A TALE OF TWO NNAMDI

A TALE OF TWO NNAMDI

A TALE OF TWO NNAMDI

Once upon a time, in the land of the Rising Sun, the people came under severe subjugation by a Pharaoh from a far away continent. This Pharaoh turned the ways of the people upside down and dramatically changed the way the people of the Rising Sun had lived for more than five thousand years.

The people of the Rising Sun cried to their Gods and their ancestors known as Ndi Mbu Na Ndi Egede. The people asked their primordial power points, “is this how we will continue? How long will this imperial colonisation in the hand of Pharaoh last?”

Ndi Mbu na Ndi Egede were moved by the tears of their children. From the orderly realms of their Spiritual Council, they sent one of their prized angels to come down to earth and reset the fortunes of their precious Umu Aro.

This angel upon coming to earth was named Nnamdi, meaning, our father lives.

To prepare Nnamdi for the great task ahead, the wind of fortune blew him to all the parts of the great country which the Land of the Rising Sun had been clinically welded into by Pharaoh for his administrative convenience.

This was how young Nnamdi moved from Onicha to Zaria from Zaria to Lagos from Lagos to Calabar.

As a young child, Nnamdi realized the suffering of his people was not different from the sufferings of other inmates in the great country constructed by Pharaoh who do not know Joseph.

At that young age, Nnamdi made up his mind that the liberation of his people will extend to his people’s neighbors. After all, his ancestors always emphasized, agbataobi onye bu nwanne ya. One’s neighbor is by extension one’s relative.

The wind of fortune, in order to prepare and equip Nnamdi for the great task ahead, propelled Nnamdi to the great Land of Liberty. The famous land of freedom lovers who had successfully resisted the imperial machination of Pharaoh over them.

Nnamdi as a young lad of twenty five, having no uncle, no aunt, no relation, no friend nor foe, arrived in this great land of liberty to begin his training. Nnamdi trained long and hard for nearly a decade. He suffered hunger, racial discrimination, loneliness and home sickness. Yet, he was not deterred.

Nnamdi, completed his training successfully. He was courted and wooed by his trainers to remain in the Land of Liberty and become a part of them. Nnamdi politely refused. He told his foreign suitors that he had an appointment with destiny back home. He told them his mission was a convenant from the underworld; iyi anulu na ana Muo.

Young Nnamdi, armed with singleness of purpose and understanding the fierce urgency of his mission, set sail home.

First, he stopped at Ghana, a small neighbouring nation which was also under Pharaoh’s tight imperial grip, to organize his thoughts and test-run his planned mode of operation.

From Ghana, Nnamdi made his triumphant entry into Nigeria to begin his mission of weakening the tight grip of Pharaoh over his people. Nnamdi went into alliance with other comrades from other local municipalities suffering from Pharaoh’s colonial subjugation. In the spirit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, they bonded.

Nnamdi’s brilliance and star quality was soon recognized by all and sundry.

As his popularity grew amongst the people, Pharaoh and his court officials concluded they must get Nnamdi eliminated if they were to continue with their business of subjugation and exploitation. Thus, Nnamdi was marked for liquidation.

Nnamdi being a child of the spirit got wind of this wicked plot. Quickly, he evaporated into the hinterlands. From his hideouts, he kept interrogating intellectually the business of Pharaoh in their land. He showed Pharaoh and his officials, that truly, the pen is mightier than the sword.

Soon, the people of the Great Country who were once awed and afraid of Pharaoh and his court officials found the courage to question Pharaoh’s mission in their land.

Consequently, it became clear to Pharaoh that Nnamdi and his colleagues had woken the people up. They had greatly turned their mind against them. Resultantly, Pharaoh and his officials packed up and left their prized possession.

There was a great joy in the land of the Rising Sun and also in the Great Country.

The people of the Rising Sun, happy they have tasted freedom once again, were moved by Nnamdi’s charismatic brilliance. As a result of this, many who were wary of Pharaoh’s system of education decided to send their children to school to be as intellectually sound and fearless as Nnamdi.

Some, in order to memorialize the great job done by Nnamdi, decided to name their children Nnamdi.

For more than five decades, most male children born in the Land of the Rising Sun were named Nnamdi. It was from these many Nnamdis, that the Nnamdi who will undo the great works done by the real Nnamdi emerged.

This Nnamdi in order to prepare himself for his task of destruction, sent himself to the land of Pharaoh to learn first hand the art of lies, manipulation and subjugation.

This Nnamdi was angry that the main Nnamdi, instead of separating the Land of the Rising Sun from the Great Country, only chased Pharaoh and his officials away. As far as this second Nnamdi was concerned, the first Nnamdi was a failure and a traitor to the people of the Rising Sun.

Many impressionable citizens from the land of the Rising Sun who did not know the kind of subjugation, humiliation and dispossession their forebears suffered in the hands of Pharaoh that made them to cry for help, believed the blasphemy that poured out from the lips of the second Nnamdi.

Like Bar-Jesus, second Nnamdi garnered followers who believed he would do for them what the first Nnamdi in his foresight saw but decided to let the sleeping dog lie.

These followers filled with nostalgic hope and faith of a homogeneous nation, emptied their pockets for the second Nnamdi. Those who did not have money to give paid in kind.

Despite all these show of love and faith, second Nnamdi instead of freeing the people of Rising Sun from the Great Country they shared with their neighbors began to eliminate and decimate anyone in the land of the Rising Sun who did not believe in his apostolic mission of restoration.

The second Nnamdi in his messianic mission turned the people of the Rising Sun against themselves. Sons against fathers. Brothers against brothers. The people against their leaders. Fear, disrespect, intolerance, chaos and anarchy became the order of the day amongst a once happy people who were very welcoming to opposition.

The second Nnamdi terrorised his people to the extent that all the respect outsiders had for the people of the Rising Sun because of the activities of the first Nnamdi vanished.

And so it happened, the people decided to cook for Nnamdi the Second.

You see, in the land of the Rising Sun, it is believed, if you cook for the people, the people will eat to their satisfaction and ask for more. But if the people cook for you, you will eat and run away.

The First Nnamdi cooked for his people. The people loved it and asked for more. But the second Nnamdi came, he cooked, the people tasted it and decided it was best they cook for him.

Ezeikolomuo
Igbo Consciousness Teacher