Business Post Contributor
By Jerome-Mario Utomi
No man, according to Aristotle, chooses anything but what he can do himself. And thus, choice is limited to the realm of things humanly possible. Aristotle further stated that there is no choice among impossibilities. Choice, by its very nature, is free. A necessitated choice is not a choice at all but a great sacrifice, he concluded.
The above lines from great Aristotle amply capture the ‘fate’ or better still the position of Asiayei Enaibo, Bobogbene community, a Warri, Delta state-based journalist who made a necessitated choice/sacrifice by opting out of conventional journalism to explore formation that is supremely foundational to knowledge and cultural production processes. This knowledge in question focuses on the heritage, belief, and values of the true origin and practical belief to commune with the gods and ancestors.
Adding context to the discourse, Asiayei Enaibo hails from Ayakromo, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State. He is a thoroughbred journalist with great insight into political reportage as well as laced with in-depth knowledge of socioeconomic issues, development and analysis. Also working in his favour is the fact that he is well-foresighted and naturally at home when it comes to broadcast and any other form of commentary.
Despite these virtues, attributes and proficiency needed by the global community, Asiayei Enaibo, in what could be described as extraordinary sacrifice and response to a call for the highest level of spirituality, opt for little-known and less attractive cultural communication where he has since become both sign and symbol to the hearth of traditional worshippers in the whole of Ijaw land and Niger Delta region in general.
Also newsy is the awareness that Asiayei has remained resolute and laced with an unwavering commitment to this spiritual call for the past 15 years, precisely since 2009.
Like a self-willed prisoner, Enaibo has traveled a long windy road to be here.
Most profound about the country is his deep understanding of Ijaw in the African traditional worship institution which has given him both leverage and latitude to deconstruct negative arguments that posture the African traditional worship system as evil. He has not only changed the narrative but vehemently defended African culture and traditional worship system at local and international gatherings.
For instance, he believes and has argued beyond reasonable doubt that the consciousness of Ijaw spirituality hangs on the powers of Egbesu and Egbesu, according to him, is the deity of justice of the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta region. Egbesu, he said is also perceived as the spiritual foundational force for combating evil and cleanses them at every point of confession for forgiveness. The Egbesu force can only be used in defence or to correct an injustice, and only by people who are in harmony with themselves and the universe.
‘Before the coming of the Western religion, Egbesu worship had been in existence. The god of warfare and justice, Egbesu, is regarded as a divine guardian who protects the Ijaw people from their enemies. He is often invoked before battle and is believed to grant victory to those who fight with righteousness and integrity, those who go to the temple of Egbesu must go with a clean heart. If you abore any evil at the point of entrance, there is a pot for purification to cleanse and wipe every evil thought away’.
Enaibo’s investment of his time and talent in cultural journalism has equally seen him widely travelled on a fact-finding mission to the entire Ijaw nation, an ethnic nationality which happens to be the fourth largest in the country.
He has not only made friends and commanded followership but moved severally from Ondo to Edo state, Rivers to Bayelsa down to Akwa Ibom and back to Delta state among others, researching and documenting the undiluted fact that centres on Ijaw history, traditional worships and other critical knowledge areas-as well as participated in high profiled seminars and conferences that has Ijaw culture and traditional worship as its thrust.
This has undeniably made him a reference point for the present and future generations when it comes to Ijaw affairs and in the world of cultural journalism/communication in the Niger Delta region and the nation in general.
However, even as this feat is celebrated, it will on the other hand elicit the questions; first and very importantly, what got Enaibo fixated in this area of communication? Why is cultural communication in the face of other attractive areas of journalism that are considered more lucrative? Why not areas such as political and socioeconomic affairs?
Providing an answer to these questions recently, the Bobogbene/Ayakromo community-born creative writer described himself as a privileged channel chosen by the gods to write their stories, noting that cultural journalism depicts the cultural sensibility of the people and the consciousness of their true identity as their heritage, belief, and values to their true origin and practical belief to commune with the gods of their forefathers.
He said that as a cultural journalist, I feel awakened to the core values of our people. It is the root pride of people who believe in their existence and perception of the God of their creator. I am culturally conscious of the belief practice and worship of the ancestral God of the Ijaw land.
On Ijaw traditional worship, Enaibo has this to say; the great Egbesu is our being that protests the land in time of war, justice, and freedom as an indomitable supernatural power solely for the Ijaws beyond conquest in time of war for justice. Yes, the power manifestation of this spiritual being was deeply abandoned by the coming of the Christian faiths that painted everything in derogatory mental brainwashing. And the gods elude us, but now with Tompolo, there is a new paradigm shift of root consciousness to our Spirituality.
‘Tompolo who I often referred to as gods, begotten son of Ijawland communicates to the gods in the language of metaphysics and gods change its story and that has been with our forefathers. There is no new formation, but what has been. With morality and sincerity, there is no mistake in the story of the gods, and there is no deception, once you hand twist the wish of the land the gods dare you with death or you make an urgent confession and please for forgiveness at the sacred Temple of Egbesu or any other power you have offended’.
‘And it is a few journalists in Ijaw land like myself as part of this entity that the gods reveal their potential to. To me, in any temple I visit, I write their stories with ease because this is an old institution I was born into. Many because of this dislike distance themselves from Cultural Journalism’.
‘From masquerade stories to gods of the land that protect us, to God and man, when we understand the missing bridge, the better prosper us as we have returned to our original paradise lost and regain with full glory as the examples of Tompolo and other high priests of Ijaw land. Writers like Enaibo have an internal soul personality that attracts this energy, purity of thoughts at the same frequency beyond the mundane world,’ he concluded.
Essentially, going by his age and physical appearance, Asiayei in my view, is by no means an old man. But his understanding of and competence in promoting the culture of his people have conspired to confer on him, the enviable title; ‘Talking Drum of Niger region’ by his friends and admirers because of his creative writing prowess. He has proved that history does matter and that ordinary calculation can be upturned by extraordinary personalities.
Enaibo’s regular intervention in Ijaw culture and worship has blown fresh wind to the discourse in ways that accelerate the process of the reemergence of a fully functional historical document that will be trusted by both present and future generations.
Regardless of what others may say, the new awareness created by the cultural journalist can engineer disruptive as well as constructive ideas that will help shatter set patterns of thinking, threaten the status quo or at the very least raise people’s concern to further question time-honoured historical accounts.
A circle of learning and empowerment has been created by Enaibo’s 15 years of unbroken commentary that allows the people of the Ijaw nation to see things that others cannot see.
Another reason why Enaibo’s deep dive into Ijaw cultural journalism should be appreciated is that in population, Ijaws are the fourth largest ethnic nationality in the country. And the people, in material terms, have, through hard work, and planning, established themselves in all sectors-finance, science/technology, sports and education among others.
The above achievements notwithstanding, the people would have needed, yet, another generation to correct some sloppy traditional worship accounts that have invaded so many literary works currently in the public domain if not because of Enaibo’s correctional
Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy) for Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He can be reached via [email protected]/08032725374
