Why Most Of Those Our Relations We Accuse Of Wicked Juju Could Be Innocent After All

By: Anayo Nwosu

Madam Ejelubechi is so sure that Mazi Ubuka is responsible for her blindness. She can hardly see or recognise any object though she can count her money very accurately because not even a total blindness can affect the ability of an Nnewi person to count money correctly.

Madam Ejelubechi, a widow, told me that Mazi Ubuka, her husband’s brother, wanted her dead so that he would dispossess her children of their land inheritance but for the prayer of her pastor, the unnatural blindness would have progressed beyond the current stage. She was happy to inform me that after a string of prayers, that her spiritual attacker had been struck with ọsụ, a sickness that makes it difficult for men to urinate.

I did not believe Madam Ejelubechi’s story because I could tell from my own mother’s experience that she had cataract in her two eyes, a situation that could be resolved by a simple surgery.

I was on a customary merry go round visit of my relations and neighbours upon at arrival in my village and to distribute ubu afịa as it is an offence (as it has always been) punishable by ịkpọ asị or eseme okwu for any responsible adult Nnewi person living abroad (which includes Lagos) not go round and greet those at home.

My encounter with Mazi Ubuka, who is also a close relation, was more shocking. He too was accusing Mazi Ananwa, my direct uncle, of spiritually blocking his urinary passage hence, making it difficult for him to defecate or pass urine. According to him, he was responding to treatment from a local medicine man who had performed some sacrifices that would also deal with his attacker.

Nnanyị Ikuku, another old relation of mine told me how a popular rain maker in our village reduced him to an “ọnọ n’ana ahụ egbe” or a health condition characterised by involuntary shaking of hands. I could tell that he must have had a minor stroke or that Parkinson’s syndrome was setting in.

There had been a pocket of two or three people’s discussions or contemplation to adopt an extended family’s unified approach to solve this problem. For it is a tradition in Nnewi to collectively seek a solution to any problem that affects everyone.

Therefore, a one-agenda meeting was convened and efforts were made, through the announcement by a town crier, for all the adult members of the extended family to attend.

By a simple majority, our extended family members passed a resolution to search for a powerful man of God to come and spiritually comb and clean up our family members and our land. The pastor would not do a prayer that would make anyone mad as it is still the kinsmen that will suffer the acts of the newly made mad man or woman.

We would select a man of God who can see all that is hidden, especially evil preparations used to hold down relatives from progressing and those used to inebriate or make fellow kinsmen sick.

The man of God we seek is the type that is fearless, the type who must name the evil doers amongst us and force them to confess to their deeds. He can on the alternative, be able to point at where retrogressive juju are buried or hidden and cause them to be exhumed and be destroyed or rendered powerless.

I was soon to notice that I had failed in my efforts to convince my people to seek different ways of finding solutions to our various health and economic challenges besetting our elderly and the youths. Many, including some of my relations, believe that some people within the family are responsible for the suffering of others.

I was shocked when a cousin took a bottle beer and pretended that he was drunk and proceeded to my new official car, an SUV, given to me by my company as a status car, hit his hand at the bonnet and shouted “ndị ọgwụ ego! Ụnụ aya enweta m!” meaning:”Ritualists or blood money people! You shall never get me!” And I was convinced that the idiot was referring to me.

I know that my cousin wanted to hide under the influence of alcohol to tell me his mind. I had seen him drink six bottles of beer before and was still very sober; hence, faking drunkenness after just one bottle of beer sold him out. I got his message and I knew that few other guys spoke through him.

In my village and in Nnewi and in many other towns in Igbo land, a band of Christian and traditional spiritual contractors are laying siege on the psyche of our people, knocking their heads. They manipulate them to think that their natural ordeals are unnatural. The effects of bad economy are being termed spiritual.

The educated and the enlightened of Nnewi stock at home and diaspora should stand up and intervene. Most of the problems in our villages are purely medical and economic while the remaining are pure ignorance. Successful Ndi Nnewi all over the world should please set up more medical diagnostic centres in their villages or help fund missionary or community health care centres.

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They should set up health insurance schemes for their family members or have an arrangement with a good hospital to care for the medical needs of the needy or poor family members.

Sending the young family members to school is not an act of generosity but a self protective security measure without which you and your educated family members could be physically eliminated for spiritual offence you did not commit. See how my cousin convicted me of ritualist or occultic activities without trial after drinking my beer. His evidence was that I was progressing alone.

I had to put on my thinking cap to handle my own extended family challenge in cohorts with some enlightened family members that are willing. It is a generational challenge. That is the cap the wealthy relations of Boko Haram and Almajiri do not care to wear. It was last worn by Sir Ahmadu Bello.

Quitely, I have arranged a medical attention for Madam Ejelubechi for her cataract operation who can now see; and Mazi Ubaka has had his enlarged prostrate fixed while Mazi Ikuku’s High Blood Pressure has been steadied and he now knows that he could live longer if he sticks to doctor’s advice on drugs and diet.

I had to hold a meeting with a young man who passed on a “ritualist” sentence on me. His other co-jurists joined the discussion and demanded that I should do more to help them not just by killing cows for them during festive seasons or buying them drinks.

I explained my profession to them and accounted for, to their surprise, what I own and owe. We agreed to what trades they would do and I have fulfilled my own part of the bargain. The cost was surprisingly bearable with planning and sequencing. They have all started earning money now.

When you hear my Nnewi relations call me Ikenga Ezenwegbu, I earned it. I have paid my dues.