By Tunji Adegboyega

Oba ipe meji laafin; ijoye le pe mefa laafin

Although the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has dismissed the publicised fundraising for the N1.5bn palace of the Obi of Lagos as a fraudulent agenda by an individual, the tension the announcement generated, particularly in the social media, should remind, if not tell us about the desperation of some people in the south eastern part of the country, to pursue ethnic expansion by some other means, in other parts of the country and probably beyond.

Last week, the news went viral that one Chibuike Azubike, 65 years, had printed invitation cards inviting personalities to the unveiling of the prototype of the N1.5bn palace he intended to build for himself as ‘Obi of Lagos’. The event was billed to hold at Apple Hall, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.

Mercifully, the police waded in to forestall the trouble such an affront could have caused in an ethnocentric clime like ours. On Wednesday, they arrested the fake Obi and three of his alleged accomplices: 57-year-old Chibuzor Ani, 65-year-old Martins Nwaodika, and 41-year-old Ikechukwu Franklin Nnadi.

The police said Azubike told them that he intended to swindle apparently unsuspecting Igbo people who would have come to donate generously at the occasion. The command’s deputy public relations officer, Babaseyi Oluseyi, said in a statement on Thursday that “Investigation revealed that the principal suspect, Chibuike Azubike, confessed he is not a qualified engineer but has been parading himself as one. Further findings showed that the planned unveiling of the ‘Obi of Lagos Palace’ was fraudulently designed as a ploy to swindle unsuspecting personalities and Nigerians of their hard-earned money.”

The police have promised to prosecute the suspects.

It is good that the police swiftly moved in to stop the nonsense. They have the onerous responsibility of securing lives and properties, a thing that could have been jeopardised due to the ethnic tension that the announcement of the said fundraising had already generated in Lagos.

This should be expected given the assertion prevalent, especially among some Igbo, that Lagos is ‘no man’s land’. It is only in a ‘no man’s land’ that somebody would just wake up from the wrong side of the bed and say he wants to be addressed as so and so, and in a manner that contravenes the established laws governing such a declaration.

I don’t know from which part of history those propagating the falsehood of Lagos being ‘no man’s’ land’ got it.

But for this turning logic on its head, and fears induced by real rather than perceived experience from some people in the south east, the story would have passed for another rumour from the ungoverned space called social media which would ordinarily fizzle out the way it came. In which case, one would have allowed sleeping dogs to lie. But that would be tantamount to sleeping under a burning roof.

The case of the self-proclaimed Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos, Frederick Nwajagu, is still fresh in mind. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment with no option fine in 2024, for unlawfully parading himself as a titled chief in Lagos. Nwajagu also had, in what seemed a clear indictment of the NPF and other security agencies of bias, allegedly threatened to invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Lagos to protect the properties of Igbo residents in the state.

Justice Yetunde Adesanya who in her judgment acquitted and discharged Nwajagu of terrorism charges because the Lagos State government could not prove that beyond reasonable doubts, ordered him to be released after the judgment since he had been in custody for over a year during the trial.

Nwajagu had appealed the judgment, saying the Section 34 of the Obas and Chiefs of Lagos State Law (1981) under which he was convicted ran afoul of sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution which guarantee freedom of association and expression.

We were still awaiting the outcome of his appeal when rumours of the Obi of Lagos emerged.

Another compelling reason why one cannot let this too pass as the police merely dismissed it is because of the kinds of comments some people (I guess the youths, apparently from the south east) have been responding to Azubike’s arrest. People who are having the notion that some other people can just come and become lords in other ethnic regions have to be constantly reminded (in case they have forgotten, because it is convenient to do that sometimes), that it can never be so fast.

Azubike is said to be a native of Obodoukwu in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State. Just as no one jokes about fainting (a ki fi mo daku sere) in Yorubaland, so it is in Igboland. In Yorubaland, people don’t joke about land and traditional titles or matters, generally.

‎We see all of these things in Nollywood because movies reflect the environments in which they are being acted. We see blood relations running after themselves with machetes and other weapons that can be used to sever heads from the neck in the south east over land and chieftaincy matters.

‎It therefore beggars belief that someone from Obodoukwu, a distance of about 500 km to Lagos, (traversing at least five states and probably crossing several rivers) would leave his own state and indeed, his entire region for Lagos and proclaim himself king. By the estimation of Google Maps, it would take about nine and a half hours from Obodoukwu to Lagos. And some people would be defending that!

This is a thing they would not tolerate even among Igbos like themselves. The matter would only be settled after some heads would be rolling on the floor. So, why are we just like this?

If you are not hospitable, and nobody is grudging you for that, why would you now take it upon yourself to premeditatedly provoke others who are?

The South East Council of Traditional Rulers had, in a release in January said, inter alia: ‘’Sequel to the controversy surrounding the “Eze Ndi Igbo” title which has reportedly been abused and misused by leaders of Igbo groups in the Diaspora, the Southeast Council of Traditional Rulers (SECTR) has released an approved title for leaders of Igbo groups and communities residing outside Igboland…

‘’We are glad to inform you that South East Council of Traditional Rulers after several meetings, deliberations and due considerations has approved ”Onye Ndu Ndigbo” (Igbo Leader in Diaspora) as the most appropriate name or title for whoever is the Head of Ndigbo in any place abroad or Diaspora within and outside Nigeria. Consequently, all Igbo leaders abroad or in Diaspora are to revert to this approved and agreed title with immediate effect. Similarly, all signposts, letterheads, complimentary cards, etc. should accordingly be designed to reflect this’’, the release, signed by the chairman of the council and others declared.

These are people who have had cause to decide numerous cases involving land and chieftaincy matters in their domains and therefore understand what the issues are. Most of the people commenting on the social media apparently know not what they are saying; may be partly because they were denied the opportunity of reading History.

But for the fact that the police had the preemptive job of preventing the kind of violence that such fundraising could have attracted, it would have been interesting to see who and who could have been at the event. The chief launcher, his supporters, royal father of the day, and so on.

Although the police have said Azubike was only out to dupe people; I don’t have cause to disagree. Even as I think it may be more than that, too. The point is that in Nigeria, anything is possible. If the man saw the reaction during and after the fundraising (if it had held), that he could actually go beyond raising funds, to actual construction of the palace, why would he not be encouraged to do that, seemingly remote as that might be? And after constructing the palace, someone must occupy it.

‎Anyway, even if the intention is only to get money from people by deception as the police claim, it would seem not a few Igbo people have seen such endeavours as new growth areas from where they could make stupendous wealth. If you cannot get it through Biafra nationalism, you can use the traditional institutions.

Imagine Azubike succeeding in becoming Obi of Lagos truly, you will be shocked at the number of wealthy Igbo people who would be coming to pay homage to him, even if they tell you they don’t have much respect for chieftaincy or traditional matters. And the man would be staying in his palace doing nothing and feeding fat from both the gullible and even some of the supposedly educated people.

See Simon Ekpa who has just been convicted for terrorism in Finland with his rotund cheeks? Which industry did he establish? Even Nnamdi Kanu that has been undergoing trial in Nigeria for some years was like a Messiah in the south east before his arrest, with many of the big names in the region at his beck and call.

You should ask yourself why Obi of Lagos and not Obi of Izombe or Mgbidi, or any other remote part of the eastern region? For Azubike, if he must be Obi, it must be that of cosmopolitan Lagos because that is what could have brought the N1.5bn that he was looking for, a thing that might even have, surprisingly, been oversubscribed? Does a proverb not say that if one wants to eat a toad, he should look for a fat and juicy one?

The Igbo who think they can just do as they please, those things that no one else can do in their own domain, have to do a rethink. I have no apologies on my position on a matter like this because it would only take an ethnic bigot who saw the altercations between two prominent Yoruba Obas, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade 1, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, over the award of a chieftaincy title that many of us Yorubas did not even know when it took place (until the matter became messy), to accuse anyone of being tribalistic over this idea of some Igbo misguided elements trying to do unto others what they would not want others do unto them.

If Nwajagu could go on appeal over his self-declaration as Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos; then, the Yoruba cannot be dismissed as rabble-rousers for taking on people like him. As they say in my place, it is one slave that makes us abuse two hundred others.

In Yorubaland, we cannot have two kings in a place. It is only chiefs that can be as many as people choose to have (Oba ipe meji laafin; ijoye le pe mefa laafin).

I can however support, albeit, with condition, the position of the SECTR that south easterners who are hungry for traditional titles outside of Igboland can only be called ” Onye Ndu Ndigbo’’(Igbo Leader in Diaspora). Even then, this has to be ratified by their domiciled state governments.