John Nwaigwe
No Wonder: Obi Aguocha Took the Title “Ogwumabiri Umuahia (Umuahia Main Market),” Meaning Where Things Like Rice Are Bought and Sold – By Mandate 27 Group
Some titles are earned. Some are accidentally honest. When Hon. Obi Aguocha accepted the chieftaincy title of Ogwumabiri Umuahia, meaning (Umuahia Main Market), he may have thought he was collecting a respectable honour. But in the same week that Chief Charles Ogbonna (Evuleogu) released a video alleging that two trailer loads of rice meant for the people were received and sold, the title reads less like praise and more like a confession written in gold thread.
No wonder, the people say. No wonder the man chose to be called a market. Because according to Chief Charles Ogbonna (Evuleogu), that is precisely where the constituency’s rice ended up. If the allegation is true, then the honourable member is not merely a representative who failed to account for palliatives. He is the market itself, the place where federal rice arrived in trailers and left in a transaction, while the real owners of that rice, the hungry families of Ikwuano, Umuahia North and Umuahia South, were left to admire photographs of small bags.
Let us look at the evidence the public has been given. The Federal Government released two trailer loads of 50kg bags. The constituents saw 5kg bags in pictures. A market, as every trader knows, is where bulk goods are broken down into small portions. A 50kg bag becomes ten smaller bags, and the arithmetic of the stall replaces the arithmetic of the people. We are not saying this is what happened. We are saying that the honourable member has given us no record that proves otherwise, and a man who answers to the name of a market cannot complain when he is asked to show his sales book.
When the allegation came out, what did Aguocha do? Did he publish the waybill? Did he publish the number of bags received, the ward distribution schedule, the signed beneficiary lists? No. He produced a long statement with six sections, a list of enemies, a list of statutes, a lecture on Chief Ogbonna (Evuleogu)’s alleged private life, and a threat of court. A transparent man answers a question about rice with documents. A defensive one answers with a biography of his critic. The people have noticed the difference.
And let us be clear about the title itself. Titles in Igbo land are supposed to reflect character. Ogwumabiri speaks of a person who stands at the centre of a bustling market, where everything is bought, sold and bargained over, rice included. For a representative who has been asked where his constituents’ rice went, it is a very unfortunate honour to wear. Others earn names that speak of service and sacrifice. He walked into the market and walked out with the market’s name.
Now he says he will sue. Fine. Nobody is afraid of that, and nobody disputes his right. But a courtroom is not a market square. There, the question will not be about who brought tribute to whom, who libated what, or whose cousin is facing trial. It will be about bags, trailers, waybills and beneficiaries. If the records are clean, the case will be quick. If they are not, the people will know why the title fits.
The constituency has long memories and an ear for irony. The market may hold its title, but the customers are watching their change.
