Umuaka News24

Since time immemorial, traditional Igbo society had been egalitarian and always had republican leadership but not kings.

Nothing like the traditional rulers that many of our communities have today that are at the behest of the state government.

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Igbo society did not and does not have kingdoms —never mind the advent of Warrant Chiefs brought by colonialism and its latest versions of His Royal Highness and His Royal Majesty that litter our communities now which are entirely the creation of the latter-day state government.

The hallmark of an alien ruling system to a society is when its functionaries mostly lack real power in the communities, as the people refuse to owe allegiance to their supremacy.

No real king anywhere in the world is brazenly arrested by the state police and subjected to public humiliation without official invitation to answer any questions as a form of courtesy and reverence.

Traditional rulers in Igbo culture were not designed to be subservient to a distant state administration or be ousted from position with a stroke of a pen by a faraway Governor that has no connection to the community. An outsider should not remove you from your position as the head of your family.

Traditional rulers were the ọfọ holders of their societies and performed priestly duties. The office was an establishment of custom and not just a lever of a state government as is the case now in most villages.

The state should not have the capacity to fire who it did not hire.

Recently, people of Umuaka were surprised to see the successor of a throne of their hometown receiving so-called staff of office from state government. It’s considered bizarre by many that such is the order of the day.

What happened to the staff that predecessors wielded?

The authority derives legitimacy from the people of the community who should enthrone such leadership.

What the government should do to succession of such storied position that predates the state is formal recognition of the new individual in power and not issuing the so-called staff of office.

Although it’s not inconceivable that perhaps the state government possibly doesn’t regard certain individuals as deserving of some royal appelations since many are not actually kings in the true sense of the word.

One of the major attributes of kingship is being a sovereign and a position inherited by right of birth.

Most families of the contemporary EZEs of the new Autonomous Communities are evidently not royal and typically do not retain that leadership position after the reign of the present office holder.

We now have former purported royal families, which appears to be an aberration for a true monarch system and actually demonstrates that the practice is indeed a relatively recent development in our civilisation.

There seems to be nuances in the institution and the state needs to make a distinction between historic cultural order and the new establishments that it created.

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