There is no doubt that Koko has had a fair share of family disputes in recent times. Ogiame Ikenwoli’s recent decree via a letter to the people of Koko through the Olaraja of the community, Chief Victor Nanna foisting an untoward practice of unequal family representation on Iweroko and Ameren family council is precarious to fanning an ember of a fresh dispute in Koko. Iweroko and Ameren general assembly (also known as Ugogo meje) is Koko highest decision-making body. The body is known for its sanctity of equal family representative structure amongst seven families of Eburu, Abiwanye, Akeko Egbele, Medu, Olomo and Omawumi. Each family representative is known as Olori-Ebi.
The royal directive is that two palace chiefs namely Chief Prest Udueyin and Chief Mike Odeli would henceforth join Iweroko and Ameren family council as the 8th and 9th families respectively. With the two new entrant families, it will be absolutely difficult to hold on to the chequered Koko historic heritage of Ugogo meje. Let me quickly add here that what will follow apparently, would be a tsunami of change as all related documents before now would be changed to bear Ugogo mesan!
The marriage between history and tradition has always been a masterpiece of consciousness and identity. Culture is the continuum of acceptable ways of life. History is complementary as a custodian of those acceptable values and otherwise. The importance of history to man is sine qua non. Perhaps, it is the light of this that we may have to retell the Jamaican born American nationalist, Marcus Moziah Garvey’s (1887-1940) view on history: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. Koko may not cut the antique status similar to old Benin Empire, Oduduwa ancestry, the Badagry slave shipping port, and the Nok antiquity, but the progeny of Iweroko and Ameren knew the bounds and extent of his filial descent.
The crux of the write up is the far reaching damage that Ogiame Ikenwoli’s pronouncement would cause to the psyche of the average Iweroko and Ameren descendant of Koko. Let me quickly add here that the Iweroko and Ameren family arrangement has the legal blessing of the law by way of a constitution written by the people of Koko and given to them. The said constitution which had since been lodged with the CAC has a section, particularly Section 3, under it Preamble that is axillary to the foregone claim, that Koko is an heirloom of the descendants of Iweroko and Ameren family.
It is not in doubt that the people of Koko would resist a threat to their collective and chequered heritage. It is timely and commendable that the Olaraja of the community, Chief Victor Nanna, (also a palace chief) had written back to the Olu-in-Council resisting the attempt to defile the common sanctity of Koko history, heritage and governance. The said letter which was dated August 17, 2017 stated inter alia: …the leadership structure of the Iweroko and Ameren family derives from a complex labyrinth of genealogy, religion, economics of common ancestral inheritance, and a peculiar historicultural and socio-political experience and the “rule of living” that it has evolved , along with our world view and collective aspirations are enshrined in the constitution of Iweroko and Ameren family ….The implication of adding Chiefs Udienyin and Odeli to the Elders Council, though far-reaching, are not far fetched. For it places a negation on the existing structure and documents by a superfluity of representation of the Olomo family to which they both belong and create an unmanageable structural imbalance. This imbalance is translated as marginalisation of the other federating components. We worry that the agitations that will ensure could tear our little town (Koko) in shreds
A peep into the past would avail those who are not in the know as to the sacrifices the people of Koko made weathering storms to give themselves a constitutional framework of equitable governance. Ojomba is the collective ancestry of today’s Iweroko and Ameren progeny, no doubt. Ugogomeje simply represent the only child of Ameren; Medu, on the one hand, and on the other, the six children of Iweroko, namely; Eburu, Abiwanye, Akeko, Egbele, Olomo and Omawumi.
Suffice to say that there was a time when the structure of Koko family council was reeking profusely of oppressive imbalances and malice. It presupposed that Koko was an heirloom bequeathed to the children of Ameren and Iweroko, two daughters of Ojomba who sacrificed the sanctity of marriage to uphold and preserve the name of the latter. It won’ t be impugn, but a commonsense to state here that Koko belongs to all sons and daughters who could trace his or her genealogy to the seven children of the two sisters. But, this was not so until 1980 when a consent judgment was handed down to the people upon an agreement between other indigenes of Koko and the Nannas who had taken the advantage of the larger than life personality of Chief Nanna Olomo (1852-1916) to lay claim to the ownership of Koko. A complex, which had other families of Koko and the Nannas of Olomo at dagger drawn point for decades. Today, that consent judgment is corollary to the constitution of Iweroko and Ameren.
The distinction between Ugogo meje and Ugogo Mesan is not one between six and half dozen. The axiom that an ant can only find a way into the nucleus of a wood from cracks on the skin of the tree is apposite here. Akpinme egin amiwero. The little I knew of both chiefs, from all ramifications, is convincingly the crack on Iweroko and Ameren family council. Hence, they must take responsibility of the grave consequence that the directive to foist them on the entire community.
It may not be uhuru yet for Koko. It is being rumoured that the Olu-in-Council is poised to admit more members as chiefs into the chieftaincy fraternity of the pristine Warri kingdom, and among these are, a daughter and two sons of Koko. It has not been substantiated, but rumour is staggering that one of the two sons of Koko who has been penned down for the conferment, himself a lawyer to the community is in recompense for the elders’ victory at the Port Harcourt zone of the EFCC over kokogate. The Kokogate was the biggest dent on the credibility of all those at the helm of affairs of the community during the period. Five Hundred and Sixty-Seven million naira (N567, 000:00), community funds was embezzled with impunity. Should the palace conferred chieftaincy on these persons who are all from the Olomo family stock and impose same on Iweroko and Ameren family council as members, Koko would suffered the worse marginalisation and structural imbalance since the 1980 consent judgment.
It remains to be seen what other families of Koko would make of the fact that the Olaraja is of the Olomo family stock, Chief Prest Udueyin is maternally Egbe, also Olomo, Chief Mike Odeli has his root at Olomo, the three penciled down candidates for a fresh conferment of chieftaincy are all of the Olomo. The uncommon acuity, if we must be sincere to ourselves is letting the sleeping dog lie. The royal decree if not receded might just be the delicate move to send the knife through the dictum of the consent judgment of 1980 because the Nannas are waiting, they are watching!
