...Politics, worship of money bane of today's Umunna -
...Umunna have jettisoned their core values -Imo community leader
By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Chidi Nkwopara, Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Emmanuel Iheaka, Jeff Agbodo & Alumona Ukwueze
- In the past, land disputes and indeed, other disputes in Igbo communities were peacefully resolved by the Umunna (kindred), an important and strong community administrative set in every Igbo community, which consists of the various families in a particular community.
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Umunna is venerated in Igbo land. They used to be sincere and powerful. Hence they dispassionately handled disputes between families, brothers, and sisters presented before them, and amicably resolved them unbiasedly. This prevented such matters from escalating further and ensured peace among the factions. The amicable manner the disputes were resolved helped those involved to be happy and continue to live in peace and love.
But nowadays, it seems that the potency of Umunna has waned drastically and people hardly adhere to their decisions. This is deduced from the fact that many land disputes in Igbo communities end up in courts, sometimes up to the Supreme Court, and this accounts for why there is so much enemity among siblings, families, and friends.
Values that make Umunna strong, reliable and respected have vanished -- Ibe
A community leader in Nkwere, Imo State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ibe attributes the waning power and influence of Umunna to corruption and insincerity on the part of some community leaders. He said the cherished uprightness, truthfulness, trustworthiness, and other good values, are now rare in many communities.
"Authority, honesty, and truthfulness were what made Umunna strong and respected in the olden days, but unfortunately, these virtues have all been eroded by bad people in the communities.
"The quest for riches and disregard for integrity have also contributed to the destruction of what is left of the influence and respect for Umunna. Before in Igbo land, people used to say, and it used to be true, that Umunna bu ike, that is kindred is strength. Today, Umunna is no more strength but the worst enemy of development and good things that come to the communities. It is now the weakness of many communities.
"Igbo believe in self-help projects, the greater aspect of developments in Igbo land was achieved through self-help and those efforts were organised and executed by the contributions of Umunna of different communities, but today, the reverse is the case in many communities. Umunna have been polarized; there are factions in Umunna; while some factions work for the development of the communities, others, work to retrogress and under-develop the communities. Most of them do this because of selfish interests.
"The disunity that exists in Umunna of many communities is largely traced to the quest for riches and the activities of some people described in pidgin parlance as money miss roads; these are people who were blessed by God, but instead of channelling their riches to the positive development of their communities, prefer to use it to cause trouble and divide the Umunna.
"Many development projects have stalled due to the activities of such people and their supporters among the Umunna. Most of such people who use the Umunna to cause trouble in their villages and towns live outside their communities while the foot soldiers they use to destabilize Umunna stay at home and feed them with negative information. Most of them normally don't have visible and reasonable means of livelihood, they rely on the stipends from their trouble-making sponsors.
"It is usually in land disputes that you notice the treachery of these evil-minded double standard members of Umunna manifest; they are neither here nor there on issues, their opinion is driven by money, envy, and jealousy.
"This is why most Umunna cannot resolve even the simplest of land disputes;, if you want land disputes to linger for a long time in some Igbo communities, involve the Umunna. Hence most people prefer to take their land matters above the Umunna level, they go to the town level."
He noted that the waning influence of Umunna in resolving disputes in Igbo land started with the politics of the introduction of chairman or president of village meetings, which in the past were headed by the oldest in the communities who were honest.
"But with the introduction of politics of electing people irrespective of their age, to lead in the village and Umunna setting, respect, honesty, truthfulness, and integrity were thrown to the winds, and crisis took over communities.
"Umunna, the once important, strong, venerated Igbo community administrative setup, became weak and unable to settle even minor issues in the communities. Where the Umunna have potency these days is in causing crisis, they have long deviated from positive development to negative attributes of setting families and villages on fire. People no longer trust one another."
Land matters should be handled by Umunna, traditional rulers -- Ebonyi monarch
The traditional ruler of Nkaliki Unuhu Achara autonomous community in Ebonyi State, Ezeogo Sunday Oketa, maintained that Umunna is still potent to handle disputes in the communities and urged the Federal Government to stop land matters from going to courts for the peaceful coexistence in the communities. He said that land matters should be adjudicated by the kindreds (Umunna) and traditional rulers.
Ezeogo Oketa said that the Federal Government should give the traditional institutions powers to superintendent over land matters due to the intricacies involved in land matters.
"The problem we are having in our various communities is that rich men grab land anywhere they like and tell you to go to court. These rich men who forcefully collect people's land don't obey the laws of the traditional institution, rather, they pay lawyers and judges to acquire any land they want.
"I want the Federal Government to bar courts from handling land matters and give full powers to the Umunna who know the history of any land and know the boundary. If Umunna fails to resolve the matter, the final stage should be the traditional rulers who will invite both parties alongside Umunna to the palace to settle the matter amicably.
"Land kills like a virus in our communities but some rich people believe that with their money, they can grab lands anywhere through court judgments. That is why they die mysteriously. Land matter is a traditional thing not a court matter and the earlier we know that, the better for us, to save lives. It has killed many unknowingly because you can't take land that doesn't belong to you and build a house and live in the same land; it will kill you and your generations.
"So, governors should give traditional institutions powers to handle land matters because we are the custodians of culture. There is a traditional method of handling land matters that must be applied to resolve land cases or boundary matters.
"The killings in our various communities over land matters is failure to recognise the customs and traditions of the land. Government should give powers to Umunna and traditional rulers to adjudicate family matters instead of going to court," the monarch advised.
Umunna have jettisoned the core values -- Community leader
A community leader in Itu, Ezinihitte Mbaise Council of Imo State, Chief Benjamin Nwachukwu said many members of the umunna no longer hold on to the core values of honesty and fairness which they were known for.
Chief Nwachukwu stated that the umunna in many communities now pander to the whims and caprices of the wealthy. He submitted that many people have lost trust and confidence in the ability of the umunna to serve justice.
"Umunna was known for truth, fairness, and equity in handling matters in those days. They were not influenced by the wealth of the person involved in the matter. All they did was to dispense justice. But such cannot be said of today's umunna. It is now justice for the wealthy, even in the case of obvious intimidation and harassment.
"How can umunna that accept bribe be respected? Things have fallen apart. When you know you won't get justice, then there is no need to approach umunna," he stated.
Politics, worship of money source of division among Umunna --INU
The National Secretary of the Igbo National Union, INU, Sir Justin Onyenso, blames politics, and worship of money as the bane of Umunna. Onyenso told SEV that in most kindreds, disputes are decided based on one's political affiliation or influence as the kinsmen take sides when delivering judgment in disputes.
He lamented that due to politics and worship of money, Umunna has relegated the principle of Igbo justice system of - Ofo na Ogu -, where truth and justice hold supreme, to the background.
"Politics is playing a heavy role in the affairs of every Igbo community hence its influence on the Umunna setting. Adjudication now swings towards political affiliations. Where brothers are having land dispute, one gets judgment if he belongs to the party in power or knows a powerful political figure that wields influence in the community, thereby rendering the Umunna helpless in executing sound judgement and in settling land disputes and other related issues.
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"In the past, Umunna was held in the highest esteem as they operated under the Igbo concept of Ofo na Ogu, where truth and justice held supreme. Today, Ofo na Ogu have been relegated to the backwaters."
Another factor that weakens the influence of Umunna, according to some Igbo leaders, is the balkanization of autonomous communities by the powerful political class which has whittled down the age-long respect and power of elders and royal fathers and by extension, umunna.
In his contribution, a professor of African fiction, Damian Opata, attributed the waning influence of Umunna to the disintegration of the institutions in Igbo land.
He said that lack of trust and inordinate quest for material things amongst the kinsmen, encourage wealthy individuals to easily bribe their ways to get whatever they want.
"The waning influence of Umunna in resolving land disputes in Igbo land is largely caused by the continuing disintegration of the Umunna institution. First, many members of the umunna do not live in their communities. Trust has, therefore, become more difficult to cultivate among kinsmen and women.
"Second, there greed and the quest for material wealth have eroded the solidarity and moral bonds that hold umunna units together. One finds it difficult to, again, know those who can be trusted.
"Wealthy individuals who grab land can easily bribe people to support them in land disputes. Many Ndi Oha, traditional legislators/executives try to make a living from false witnessing during land disputes.
"Again, individuals who go to court use the process to delay land cases because they know that courts take a very long time to deliver judgments over such cases.
This enables the litigants to make use of such parcels of land during the period the cases are subject to court judgments."
A community leader in Anambra State, Ichie Francis Maduka noted that some Umunna usually succumb to the influence of money from land grabbers who deploy part of the money made through the illegal sale of land to bribe leaders of the Umunna who often turn the truth upside down when land matters are brought for settlement.
