Some Igbo wisdom for Nigeria

The Ngwò is part of the life of any Igbo of Ikwuano extraction. It is the ‘Kegites’ Tree’ of the people and this is taken as a way of life there. For others also in Igboland, it might be the Nkwu (Palm Tree) but in Ikwuano, it is the Ngwò (Raphia). The Ngwò supplies the people their wine. It therefore invariably supplies the people part of their happiness. Because happiness is derived from this wonder tree, the people cherish it and nurture it wherever it is found. For the Ikwuano communities that have gentle gorges or valleys or even ravines, which is called Idem, there are Ngwò farms. Such places are where Ngwò is intentionally nursed, and there it thrives like those other trees nurtured in Oyibo man’s plantation fashion.

The Ngwò palm grows on two shoots. The two shoots (budding fronds) signify life for the ngwò. When the third frond emerges, that signals the end of the life of the tree. It is either the tree is tapped for its wine or it is allowed to bear fruit, which is planted for other trees to replace it – and propagation is achieved. Planting the seeds requires special skills and nature endowed the people with the requisite skill.

Everything Ngwò is not just wine, but that is its main export to humanity. The people did and still do a lot of construction work with its stem and leaves – ógugò for props, etc and ábáng for roofs. The tree supplies reliable ropes in two main varieties – ákwárà and ékére. And when all has been tapped from the ngwò tree, we still hunted and ate its supply of abundant èrùrò insects derived from its decaying lumber. The Ngwò is a form of identity tree that gives the people a lot, baring the debilitating effects of modernity which has led to the abandonment of many aspects of our life.

For assurance, the Igbo will say Á ñu lá nkwú là ngwò là-abia. It’s a suasion the elders give when one is in doubt of what stands in front of one don’t drink the palmwine for the ngwò wine is on its way. It’s a saying to reassure one that better things are in the office. Our fathers would also always affirm their sincerity when they use the emerging frond of the ngwò metaphor to address certain issues. A no m l’ómú láàbù n la e two ngwò, a noghi m là nke ato n la egbú ya egbú. “I side with the two fronds which are life and growth of the ngwò, I don’t belong to the third that brings it death.” A testament to truthfulness in any potentially explosive issues is required when elders gather and this is how some communal issues of varying interests and hues are laid to rest.

Á ñu lá nkwú là ngwò là-abia is exactly the same thing as saying E lo f’okàn ba’lè. E lo f’okàn bale is just the same assurance in Yoruba and it means “put your mind at rest”.  We got this exact assurance that we should put our minds at rest during the campaigns for the presidential election. We remember who gave us the assurance. We also can rate the propriety of the assurance against the current state of affairs in the country.

Our life as a country today, when viewed from the prism of the assurances that are derived from the Ngwò tree, leaves a sour taste. Each time our elders recall what our thriving life, like that of the Ngwò in Idem was, they have wondered where we began to derail. Most Nigerians, including those who presently seem to be enjoying the current chaotic Nigeria, are wondering where the rain began to beat us as a nation. The country’s minders in the near past have left the citizenry savagely castrated. The people are so pushed to the wall by several severe factors, but unfortunately all we can hear from the people are lamentations of our dire fate, and queer whimpers.

Our politicians, their cronies and all that they have been doing have become that third frond which signals death. Their actions – the most recent example of which is Yahaya Bello’s – show clearly that they do not wish this country life. Rather than be heralds of life and egalitarian living, Nigeria has been in grave topsy-turvy in our own leaders’ hands. These people are the sure sign of the depravity of the country. Each leader takes his turn to wring his pound of life out of our battered Nigeria. There is hardly any truthful plot to engender proper growth and development of the country. There is dearth of truth. There is dearth of morals and there is utter dearth of leadership. Without leadership, it would be so tough to begin to reverse the direction of doom the country is headed with a herd citizenry. Nigerians must begin to think of the country if we would still have one in the future. We must begin to think about how to extricate our country from this inexplicable throttlehold.

One of the most worrisome things for me as an individual is the “well-behaved” Nigerian politicians we have when they are abroad, versus the unruly, disorganised and kleptomaniac politician who returns to the country. What changes when they arrive in Nigeria? Why have our leaders not been able to successfully replicate what they learn there?

One example: On Thursday, Nigeria announced that the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL) will be suspended for one month. The football league would be put on hold for one month for one sure jejune reason. The Nigerian football chiefs said one of the clubs competing in the Nigerian league, Rivers United, has outstanding games and so, all other football activities in the Nigerian Premier Football League will be halted for Rivers United to play their outstanding games! So, for the club to play its outstanding games, all other matches would be suspended. Rivers United accrued matches because they were competing in the CAF Confederations Cup.

This decision by the NFF is so base, nonsensical and disheartening. It’s so sad when you consider the fact that Rivers United played in the CAF Confederations Cup with teams from Ghana – Dreams FC which is in the semi-finals of the competition – and others from Morocco and so on. What would happen to the League in Ghana? End it abruptly as we did ours a few years ago? Even if our third fronds at the NFF and the League Management are so lacking in management, shouldn’t they have asked for guidance from the Ghana Football Federation or from whosoever could advice them on what to do? Why have these other countries not stopped their leagues because they have candidates in CAF competitions? It’s sad that the NFF has ignored whatever the decision would cause the other teams in the NPFL. What would happen to the momentum that has been gained by the NFF and the competing teams? This is one sad third frond at such a wrong time of our football trajectory. NFF hasn’t done well with this.

Power supply in the country is another amazing story.  Power generation and distribution are one peculiar anomaly in our country. We have even created a new branch of Nigeria’s power supply conundrum – the apartheid system of power supply courtesy of Minister Adebayo Adelabu. He brought into the distribution of electricity across the country the bands of confusion after his ministry’s inability to give electricity as they earlier promised. Now, Nigerians are segregated according to how much electricity they are given and how much they can cough out. It is not a commodity for everyone by Adelabu’s design.

Nigerians have their food inflation, insecurity, and economic stories. These are not soothing bedtime stories or fluffy lullabies. They are harsh accounts of terrible experiences, in different dimensions. What would it have been like if there were deliberate efforts to remake Nigeria a growing country indeed. If the handlers of our affairs choose not to be the third frond, the country would be green again. Life will return to her. If what they want is our plea, we beg them to save our souls. We beg to save our country.

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