Akalites brainstorm on the use of the name Umuaka.
3 min read
Last week, Umuaka Times Institute, the whatsapp group of Umuaka Times newspaper was transformed into a hotbed of controversies by Akalites. The issue on ground was posed by some of the “students” of the institute: Why is it that some villages in Umuaka who have got their autonomies decided to expunge the “federal” name Umuaka, from their names? And why is it that some others who use the name ended up using “Akah” instead of Umuaka? Examples of such villages that bear half of the name Umuaka, are Amiyi-Akah, Isiozi-Akah and Ugbele-Akah, while the entire old 4 villages of Amazano (Ibele, Amakor, Obeakpu and Amakor) expunged the name totally from their names.
Chief Dona Nwokedi was the first person who sent a piece to the Institute concerning the issue from London. The controversy took a deeper shape when the publisher of Umuaka Times submitted a voice message on the subject. Throughout last week, several Akalites made several contributions from many parts of the world either in support that all the autonomous villages should use Umuaka as an appendage to their names or against.
Many people who spoke from the former 4 villages of the Amazano “confederation” gave different views according to their understanding or what they heard from their fathers. Chief Chinedu Olebuike, a Ghanaian based businessman who hails from Umuele Amazano Autonomous Community said that many villages in Umuaka who no longer want to be identified with the name Umuaka officially, did so because of the bad press and image the community had suffered over the years. Chief Olebuike noted that many people from some other towns in Imo State held it as a point of duty to mention the name of Umuaka wherever they are caught committing one crime or another outside Umuaka. In the views of Chief Olebuike, this development made people to be viewing Akalites as criminals. As a result of this, according to Olebuike, new villages decided to remove the name Umuaka, from their names.
Mr Ethelbert Nwoke who also sent a voice note from Mozambique seriously wondered why some people would expunge the name Umuaka from their official name. He asked those people to explain where Umuaka has wronged them. Chief Cosmos Oko, a top religionist and historian from Ibele in his own view said that the entire Amazano Ibele and some other villages were not biological children of the man Aka. He went on to say that people were imposing the name Umuaka on them. As the debate is still ongoing, Oko has received more criticism than any other person on this issue due to his stand on the matter. He even got more knocks when he described his village as Ibele near Umuaka.
They were many other people who spoke via voice messages. Adaobi Joy Nwadike, an attorney at law and a high profile nwada Ugbele Umuaka Autonomous Community in her own recording, said that Akah, Umuaka, and Umuaka Ebe Iri are all the same thing. According to her, long centuries of living together has made people like Ibele etc to be fully fledged Akalites. She went further to appeal to all Akalites to follow the footsteps of Mbaise which functions as a confederation and still maintains its original name Mbaise. She went on to call for the setting up of committee of delegates that will initiate the reconciliation process.
Mazi Ezeigbo Awuka also from Ugbele appealed to everybody to remain calm, speak with one voice and forgive each other and move on as Umuaka community.
Mr Ndubuisi Ukagim from Acharaji Umuaka Autonomous Community saw the whole debate as a waste of time and called on serious debates on security and other developmental projects in Umuaka. He argued that many royal fathers will never accept to answer to the call to append Umuaka to their names. As it still stands, the debate is still going on in Umuaka Times Institute.
