A brief analysis of the praxis of the unprovoked attack on Ikobi community by Odejo last week, wantonly betrayed a murderous intolerance of otherness, which implication shows that the Odejos may be habitually on the lunatic fringe, or are outrightly culturally freakish; to say the least.
A post-mortem critique or assessment of this unprovoked attack shows the Odejos may be sociopathic buffoons, or are modern day Robin Hoods. If not so, where do we locate the meaning of their aggression? How do we now contextualize the neighbourly relations between the Ikobis and the ‘itinerant black sheep’ Odejos; going by their serial footprints?
The shock of this betrayal of community guidelines in mutual co-existence will certainly re-define and delineate the future directions and dimensions of the immediate social geography, specifically.
A quick survey of what Ikobi has lost in terms of human lives and sundry other resources typically upholds the argument that the Odejos may be steeped in sado-masochism. The looting that followed the sacking of Ikobi by Odejo unarguably presents the mission of the surprise attack as highly “narcissistic” and thoroughly planned.
Now, the imprimatur of this shameless engagement in the mechanization of the soul of society, is the mechanical reproduction of social relations by the Odejos with some of their neighbours like the Odugbehos, and now the Ikobis. If the Idomas allow this weird penchant for external rewards of pillaging other villages through unprovoked attacks, by failing to investigate Odejo, this, indeed, will be the beginning of the fragmentation of the Idomoid “essence of being.” We may have to re-enact “the idea of Idoma” in no distant future if we watch this festering moment explode in complete rottenness.
The oxygen in the arsenals of Odejo which propels it towards the destruction of what others have diligently gathered must be cut off, immediately. The gnomic significance of this consideration should be fully explored and put to mutually beneficial use.
The mistaken notion that Odejo has co-existed with other villages peacefully is really mistaken, if one looks far beyond the surface. This mistake in perception arises from duplicity or misrepresentation of the true nature of things. The shattering of subterfuge is a rude awakening.
A society either blooms or withers. The indices for blooming cannot be same as those for withering. A society undergoes self-purgation periodically. Now, is the time for Odejo to purge itself of its unholy excesses. For how long will Odejo’s impunity of desecrating the gods of other villages be tolerated?
Consciously, we should all place severe limitations on Odejo’s excesses through the force of law; beginning from thorough investigation, and possible prosecution. The available evidence is a starting point. No village is free, until all villages are free of the example of Odejo in setting the gold standard for debauchery, violence and criminalities.
It’s elementary wisdom to take heed when a neighbour’s house is on fire. For how long shall we look away, when it’s clear that a neighbour is a holy fool? The hunting paradox of Odejo should not be allowed to metastasize. In the olden days, a child who set a house on fire was used as an instrument to quench the fire. The fate of Odejo cannot be different.
Odejo executed kite-flying to the effect that Fulani herdsmen were coming to attack Ikobi on an appointed day. The attack came but the dramatis personae changed from Fulani to Odejo people. The metamorphosis here is only possible in Witchcraft.
A society with soulless men is an automated organisation, where social relations are totally mechanized and sustained by brutish pains and meaningless suffering. With the unimpeachable evidence on offer, what else does the Idoma nation need to purge itself of unwholesomeness. The character flaw in the unholy mission of the Odejos in killing Ikobi people on that misbegotten day must be punished for a resetting of proper standards in public conduct.
If we trivialize this moment for abiding corrections, by letting it slip by; we would have succeeded in passing down a warped vision of society massively populated by victims and victimizers; where truth becomes an abomination, and falsehood is daily worshipped as a goddess of prosperity and progress.