The aftermath of Ulo Festival: The Aesthetic Gains in Ibusa

The aftermath of Ulo Festival: The Aesthetic Gains in Ibusa

 "Art is never finished, only abandoned."

- Leonardo Da Vinci

By Emeka Esogbue

Although the Ulo Festival of the Ibusa people as recently celebrated by the Umueze Quarters of the community has come and gone, the gain ushered in for the lovers of artworks is what is rarely talked about by the people of the community. A few weeks ago, Umueze, the community's largest quarters celebrated the Ulo Festival in what was widely reported in the media including PEN MASTER with the arrangements, the buildup, the essay competition, the essay for secondary school students from the community, the principal characters, the dances, and the significance of the event all mentioned but rarely was any consideration given to the renovation of the Nne Eze statue by the 2022 Ulo Umueze Committee in the media. 

Graciously and gloriously, the committee added some lasting beauty to the artistic state of the community. Pen Master learnt that to give the festival a feeling of wonder which will remain indelible in the minds of art lovers, a committee with cultural and other relevant credentials was set up and tasked with the cultural creativity to give Ibusa people what should be considered one of the finest Ulo Festivals since inception. 

Further to this, Ben Ejeta, a graphic person and one of the forces behind the publication of Agogo Igbuzo, a publication of the Ibusa Community Development Union (ICDU) suggested the renovation of the Statue of Nne Eze which currently stands by Ashie Eze Juction (now called Ashia Nta in modern Ibusa due to the establishment of the Ashia Eke). The suggested idea was thoroughly bought by the Ulo Committee and facilitated by Chief Anthony Uwajeh, the Odua of Ibusa. Subsequently, Tony Art was contracted and work on the statue started in earnest while Peter Ofili was charged to monitor it. Pen Master can also tell that the Ulo Committee first headed for the nearby Ogwashi-Uku community where it was discovered that the cost of renewing the Umueze artwork was huge before resorting to Tony Arts who didplayed brilliant finishing that returned the artwork to its original state. 

Additionally, the Committee intended to renovate the now dilapidated and neglected Statue of Ahor Mmili Li Umuaka Igbuzo, a monumental work of capsizing boat with Ibusa traders paddling and floundering inside the majestic River Niger also sited in Umueze Quarters, by Isieke Junction, which now stands as a terrible eyesore that salutes passersby In the community but with the cost of renovation, priced at millions of naira, the idea was immediately shelved.

The Ibusa Statue of Nne Eze was originally sculptured by an Umueze Group in Ibadan and Pen Master has been informed that the present Obuzo of Ibusa, HRM Obi Prof Louis Chelunor Nwaoboshi played a significant role in seeing to its birth. It was at the time, welcomed with open-heart by Ibusa people in a community where many artworks announcing legends, living or dead are not known to exist. In truth, a statue that captures the Ekumeku battles of the Anioma people should have been located in the community noted in history as the first of Anioma communities to engage the Royal Niger Company of the British in Ekumeku War or Issele-Uku where the movement was founded by Obi Egbune who was also the patron, but it cannot be found in any of these two heralding Anioma communities. 

Indeed, beyond Obi Ezesi, not every native of the community knows that like most Anioma settlements of today, Ibusa was once a thriving kingdom with kings and wives as queens even before the popular King Ezesi dynasty, the Ibusa community traces its earliest political system to more than three dynasties with the people of Umueze as the custodians of the community's monarchy and the Statue of Nne Eze is a symbolism of a Queen Mother, which royally speaks of Nne Eze (Mother of the King). From history, the Nne Eze is the mother of a good percentage of Ibusa natives who descended from her. 

Today, the Statue of Nne Eze and Ashia Eze (Ashia Nta) stand as reminders of the monarchical heritage particularly of Umueze who are the custodians of the community's kingship. A third artifact could have been the Obi Ezesi of Umuekea's staff of office taken along with him on his journey of self-exile to Ejeme Aniogor. The staff of office handed him by the then Oba of Benin who installed him as the King of Ibusa is very much available with his descendants today. Pen Master recalls that upon ascension as the Ikwele of Ibusa, His Eminence Engr. Chief Celestine Okeibunor Okafor, a lover of Ibusa culture made frantic efforts at returning the staff of office to the rightful Ibusa home but after several journeys to and fro the Ejeme Aniogor and had won the final agreement of the Obi of the community at the time who assisted him to further engage the Obi Ezesi Ibusa descendants in the community, his genuine ambassadorial endeavours became challenged by the Ibusa factor of disunity, details which I will not go into. Eventually, the task was abandoned, leaving the Ejeme Aniogor Ibusa descendants wondering what happened.

The Ulo Umueze committee of good-spirited men and women should be appreciated for giving the Statue of Nne Eze in the community a facelift. With the recent foundation of the Guild of Ibusa Writers and Authors, an Organization of Ibusa personalities with authorial and intellectual responsibilities, core interest in the literary and cultural spheres of the community is set to experience social promotions like never before. One only has to pray that the Organization, the first of its kind attain its aims and objectives.