By Ogu Bundu Nwadike, M.A
The hue and cry, and indeed the hullabaloo about the Iriji Mbaise Festival 2022 has reached the highest parts of the heavens and hills.
Incidentally, it's been a sheer case of much ado about nothing. That's because the biggest story distilled from the verbal crossfire among Mbaise people and their interested friends and associates has been about the date of the celebration of the festival!
What's the big deal in a date chosen by a person or a group of people to celebrate the ritual of eating of the new yam? Will yam not be yam because the new yam festival wasn't celebrated?
Evidently, the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing has become so politicized that it's no longer just all about celebrating the eating of the new yam, but about furthering the political interests of Mbaise politicians and their external allies.
For instance, the Ezuruezu Mbaise, the Ezeji Cult, and the Traditional Rulers Council, et al have for sometime now been at crossroads in loggerheads over when the "Iriji Mbaise" of thing will hold and when it won't hold.
And interestingly, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the ex-Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, has remained a recurrent decimal in the brouhaha over when and how Mbaise people will perform their ritual of Iriji!
Consequently, it appears Mbaise people have been tightly boxed into eating new yam only whenever Ihedioha, with his Ezuruezu Mbaise, decides to eat new yam.
That has raised questions of whether the new yam festival is "Iriji Mbaise" or "Iriji Ihedioha" or both of the above?
The burning argument has been that by consensus, the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing secured a perpetual injunction that it must be held on the 15th day of the month of August in any given year.
But in the immediate past five years, it's not certain that the injunction has been sacrosanct and applicable to the celebration of the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing.
One recurrent issue with the verbal hostilities over the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing, which makes it appear to be "Iriji Ihedioha" of a thing is that the former national legislator, who without doubt or controversy nurses an eternal gubernatorial ambition, has repeatedly expressed aversion to the conferment of chieftaincy titles to non-Mbaise indigenes during Iriji Mbaise festivals.
That has always heated up the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing to very febrile heights of the environmental atmospheric thermometer.
It gets most precarious when there's news of plans to confer chieftaincy titles to a sitting governor or allies of the sitting governor.
For instance, in 2018, when the 2019 governorship election was only months away, as the date of the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing approached, _wahala_ and _katakata_ erupted, albeit clandestinely in Mbaise nation.
And, what for? The traditional rulers of Mbaise nation planned to confer a chieftaincy title upon Chief Uche Nwosu, who was a leading contender for the office of Governor as a potential successor to his-father-in-law and outgoing governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha in 2019!
Rife in the rumour mill at the time was that Ihedioha, who was also a top contender for the office of governor, wasn't pleased with the plan of the traditional rulers to honour Uche Nwosu with a chieftaincy title, and didn't approve of it!
That made many pundits wonder aloud whether or not it's "Iriji Mbaise" or "Iriji Ihedioha" that was being annually celebrated since at least the past half a decade!
That question was partially answered in the 2019 "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing, when it was celebrated with Ihedioha in his brief occupation of Douglas House. It was simply "Iriji Ihedioha"!
In the 2020 edition of new yam festival, the celebration wasn't celebrated on excusable excuse of the Covid-19 pandemic that posed enough threats to lives of the people.
Yet, the 2020 "Iriji Ihedioha", however, took place in his palatial country home at Aronta Mbutu, in Aboh Mbaise LGA.
In 2021, the "Iriji Mbaise" wasn't really celebrated as it was held in low key in individual homes and houses. But "Iriji Ihedioha" was unfailingly held in the home of the ex-Speaker.
Now in 2022, the characteristic heat from the roasting kitchen of the "Iriji Mbaise" festival again raged across the land! And why?
The traditional rulers of Mbaise nation agreed to confer a chieftaincy title upon the Executive Governor of Imo State, His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma on Tuesday, August 16, 2022.
Apparently, Ihedioha again didn't approve of it. Hence, the making of a storm in a teacup and building mountain out of a molehill by his camp that also hold sway as the helmsmen of the pan-Mbaise socio-cultural group called Ezuruezu Mbaise.
The end of discussion was that while "Iriji Ihedioha" was held on Monday, August 15, 2022 by Mbaise people, the "Iriji Mbaise" proper was held by Mbaise people on Tuesday, August 16, 2022.
An enterprising commentator on the brouhaha, Izuchukwu AiC Akwarandu, who as a "true son of the soil" knew what he was talking about, properly guided reasoning on the faceoffs and fallouts on the 2022 "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing!
Commenting on a Facebook post explaining on the double dates for the celebration of the 2022 "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing, he said in the following paraphrase:
"The celebration of the Iriji Mbaise has been an agelong practice that holds on the 15th of August each year.
But anybody may decided to celebrate it on any other date he wishes from 15th August to December. But the actual date of the celebration is 15th of August each year"! Good!
Now, if, as AiC guided, anybody can decide to celebrate the "Iriji Mbaise" of a thing on any date of his choice from August 15 to December 31 in each year, why then the hullabaloo about celebrating the 2022 "Iriji Mbaise" of thing on August 16?
The trouble, this time around, mustn't be unconnected with the decision by the traditional rulers of Mbaise nation to confer a chieftaincy title upon Governor Uzodimma!
Why Ihedioha and his camp are perennially troubled by the traditional rulers' decisions to confer chieftaincy titles upon deserving people of Imo State, as is the custom of Mbaise nation during each "Iriji Mbaise" festival, is a subject for research by interested people!
Except, the speculation is true that Ihedioha wants Mbaise people, with their friends and associates, to be celebrating "Iriji Ihedioha" instead of "Iriji Mbaise", otherwise, why the noise?
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