And he declared his interest to contest for the king of his community since it was his kindred's turn to produce a king for the community. Ikechi was a very wealthy and prominent man from Izumbe community in Orji Village in Imo State Nigeria, he had the affairs of his community at heart and he has been helping them in many ways, ways such as granting scholarship opportunities to academically vibrant youth in the community, he has recommended many jobless youths for international opportunities helping to solve unemployment challenge in the community among others, he was generally loved and his impacts speaks volume of him in the entire community.
There were 4 other persons who also declared their interest in the contest and they were all screened and found qualified to run for the position, it was a close ballot voting process and among other contestants, Ikechi stood out and he is the most qualified and the masses wants him due to his good deeds but there were murmuring within the Palace cabinet members about his birth story. It has been said that his mother gave birth to him at home, out of wedlock and as such HE was regarded as a woman since his father is unknown.
He emerged as the winner of the contest, there were shouts of joy among women, youths and children of the community but the men, and especially the cabinet members in the community were still murmuring saying that so a woman is the king of the community. Something they considered as an abomination.
This discrimination is truly concerning. While Ikechi wasn't deeply affected by these murmurs because he had attained a certain level of success and earned considerable respect in the community, I know of many people born out of wedlock in South Eastern Nigeria who have been denied opportunities and privileges that rightfully belong to them. These include land inheritance, family properties, and other benefits. Despite bearing their family names, these individuals face discrimination within their own families, particularly male children
A larger percentage of children born out of wedlock were products of innocent teenage love expressed in the only way they knew how, while others resulted from forced relationships and rape. Despite their circumstances, these women courageously chose to give birth and nurture their children. They had the option to terminate their pregnancies but chose instead to embrace their situation and take full responsibility. They willingly bore all consequences of their actions, including family rejection, abandonment during pregnancy, trauma, regrets, and various forms of societal bullying. Many of these women single-handedly raised, trained, and provided for their children, often working extra jobs and going beyond normal limits to care for them. These children's origins are rooted in love and pain - the very foundation upon which all human life is built.
People have embraced the revolution of the world, all of us have fully embraced mobile phones, we have embraced formal education and everyone uses modern transportation, in fact even in our cultures and traditions, we have infused the current revolution in them, ranging from the cloth we wear, down to how we practice these cultures and traditions. Everyone have seriously moved on but I am still wondering why so many people have decided to hold on to some irrelevant traditions and culture in this dispensation. Are we still talking about describing people based on gender, the genesis of their birth instead of their capacity, antecedents, ability and capabilities? I was wondering if the cabinet members were only allowed to vote and Ikechi contested with a mentally unstable man and the cabinet members will vote for the mentally unstable man instead because Ikechi was born out of wedlock, this is still where we are in the 21st century. And the mother and grandparents of Ikechi were all from the same village.
Culture is meant to serve people and not people serving culture or tradition, it is high time these cultures and traditions be revisited and amended to suit the revolution of the world. People are updating their constitutions even religious houses are also updating to flow with the revolution, if we don’t revisit all of these cultures and traditions as soon as possible, we may end up losing them or making them worst than we met them. The time is now. We need to collectively do this with everyone inclusive.
