BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
The elders cannot be in the house, and the goat will deliver in tatters (Okenye ada anon a uno ewu amuo na ogbuli). The elders in our biological family, religious family, social family, political family, economic family, and academic family. We always trusted the elders to do well and believed their judgment. In the fin de siécle of the last century the elders have disappointed the young generation entrusted to them.
In the traditional Igbo family, the main castle (Obi) belongs to the eldest son, and the kitchen backyard (Azu mkpuke) belongs to the last son of the family. These facts are not contested by anyone in the family lineage.
However, things have changed so much that some parents would support the son or daughter who has gotten rich to take over the Obi or Azu-mkpuke. The elders who created the law centuries ago knew the value of proper distribution of wealth.
The kids always wait in anticipation that when there is confusion of who owns what the elders will say truth to power and settle the issue. Today, the elders have eaten rotten fruit, and the children are bearing the burden of their father’s woes. How can you explain the situation where the elders came out to speak, and the youth were chanting (Anyi achoro zi unu): “We do not want you anymore”? They have lied to the youths for so long and are no longer trustworthy. The uncles have decided to side with money and abandon the truth. We used to treasure the white hair of the elders. We respect the elders so we can become elders ourselves (Onye sopulu nne na nna ya opue isi awo).
Why do we respect the elders? Because they are the custodian of tradition and culture. They represent the forefathers; they are the closest to our ancestors. We believe their words are always in tandem with the opinion of the generations gone before us.
I remember when my parents walked for six hours to visit the home of my great-grandmother to ask if a girl from that village could be married by a cousin of mine. After the inquiry, the marriage was abrogated for fear that the two people involved were related by blood.
Nobody contested the verdict because the elders spoke. Today, the elders are so interested in the amount of money they would get from society and would pronounce falsehood as truth.
We are suffering the lies of the elders, which have permeated the entire system.Look at the country holistically, when the senators, who are the elders, said that we should not bring up the cases of forgery of certificates or exams against a sitting senator, even if it is true.
So, we cannot trust the system anymore to give us the truth. The people in government have become elders by their position of power, so we are supposed to take their words and behavior as the Magna Carta. But I don’t think it is possible today since truth has departed from the whole political class. How can an elder be telling the youth that things are cheaper in the market today compared to three years ago? Even the non-educated woman in the village knew that a bag of rice went from 35,000 to 60,000 and a liter of fuel went from 300 to 1,300. The more the political elders try to speak to the youths, the more the trust deficit widens.
You can say that the elders in that political space were paid to say what they are saying now, but the bottom line is that they are lying to our faces. How can they buy back the trust given to them through ballot papers?
I think the political elders are the most dangerous ones because they have a lot of resources to cover up the truth. I am not worried so much because the truth will always fight for itself. I have seen where the youths decided to tell the elders in power to leave their village. If the king is not doing well as the father of the nation, the people will cover their faces with baskets and speak to him (Obulu na Eze mekaria nzuzu ekpulu nkata n’iru gwa ya okwu). The elders should respect their own white hair and the position assigned to them by the society and God, or they will face the consequences of a bad eldership.
When you write a book, you cite, quote, and rephrase a book because the writer is an authority in that discipline. The cited author has proved time and time again that his works are well researched and not some plagiarized work of another author. But today, some people are trying to copy and paste and want to claim the benefits of intellectual property they did not work on even for a day. Things are going down the drain, and the elders are not helping matters.Finally, I call on the elders to please stand up and save society.
The elders in Igboland should come forward to tell the youths the truth about our system. About our relationship with the North, the West, and the South. No need to stay on the fence this time, and the political elders would be lying to the young generation. I have been listening to different kinds of lies flying around in the name of campaigns, and nobody is saying anything to the youth. When a lie stays too long unrefuted, people start believing it, especially when the speaker or the liar is an elder. I watched a member of the House of Assembly saying that we have been promised 8 years in the presidency when it will be our turn to contest for the position of the presidency. The question to ask would be, “When will that turn be?” West had eight years under Obasanjo, the North has eight years under Buhari, the South had six years under Jonathan, the East had nothing to show, and the West took another four years, and the political elders are saying that the East should wait another 12 years before they can smell the seat of power.
I say shame on anyone who is writing that kind of narrative. Let the best person become the president so that the country will move forward, but if it is by regional quota, it is the turn of the East. If it is by capacity, let the best candidate win. But if you are lying against any candidate because you are a political elder, we will cover our faces with baskets and tell you the truth. You and your lies will not sell this time around because we have known each other better.
