A REVIEW OF THE BOOK “THE KINGMAKER: BIOGRAPHY OF JUSTICE EUSTACE OKAFOR AZOMANI AND THE HISTORY OF THE OGBOLI COMMUNITY OF ISSELE-UKU”

A REVIEW OF THE BOOK “THE KINGMAKER: BIOGRAPHY OF JUSTICE EUSTACE OKAFOR AZOMANI AND THE HISTORY OF THE OGBOLI COMMUNITY OF ISSELE-UKU” 

Book Author: Ifenna Leonard Azomani (Esq.), Doctoral Student in Law

Book Reviewer: Emeka Esogbue, B. A (Hons) History and International Studies; Lagos State University, M. A. History and Diplomacy; Lagos State University 

Nature of Work: Biography/Culture/History

Book Publisher: Shepherd Grace House 

Year of Publication: 2020

Introduction

The book pages which total 380 in number and 21 chapters in all is written in a narrative style. It is authored by Ifenna Leonard Azomani, a native of Issele-Uku community in Delta State of Nigeria, a legal practitioner and Christian cleric with over 15 published works, one of which is “The Voice of A Father”. Author, a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is richly educated with two first university degrees in two different disciplines which though does not include history but in Botany and Law and two Master’s Degrees in Business Administration and Law. Nonetheless, he is currently running his Ph.D. programme in Law in one of the universities in the country. 

It would seem that the author set out to purely document the account on series of events making up the life of his subject, his late father, Justice Eustace Okafor Azomani, the Onishe of Issele-Uku a retired High Court Judge on one hand and the origin of the Ogboli people of Issele-Uku. Author passionately and analytically presented his arguments to support his assessments and interpretation of the Ogboli people as the first settlers in his Issele-Uku community as against divided opinions which comes with the Benin as the first settlers and the community as Ezechime foundation on the other hand. He also touched the monarchy of the community and Diokpaship of the ogbe comparatively, bringing out their features, functions and limits in Issele-Uku as a whole in internal governance. 

Chapter one of the book being 11 pages opens with the account of his summon to the palace of the Obi of Issele-Uku which he attended on February 14, 2019 over the content of his work, “The Kingmaker”. From the information further supplied by the author over the summons, it particularly had to do with some aspects of the content of the book considered offensive by a section of the community. Although the author, Ifenna Leonard Azomani had claimed that the content of the said work was the version of his father’s story which he could not convey before his demise due to his sudden death, the response to the summon is now the review of the biographical work to which I also review in this write-up. The purpose of my review is to quell ‘academic hunger’ and to additionally document the rich history of the Issele-Uku Kingdom and Anioma by extension. 

As recounted in the book, he was questioned over his derivation of authority to go beyond his father’s biography to begin to write the history of the community, which they must have construed to be distorted by the author. Usually, the writing of the history of a people may originate emotion but the intent and extent of the summon as explained by the author in the first chapter of the book is absolutely surprising being that the work of history is academic and generates not necessarily offence unless libel or personal vilification is proven in which case, the court of law becomes the recourse. 

The writing of history, no matter the account tailored should ordinarily not birth traditional offence or crime. While the law court legally interprets or checks malicious publication or content aimed at defaming the personality of any person, the conventional antidote of misleading history is the publication of a work in refutation of what is earlier done by an author to correct his perceived falsifications, something usually beneficial to the academic world. Well, the step taken by the people to check the author is unidentified in scholarship at least since the beauty of scholarship remains dissemination of knowledge and stay of superior knowledge sand not repression with the instrument of tradition. 

The historical researcher digs into events stringently, rigorously and thoroughly with the investigative academic disposition to render an account on past events. He achieves the aim of the study with reliance on primary and secondary sources. The Reviewer will set out to appraise critical the book “The Kingmaker: Biography of Justice Eustace Okafor Azomani and the history of the Ogboli Community of Issele-Uku” as authored by Ifenna Leonard Azomani to provide readers of the book as well as students of the history of Issele-Uku and Anioma by extension with adequate understanding of the content.   

Scope of the Review

Conversely, for some reasons, I will concentrate my review of this work on the historical aspect of the book and will overlook the subject of the authors biography. This will mean that my analysis will focus only on author’s contributions to the historical knowledge of Issele-Uku, an Anioma community.

The Review

One of the author’s earliest positions in this work is the revelation that the Issele-Uku community is a heterogeneity and that the Ogboli migrants were particularly the first settlers in modern Issele-Uku. He went ahead to accentuate that the primary migration that led to their settlement was led by Enwei, Enwem or Enwelim, a farmer and hunter. In summary, the author holds that Ogboli is the oldest settlement in Issele-Uku, an argument he diligently and emphatically pursued. From further information supplied by him, Ogboli was an autonomous community before becoming a part of Issele-Uku. Unfortunately, the event leading to Ogboli’s integration with the other in Issele-Uku group was unaccounted for in the work by the author so that it becomes difficult to understand fully the evolvement of modern-day Issele-Uku. Was this by amalgamation occasioned by the British imperialism, treaty, conquest or Benin conquest? Did the British meet an already amalgamated Issele-Uku?

The closest example is provided in Ibusa community, where the Ogboli settlement was merged with Igbuzo in 1914 and the community was called “Igbuzo”. Although the author may not be wrong to hold the Ogboli school of thought in Issele-Uku which he sees as the earliest settlement in that community, adequate dating of migrations in Issele-Uku was not provided. In history, assigning a date to determine period of events is very important because it situates periods of events. 

There are presently three Ogboli lineages remaining in Anioma being Ogboli Issele-Uku, Ogboli Igbuzo and Ogboli Atuma, the author did not provide additional historical accounts into the origins and development of the lineage in the two other communities to aid his argument and to also assist his readers to see the people beyond his Issele-Uku bounds. Indeed, in Ibusa, the Ogboli migration was led by Edini, the son of the King of Nri who left Nri with Adaigbo, the founder of Ogwashi-Uku. The Igbuzo legend holds that Adaigbo, the elder brother, had slept with one of his father’s wives and was to be put to death in Nri Mosaic society but his father commuted the death sentence. Together with Edini, his younger brother, he was given a pot of charm which they both carried on their heads with the instruction from their father, the King of Nri to settle wherever the pot dropped. 

For Edini, the pot was to earlier drop at place called Ani-Udo where he settled while that of Adaigbo dropped at the present site of Ogwashi-Uku where he also settled. Their mother, Obodo was to settle with Edini, the younger of the two brothers. A similar myth is shared by Akwukwu-Igbo which shares same Oshimili North Local Government with Ibusa. Okolie Agu, a hunter being the younger brother of Adaigbo left Nri and had to first settle with Adaigbo and had to first settle in Ogwashi-Uku before moving on a secondary migration to Akwukwu-Igbo. The Igbuzo, Ogwashi-Uku and Akwukwu-Igbo accounts of settlement has led Prof Elizabeth Isichei to conclude that all three settlements may have journeyed together from Nri to settle in their present locations as further reported by Mordi & Opone in their collective work.

The author was not amiss with his Ogboli theory in Issele-Uku since within period under discussion, the movement of Ogboli groups from Nri to the West of the Niger was common. However, he owes his readers the task to associate or disassociate it with similar occurrences such as those that led to the formation of three settlements of Ibusa, Ogwashi-Uku, Atuma and Akwukwu-Igbo, three of which have been explained above but a deeper investigation is necessary in this area. Incidentally, all communities where the Ogboli are found except the Ibusa community enjoy monarchical system of administration due to the influence of other groups they have now merged with. Did the author think of this in his evaluation of the people?        

That the presence of Ogboli is not strange in Anioma confirms the author’s historical knowledge of the Issele-Uku relations which he consciously rode on to continually reiterate in the work. More significantly, he makes to establish the people as the earliest in Issele-Uku even before the Benin influence. 

Akeh-Osu (2016:21) though in acknowledgement of the presence of the Ogboli in Issele-Uku appears to divert from the idea disseminated by Azomani when he wrote:

“On leaving Ukwunzu, a group of people of Ogbe Agidi with whom he stayed in their quarters, joined his group of Benins from Utekor and Ugwale to Isi-Ile-Uku (Issele-Uku), to live permanently with him. This Agidi group of people are believed to have immigrated originally from Nri (Ibo) from the east of River Niger), and first settled at Obankpa (Obomkpa) before finally coming to settle at Ukwunzu. Eze Ise settled at Issele-Uku near Idumu Edemoka “Idumu Edo Ugboka. Other groups of people like those Utekor “Ute” and Ugwule were also settled side by side with Agidis of Nri. The Agidi people at Issele-Uku still call themselves “Agidi Nshi”.  

From the above, Akeh admits the presence of the Ogboli in Issele-Uku and also that the people originally left Nri, East of the River Niger. He named them “Agidi Nshi” which Azomani expanded to also mean “Ogboli” but he sidetracked from Azomani’s argument of primary migration to theorize that they first settled in Obomkpa before Ukwunzu. For him, the Nri did not leave their homestead to move to settle in Issele-Uku in a primary migration. In the long run, he confirmed that Issele-Uku is a settlement of several groups – the Nri, Utekor and Ugwule and Bini. Nonetheless, his submission is that there was Issele-Uku before the Ogboli, the very argument that completely puts him in contrast with Ifenna Leonard Azomani hence, the argument of the first to settle in Issele-Uku drags on especially between the two authors whose books are rave of the moment in the community. 

The author, Ifenna Leonard Azomani animated his historical account of Ogboli with a human figure when he cited Rev S. W. Martins, one of the greatest personalities in Anioma as hailing from Ogboli part of Issele-Uku and indeed, Rev Martins was a renowned educationist and missioner that founded Pilgrim Primary School in 1922 and pilgrim Baptist church in 1936. Also from Ogboli-Ibusa hails Bishop Nwaezeapu, the first Catholic Bishop from Ibusa. Page 29 of the book gives readers additional information of Diokpaship as the people’s system of government, which is characterized in republicanism that the Igbo of the South East is known for; on page 24, he had earlier utilized the governmental instrument of Okpalabisi to argue his way through the Kingdom to be an Ibo society but as he would further explicate in the interest of his readers, it was in the reign of Oba Ediai, the Benin-like monarch that led to the proliferation of Benin chieftaincy titles among the people according to him. Again, there seems the conflict between republicanism and monarchy in Issele-Uku as readers would come to discover in his conveyance.   

The author brought to forepart the question of the name, “Issele-Uku” so that while Akeh-Osu earlier quoted in this work, habitually and commonly referred to the community as “Isi-Ile-Uku” from which Issele-Uku is derived, Azomani disagrees. For him, the original name of the settlement was “Issele-Oligbo” at least, as natively known to the Ogboli people. 

In furtherance, he considers the name, “Issele-Uku” a monopoly of Benin advocates over the rest of the groups since it particularly excludes Ogboli believed by him to be the first settlers. The author found support and dependence on Charles Anyasi’s work which according to him recognizes Oligbo as the founder of Issele-Uku. The author’s claim, joined with Charles Anyasi, emphasizes that the name “Issele-Uku” is appropriately “Issele-Oligbo” in the history of the traditional history people. Perhaps, this particular historical notion is an addition to the parapraxis of the community which leaves the community account not definitive. The question: Was Issele-Uku a Benin Kingdom, Ezechime kingdom or Igbo kingdom as stretched by different schools of thought? How can the community be of Benin and also Ezechime at the same time? While the people of the community have always prided themselves in Oligbo Kingdom and the head of Ezechime clan, there is also the Benin factor as maintained by others thereby inclining on somewhat misapprehension. 

For Akeh-Osu, “Isi-Ile-Uku (Issele-Uku) Kingdom was founded by the Binis, in about 1230AD by Oba Eweka 1 of Benin Empire…the original name of the new Kingdom carved out of Benin Empire “Isi-Ile-Uku demonstrating relationship with the Benin and Obas of Benin-City ‘Uku akpolokpolo Omonoba N’Edo”. In all, he fell short of supplying the actually meaning of the name which should have interested readers and also helping to understanding the derivation as also applying to Issele-Mkpitime which sprang out of Issele-Uku.

Again, the question is if Issele-Uku was founded by the Binis as reported by Akeh-Osu, why does the legend of the community recognize Oligbo as the founder to the extent that the community is natively known as “Oligbo Issele-Uku?’” The same Akeh-Osu worked wobbly towards finding a balance between Benin and Ezechime when he wrote on page 1 of his work: 

“Right from the 13th Century, Isi-Ile-Uku (Issele-Uku) has had connections with Benin “Bini” and the Umuezechima…”.

The confusion seemingly continued with contradiction as seen in further reference of his work:

“Ikhimi (Ezechime) left Benin with his other children. His children were Obio (daughter and eldest child) and Orisha, his son- who was earlier named after Orisha deity by Eze Ise when his grandson was born in his absence while still at Ukwunzu and Ikhimi’s last son, Origbo (Oligbo)”.

He continued: “On reaching Isi-Ile-Uku and since it was customary that the prince who was heir to the throne should not live in the same palace as the ruling king, Ikhimi had to look for a new obode (sic) with his family. He called his new home at Issele-Uku, Eguai-Ikhimi, which was later pronounced “Agwachime” in then ‘Ika’ Issele-Uku dialect”.

From Akeh-Osu’s given account here, it would seem that Oligbo was not the founder of Issele-Uku as acclaimed by him by the people’s myth and as he would further document on page 22 of the book, “Isi-Ile-Uku has many things in common with their original home, Benin”. In due course, the view at piece on the original homestead of the Issele-Uku people as shared by both writers on the history of the community remains unrelenting. Surely, like most communities of Anioma Issele-Uku is enmeshed in identity crisis which remains unresolved even now.  

Oligbo Migrants as Founders of Issele-Uku: The Azomani Arguments

If the Benin were not the founders of Issele-Uku, were the Nri founders as diligently sustained by Azomani, the author? In the book, “The Kingmaker: Biography of Justice Eustace Okafor Azomani and the History of the Ogboli Community of Issele-Uku”, several arguments were pointedly used to strongly advocate this and they are as replicated below:

The Ogboli are the earliest settlers, testified to by the Egbo tree (Boulodia Leavis) planted by them being also the earliest tree in that community. Azomani’s argument finds support in “Brief on the Exodus from Benin: The Formation of Onicha-Olona Kingdom”, an unpublished book of Ifeanyi Nwabuokei where he documented: “…Ogboli and Ogbeowele people who were said to have come from Nri and settled there before Issele and his family settled with them”.  

Issele-Uku was originally not a monarchy with king or queen until it was imposed on them

Author while quoting Ngozi Mokwunyei maintained that Ada and Abeni were not originally parts of Issele-Uku custom or regal power until they were introduced to the community during the reign of Obi Oligbo in the 16th Century with Oligbo coronation by the Oba Esigie of Benin  

Author reported that there are about 150 towns and communities in different states of Nigeria that claim Nri origin including Ogboli Issele-Uku but cited only about 18 of these towns and communities. Unfortunately, some of his citations were neither towns and communities as defined today but settlements or quarters in towns and communities. Examples are seen in Ogboli-Igbuzo, Umuakpanashi-Illah. Does Ubulu-Uku legend claim Nri origin to align with the author’s view? Although author claimed Iponri in Surulere, Lagos and Okaeri which he identified to be in Kwara State as Nri lineages, he failed to supply oral traditions of these places to narrate their histories of existence which is the usual practice in the discipline of history. 

Author correctly strengthens his arguments with Igbo four market days which originated from Nri and also practiced by Issele-Uku today.

Author exemplifies his argument with Igbo meaning of the name, “Ezechime” though he failed to considered that by implication, names of Ezechime’s children as also listed by him such as “Oligbo”, Ukpali and “Obior” render no meaning in Igbo language.

Author authentically exemplifies Nri existence and civilization as older than Benin on page 231 of his book, an argument supported by archeological findings.

Author’s references to various land cases that abound between Ogboli and other settlers such as that won by Umueze Isei in 1934 as reported on page 142 of the book lends credence to Azomani’s claim of Ogboli as the original settlers of Issele-Uku.

Author moved further in the book to disclaim the popular Issele-Uku “Obi Nwe Ani” (the Obi owns the land) maxim as strange to the settlement arguing that the precept only crept into the community mind in 1730 having been imposed by Benin. Author further used the instrument of Nigerian colonization, independence and fall of the Benin Empire and hegemony and section 44(2) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended to override the said claim. To marry this, the Nigerian monarchs may traditionally own lands but in practice, they cannot exercise control over such ownership since the days are gone and actually have nothing whatsoever to do with the lands that belong to several different inhabitants of the society. 

The Observations

From the book, the Reviewer made several observations:

Author perhaps by his traditional background demonstrated rich and studious knowledge of Ogboli, Nri and Issele-Uku subjects.  

The content of the book strove hard to the situate the original founders of Issele-Uku which it attributes to Ogboli migrants from Igbo, South East of Nigeria, a historical position also shared by not a few writers of the subject.

Author provided verifiable references to support his claim

Author rendered the meaning of the Ogboli as “One who plants” but he did not provide the origin or etymology of the name which Soligbo Benjamin claims to originate from Igbuzo where Edini named his foundation from Nri, “Ogboli”.

Author gives the apprioprate native name of Issele-Uku as Issele-Oligbo as against Akeh-Osu’s consideration of Isi-Ile-Uku 

Author did not employ oral accounts, myths and legends to explain his historical arguments as fully as expected. For instance, author claimed Ezemu, the acclaimed founder of Ubulu-Uku was crowned in Benin but he didn’t utilize the Ubulu-Uku oral account to support the claim. Author claimed Ubulu-Uku defeated Benin in Benin-Oboruku War (The Adesuwa War) but he didn’t provide Benin or Ubulu-Uku oral account to support this claim.

Author should have provided the list of the rulers of Ogboli as he did of Benin Empire to enrich his arguments. 

Author frequently confused “Anioma” with “Anioma-Igbo” whereas there is nothing like “Anioma-Igbo” since the word “Anioma” was originally an acronym and not also a phrase.

By extension, the review having also read Prince Chris Afumata Akeh-Osu’s work on similar subject observed that the author neglected to utilize oral histories of places where the Ogboli also exist in Anioma to provide a robust history of the Agidi Nshi and that the author neglected the use of “Ogboli” in his work.

Interestingly, neither Akeh-Osu nor Ifenna Azomani inspired verifiable or acceptable theories on the meaning of “Issele” or “Isei”. While Prince Akeh-Osu constantly and endless referred to it as “Isi-Ile” all through the book, Azomani relied on T. D. R., the Ezedibia of Issele-Mkpitime to agree that “Issele” means “pleasantry”, “goodness” or “good survival” on page 224. Relying on a non-indigene and not considering Issele-Uku legends seems shortchanged. It is the same way, Akeh-Osu did not provide a link between “Issele” and “Isi-Ile” despite hackneyed use. It is a vacuum yet to be filled. 

Author did not go on socio-cultural voyage of the Issele-Uku people to touch the religion, festivals and other social features of the society which readers would have enjoyed as a relief from his subject and Ogboli and Benin arguments.

Author did not provide narration of the merger of Issele-Uku.

The book will be richly and appreciatively relied on by students of Ogboli history since not much of its kind exists  

The Questions Raised but Unanswered

How did the various groups merge to become Issele-Uku? 

What system of government did the people practise collectively before the perceived imposition of monarchy by Benin?

Who was Enwei biologically and what position did he play in Nri before the movement?

The traditional realism

Author appeared to make the following incontestable facts:

The Obi of Issele-Uku cannot confer Diokpa of the Ogbe on anyone (since position comes by old age)

The Obi of Issele-Uku cannot confer Onishe (since the Onishe emerges by divine means)

The Obi of Issele-Uku cannot confer Ogbeleani on anyone

The Ogboli are kingmakers in Issele-Uku

Conclusion     

Having studied the book, “The Kingmaker: Biography of Justice Eustace Okafor Azomani and the History of the Ogboli Community of Issele-Uku”, I agree that the author, Ifenna Leonard Azomani having noticed the identity crisis suffered by his Issele-Uku community especially the Ogboli whom several other authors have regarded as the first settlers in Issele-Uku did a beautiful work to get the voice of the Ogboli people heard in the midst of identity crisis. His intellectual efforts question why the Ogboli lineage is increasingly neglected wherever they are in existence within the Anioma area. For instance, there are now only three remaining lineages that currently go by the name, “Ogboli” in today’s Anioma and are Ogboli Issele-Uku, Ogboli-Igbuzo and Ogboli Atuma. Out of these three settlements, the most documented in history books is the Ogboli Igbuzo while the least documented is the Ogboli Atuma. 

The current work of Azomani carries the subject and appendage of “Ogboli” on the cover page, something very rare in Issele-Uku where the subject of the people is often not discussed as much as Benin and Umuezechime whereas history is such that it seeks to document the account of past events or peoples in spite of controversies. In the work, the author made some establishments that should rather interest students of the Issele-Uku history of existence, some of which are the “traditional realism” pointed out in this work. Beyond this, he demonstrated that Issele-Uku is a community of various migrants that include Nri (Igbo), Igala and a few other neighbouring Anioma communities and that the presence and roles played by them in the foundation and early development of the community are important to documentations. This is happening despite his inability to utilize oral accounts especially and interviews to illustrate his historical arguments. 

Well, as it has turned out, Ifenna Leonard Azomani, contributing to knowledge of history in Issele-Uku and Anioma by extension Anioma has in his work provided reasonable evidences to support the Ogboli as the founders of the Issele-Uku community. It must be noted that Azomani is not the first to assert the Ogboli as the earliest settlers in Issele-Uku since Onwuejeogwu, Okpunor and Nwabuokei have all taken same position in their works prior to this one. Benjamin Soligbo, and Ogboli from Ibusa has also quoted Lawrence N. Okpuno as reporting Ogboli in his work, “A Short History of Ezechime” as the earliest ancestors of Issele-Uku. Similarly, Onwuejeogwu in a journal, The Journal of the Odinani Museum, Nri, Vol 1, p. 37 under the title “An Outline account of the Dawn of Igbo Civilization” also stated Issele-Uku oral history as claiming Ogboli to have occupied the present Issele-Uku before the arrival of the Ezechime migrants.      

Having taken interest to objectively review this book to further my own understanding to the knowledge of history of Issele-Uku, one of Anioma’s important communities, I recommend this book to students of Issele-Uku and Anioma history interested in knowing the past of the Ogboli.