Anambra: Soludo in battle trench with monarchs

By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka

Anambra State Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, last week slammed an indefinite suspension on the traditional monarch of the Neni community in the Anaocha local government area of the state, HRH Igwe Damian Ezeani.

Before that, the governor had through the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Town Union Matters, in a letter dated January 8, 2024, suspended the monarch for conferring a chieftaincy title on the senator representing Anambra South senatorial zone of the state, Ifeanyi Ubah.

Findings revealed that Igwe Ezeani bestowed the title of ‘Odenjiji of Neni’ on Senator Ubah. It was, however, further learnt that the Governor himself bears the same Odenjiji title.

Recall that Senator Ubah, late last year, defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), from his former Young Progressive Party (YPP). Ubah is strongly believed to be eyeing the exalted number one seat at Agu Awka Government House, ahead of the 2025 gubernatorial election in the state.

In a letter addressed to the monarch by the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs, and Town Union Matters, Collins Nwabunwanne, the state government accused Igwe Ezeani of breaching the Code of Conduct for traditional rulers in Anambra State.

The code stipulates, amongst others, that no traditional ruler can confer chieftaincy titles on anyone from outside his domain, without obtaining the permission of the traditional ruler of the recipient’s community.

Ubah hails from Nnewi town in the South Senatorial district of the state, and it was learnt that Igwe Ezeani did not obtain permission from Igwe Kenneth Orizu of Nnewi before conferring the title on his subject.

The suspension letter reads in part, “We have received confirmed reports that you, as the traditional ruler of Neni, conferred such a phantom chieftaincy title on one Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in violation of the Code of Conduct and without clearance from the Ministry.

“Whether or not your action was for pecuniary reasons as being insinuated in many quarters is irrelevant. What is important is that your action is an affront to order and good governance.

“In the light of the above, and for order and good governance, I am directed to inform you that Mr. Governor has in the exercise of his powers under Section 2 (C) of the Anambra State Traditional Rulers (Amendment) Law, 2020, suspended your recognition as the traditional ruler of Neni, until further notice.”

The letter further stated, “You are also by this letter required to show cause why your certificate of recognition should not be withdrawn, in line with the Traditional Rulers Law.

“In the meantime, you are advised in your interest to stop parading yourself forthwith as the traditional ruler of the Neni community”.

The commissioner noted that while a vast majority of traditional rulers conduct their exalted office with dignity and integrity and stick to the Code of Conduct and directives of the Ministry, a tiny few still act recklessly and in total disregard for the Code of Conduct of their office and directives of the supervising ministry.

He stated that, among other reasons, the regulation is to curtail observed abuses, including a growing trend whereby a minority of traditional rulers have demonstrated a penchant for trading chieftaincy titles for money, thereby bringing the traditional institution to ridicule and disrepute.

Nwabunwanne cited that, “For example, a few days ago, a former traditional ruler deposed by a court of law went ahead to confer phantom chieftaincy titles on 40 individuals in one day (Some with questionable characters).

“This brazen disregard for law and order, as well as directives by lawful authorities, cannot be tolerated in the new Anambra of today.

“We have received confirmed reports that you, as the traditional ruler of Neni, conferred such a phantom chieftaincy title today on one Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in violation of the Code of Conduct and without clearance from the ministry.”

The action by Governor Soludo had raised a dust of controversy and mixed feelings among both critics and pro-government forces.

Although investigations showed that some of the traditional rulers allegedly abuse their privileged positions, some of them are said not to domicile in their communities but preside over their communities from urban areas, while others are found to be enmeshed in land tussles and communal crises, dictatorial tendencies, and in a supremacy battle with the President-Generals (PGs) of their areas, among other things inimical to peace, unity and progress of their communities, hence the move to tame the errant ones to serve as a deterrent to others.

However, Senator Ubah, in a statement, described Governor Soludo’s suspension of the monarch as a game of politics, saying, “Soludo is frustrated by my rising popularity.”

The senator said he was not the only person conferred with the chieftaincy title, adding that several other politicians, including President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, were honoured within the same period.

“Why is my own different?” he asked.

“The governor is frustrated by my acceptance and popularity; he is jittery about the next governorship election, but I leave him to his conscience,” Ubah added.

Besides, critics see the governor’s clampdown as hasty, unbearable, and laced with politics.

They argued that the manner of alleged threats and sanctions or clamp down on the monarch and others fell short of decorum and civility by a democratic government.

There are fears that traditional rulers suddenly have been turned into the whipping boys of the government of the day, to make them bend to the powers that be, or else they suffer untold humiliation.

Soludo is said not to be joking with the state of things across the 179 communities in the 21 LGAs of the state, especially as they are concerned about the worrisome state of insecurity in the state.

But the suspended traditional ruler of Neni community, HRH Igwe Damian Ezeani, had since apologised to the governor over his conferment of chieftaincy title on Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.

Ezeani said his action was a result of his ignorance of the Anambra State Traditional Rulers Law 2020, as amended.

The monarch had also begged Soludo to temper justice with mercy, stressing that the governor’s forgiveness would further sustain the already existing peace and unity the Neni community has been known for since his reign began 23 years ago.

He further told newsmen at his palace in Neni that he did the title conferment out of ignorance, noting that he didn’t know that a law to that effect had been amended in 2020.

“I didn’t award the chieftaincy titles to Senator Ubah and others on political grounds as being speculated in different quarters, but based on their services to humanity,” he said.

He also has, therefore, withdrawn the controversial chieftaincy title he conferred on Ubah.

The Neni monarch is not alone in the festering crisis stirred by the Soludo administration which wielded the big stick against the traditional institution in the state.

Two other traditional rulers in the state have also been forced on their toes to withdraw the chieftaincy titles they recently conferred on Senator Patrick Ubah.

They include Igwe F.E. Ebelendu of Aguluezechukwu in the Aguata Local Government Area and Igwe Gerald Obunadike Mbamalu of Ojoto in Idemili South Local Government Area.

However, the dust has refused to settle over the perceived intimidation and move to desecrate the culture and the traditional institution represented by the monarchs.

The Obi of Onitsha Ancient Kingdom and Chairman of Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Alfred Achebe, (Agbogidi), in an over 27-page letter to Soludo, blasted the governor for a show of disrespect for the traditional institution.

He also lashed at the state government for ‘progressively dehumanising’ the traditional institution, expressing displeasure with the way the government had been treating the royal institution in the state.

Igwe Achebe said the way and manner the government maltreated and suspended members of the council was disrespectful.

The monarch added that the commissioner-in-charge of the ministry, Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne, disrespected the traditional institution by taking unilateral action against traditional rulers and communicating them through social media.

He condemned the suspension of Igwe Ezeani for conferring a chieftaincy title for alleged non-compliance with the Code of Conduct as dehumanising and selective.

“Assuming that Neni did not strictly comply with the Code of Conduct, would the foregoing factors not be sufficiently extenuating to warrant a far less sanction on him as was meted to some other ‘tiny ten’ that also failed to comply?

“The severity of suspension and threat of withdrawal of Certificate of Recognition suggests that there may be other issues with either lgwe Neni or Distinguished Senator Ubah which are being stealthily ventilated in this circumstance.

“Your letter to lgwe Damian Ezeani was copied to the Commissioner of Police and Director of DSS, Anambra State, but not to the chairman of the ASTRC.

“This act, amongst many others, was seen by the traditional rulers of Anambra State as a measure of the worth of the traditional institution to the present administration.

“You publicly visited the sins of an unrecognised self-acclaimed traditional ruler on the entire State traditional institution, to which he does not belong,” he said.

Agbogidi said the traditional institution in Anambra comprised some of the finest sons of the State who achieved sterling academic heights and professional/vocational attainments.

He said the claim of the commissioner that traditional rulers had demonstrated a penchant for trading chieftaincy titles for money/ was not supported by any evidence adding that their stool was not sustained by it or government stipend.

He described the handling of the matter of conferment of honorary chieftaincy titles as the apogee of the progressive dehumanisation and dismantling of the traditional institution of Anambra by the present administration.

“The livelihood of the traditional rulers does not depend on selling chieftaincy titles or the N175,000 monthly stipend from the state government, but on their own hard-earned modest personal resources.

“By their office, age, attainment, and standing in society, they deserve far better respect and dignity, than being publicly bullied and unfairly shamed at every opportunity by people in the State Government.

“The Federal and other State Governments hold the traditional institutions in high esteem. What then has gone wrong in Anambra State?

“The traditional institution of Anambra feels strongly that the present administration is progressively dehumanising and deprecating the institution against the trend in the rest of the country.

“The traditional institution is mindful of the awesomeness of executive power and authority in our democratic dispensation but prays fervently that such power and authority, which derive from God through the governed, should be exercised with due sensitivity and humaneness over the governed,” he said.

Achebe said contrary to the impression that the issue of honorary chieftaincy title was on the foremost front burner for the Anambra people, the communities were still faced with many development challenges.

According to him, key community challenges are a lack of basic amenities, including, electricity, potable water, healthcare, good access roads, youth unemployment leading to other delinquencies, and the inability of the communities to fund their contingents of the Anambra State Vigilante Group.

“We also demand respectable stipends from the five of the statutory allocation to the Local Government Councils as is applicable in other States of the Federation,” he said.

On its part, the APC, Anambra Central, has faulted Soludo’s suspension of the traditional ruler and called for his reinstatement.

The leadership and members of Anambra Central Senatorial zone of the APC, through the Publicity Secretary of the party, Igboeli Arinze Napoleon, in a statement to newsmen on Tuesday in Awka, the state capital, said the measure taken by Governor Soludo was “an attempt to muscle our traditional institutions and drag it into the murky waters of Anambra politics.”

Arinze cited that hiding under the Anambra State Traditional Law to suspend Igwe Ezeani was akin to disrespecting our revered traditional institutions.

He noted that the action taken by the state government would not augur well for the peace and development of the state.

The APC stated that “Hiding under the Anambra State Traditional Rulers Law, Section 2 C by the Soludo administration to suspend the cultural custodian of Neni smacked of an attempt to witch-hunt Igwe Ezeani, simply because he conferred a title on Senator Ubah whose influence the non-performing administration led by our governor seems to be growing wary of by the day.”

“Let us ask, is Igwe Ezeani the first to have conferred a title on someone who isn’t from his community without the opprobrious demand for clearance by the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs? Or has the government woken up from its deep slumber because this time around the title was conferred on Senator Ubah?

“Let us even note that the content of Section 2 C of that law is repugnant and should not be something an administration with lots of work to do in terms of unemployment, bad and poor infrastructure, and most notably, the security of lives and property should bother itself about.”

The APC said, “Such is only bound to muscle our traditional institutions and drag them into the murky waters of politics. Tell me, why should a government demand that it clears the recipients for such titles? The government may as well hijack the process and confer such titles on behalf of these communities with the traditional rulers now serving as yes-boys!’’

The party, however, called on Governor Soludo to stop his administration’s assault on our traditional institutions by repudiating the suspension of Igwe Neni as well as reinstating him to the throne of his fathers.“

It was learnt that two weeks ago, the Vice President, Alhaji Kassim Shettima, a Kanuri man from Borno State, was conferred with a chieftaincy title in the state.

Also, a former Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai (retd), was conferred with a chieftaincy title in Aguleri last week.

In 2020, former governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano wielded the big stick when he slammed a one-year suspension order on 12 traditional rulers who went on a trip to Abuja with popular billionaire oil magnate and politician, Chief Arthur Eze, to see President Muhammadu Buhari.

Some of the issues relating to the suspension of the monarchs are yet to be resolved, while others are pending before various courts.

Investigations revealed that eight traditional rulers in the state are so far on their way to being suspended from office by the state government.

This follows the alleged indiscriminate conferment of chieftaincy titles on undeserving and controversial persons.

Again, it brings to question Senator Ubah’s penchant garnering for different chieftaincy titles from as many traditional rulers in the different communities of several states, including his home state, Anambra.