Saturday 4 May 2013

Alhaji ibrahim onoruoiza chogudo, first ohinoyi of ebiraland.

Alhaji ibrahim onoruoiza chogudo, first ohinoyi of ebiraland.
Whatever shade of opinion one may have about the Attah and his rule, a basic fact one can not deny is that Alhaji Ibrahim Onoruioza was a product of the social milieu of his time. It is this singular fact that must inform our judgement of him as Atta of Ebiraland from 1917 to 1954, a total of thirty-seven years. The ebiraland into which Alhaji Ibrahim Onoruioza was born around 1892 was just pulling out of the Jihadist chaos, popularly known as the Ebira as Ireku-Ajinomoh. This period also witnessed the trauma of British establishment at Lokoja and their ultimate invasion of Ebiraland. It was, indeed an Ebiraland dominated by clan heads and powerful individuals who built up themselves out of the chaos created by the Ajinomoh invasions.
Alhaji Ibrahim was born into the family of the Otaru of Aniku Lineage of Adavi clan, Adai Aragaraga of Kuroko. His mother, Zainabu Ejinovo, popularly known as Iyebe was the daughter of Atta of Omadivi, a self made who became the first British Political agent in Okene in 1903 and Enimire, the daughter Ohindase Avogude. The circumstance of his birth aside, Alhaji Ibrahim was a self-made man like his maternal grand father under whom he had his childhood education. He educated himself in Arabic under the famous Alkali from Ilorin, mallam Abdulsalami. Though the same self education he learnt to read and write in Hausa, Nupe and English even to use the typewriter.
Prior to Novembers, 1917 when he was appointed the district head of Ebira in the then Kabba Division of Ilorin Province Alhaji Ibrahim has served the colonial administration in many capacities first, as messenger, then as an interpreter and finally as a tax scribe. His choice as District Head must have been influenced by his proven trust worthiness, loyalty and devoted service to the colonial government. His transparent honesty, sharp wit and high intelligence must have attracted him to the colonial administrators.
In 1923 when Kabba was constituted into a province, Ebira was upgraded from a District to a Division. With this development, the Atta Alhaji Ibrahim was made a third class chief and allowed to use the royal trumpet, Kakanchi  a symbol of authority. By 1926, his performance was so striking that he was promoted a second class chief. His contributions to the development of Ebiraland are many and varied but the following are a few of them.
In his early years as the ruler of ebira, Alhaji Ibrahim Onoruioza ensured the establishment of peace and stability and embarked on the construction of roads linking Okene to many parts of Nigeria. He also undertook very useful educational tours to Zaria, Kano, Katsina and Bida. Under his great influence, boundaries between Ebiraland and her neighbour were fixed. He also embarked on educational projects during this early period of his and showed very keen interest in Missionary schools.
He provided the missionaries with land and buildings to start their schools. He established the Okene Native Authority School in 1923. He later spread the N.A School to Eganyi. Kuroko, Obangede, Ihima, Okengwe and Ogaminana. The above developments did not openly up Ebiraland to the outside world but placed her very conspicuously on the map of Nigeria. The roads helped increase the volume of trade and commerce, opened up new settlements along these roads. Atta Ibrahim, because of his wealth of experience and education, was quick to realise the role of Islam as an effective unifying force for his people. This factor, couple with his conviction in the teaching of Islam could explain his great patronage of the religion in Ebiraland.
The middle period of his reign opened up with the holy Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and visit to Britain in 1930. His return to his people witnessed a greater vigour in his determination to see them advance to greater height. In 1933 he organised parties of hunters to comb the hills and rout out the wild animals such as Hyena and Leopards which had been a scourge to the people. This exercise was extended to check the activities of the Otumakere, slave raiders in the wild life disguise. He started work on the Okene waterworks by 1934 and by 1937 Okene, Ogaminana and section of Kuroko were already enjoying pipe-borne water. To ensure sanitation around the water works, public cemetery (Oganya) was also established immediately. His interest in the educational development of his people continued to grow with greater vigour in this middle period of his reign. He demonstrated this by establishing in 1037 the Okene Central School, Government Secondary School and now Abdul Aziz Atta Memorial College.
The third and the last phase of his reign saw him very actively involved in national politics. This period started from the 1940s when nationalist struggle seemed to have heated up. The Atta took active part in the movement for the Nigerian independence. In 1940s, he represented his people in the Northern House of Assembly of Chiefs as well as being a member of the first Nigeria legislative council in Lagos. Earlier before this in 1936, he had proposed standard uniform for the police in Northern  Nigeria, the  restriction of the movement of Beggars in the North and the need for the people’s participation in government. By 1950 he was virtually advocating for indepence for one united Nigeria and not the individual regions, when he said: ‘There is much to be gained by the East, the west and the North functioning as one unit. There are many problem for all of us to solve…………….
One other major concern of the great Atta, Alhaji Ibrahim Onoruioza was culture. Despite the fact that he was a devouted muslem who helped popularise Islam in Ebiraland, the Atta did not treat lightly other religious groups. The Christians were accommodated and encouraged. Ebira cultural festivals were promoted through his patronage of Ebira poet, philosophers and musicians. He introduced Islamic architectural design into the Ebira Traditional architecture. This fact is well authenticated in his palaces at Okene, Okenegba and Lokoja and in the court and other office buildings some of which were built in 1929.
In the course of seeing that Ebira were not behind in the development so far mentioned, the Atta attracted to himself a sizeable crop of detractors both at home and in government circles. The opposition from home front manifest itself in the Oyigbo Aremo crisis (1923-24) and the early 1950 uprising against  his rule. However, the Atta administration symbolised by the Native Authority system, and the Atta was the Native Authority not by his choice but that of the British. The other opposition whose interest was dramatically opposed to the first was generated by the great Atta’s nationalist and patriotic stance in the nationalist struggle going on then against the continued British colonial domination in Nigeria. Unfortunately, these interests combined to lead to his abdication and exile in 1954. By this singular act, the Ebira lost the services and active contribution of his illustrious son, the great Atta Alhaji Ibrahim Onoruioza.  He was honoured, posthumously by the front for Ebira solidarity, an Ebira elite club in Nigeria. Alhaji Ibrahim died in Lokoja in 1964 and was buried in his Okene palace in the presence of thousands of the people he had served so selflessly for thirty-seven years of his active life.

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