Chief Chukwuelozie Francis Ogwu-Monye

Chief Chukwuelozie Francis Ogwu, the Odogwu of Owerre-Olubor

Behold the Odogwu of Owerre-Olubor!

-- by Frank Monye

The dateline was Wednesday, 30 December 2009, Umuikpulu in Owerre-Olubor. The event was a chieftaincy investiture which, to state the obvious, marked a daybreak of hope after a long night of drifting!

The man of the day is the rightful prospect of the chieftaincy being invested in him, i.e. the Odogwu of Owerre-Olubor.  You may be starry-eyed on reading this seemingly exaggerated description!  No, it is no exaggeration. It is not misappropriation of honour. Let me open a secret to bolster my assertion.

The name of the man of the day – “Ogwu,” you will notice, rhymes with the title, “Odogwu” and even His Highness’s title, “Ogwude”.  In the former, it is the suffix whilst in the latter it is the prefix.  Besides, this chieftaincy had waited for three decades – perhaps to enable the man of the day, Lozie Ogwu, attain the providential age of sitting on the stool.  You can now see why I am saying that Chukwuelozie Francis Ogwu is the “rightful prospect.”

The Odogwu, Chukwuelozie Ogwu, has got all the pre-requisites for the Odogwu chieftaincy.  Odogwu Ogwu is foresighted, forthright, brave, sincere and educated; he is an ex-soldier, a benefactor of indigent students as well as the jobless. These are some of his commendable attributes.

Odogwu Ogwu’s foresight in concert with that of other Ikpulus led to the formation of Umuikpulu Progressive Union in Lagos in November 1979. Thus Umu-Ikpulu became the first Ogbe in Owerre-Olubor to form a satellite union. It is now on record that the four other Ogbes followed this fine example of Umuikpulu in Lagos.

As for being brave, a case in point will illustrate this.  During the unauthorized felling of timbre trees in the primeval forest, Lozie Ogwu rose to the occasion and challenged the lumberjacks frontally.  He was threatened with a curse.  He was accused of being overweening, of over-reaching himself and plotting the dethronement of Ogwude Benson Anizor.  They threatened to move the town’s okpukpu (an emblem of Ogwude’s regnant authority) to Lozie Ogwu’s residence just for daring to rebuke some of the town’s chieftains who had connived at the unlawful logging in Edofi Forest.  All these threats did not stop Lozie Ogwu from pressing his charges against those lumberjacks at the Olubor Summit where they were penalized with fines.

Odogwu Lozie Ogwu’s pedigree is enviable by the standard of Owerre-Olubor.  His father, John Ogwu Monye, was the first educated man in Umu-Ikpulu.  He was, during his lifetime, the chronicler and demographer of Umu-Ikpulu.  Pa John took great interest in recording the dates of births and names of children born to Umuikpulu fathers.  Besides, Pa John took records of major events and could even tell you the number of Ikpulus off-hand.  Pa John Ogwu was sired by Monye of the great Afam lineage.

Our Odogwu’s mother, Mary (nee Obuseh) would have passed for a princess in some other climes.  Her father, Obuseh, was the Isama of Owerre-Olubor during his lifetime. The name Obuseh sounds like melodious music to the people of Olubor, the reason being that Obuseh was a forthright chieftain in the order of the great Iyase Iyadi.

In this new dawn, the expectations of the people of Owerre-Olubor are high. They wish that the Odogwu would keep up the tempo of his past revolutionary activities. They expect that he will keep proper watch over Olubor’s forest as that had been the Odogwu’s theatre in the days of tribal conflicts.  The people look forward to the Odogwu playing the accomplished lobbyist in the socio-political affairs of Owerre-Olubor; they expect his constant presence in the delegations to government and neigbbouring towns whenever the need arises. They expect very much that he will deal in truth, justice and fairness.

Let me end by wishing the Odogwu – Chief Chukwuelozie Francis Ogwu – good health and longevity like his predecessors; a distinguished tenure – the sort about which legends are woven by the townsfolk; and above all, to say “may God the Almighty bless the Odogwu and his household.”