Okija Shrines and Voodoo Politics
Beyond the initial shock and reactions that have trailed the uncanny discoveries at Okija shrines, the incident reinforces the fact that just like many other facets of Nigerian life that suffers continued debasement, politics is not spared. But the real worry is that if the political class that is supposedly saddled with the responsibility of steering the ship of state at different levels is neck-deep in voodoo politicking, then one wonders what hope is there for the nation. Oke Epia writes
The civilised world is gradually shaking off the veil of incredulity that thinned over news of the discovery penultimate Tuesday, of over 50 dead bodies and 30 human skulls at the alters of Okija shrines in Ihiala local government area of Anambra State. According to officials of Anambra State police command, the discoveries were made when a crack team of policemen acting on a petition by a complainant, raided the Okija shrines wherein the two deities of "Ogwugwu-Akpu," and "Ogwu-Isiala," were domiciled and effected the arrest of 30 priests including two chief priests ministering to gods.
About 10 registers of the dead who were thrown into the forest were recovered from the house of the 90 year old Chief Priest of the Ogwugwu Isiala, and Ogwugwu Akpu deities, Pa Charles Okolie Ndukwu, who police said, was still at large.
But while many people still shudder at the shock discovery, the event has forcefully brought into focus the desperation of the political class to secure and maintain power. This has led to the institutionalization of fetish practices into the political realm to establish what academicians may investigate as voodoo politics. And there sure would be adequate cases to use as empirical references. Just like the Okija shrines and Anambra politics.
It would be recalled that revelations about a visit to the shrine became public knowledge following the aborted abduction of Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige on July 10 last year by supporters of Chief Chris Uba. Until then, his political godfather present Ngige had during a testimony at the Senate chambers on July 18 last year, stated that he was indeed taken to a shrine to swear an oath of loyalty to Uba as one of the conditions before he could be made governor.
"The truth is unshakable," Ngige had said as he narrated how he was coaxed to visit the shrine: "I had gone with Uba to Archbishop Chukwuma to pray on oath using the Bible and as a Christian, that was enough for me.
"(Hon Chuma) Nzeribe later suggested that I do an oath before a shrine and my deputy governor joined in the campaign and when I spoke with my bishop, he advised that if I must go, I should carry my Bible and anointing oil and follow them.
He had continued: "We went at 3.00 am and we met one man that was speaking rubbish. When they finished, I left. It's the oath that they took that is harassing them, while my Bible is protecting me."
But no sooner had the governor made those revelations than the Catholic Arch-diocese of Onitsha reacted, distancing any of its Bishops from the fetish transactions.
"If indeed the governor actually made the statement, in view of the embarrassing comments emanating from it, His excellency has the responsibility to tell the press and the general public who was precisely the bishop with whom he had the dialogue in order to dispel unwarranted speculations on the issue," Reverend Bonny Asuzu, director of Mass Communication of the Archdiocese had said in a statement. However, the matter soon fizzled out of public light as the governor failed to heed the challenge thrown by the church.
But as the Okija discoveries have once again reopened the controversy, Fred Chukwuelobe, Special Adviser on Media, however admitted that attempts were made to take the governor to the shrine but that he actually stayed back in the car while the oath was being performed by those who took him there.
"The governor never went to the shrine with Uba. When the governor, as a candidate, was forced there, he refused to follow them and instead stayed in his car," said Chukwuelobe.
But while the present discoveries at the shrine have opened up afresh the controversy of concerned Anambra State citizens last week, denied reports that Uba was part of the exercise. "For the records, Uba had at no time visited Okija shrines to extract commitment from Ngige whom he sponsored to become governor," the group said in a statement, adding that "he has always limited his roles in Anambra governorship elections to political and financial support."
The statement signed by one Chukwuemeka Anyasi, read further: "As a good Christian, Uba has spent all his years to work hard, live a transparent and honest life and be kind-hearted to the needy. The fact that Uba's name is not in the so-called register at the shrine is a testimony to his transparency."
But close observers of the Okija episode have picked holes in the group's claims that Uba's name is not in the register retrieved at the shrine, arguing that the police have not made public the names on the list. This in itself could raise more questions regarding Uba's involvement with Ngige at the shrine than the group is trying to downplay.
Already, Chukwumezie Igwe, the police informant who blew the lid off the atrocities at the Okija shrine last week raised an alarm over alleged threats to his life. In a letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, copies of which were sent to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Internal Affairs Minister, Anambra State governor, Civil Liberties Organisation and some major media organisations, Igwe said he has "been receiving letters of threats and strange telephone calls from different quarters."
He also hinted of "other startling revelations" he could make about the shrines if "I am convinced that my life, family and properties are safe." This alleged threat to Igwe's life inevitably raises further questions as to the who-is-who content of the register reportedly found at the shrine.
But one thing that is not unclear is the fact that the possibility of unveiling names of prominent individuals, including politicians on the register has become a source of great discomfort to those who are now allegedly threatening Igwe.
Joining in the fray to absolve self from the Okija shameful episode, Hon. Chuma Nzeribe, a close ally of Uba, last Wednesday, adorned the holier-than-thou garb as he called on the police to interrogate Governor Ngige over the role he alleged played at the shrine last year whilst he was yet a gubernatorial candidate. While he remained mute over the major role he was said to have played in the prelude to the failed abduction of the governor, Nzeribe who represents Ihiala Constituency in the lower legislative chamber, said "it is important that the Nigeria Police have another look" at the alleged involvement of Ngige. Nzeribe also took the opportunity to distance his chief political benefactor, Uba from the oath-taking exercise at Okija. "Chief Uba never went there," he stated, explaining that "it was Ngige who drove himself to the shrine at about 3a.m, nobody forced him, he was not drunk nor drugged, it was entirely his suggestion and he drove himself to the shrine."
He explained: "Sometime last year Dr. Ngige admitted publicly that he went to the Okija shrine to take an oath of allegiance and thereby was inducted into the cult. It would be important for Nigerians to take another look at this issue. He accepted publicly that he went to the shrine and that the priest was muttering certain things, what he called speaking in tongues, thereby confirming his presence in the shrine. The time has come for us to ask certain questions.
Not done, Nzeribe went on: "If the chief priest there has acknowledged and the governor has acknowledged his presence in the shrine, I wonder what a Christian, a medical doctor, a governor is doing inside a shrine. Must he condescend so low to be a governor. I therefore urge the police that Ngige is the fit and proper person in further inquiries into the evidence of murder and death. The Igbo people do not worship with dead bodies."
He also declared his readiness to "volunteer information to the Police," as he delved further into the circumstances leading to the shrine encounter after the governor's alleged consultation with his Bishop. He continued: "He (Ngige) suggested that since he had gone to the Bishop at Enugu to swear to an oath of allegiance to Chief Chris Uba and the group, that even if it means now going to the shrine that he was offering to take them to the shrine.
"By that time, Chief Uba was out of the room and when he came back, he said he was tired of the candidature of Ngige and his cries. Ngige then cried the more and solicited everyone's sympathy. He said he would take us to a shrine, which he knows. Though I am from Ihiala, which is not too far from Okija, I never knew the shrine.
"Dr. Ngige then drove his car himself around 3am to the shrine. I was in my own car, I did not come down because for ancestral reasons which spans ages, an Ihiala man cannot stoop too low to go to an Okija shrine, apart from being a devout Catholic which forecloses such a visit to a shrine.
"Somewhere, the path became narrow, like 50 meters to the place. Ngige stopped, walked to the shrine (while I, Udeh, Odunze and others waited behind in our cars), took his oath, and came back. He went to the shrine on his own accord. Ngige himself made the suggestion and he led the way to the shrine only to turnaround and say he did not go to the shrine."
Having said all that, Nzeribe then called on the police to release the list of those who patronized the shrine as contained in the register. But those who can recall the sordid details of the abduction saga are quick to point out that the kettle cannot conveniently accuse the pot of being black as Nzeribe may have more revelation to offer police investigations than even the governor himself.
This point is hammered upon by Chukwulobe in his response to the lawmaker's position when he said that it was Nzeribe himself that ought to be arrested for "popularising the shrine by taking the former Bakassi Boys there when he was security adviser to Mbadinuju to swear to an oath of allegiance to himself and Chris Uba." He also alleged that Nzeribe had planned to take members of the State House of Assembly to the shrine but that they refused "acting on the governor's directive."
The governor's aide submitted that the lawmaker's statement "is diversionary and it is part of his usual antics," and that the "Anambra State government fully supports the police raid of the shrine," adding: "We regard the shrine and the priest as the last wastages of past governments in the state."
But while both the Ngige and Uba camps are at their wits end to dissociate themselves from the Okija shrine, the fact that the place hitherto played host to prominent politicians cannot be lost in the muddle. So also is the implication of this for the political process in the country. Indeed, amongst the many things Pa Ndukwu said was the revelation that "politicians come here to enact convenant." And this much was corroborated by the interim report sent to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, by the Anambra State Police command. Although details of the report were not disclosed, it was gathered that it contained names of prominent politicians, businessmen and traditional rulers found in the register discovered during the raid.
Also in his reaction to the Okija shock find, Hon. Mao Ohuabunwa, one time chairman of the South-East caucus of the House of Representatives opined that dismantling the shrine was in the best interest of the Igbo. His comments also added to the growing suspicions that top-ranking politicians have employed the benefit of fetish practices at one time or the other in achieving their ends when he said: "We know of states that had taken their officials to such shrines to go and swear to oaths. This is not in our interest."
Indeed, the re-awakened controversy now trailing the political connection of the Okija finds coupled with the possibility of unearthing prominent political figures associated with its activities, has not only thrown up the disturbing issue of desperation in Nigerian politics. It confounds almost to a point of nullity, the basic and popular theory of the social contract of governance enunciated by John Locke, that great British political thinker.
In the stark reality of the current polity, the Okija shrine and the appropriate metaphor derived therefrom connotes that political service in the public good is as good as a mirage. Because just like that distant glimmer emitted by the cluster of imaginary liquid, promises of good governance, better life and improved conditions of living gleefully pronounced during campaigns eventually become unattainable in the light of present realities. And why should it not be so when political god-fathers to whom oaths of allegiance have been sworn are breathing over the neck of their god-sons for patronage to be done them at the expense of the public good.
But then it is bad enough that while a harpless electorate is already being denied of these goods which are taken for granted in other climes, they may not even be guaranteed a life of misery as they may fall prey as baits for appeasing deities as those shepherding the woods of Okija forest.
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