OBI CUBANA , OSTENTATIOUS FUNERAL CEREMONIES: A progressive degeneration of Igbo culture
Over the course of countless centuries, much before the advent of christianity, Ndigbo had tried to maintain good public image as a people cradled in moderation, modesty, and rational frugality. This was evident in the way and manner they organized and hosted social functions. Emphasis is placed more on the subject of the occasion than on its side attractions and frivolities. For instance, at obsequities, they mourn the deceased and beheld in its remains the “vanitas vanitatum” of King Solomon of old (Eccl.1:2-14). Then, the rites of Igbo funeral exhibition mirrored the rectitude of modesty.
When Christianity became a dominant religion of Ndigbo, the decorous modicum which depicted the earthly life of Christ shaped the people’s approach in hosting and celebrating obsequious festivities and necrology, albeit a few outliers on the sociocultural graph. At some point, Nsukka diocese declared that any corpse that spent more than two weeks in the morgue, won’t be accorded Catholic burial rites; a move to control luxuriation of funerals. Other Igbo zones had similar rules.
Such was the noble culture for ages, until last two decades when the 3rd millennium, possessed with spirit of ostentation, infested with maggots of showiness and obsessed with debauchery, dawned on our youths.
As the rest of the world welcomed the 21st century with prospective actionable plans to make the world a better habitat for humanity, some parts of Igbo land were making marriage ceremonies of their daughters some sort of mercantile ventures capable of impoverishing their suitors and enriching themselves. Prospective suitors from other tribes in Nigeria, out of genuine fear for this ugly trend became apathetic towards dating, courting or wooing Igbo ladies for marriage. Our ladies were seen as too costly and unaffordable ‘commodities.’
Nollywood made several satirical movies to correct this ill.
In the same vane, burial/funeral rites of fallen parents or relatives were observed in moderate ceremonies, until Anambra millionaires took it to showbiz level. It blew out of proportion when Sir Kevin Chukwumobi established APAMS funeral home services in Onitsha. It was a luxury elitist undertaker company with offices across the southeast. Patronizing his services by men of wealth made burial/funeral an unaffordable crapshoot in Igbo land.
What we witnessed on Friday, 17th July 2021 (few days ago) about one multimillionaire, Obi Iyiegbu, popularly called Obi Cubana burying his mother in clamorous exhibition of raw wealth, where cash were flaunted to the consternation of the surrounding world, which dominated discussions across social media platforms as well as offline public discourses was a progressive erosion of a people’s culture. The ‘show’ portrayed Ndigbo as an epicurean society.
In November 2016, Sir Emeka Offor of Oraifite in the same Anambra held the record for the most expensive coffin ever used in Igbo land. He buried his father, in N15 million worth of a casket. Obi Cubana doubly broke this record last week! A coffin estimated at N30 million went into the ground. Over 200 cows valued at the same cost slaughtered. A voluptuous show of libertinism!
