I speak today not out of pride, but out of deep concern and love. A love for a people with a great past, a wounded present, and a future that still can be redeemed. This is a call to the Igala youth to pause, to think, and to rediscover who you truly are. Something has gone terribly wrong. Too many of our young people now wake up every morning with dependency as a mindset and wrong use of social media as a means of survival. Identity has been reduced to noise, arguments, and cheap validation online.
When a grown adult cannot survive without turning tribe into content, or cannot go a full week without shouting “Igala, Igala” on Facebook as a substitute for hard work and responsibility, then something fundamental has failed. Not the tribe, but the individual. Family upbringing and background. Remember, Pride without productivity is emptiness. Go back to history. Not social media history, I mean, real history. History written in blood, sacrifice, intelligence, discipline, courage, and vision. The blood flowing in your veins is not the blood of beggars, cowards, eye service or lazy men. It is the blood of builders, warriors, kings, thinkers, leaders, kingdom and nation makers.
Your ancestors were men and women of valor, honor, dignity, and wisdom. They were not confused about identity. They were not dependent on others to survive. They built, defended, created, governed, and accommodated. Have you read of the exploits of our patriarchs ; Abutu Eje and the likes of ATA Ekele Aga, ATA Ameh Oboni, ATA Onokpa, ATA Idoko and other patriarchs like Achadu Unyo
Achadu Agahiu Opaluwa, Achadu Okama,
Achadu Onu-Ogu, Achadu Ajogwu,
Achadu Omepa Ajogwu , Achadu Unyo (Unyonwu) and ATA Igala ERI, ATA Ogwu and Prince Onoja Oboni. Go and read about the exploits of our ancestors including the Igala reversed migration from Gongola Valley through Apa, Kwararafa, Omala the old benue valley – Amagede Ife – Idah, Nsuka, Delta, Benue and Enugu Igala expansion. Do you know that at a point Idah stood as a sovereign Igala country, clearly recorded in Portuguese, British, and other Western archives? This is not folklore, this is documented history
Your ancestors built the first storey building in what later became Nigeria. They entered into formal agreements with the British long before many others, including treaties involving the Royal Niger Company, whose activities later influenced British control following international agreements like the Berlin Conference. The Igala leadership played a key role in ending slave trade activities in their domain as recorded in the abolition of Nigeria slave trade by Lord lugard in lokoja, Nigeria, contributing to the liberation that later spread across Nigeria and beyond. Now, these were people who negotiated from a position of strength, not weakness. Igala land was a place of refuge. A place of asylum. A place of accommodation then for many Nigerian ethnic nationalities.
For over 200 years, Idah hosted many ethnic nationalities like our sister Ebira Nation, Bassa, Nupe, Idoma, Igbo, Hausa, Bini, Yoruba (Oyo and Ikale), Alago, and others and the Ebira koto are full blooded Igala from idah. Note, clans of these origins still exist in Idah today. There is no other kingdom in Nigeria with such deep, historic diversity under one crown. What does that tell you? It tells you who your ancestors were: communal, generous, hospitable, confident, and secure in identity.
Igala people built kings and kingdoms. They enthroned and dethroned rulers near and far. They influenced Nupe kingship from Far idah to Bida Nupe land. They fought wars against powerful kingdoms like Benin and Jukun and held their ground. Streets, towns, names, titles, and cultures across Kogi, Idoma land, Nsukka, Enugu, and beyond still bear Igala names such as Onoja, Ameh, Ochai, Oboni, Achadu, Idoko, Eje etc . History can be distorted, but it cannot be erased. Your ancestors had their civilization
and they valued knowledge and education long before Western classrooms. Igala language was taught in schools across Idoma and Bassa areas. They invented their own canoes, weapons, farm tools, gunpowder, textiles, clothes, beads, beds, wine, and food-processing techniques. They processed cassava, cultivated diverse farm products and lived on healthy natural diets that sustained long life 120, 150, even 190 years. Civilization to them was intelligence, wisdom, knowledge , balance, and restraint, weed, drugs, chemicals and excess weight practice today.
Today, we have abandoned our local and healthy diets like Egwa Irere, Echi leaf, Agwugwu Egwa, Ulahi yam, Olowu yam( water yam), Ogoma yam, Oro Ijanganda, Obo Egwa, Obo igogo, Egwa Irere, Egwa Akpaka beans, clean stream water and replaced them with chemicals pure water, chemical foods and processed foods, creams and dangerous drugs and poisonous drinks risky for our liver. Yet we pray for long life while poisoning our bodies. This is not progress. This is ignorance dressed as civilization, wake up!
Worst of all, we have lost modesty, discipline, maturity, and responsibility. Public space and social media have become places of insult, indecency, recklessness, and disgrace. You do not uplift your family or your tribe by shouting online, exposing yourself, or living without purpose. You honor your people by your character, your work ethic, your restraint, your wisdom, and your contribution to society.
Remember this: your ancestors were not loud, they were effective. They did not beg for relevance, they created it. They did not live for applause, they lived for legacy. If they could rise from their graves today, many would weep not because the world defeated Igala, but because some Igala youths have forgotten themselves.
But it is not too late. Rediscover yourself. Embrace discipline. Choose hard work over shortcuts. Let modesty guide your lifestyle.
Let maturity shape your words. Let responsibility define your actions online and offline. Stop disgracing your family name. Stop reducing a great heritage to noise. Carry your identity with dignity. You are not a mistake of history. You are a product of greatness.
Act like it. May this message awaken your consciousness, realign your mindset, and restore your perspective. For the sake of today and for the unborn generations who will one day ask: What did you do with the legacy you inherited.
If you like this, please , help me share and let it reach others. God bless you.
Felix Solomon Omachoko.
