All the deities in my domain are now dead
HRH, Eze Cletus Uwadiegwu Ogbonnaya is one Abia State
traditional ruler who speaks his mind with forthrightness. He
is a veteran journalist who practiced for 23 years and rose to
the position of Editor and Managing Editor at various times,
before answering the call of his people to come home and be
their traditional ruler. He has been on the throne for 14 years.
Quite often, traditional rulers tend to be polygamous, but the
monarch who has been married for 35 years to his wife holds
the view that a man does not need to substitute his wife as
along she performs her duties well. In this interview he relives
the experience of ascending to the throne and his career as a
journalist, particularly, the story that got him detained for one
month under Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s Decree 4 of
1984.
Excerpts…
Could you give us a snap shot of who Eze Ogbonnaya is?
HRH Eze Cletus Uwadiegwu Ogbonnaya is the Ojim 1 of
Umuanya Autonomous Community, Uturu , the host
community of Abia State University, Uturu. I practiced
journalism for 23 years. I graduated from University of Nigeria,
Nsukka in 1978 with a degree in Mass Communication. I was
in journalism practice up to 2001, when Umuanya Autonomous
Community, Uturu was created and my people felt that they
needed somebody with my level of exposure to be the Eze. It
was on that basis that I came home and since then I have
been the traditional ruler of this community for 14 years. I got
a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Imo State
University, Owerri. I have an honorary doctorate degree
(Doctor of Literature) from an American University and I am a
member of the Governing Council of Gregory University, Uturu,
a private University in Abia State. I sit on the Governing
Council of the Brethren College of Theology, Umuahia, Nigerian
affiliate of National University, USA.
I am 63 years, having been born on October 30, 1951; I am a
product of Holy Cross School, Uturu, where I got my First
Leaving Certificate in 1964, before proceeding to Acquinas
Secondary School, Nsu, Mbano. I was barely 16 years old and
in Class-3, when the Nigerian Civil War started in 1967; like
all other young men in Biafra with true Igbo blood in them, I
enlisted into the Biafran Army on February 12, 1968. I fought
as an infantry and a ranger in the guerilla wing of the Biafran
Army. I was an intelligence officer too. When the war ended in
1970, everybody had to start all over again.
What does it feel like being an Eze?
I had no idea that I was going to be an Eze; the constitution
of Umuanya community specifies that the Ezeship is neither
hereditary, by seniority of villages or by rotation. What you
have is a situation, where any time there is vacancy for Eze,
the person seen to be most eligible either through election or
selection becomes the Eze. I was not born into royalty, I’m a
free son of the soil and luckily in Uturu, we do not have the
outcast system. Any free born son of Uturu can aspire to be
the monarch in his own community; so by the grace of God, I
became the monarch on personal merit. My people saw me fit
and qualified to be their monarch. I feel honored and that is
why I left journalism and the left urban area to relocate to the
rural community. I have been here for the past 14 years.
Were you given a new name when you became the Eze of your
community?
From my title, Ojim, you get the history of the community.
Ojim was the legendary founder of Uturu, Umuanyim, and he
was very warlike. Through conquest, he extended our frontiers
up to Okigwe, we have a border with Okigwe, towards Ihube.
In those days, Umuanyi people were said to be very warlike.
They could muster up to 400 men in the warfront. And allow
400 men to remain at home to defend the home; that is why
we are called Ojim Nnu Egbe. Nnu is 400 in Igbo, it means
that we were able to muster 400 soldiers with 400 guns both
at the warfront and home front to defend us. There were other
artifacts discovered through study that man had lived in
Uturu, between 300,000 years ago to 500,000. We have where
we call Ekeukwu which is our own Garden of Eden, where the
first man was said to have settled. Again the man Uturu was
said to have migrated from the Onoafia area in Afikpo, Ebonyi
state.
What is your religion?
I am a Christian, I was born into Christianity but I am a
student of comparative religion. I am into Jewish studies and I
can call myself a messianic Jew if one can look at it that way.
Do you have gods that you worship, and how many shrines do
you have?
You know the tragedy of African gods is that if you don’t
worship it after some time, they will die. Since Christianity
came to Uturu in 1906, the British man subdued Uturu people,
which my grandfather, Ogbonnaya, was one of the traditional
defenders, and introduced Christianity, we have heard that
those deities are gone and even if they were anywhere, nobody
will tell you this is where they are now because nobody goes
there again. They are all dead, all those deities.
How did you develop interest in journalism?
When I was young, I was buying this Catholic newspaper for
two pence weekly and another that was being sold for four
pence; so when I eventually went to Port Harcourt, my elder
brother who was working with The Voice Agency in London
was buying papers like Daily Flash, Eastern Nigeria Guardian,
Newsweek and Time magazines Magazine. So I started
reading those papers and this made me a voracious reader.
That was what made me develop interest in journalism. After
passing school certificate in 1971, I went to St Augustine’s
Grammar School, Nkwerre, for my Higher School Certificate
(HSC). I had a wonderful result, ABB (A in Government, B in
History and B in Economics). In 1975, all the five universities I
applied to for admission offered me direct entry. My first
interest was to become a lawyer, so if I had been well-
advised, I would have taken a degree in Law rather than Mass
Communication. Nsukka offered me Mass Communication,
UNILAG (Mass Comm), University of Ibadan (Political Science)
, University of Benin (Political Science) and University of Ife
(now Obafemi Awolowo University) offered me Law. If I had ac
cepted, I would the offer from Ife, Eme Awah, the Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and I would have been together at
Ife.
Do you regret studying and practicing journalism?
I studied Mass Communication, so I don’t regret it. I did my
NYSC at Ondo State Radio station, Oba Ile Akure in 1978/79,
and from there I joined NTA Aba, Channel 6 as Editor II, under
Mazi Ukonu. In 1980, when Abiola started Concord and as a
vibrant young man, I resigned from NTA Aba and joined
Concord Newspapers as the first Chief Correspondent in old
Imo State. In 1986, I was among the first Community Concord
Editors appointed by Abiola. I joined Concord the same day
with Dele Giwa, Innocent Oparadike, Tom Borha, Doyin Abiola
(was still a maiden then) and Mike Awoyinfa. They were all
our contemporaries in Concord. In 1989, when the Community
Concord experiment failed, I went to Lagos and was appointed
Defence Correspondent with the rank of Assistant Editor. I
covered the Gideon Orkar coup on April 22, 1990. I was in
Dodan Barracks as the battle raged; I was at Radio Nigeria,
Ikoyi when Gideon Orkar was captured. During the trials at
Brigade of Guards on Kofo Abayomi, which Ike Nwachukwu
presided over as Chairman of the Military Tribunal, I covered
all those events for Concord. I almost lost my life during the
coup because some soldiers captured us at the airport and
thoroughly beat us. Eventually, we covered the trial and
execution of Gideon Orkar. In 1990 after 10 years in Concord I
left to be the Editor of Arthur Nzeribe’s Spectator newspaper
in Owerri. The paper folded up and I went into private public
relations/advertising practice. In 1996, I joined Iwuanyanwu’s
National Post as the first Deputy Editor. I left in 2000 as
Managing Editor of National Post and we floated Announcer
Express in Owerri which is still publishing, myself, Joe Anyama
and Victor Alozie, who is now the Head of Mass
Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede. I was the
Executive Director, Publications when my people said I should
come home to be the Eze.
As the traditional ruler, do you still engage in private
business?
The issue of traditional rulership in Igbo land is a different
ballgame from what you have in Yorubaland and Northern
states. Any Eze in Igbo land who is not sufficiently buoyant
cannot survive on the throne, no matter what the government
gives you; you must have what you are doing and that is why
you see some our traditional rulers resident in Lagos. How
many of us are in our communities? Any Eze in Igbo land who
stays put in his community will find it difficult to feed himself,
not to talk of his family. That is why you must have
something that you are doing.
As an Eze, can you participate in politics?
That one is completely out of it. From day one you know that
you have nothing to do in politics. In fact, if some of us who
are traditional rulers in Igbo land had gone into politics,
politics in Igbo land would have been hotter than what we are
having. Most of us who are traditional rulers are born politi
cians and if not that we are not free like other people, politics
would have been hotter.
How many wives do you have, and where and when did you
meet your first wife?
(He laughs first and said) Polygamy is out of the way, I have
one wife, who is the mother of my children and I have never
contemplated taking a second wife. She has not been found
wanting in her duties, both in the palace and in my bedroom,
so I don’t need a substitute. My wife is from Imo State. We
were all in old Imo State. She was posted to Uturu as a
teacher after her Grade II Teachers Certificate Course in 1978
and I came home from NTA Aba, around January 30, 1980. We
met when she was teaching in Uturu and one thing led to
another and we have been together for the past 35 years.
What actually attracted you to her?
Her simplicity and honesty was what attracted me to her.
There were no pretences when we met unlike others who play
this hide and seek game. Again, her elder brother had been a
friend of mine and I never knew that, so when she mentioned
his name, I asked if she was a sister to this my friend and she
said yes, and from there, we started talking and that was it.
You said that you don’t have a second wife and that you have
no plans of marrying another. Why?
It is in Yoruba land, where you have Yoruba Obas, like the late
Olateru-Olagbegi of Owo, who was said to have over 100
children, even in his old age of 90s, he still had a younger
wife. It is part of their own culture, but with Christianity in
Igbo land, and from the way we were brought up, one wife is a
burden so there is no point. It has never occurred to me any
day to take a second wife.
A lot of people have the view that royalty has to do with a lot
of wives and children, what do you think?
In Yoruba land, in the North, and even Islam permits them to
have more than one wife or as much as you can control, and
in most of the Yoruba land you find Muslims marrying more
than one wife. Yoruba people by nature are polygamous and
you see some of them under the guise of Islam taking many
wives. But it is not like that in Igbo land. I doubt if there is
any Eze in Uturu, where we have 24 autonomous communities,
who has a second wife.
Does this mean that no lady has ever attracted your attention
and you decided to commandeer her or take her as a wife?
That reminds me of the story of one Oba at Akure where I did
my national youth service, a former Deji of Akure, who was
said to be very fond of moving around the palace in the
evening and any time he saw any young lady would marry her
whether she liked it or not.
You have only one queen who has been with you for the past
35 years. Does she perform her duties to your satisfaction?
Yes, she is an educationist and she is of a school principal in
the Abia State school system and she would retire next year.
She has never been found wanting in her duties, she makes
room for every other job that concerns the palace and it
doesn’t affect her professional calling. That is why I have
been progressing.
What kind of food is your favorite?
From infancy, I have always loved eating yams because we
produce yams; people come to our market, Nkwo Achara to
buy yams. I like ‘swallow’, no day passes without my having
swallow. These days, I take wheat, but in those days, it could
be garri, akpu or even pounded yam.
Do you drink alcohol?
You may be surprised to hear that for the past 34 years I
have never tasted beer, not even as a practicing journalist; the
reason being that when I came into journalism, a bottle of
beer was 80 kobo. During my youth service in Akure there was
one place called Motor Motel, near Adeyemi College of
Education, I think beer was sold there at 60 kobo. The general
impression was that journalists drink and that journalists
could take 10 bottles of beer in a day without paying kobo.
When I came to Owerri, I was still taking beer, but I felt
insulted one day that somebody came to my office, weeping
that he wanted to see the late Governor Sam Mbakwe. I made
it possible for him to see the governor, and the next time we
met in a friend’s office, the first thing he did was to tell them
to get me beer to drink and I felt insulted and from that day I
vowed not to drink beer again – that was in February 1981. I
know that I write better when I am tipsy, but I don’t want
alcohol to control me. As an Eze, they are all in my palace,
but I don’t like them to control me.
What attire do you feel most comfortable wearing?
As a journalist, I used to dress in very formal manner. There
was a time I had up to 10 suits, because you don’t know
where you can meet any personality that you may want to
interview. I was noted for wearing suit, particularly when I was
at NTA Aba. I used to run a programme called Behind the
News, so I could meet people and interview them anywhere,
but since I became Eze, it became a different style of
dressing; all those my suits, I don’t wear them again, I don’t
wear tie again. At least while appearing in public, you have to
wear something that distinguishes you as a traditional ruler, it
is already part of us. But when am relaxing, I wear simple
clothes like jumper as an elder; in the house I wear simple
things within the palace, but while going outside I have to
dress formally as an Eze.
Tell us about your happiest moment.
The day my wife had our first child who is now married, I was
happy that very day having seen myself as a father. Again, the
day my people made me the Eze on a platter of gold, I felt
very happy that I had been recognized; recently, when my
second daughter was called to the Bar at the Nigerian Law
School, Abuja, on November 26, 2014.
Looking back, which day would say was your most
embarrassing moment?
It happened during my days as a journalist, when I was
detained under Decree 4, in 1984, when Ike Nwachukwu, who
was the then military governor of Imo State. I wrote a story
with the headline, ‘5000 Teachers lose jobs in Imo.’ And Ike
Nwachukwu ordered that I should be arrested. I was detained
for one month. Our General Manager in Concord, M.C.
Ajuluchukwu, who was coming from Enugu to seek my release
was involved in an accident and had to go back. My wife had
to write a letter through Dr Okereke, the then Attorney General
in Imo State, and it was read at the State Executive Council
meeting. In fact, Ike Nwachukwu had ordered that I should be
charged under Decree 4 when Dr. Okereke reminded him that
Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon had imprisoned
Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor in Lagos, and argued that
it would be unfortunate to have another journalist from Imo
State imprisoned. The Decree 4 said that even if you wrote the
truth and it was embarrassing to the government, the
journalist must be jailed. So I remained in detention for one
month.
Where would say is your favorite holiday spot?
Before the Boko Haram insurgency started, I always
considered the Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State as my
favourite holiday spot, followed by Obudu Ranch in Cross River
State and the Baguada Lake in the North. I had opportunities
to travel to those places.
And your favourite quotes?
I have a lot of quotes, but what I normally tell people is that
they should do unto others as they will want others to do unto
them. Then because of this mad rush for wealth in Nigeria, I
came across a quote in the Bible and since I came across it, it
has tailored my life. It says: “A man sitting over ill-acquired
wealth is like a hen trying to hatch an egg it never laid. At the
end the wealth disappears and it becomes stupid.” Since I
came across that quotation in the Bible, it has been guiding
my life. So that is why when you see some people, they will
be so wealthy while alive, immediately they die, the wealth
disappears. If you have stolen public property, because you
have public office, you are sitting over ill-acquired wealth. At
the end the wealth will disappear and you will not have the
opportunity for repentance or even making restitution. I live a
very simple life. I am not bothered with whatever as long as I
can take care of my family and meet the basic necessities of
life, nature will take care of itself.
Do you wear designer clothes?
I don’t, but I have a tailor in Okigwe who sews for me. I don’t
go to the market to buy, but I have someone who sews all my
clothes.
Can you remember any of the funny things you did since
ascending the throne?
Yes, some of the people who shouted Hosanna! yesterday
eventually turned out to say crucify him. Not that I used to
take people for granted but all that glitters is not gold, and
then when people come with different ideas, you have to be
careful in being able to see which is which. The counsel of
Ahithophel is what many people will bring to you. That advice
they are bringing to you is to destroy you so you have to be
careful. I know what I have passed through since I ascended
the throne.
Are there any sporting activities you cannot do without?
I try to exercise within the compound, I cannot be seen
outside now trying to jog or something like that, because as
the traditional ruler I cannot do things like that. I have to
maintain some privacy. Whatever exercise I do, I do it within
my compound to maintain some privacy.
How much time do you spend with your children?
When they are around, I spend quality time with them. Inciden
tally, journalism is the type of job that keeps you working
without finding time for yourself. That was one of the things
that made me to leave Lagos. In 1989, when I was transferred
to Lagos, my family was in Owerri and every month, I would
drive to Owerri to be with my family and then come back to
Lagos. So immediately I saw the opportunity to go and edit
Nzeribe’s paper along Okigwe Road, Owerri, I resigned and
came back to Owerri, even while in Owerri , it was not long
before Abia State was created and my wife and children had
to move to Umuahia. Even when my family was in Umuahia, I
was still working in Owerri up to the time that this Ezeship
came and I went back home. Anytime I was around, I ensured
that I spent time with them, but I think that journalism took
me too far. Even my daughter who is now a lawyer, I was the
one that influenced her to go and read Law – the Law that I
missed. I wanted her to read Law particularly because we are
close.
How old is your last child?
I don’t have too many children; I have two girls and a boy.
The girls are both graduates now and the young man is still in
secondary school. After our first two issues, we spent fourteen
years before having him. My daughter who is a lawyer now
was already in Uturu Secondary School in Class 1, when the
mother conceived and had him. So you can see the gap
between them, the boy is just 17 and he is in SS 3 now.
What do you despise as a person?
I hate people telling lies, pretending to be what they are not. I
also don’t like people who are not straightforward. People
who try to cut corners put me off. The people who boast and
create the impression that they are what they are not.
If you could change one thing about your life, what would
that be?
Trusting people so much; I trusted people so much and they
disappointed me. If I had to live my life again, I would be very
careful in trusting people and the type of people to trust.
What virtue do you admire most in people?
I like people who work hard, who don’t expect manna to fall
from heaven; whatever you get out of your efforts, you admire
it. But if you think you can get things to drop on your laps
every day of your life without working for them, it is your
business. I hate people being lazy. I worked in the private
sector and it helped me so much, I didn’t work in the civil
service, the private sector made me to put in extra hours of
duty.
How would you describe yourself?
I can describe myself as a very simple man, a typical Uturu
man who was brought up to be honest in all he does. I was
brought up as a typical Catholic child who if he tells lies must
go for confession. That molded our lives. Today it is no longer
the same.
How would you like to be remembered?
I would want to be remembered as the man who came, saw
and conquered.
