I Do Not Need Any Constitutional Amendment Or Permission To Answer Amadabo – Kaladappa

He was fiery self as he came in studio to reply his predecessor who took out a space on Kristina Reports platform to issue a rebuttal disclaiming his title of Amadabo of Ishileogono, stating that the Ishileogono Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State has a constitution and the designated title for its head is “Community Head” and not “Amadabo”.

Soimi Kaladappa, who had in an earlier interview with Kristina Reports introduced himself as the Amadabo of Ishileogono, in this first installment of a three part interview with Kristina Reports Publisher, Godswill Jumbo expatiated on why the title community head is alien to the traditional leadership of Bonny Kingdom, highlighting why he or any other leader of any community in Bonny Kingdom does not need the permission of anyone to answer his title in Ibani Language, which is the native dialect of the Bonny people. Take a read!

Kristina Reports: Good afternoon, Sir, welcome. It’s a pleasure having you back in our studio again. Last time you were here we looked at a range of issues but one actually stood out and attracted a lot of reactions and that was the issue of the Amadabo title you identified yourself with as the Amadabo of Ishileogono. When that news went out, in fact, there was even a rebuttal from your predecessor in your community who said your community has a constitution and in that constitution the title that is designated for the head of the community is community head not Amadabo. We wanted to know from him is it that the community does not want to render the name, titled or position in Ibani or the community has not come together to have a change from community head to Amadabo. Then some people said the title is controversial, some people even said it is like a challenge to the King of Bonny who is the Amanyanabo, and several other opinions. So, that’s why we said let’s invite you again and hear from you what is Amadabo?

Soimi Kaladappa: Like I said I will still stand by what I introduced myself to you as; I am the Amadabo of Jumbo Ishileogono. We have a situation where we lost our language and we had an issue with all the language meaning to most things we name ourselves a few days ago I was having discussion with some individuals from my family and also from other families and I put it to them yes I agree you don’t have such in most communities. What you have them parade themselves as is head of community. Fine, it’s true.

Okay, if we track back a bit, so that we put it in proper perspective; when you say you are the Amadabo of Ishileogono, were you elected? Were you appointed?

I will come to that; we have an institution of leadership that was compared to none; even the British people acknowledged it. In some of the history we have seen, the British people saw our leadership institutions and they compared it to the British Monarchy. They saw us having a King, saw us having the Chiefs, saw us having like Governors; like if you go to GI Jones like what the Finima people had. Check your interpretation, somebody who is in charge of an area of the Kingdom. The governor and the president are not the same. The governor and the King are not the same. He (governor) controls one part of the Kingdom. So, they kind of hold on to the governor they saw in GI Jones. Yes, it’s true. But does it mean that in our dialect we don’t have those names that was given to those institutions. We have, like after they elected me community head – I am from Ibani for God’s sake and Ibani have their language – what is the proper language for community head? Community head is an English term and I wanted something to name myself in the same relative measures with community head and in my search, I found out that the two closest terms that interwove themselves are Kiridabo and Amadabo. Ama is town, Kiri is land, the two of them are interwoven. You can say the king of the kingdom or the king of the land. You can say the chief of the land and you can also say the chief of the town. they are so interwoven so Kiridabo and Amadabo are the two terms in Ibani Language that can represent head of community. Like I said I was interacting with my people and I said ‘yes, you have only head of community in our constitution. Yes, but please tell me an interpretation of head of community.

If like you said you were elected…

Yes…

That means you didn’t make yourself.

No.

So, the people that made you now said that they designated the position you are occupying as community head. Now, if you do not want to bear community head in English, you want to bear it in Ibani…

Yes…

Some people think that why not go back to your people and have them amend your constitution and render the title in Ibani since you didn’t make yourself you were elected?

I asked, I still ask them ‘do I need any permission to speak the Ibani language when we are meeting?’ All they could answer is that I don’t understand Ibani. But we are Ibani people, we need to speak Ibani. I don’t need any reform from any constitution to want to speak our native dialect. So, I said if you tell me the interpretation of community head then I would say I will agree with you. None of them answered me. I said then it means community head and amadabo is the same thing. You can’t compel me to answer community head. Like my predecessor that is disclaiming me, he has been going around for many years answering Onyenweala, which in Igbo Language is owner of the land, which is challenging the king? Onyenweala in Igbo Language is owner of the land. If you translate it to Ibani it’s Amanyanabo. So, who is challenging the King? I have always said that the Amadabo is just like a caretaker. They bring you out from the village, they give you the responsibility. So many villages have their own Amadabo.

Okay, there has also been this opinion expressed that whatever anybody wants to bear within the context of the Bonny traditional leadership spectrum will be at the discretion of the chieftaincy house under which that community, that family, that individual falls under, and we’re wondering like what is the position of the Jumbo Major House on this, especially, as there is currently no chief and the House is being managed by the Elders Council?

What I said earlier was do I need the permission of a group of persons to speak our dialect? No. We don’t any permission to speak our language. Our dialect is Ibani Language. Yesterday, we were having the revival of Ibani Language, you’ll be shocked to know that so many people don’t understand Ibani Language. So, if a Warisenibo starts to answer a Warisenibo in his family, is there anything wrong with it? I don’t think anything is wrong there. Every chief has his community, some chiefs have four or five communities and you appoint somebody to be a head of the community, is there no Ibani Language for head of a community? But you can call him community head in English or Igbo Language but you cannot call him in your Ibani Language. Something is wrong somewhere.

Now, in your own opinion, if you look at Bonny Kingdom, as a whole, you have like in Finima, you find that the subcommunities in Finima the heads are called Wari-Alabo, in plural, Wari-Alapu;

Yes…

Then in the chieftaincy houses, you have the Wari-Alabo, that is the chief that has not been taken to present to the king; so Wari-Alabo, and when that chief is now taken to the king and inducted into the Chiefs Council, he becomes a country, Se-Alabo, in plural, Se-Alapu. Then, if you come down you have the various layers of leaders in the chieftaincy houses, Warisenibo, Wariopusenibo, etc.; and then you have the country titles: Amasenibo, Amaopusenibo, and Amaopuorubo. Now, all of these are rendered in Ibani Language, why do you think the Amadabo, that particular title is the only one that is generating so much controversy?

We have been too long in English and Igbo Language. We have been too long with the foreign language. I want to give an example given by one of my motivational speakers. He said the mind walks like this; like an elephant that is tied on to a stick all his life – only when the master wants to move him out, he will come and lose him from the stick – until when he’s big enough even to pull down the stick he will not believe that he can pull it down. He just feels like it’s trapped into that condition. And there was this story line that said when the fire was burning in his master’s house he was seeing it but he could not even pull his weight, he could not pull all his strength to pull himself out from the stick because he thought that the stick was holding it. That’s the kind of condition we have found ourselves. We have come to see ourselves so much entangled with Igbo Language that we think Igbo Language is the only alternative language. Nobody wants to even learn Ibani. I started with Onyenweala, for God sake I’m not an Igbo man. I don’t have any Igbo blood running my vein. I’ve told you my lineage, I will still repeat it again. So, from the first day they made me Onyenweala, from that day I said will not answer Igbo title; and when you check the meaning of Onyenweala, it’s the same as Amanyanabo in Ibani Language. How do I want to compare myself with the King? I don’t think I can compare myself with the King.

By 1975 there was a panel of enquiry, they suggested that these names be reflected in Ibani Language. The heads of Finima and all those areas, GI Jones identified them as governors. It’s there. It’s not just Finima. How big is Finima during GI Jones’ time? But they knew that those leaderships were there. The white man called them with his name, he said it was a governor. Then we now translated it in Igbo Language as Onyenweala, that’s the native form but that is not Ibani. People are getting confused. In the leadership hierarchy, we have Amanyanabo, the owner of the town. You have Se-Alabo, or plural, Se-Alapu, the heads of the units of the town; those are the chieftaincy houses. Then you have Amadabo or Kiridabo who are appointed to superintend over the villages, the smaller communities. Then you have the Burusu heads, Warisenibo, when they are many you say Wariseniapu. Now, in Amadabo business, some communities are still answering Polodabo. If you go to those communities that are speaking Ibani Language they don’t call community head. What they call in Ibani Language, some call Amadabo (head of a town), some call Kiridabo (head of the land), while some call Polodabo (head of a quarter), because the three of them are the same. 

For instance, Madupolo, Polo Nwator, etc…

In Ishileogono where I’m heading, you have smaller, smaller quarters. You have Nwabam, you have Amachunta, you have other communities, smaller clusters; you call those ones Polo. The head of those ones you call them Polodabo or Polodapu in plural. Now Polodabo serves under the Amadabo, when he serves under the Amadabo, he reports to the Amadabo. Go and ask them, all those elders you are complaining about whether they can call meetings in their communities; burusu heads, they can’t until the community head comes. So, you can call the head of your community in English Language but you cannot call him in Ibani Language. They don’t have anything; they don’t want to understand the Ibani Language.

Okay, but does it worry you that every other position, every other title is rendered in Ibani but the controversy is in Amadabo?

I am telling you it’s because of the communities that are not speaking Ibani, that’s the problem. Go to Oloma that is speaking Ibani and see whether they are calling onyenweala or community head. They call him Kiridabo. Go to Kuruma, Kiridabo; Kalaibiama, Amadabo, that’s what they call. All those villages that speak Ibani Language they call their heads in Ibani Language, not onyenweala or community head.