By Iyke Obi Durumba
Ahiajoku Lecture Series is an annual Igbo colloquium where aspects of Igbo culture are intellectually synthesized. It is a crucible for the cerebral articulation of points of Igbo culture and how these relate to human development.
Instituted in 1979 by the first executive Governor of Imo state Sam Mbakwe and subsequently organized by succeeding Imo state govts, the Ahiajoku Lecture created a podium for eminent Igbo scholars to research on fundamental aspects of Igbo culture and relate same to contemporary development.
From 1979, it has been a rich harvest of erudition from a galaxy of the most seminal Igbo minds delivering the Ahiajoku Lectures.
Professors M Echeruo, Bede Okigbo, Adiele Afigbo, Anya O Anya, Don Nwoga, Ben Nwabueze and Pius Okigbo, all scholars of intense fecundity and global distinction took the podium in the first 7-8 years to set the tone for future Ahiajoku Lectures.
Of these, the 1984 Ahiajoku Lecture on Igbo cosmology holds special significance. Prof Donatus Nwoga, Professor of African Literature and then Dean of Faculty of Arts UNN, gave a lecture titled ‘Nka na Nzere: The Focus of Igbo World View’ (nka na nzere meaning age and respect) where he states that the Igbo recognize three types of reality – the physical, the spiritual and the abstract. He argues that to achieve fulfilment one must ensure that these are harmoniously reconciled, related and combined.
He also restated the Igbo ideology that gods, to remain worshipable, must be of some use. Any non-effective deity is discarded. He said, “The Igbo are democratic and accommodating, even in matters of religion. If anybody says “call me god”, the Igbo will call him god. But if the god starts falling, the Igbo will give him way to crash to the ground.”
In Igboland, performance is key to retaining the respect and reverence of the people!
Prof Nwoga also held that “The Igbo will go anywhere and live anywhere and will add the habits and dress styles of those people to their own on the principle that it is what is new that enhances what exists. The distressing prevalence of these new items often hides a surprising degree of continuity of the old goals and characteristics. The Igbo appear to engage in the process of addition, not replacement. Or rather, the Igbo change the dress that covers the same old body of goals and aspirations surrounding the core motivation of excelling other individuals and other communities.”
Ahiajoku Lectures continued to hold until 1996 when the Military Administrator of Imo state Col. Tanko Zubairu embargoed it between 1996 and 1999 for reasons best known to him and not unconnnected with the general institutional animosity extended towards Ndi Igbo.
However, the then Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Dr AJV Obinna began the Odenigbo Day as a Diocesan initiative and the annual lectures on Igbo culture continued to hold.
The administration of Ikedi Ohakim (2007 – 2011) infused the Ahiajoku with the paramountcy it deserves and built an Ahiajoku Center. In 2009, the father of modern African literature Chinua Achebe, returned from self-exile in the US to take the podium on the 30th anniversary of the lecture series.
After Ohakim, the Ahiajoku Lecture fell into dark times under Governor Rochas Okorocha. In fact, Rochas demonstrated his scorn for the Igbo intellectual fest when he renamed the Ahiajoku Center built by the Ohakim govt as ‘Imo Trade and Investment Center.’
The brief tenure of Emma Ihedioha as Imo Governor in 2019 saw a renaissance of the Ahiajoku Lecture series. His govt recovered the center built by Ikedi Ohakim, renamed it Ahiajoku Convention Center and organised the epochal 40th anniversary lecture in Owerri in 2019.
That 2019 edition was unique. The first Guest Lecturer of the series in 1979, the intellectually effervescent Prof MC Echeruo was also the Guest Lecturer in the 2019 edition, 40 years after.
Prof Michael Echeruo, currently William Safire Professor of Modern Letters in the English Department of Syracuse University New York, had 40yrs to review the effect of his first lecture in 1979 titled “Ahamefula – Matter of Identity”. At that epic 2019 edition, he titled his paper, ‘Ogu Eri Mba: We Shall Survive’
Reflecting on the Igbo journey since 1979, he said, “Although still lacking serious access to national political power, we nevertheless believe in the possibility of Igbo self-fulfillment as well as national growth in our traumatized Nigerian fatherland.”
Note very loudly that the two All Progressives Congress APC Governors in Imo state, Rochas Okorocha and incumbent Hope Uzodimma have refused to organise the Ahiajoku Lecture. Maybe they can answer why.
Those who seek to break the Igbo spirit usually strike at the cultural strings holding the ethnic group together using members of the ethnic group. This inexplicable hostility to Ahiajoku by APC is reflective of the oft-stated antagonism of the South East towards the ruling APC as an anti-Igbo party. Enough said.
Governor Hope Uzodimma can redeem his Igbo credentials by reviving the Ahiajoku Lecture series. The importance cannot be overemphasized in this day and age of reckless anti-Igbo rhetoric in Nigeria.
A restatement of the Igbo worldview in context of its relationship with other ethnic groups and the country’s leadership will be influential in shaping Igbo reactions in the face of unmistaken and no longer disguised antagonism and dissonance within the Nigerian state.
Providing directional leadership is crucial at this stage of Igbo odyssey in a hostile Nigerian federation.
The Ahiajoku Lecture is a heritage of Igbo intellectual tradition which cannot be allowed to die. It must take its place in digging deep into the resonant recesses of Igbo culture and providing compelling cultural direction for Ndi Igbo in face of profound challenges of exclusion faced in the Nigerian federation.
Iyke Obi Durumba is an Abuja based journalist and freelance writer.
