For the seventh year running, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, the Zenith Labour Party’s candidate in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, rolled out the drums to celebrate the new yam in grand style. It was pomp. It was also colourful as masquerades of different shapes and designs entertained the mammoth crowd that gathered to share in the joy of the new yam and also take home some of the 7,000 tubers of yam that he was to give out.
Okonkwo, who has gradually metamorphosed into a culture iconoclast, had used the occasion of the New Yam Festival in Igboland to help redefine the concept of the celebration by making more people to appreciate the gift of the yam to humankind through Christian prayers offered at the Catholic Mass.
The day started for Okonkwo and the people of Ire Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state like every other day. The sky was friendly and inviting. The sun was at its shining best and roads emptied into the Dikeora Avenue before connecting Joseph Okonkwo Avenue, which led to the expansive country home of Okonkwo, more popular as Dikeora.
The New Yam festival, for him, has become an annual ritual. It usually begins with Holy Mass concelebrated with several priests who come to share in the blessing of bountiful harvest and also thank God for blessing his people with the gift of yam, seen across Igboland as the king of crops. However, Okonkwo missed the opportunity to share the new yam with his people in 2020 because of the restrictions placed on pubic gatherings over the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of that, he still found a way to deliver yams to his people and encouraged them to celebrate in lockdown.
This year, several priests arrived at his private chapel in his home, where he is the catechist, to celebrate a commemorative mass to mark the festival. The mass attracted Okonkwo’s friends and family who had gathered to share in the joy of the festival. The priests also used the opportunity of the mass to pray for longevity, good health and more bountiful harvest in the next farming season. They also blessed Dr. Okonkwo and further prayed for his victory in the November 6 election in the state.
Done with the mass at which Okonkwo led his wife, Gina, and others in a thanksgiving procession, Okonkwo retired to the inner chamber of his home to be attired in his New Yam regalia. When he reappeared, it was to the delight of the crowd, who saw in him a warrior ready to battle. He came forward clutching a traditional hand fan to match his all-white outfit with a matching cap.
Welcomed into the arena by a troupe provided by the Ijele Inwelle, a traditional musical group that accompanied Okonkwo’s Ijele masquerade, alongside his wife, he danced round the arena appreciating warm greetings from the crowd that had gathered to celebrate and enjoy the day with him. Okonkwo had carefully planed the day to accommodate all shades of visitors and well-wishers. Every group had a dedicated canopy where they sat comfortably to enjoy the entertainment that followed.
Done with appreciating the crowd that had swarmed his country home, Okonkwo settled to his table to begin the day’s business. He was the catechist at the church and also the chief celebrant at the festivities. It was, therefore, his duty to set the ball rolling. And he did just that.
Having washed his hand, as tradition demands, Okonkwo sat on his artistically crafted wooden stool to begin the days business proper. First, he was presented with kola nuts (Oji Igbo) and it was his responsibility, as celebrant, to offer prayers over the nuts before breaking them. And he did. Speaking in fluent Igbo, Okonkwo held the kola nuts and first thanked God for the gift of life and for preserving his people in spite of the security challenges. He moved on to bless the land. He prayed for the good of Ogidiland. He prayed for the good of Idemililand. He prayed for more blessing for Anambra State and he blessed the land of the Igbo people and Nigeria.
He was not done yet. Okonkwo, who is also the chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, offered more prayers for the security and safety of Nigerians wherever they are. He invoked divine favours on all people of goodwill and good intentions. He asked for the conversion of those who had chosen to go the wrong way. Specifically, he asked for divine intervention in the affairs of Anambra State and deliver to the state a leader worthy of the call, one who is properly prepared to lead the people out of the woods and deliver to them jobs that would guarantee their happiness and progress.
Each line of the prayers he offered while holding the kola nuts was appreciated with thunderous chant of Ise by the crowd. For several minutes, Okonkwo prayed over the kola nuts and continuously invoked divine favours on Anambra sons and daughters wherever they are and in whatever positive endeavour they are engaged in, to the admiration of his wife, Gina, who looked on with beautiful smiles on her face.
Done with prayers over the kola nuts, Okonkwo focused on the several tubers of roasted yam and sauce that had been prepared for the event. As his guests masticated the kola nut accompanied by alligator pepper or peanut butter, Okonkwo drew his knife and pulled the tray of roasted yams closer. Again, thanking the Almighty God for bountiful harvest this year and further praying for more feasts in the next planting season, Okonkwo said “may my neighbours experience as much bountiful harvest as I did this year.”
Another thunderous ‘amen’ followed the prayer as he cut a tuber of roasted yam signalling the commencement of festivities for the new yam.
Hardly had he dipped a slice of the roasted yam into the oil bean and utazi sauce and munched away than roasted yams flooded the arena and reached every table. Shortly after, the waiters and waitresses reached every table and every visitor with food of different sorts. As they did, drinks flowed the Dikeora way. Every guest had something to eat and drink. As the eating and drinking got underway, masquerades of different shapes and sizes flooded the arena and entertained guest in very colourful fashion. Watching the masqueraded dances rekindled the position of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that Nigeria could make huge annual income from tourism using masquerades. This is a position that Okonkwo has well developed in his manifesto for Anambra.
High point of the masquerade performances was the appearance of Ijele Inwelle. It is the king of masquerades and as it appeared, the lesser masquerades fizzled out yielding the stage.
As the sun went down, the heavens opened briefly and let in some showers to further bless the day. All the guest where later pointed to the mountains of yams which had been marked out for distribution. Consistent with Okonkwo’s generosity, every participant at the festival, kid or adult, irrespective of age, went home with a tuber of yam. There was no discrimination. Red cap chiefs had the rare privilege of going home with tubers of yam and a live chicken each. It was the Dikeora style. Some mothers who knew how it goes on with Okonkwo came with all their kids and each, even those who could not lift a tuber of yam, got theirs.
Okonkwo ended the day with a promise to the crowd that irrespective of what happens on November 6, the New Yam celebration for 2022 will be a statement in splendor because as far as he was involved, it is a festival that has come to stay.