Ozo Title-Taking in Nnewi.

Few days to my Igbu ichi Ozo, I was having mixed feelings. Despite I have been assured the process is way different from how it was done in the past.

Facial scarification which leaves permanent lines on one’s face was one of the features of Ozo initiation in the past. I was asking myself a lot of questions, shouldn’t this stage be totally abolished? Why should I subject myself to this degree of torture to prove my manliness?

Well, on the day, one of my Nnaochies wept as he saw the sharp knife of the Dioka drawing down the cuts strewn with blood on my face. In the past, the flesh of your body is peeled out once the cut is made. I steeled myself and endured the pain like a sacrificial ram.

It was months after I finished the whole gamut of Ozo initiation that I appreciated the true essence of Igbu ichi and other tortuous phases of Ozo like staying alone inside your Obi for 28 days.

Ozo is one of the systems our ancestors developed to birth tough and responsible leaders. I must admit that the dilution of Ozo initiation led to the death of true leadership in Ala Igbo.

You cannot genuinely pass through the furnace of Ozo initiation and not come out positively changed and psychically charged.

You cannot keep the many rules that Ozo demands and not become the most accountable and reliable member of your community.

We have to go back and strengthen the Ozo institution if we want to produce genuine Igbo leaders. An accountable Igbo leadership, i believe, will be a product of this ancient Igbo leadership system.

Nku di na mba na eghelu mba nri!

Ezeikolomuo