kilometers resurfacing, so this road is part of what Umunna community highlighted but the initiator of that road was me and that was done because I had rural electrification program and it was to activate light in Umunna and there was no access to install the light poles so the road was created to activate the light in Letu. So, I did that rural electrification and light activation in Letu, here comes another project building executive class room and that executive classroom was built in Nguzu unfortunately that project was assigned to me as a housing project in Akpoha, and I begged and said I will not do that project in Akpoha I would rather do it in my constituency and they said they one that is available for my constituency is a classroom and I said I rather take the class room than to go to Akpoha. The reason I chose that one was to find ad-hock job for people and the work was done with boys from Nguzu they did all that job and the only person that was not from Nguzu was from Amancho who did the tiling every other thing was Nguzu based. In making it to show my doggedness in designing or whatever, I installed a wash hand basin in all the classrooms, there’s no classroom in Ebonyi state that has wash hand basin and I erected GP tank so I charged the community to be putting in water so that they can use it to flush the toilet and wash hand in the classroom because it’s always common to see kids defecating around the premises not only that I remembered that a corper came to Edda was assigned to Amaiyi. He forgot that he was Asthmatic, we almost lost him because of the chalk dust but his life was saved and I said we should do away with black boards so I put up the white board though it was not part of the speck for the project so I put in 2-2 white boards in each of the class rooms and further secured benches outside the school from UBEB. They have white board, they have water running for the toilet and that’s it.
Now this is the one I don’t know how to present but it gives me heavy heart, at the time we were doing election there were funding, they were monies that were supposed to be used and we were giving funds for campaign as well as for projects, and the instruction was finish your election and then you do the project. I finished my election and I did the project. When I was doing the project, the project continuously was downgraded my proposal was 25km it became 6 kilometres. They said find any 6 kilometres and do; I was looking for where to choose 6 kilometres that was very meaningful and I thought about Ekenta-Ite/Ugwu-iyi Manu/Ichakara road and embarked on that.
That’s Ekoli-Letu-Owutu road?
That’s correct, that’s correct. Instead of doing six kilometres it was 6.9 kilometres, so I embarked on it and the first two and half kilometre did not belong to me, it belong to my counterpart Hon. Chidi Ejem who was representing Afikpo South East constituency. So, I graded that road, I graded that road to a completion but people in Ekoli were sceptical, thinking it would not be completed they wanted me to start from.. …Ichakara.
Yes! But it came to Ichakara. Places like Edda-Agbo; motorcycle that’s Okada doesn’t go to Edda-Agbo.
Yes!
Because my bulldozer was still on ground I told them to grade into Edda-Agbo so they bulldozed, however it was stony but an access to Edda-Agbo thanks to that bulldozer. So, I created that part, at the end of it I turned around and I begged my then Governor Dave Umahi; can I put drainage? He said Onuma I have put a lot in Edda I am not putting drainage now. Do you want me to put the drainage and stop the Ugwu-Iyere? And that was when Ugwu-Iyere was about to come, and Ugwu-Iyere haaa! People don’t know I don’t know why you I hate to blow my trumpet.
Please go ahead and let us know!
Ugwu-Iyere would not come into existence without Nkwmka’s tears in the House of Assembly. It was the week a bus rolled back with 40 church members coming back from a burial or going for a burial that died in that Ugwu-Iyere. I can remember, pleading with the speaker and the governor to do something on Ugwu-Iyere. The records still have it, it’s in the house I convinced my speaker that it was necessary and that was why governor said I have done enough for Nde-Edda. And when he started that project it was lookd at as a white elephant project that would never be finished, so thanks to Dave Umahi that it was finished we worked on it, silent worker you don’t have to brag.
People may say but he didn’t build a house, the cost of that Ugwu-Iyere which runs in billions, however was subsidized by the local government chairman who was Eni Uduma at the time, so they worked in paripasu. So, it always good to give people their credit, the funding and the concept. The design was Dave Umahi’s, the need was Nkemka Okoro Onuma, and the funding was the state and the Local Government. “Manu gbatara oguru gbata” the work was done to the glory of Nde Edda. If the governor had asked me let’s name the bridge after somebody I would have suggested Okoro Onuma because he’s the person that put communities together. So, those are the projects, recently in this my third tenure, the projects we had was ran solar lights my apologies to my governor wherever he is, I am not a fan of solar light because when you put solar light along the street and my mother is not having light monitoring the soup she’s cooking but now we want to put solar lights to deter criminal activities. So we have solar lights, like I mentioned to you the 6.9 kilometer from Ekenta-Ite was initially captured 25 kilometer somewhere in Nguzu because of the understanding of the governor and the House of Assembly members and that’s where the work was done but people who are chasing shadow can still make noise and say that the work was not done because it was not done in Nguzu. I had case to answer in ICPC; why I didn’t I do it in Nguzu? And I said worry about, did I do the work? The work was done and the rest should be history because the work was done. And because of that time we were given 40 solar lights to install and they started asking how do you want it, where do you want it? I said can we not do it? Can we have the ministry do it on our behalf? They Speaker said, Onuma is still answering questions from ICPC let the ministry do it on our behalf, so the ministry did it I just put my head out of this. As it stands now any other project that comes I will sublet it to any other person I don’t want misunderstanding from my people, yes there’s 40 solar lights to be installed so the road that I graded initially in 2016 was my choice of the light so it goes on Ali-Okwa with the exception of two or three that was installed in the compound of the Presbyterian Church USA, which is my church they requested that they have night vigils and they wanted some lights so that is done, and that’s the project we have done so far. So, by January-February the next project might come up. Don’t forget that it’s whatever that is the governor’s interest, most of the time the governor will say I will want you guys to work more on the road or do this or do this we will now choose it, so they don’t give us arbitrary because they want to have it together from one ministry whatever they give us. Next time around, if I’m running an election and people start give us your manifesto, we want your manifesto; manifesto is a theoretical stuff. You know what the president told us is not exactly how the flow is going, so if the petrol price changes because of subsidy we change every other thing. So what’s your manifesto is the direction my governor is going because whatever we do has to buttress what the governor is doing. Like now we have two-two kilometre roads giving in so many parts of the community. We the people at house of assembly that are doing it and people are asking what are you? What are you doing? As I am talking to you Nguzu is very lucky to have to communities so we have 4 kilometre road that’s going on, Ekoli has 2, Ebunwanna has 2 so it’s house of Assembly government partnership.
That’s beautiful, this interview cannot end without hitting somewhere, tell us, what is “Chara Raa”?
Laughter… huuummmnnn! Chara Raa in a simple term is Edda vernacular and terminology which means galore of chara, when you were still younger I know you used to deep your hand in your mother’s soup?
Eheee!
Eheeeeeeeee!!!
Ichakwanuru hu!
Ichata! Ichara ahu… General laughter… it’s galore, plenty food. Before I was answering some other stuff like eagles feather and it was a difficult thing to pronounce and I was thinking how do I get something softer? Dave Umahi was a wizard in what he was doing. He gave roads everywhere, he gave money, he gave everything whatever he was doing was colossally recognized everywhere. Did we have all these before? So, when I entered politics within that first tenure I was co-opting delegates and they said go and talk to your delegates and they things that I bought from the US I was giving out to impress on them to support me because we believe in give people something upfront and let them work for you, the US call it tips and it’s T.I.PS (to insure prompt service). If somebody gives you prompt assistance in upfront you will do wonders for him, you don’t wait for them to finish doing wonder because at that time they are contemplating will he give something more let me just take on my own. So, when I did that, one of my boys Amos Okporie, he was confused and he said why am I giving people all these upfront “go ifa bu kwa chara raa oo” and that’s how the name stuck, “go ifa bu chara raa” so that’s it.
And that name firmly resonates with Nde Edda.
Yes, it resonates with Nde Edda, once upon a time Ochiri, Ochiri west Africa, Ochiri world wide paid us a visit. I had my conversers they were just singing and dancing Chara Raa, chara Raa. Yo sim nna isiri o chara gini ee? Mu siya o chara ra, yo jum igwetara efaa eleyi? Mu siya oo efa nde Edda and now it has gone viral in Ebonyi state.
Yes! It’s everywhere.
So, it’s the galore of everything you can think of, galore of quality representation, galore of Egburuegbu, galore of projects, galore of anything you can think of, that is that.
Sir, in representing Edda, how do you want to be remembered?
Haaa! I want them to remember me when I die …general laughter… that I stood for people that were speechless, that I corrected people when they needed to be corrected and I did not amass wealth. I don’t need the wealth, I have already marked my grave site, and I told them that grave site need to be much, much deeper that I will go down or my wife will go down we will be laying on top of each other and people tell me don’t talk about it and I will say that’s what I would like to have, so what is it? There’s nothing else. It’s just like a track that I have passed, like I was talking about Stanton Igbo village and you were like wow.
Yeah!
I want to go and you will say wow, we didn’t understand this guy this is what he was referring. If people can be as open minded; I don’t have a security, I don’t have dog, my gate is probably open as at now, my boys I don’t know what they want. Whatever they want does not exist, I drove a taxi in the US to go to school, to train myself five years of Architecture. And I dabbled into master’s degree in architecture driving taxi and now I am here, so from taxi to legislature. The immediate deputy governor of Ebonyi state Barrister Kelechi Igwe, they saw me coming as naïve as I could be, and on my swearing-in day he asked me, how does it feel to be a legislator in Ebonyi state? I still don’t know I’m still feeling it. So, as it stands now people are asking me what would you want to do? I say Edda people are speaking like Isaiah, whom shall we send? Whom shall we send? Send to do what? Wherever you send me I will go, wherever I am sent I will go.
Thank you so much. That part of you that has to do with our culture; why do you love our culture?
Aaaahhh! Let me tell you I was ordained an elder in 1989 of Presbyterian Church USA, I have mingled with the white folks and I saw their mentality. Our church was becoming black they resisted it and I had some other black Americans that supported us to move along. A typical white man will look at anything that is white and attach purity to it so one particular lady Jeanie Osborne said that our church is culturally diverse; she said why don’t us bring fabrics from our culture that tells our story? I took my Ukara and gave to them and they tore everybody’s clothes and put it together like Joseph’s coat of many colors, so on the communion table in church what we use is a coloured sheet and at the centre of it is ukara. When I came back and I remember some of the things my father told me and I remember consulting the Ekoli traditional rulers and they told me their fears, the challenges that Nguzu and Ekoli had and what they would desire and I remembered what my father told me he said “never allow Ekoli and Nguzu to shed blood”, and I promised them that I would do that. And when I come back to my village and found out that the churches are dominating the whole place. The things that make us Nde Ishina of the ruling family are eroding away, I remember asking my father before he passed away and he told me that this Nfiji Oku is really nothing if he had teeth it will stop erosion from covering it up that all these things are just away to provide guidance; the bible is written for guidance. These things are there to guide the people, and I found out that if I want to correct anything inside Egbela Edda I have to be inside the circle, if you’re outside you’re throwing stone inside and this is what Reverend Aso Oji imbedded in my father before his coronation.
Reverend who?
Aso Oji, Reverend Aso Oji is the most radical minister that Edda people have had.
From where please?
From Ezi-Edda, Ezi-Edda and Justice Onyeme is the father. He’s my father’s theological coach and he says “it’s only when you’re in the cram lay that you can change something in there” and that’s it. I told myself, go in there find out what’s all about make your recommendations and amend it if possible, and I stepped in and if I didn’t step in when I did the traditional seat would’ve been up for grabs. I sponsor people to be initiated, I have sponsored about 80 not that I am so proud of that but the fact remains that…
Because it’s their identity…
It’s their identity, that’s what they are known with. The Abakaliki people do not have anything that hold them together but Edda people have Egbela Edda to hold them together. The churches in Edda don’t believe in each other but the Egbela Edda from Oso to Libolo believe in each other
Yes!
You find out that we can have it modified to a point and remove the fetish part of it, move the Eko where it does not transverse with peoples’ business and just do what you do.
And visitors?
And visitors, that’s it. The Ohafia people are more religious people are more religious than Edda people.
Exactly, including Ebiriba.
A typical pastor in Ohafia subscribes to Igba-Ekpe, the pastors from Ohafia that pastor people in Edda, their father da-agba-Ekpe ayi ndeni ada-atu okpogho wo ade eme ayi invite to come and witness. And yet in Edda they will tell us it’s barbaric.
It’s fetish.
Yes, it’s fetish. So that’s why I have stepped into that and I will stop at nothing as long as there’s no blaspheming involved in it, I want to uphold the Edda culture. How about next time you ask me what will I be, what if I am made commissioner or minister of tourism what will I show to people? I don’t have what to show if I don’t uphold my own. I will take you to China take you to Israel; doesn’t the Muslim and Christian relate together?
So we can relate together, you have your faith; and salvation is individual not even with you and your wife.
Thank you very much for your time sir.
Thank God.
We are so happy interacting with you.
Alright.
