...As Egbeada Community Promises to End Harmful Traditional Practices
By Stanley Okehie
The newly inaugurated Committee on the Review of Harmful Traditional Practices in Egbeada Autonomous Community, Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, has been charged to develop a Palace Charter that affirms tradition as a living customary covenant while protecting human dignity.
The Programme Director of the Centre for the Right to Health, a non-governmental organisation, Sir Bede Eziefule gave the charge during a three-day retreat on Leadership Norm Shift held at the Community Hall, Egbeada.
Sir Bede explained that harmful traditional norms undermine the values of justice, urging participants to build communities where culture protects rather than harms.
He called on the committee to develop a charter that would put an end to harmful traditional practices and promote traditions that preserve human dignity, equality and peace.
Commending the organisation for choosing the community for the retreat, the traditional ruler of Egbeada Autonomous Community, Eze Edmund Njoku pledged to ensure that the committee, which he heads, delivers on its mandate.
Eze Njoku identified female genital mutilation, including the use of Vaseline in the practice, as one of the harmful practices affecting women in the community. He promised that the committee would sensitise women on the dangers associated with the practice.
He also called for public spaces to be made accessible to everyone, particularly persons with disabilities, saying the retreat had broadened his understanding of the challenges faced by people with disabilities.
The traditional ruler said the retreat had also increased his knowledge of incest and other harmful traditional practices assuring that the committee would swing into action in the coming weeks to work towards ending such practices in the community.
The Traditional Prime Minister of the community Chief Christian Opara lamented the ill-treatment of widows, particularly those without male children, as well as persons with disabilities.
He expressed optimism that the retreat would lead to positive changes, assuring that the committee would not only develop a charter acceptable to the community but also ensure its full implementation.
The Secretary-General of Egbeada Town Union, Chief Samuel Ejiofor said the community would end the practice of confining widows to self-exile until their husbands were buried.
He described the practice as an outdated form of ill-treatment inherited from the past and pledged to support efforts to abolish it.
Chief Ejiofor said he also learnt during the retreat that many widows were denied the right to inherit their husbands’ property, describing the practice as harmful to their mental and social well-being.
He committed to ensuring that the campaign against harmful traditional practices would form part of the traditional ruler’s address at the forthcoming community Christmas conference, which he said would help pave the way for positive change.
A Village Head, Chief Eugene Ihugba said the retreat exposed the harmful nature of the Osu caste system, urging members of the community who still discriminate against others on that basis to desist forthwith.
He promised to cascade the knowledge gained from the retreat to other members of the community and ensure that the charter, when developed, would be fully implemented.
A woman leader Mrs Eziuka Henrietta said she learnt that forced marriage could have far-reaching consequences for victims, particularly their education and economic lives.
She also spoke against the denial of inheritance to widows, especially those without male children, citing a case in which a widow in the community was denied her husband’s property because she had no one to speak on her behalf.
Mrs Eziuka further decried the practice of subjecting widows to huge financial demands, seclusion and other forms of ill-treatment before the burial of their husbands.
She pledged to cascade the knowledge gained from the retreat and work with other women to ensure that no woman in the community is subjected to such harmful traditional practices.