The bill before the Senate, seeking to permanently elevate the Ooni of Ife and Sultan of Sokoto as the exclusive Co-Chairmen of the Traditional Rulers Council, is generating serious controversy.
Already, the bill has passed second reading.
However, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo considers it a slap, considering that no traditional ruler from the area was included in the bill.
The group said the move would be at the expense of apex traditional rulers from other ethnic nationalities and geopolitical divides.
Dr Ezechi Chukwu, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, said this in a statement on Sunday in Enugu.
Chukwu said the Igbo body was astounded with the rationale for such an asymmetric bill by the Senate with its utter disregard for fairness, equity, justice and the principle of Federal Character, as enshrined in the constitution.
“The Senate in this vein has failed in its capacity as the highest legislative carrier and custodian of the nation’s democratic mandate.
“This bill is not only inequitable, discriminatory and ethnocentric, it is equally distasteful, reprehensible and objectionable.
“It lacks all the ethical considerations, objective metrics and unbiased categories for national unity and social justice in a pluralist nation-State like Nigeria,” Chukwu said.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo called for the urgent withdrawal of the bill and the need to review it in consideration for ethnic differences, cultural sensitivity, geopolitical balance, inclusive governance and equitable representation.
“It is only by so doing shall the bill foster national unity, peaceful co-existence and social stability,” he stressed.
As the bill continues to generate reactions, a social media influencer and politician, Nwobo Chika Nwoba has stated that traditional rulers in the Southeast should know that there are just three kingdoms in the Southeast Igbo.
Nwoba, a former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ebonyi State the three kingdoms included only Onitsha, Arochukwu and Nri.
According to him, no kingdom exists in Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States
In a post on his Facebook page, he wrote: “They're also the only first-class kingdoms known to the Federal Government of Nigeria from the Southeast.
“An autonomous community cannot be a kingdom for crying out loud. Kingdom isn't a community. It is a people. Onitsha has two LGAs, but one traditional ruler called Obi. The kingship in Onitsha, Nri & Arochukwu is hereditary. It resides in given families.
“I don't understand it when people call their communities kingdoms. There's no such a thing as Ekpelu Kingdom for instance. It doesn't exist. There are no kingdoms in Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.
You know a kingdom by its rich history, diverse cultural wings and expanse territory.”