Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State, has launched an annual lecture series that will research, explore and promote Igbo history, culture and values.
Titled after the Obi of Onitsha, the Obi Nnaemeka Annual Public Lecture Series is a landmark initiative is aimed at researching Igbo history, culture, values and traditions as a means of finding the place of the Igbos amongst themselves and in Nigeria.
In his keynote address at the maiden edition, the Obi of Onitsha highlighted four critical areas demanding urgent attention/study in Igbo culture and history.
They include: the need for a definitive determination on the supposition that the Igbos share origin and ancestral lineages with the Yorubas and the people of Edo. The interrogation of the authenticity of claim by author B.O.N Eluwa in his book Ado-na-Idu, History of Igbo Origin, that Ile Ife was the ancestral capital of the ancient but hardly known kingdom of Ado-na-Idu, was dominated by Igbos until their eventual migration. The need to build closer relationship among the descendants of Eze Chima, the figure central to the founding of Onitsha Ado-na-Idu, and a host of other sister communities on both sides of the lower cause of the River Niger, in addition to authenticating the folk histories of Umu Eze Chima. Finally, the need for the creation of the Greater Onitsha Development Authority, as a means of addressing the decay in Onitsha metropolis, in order to restore its past glory as a leading industrial, commercial, educational and cultural city in Nigeria.
“The search of Igbo history as a necessary pedestal to anchor the history of Onitsha presented three alternative versions for Igbo origin. Namely, the Autochthony, the Internal Migration, and the External Migration hypotheses. The two migration hypotheses mentioned the possibility that the Igbo, Yoruba and Edo language groups, and others, shared a common ancestral root prior to separating in different directions and developing different languages and dialects,” said Obi Achebe.
Attended by dignitaries from the academia, government and traditional rulers sphere, the event saw the laying of the foundation stone of the Obi Nnaemeka Achebe Dome that will house the World Center for Igbo Repository.
