Cases in Ancestral Origins in Micro Tribes in Nigeria: The Discrimination Against Ndueze and Ewolokpo Families in Abbi, Delta State

Abstract

The law of the 1999 Constitution which is substantially the same with the repealed 1979 Constitution has made bold attempts, addressing the overarching problem of discrimination on the basis of birth, clan, tribal and ancestral origins. Tribal and ancestral origins in Abbi have captured our attention in this study which adopts the doctrinal method. The study seeks to confront and interrogate the ethnic and ancestral basis and grounds for the fierce discrimination against Umu-Ndueze and Umu-Ewolokpo families of Echala quarters of Abbi in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. The drive of the study is informed by the legal methodologies through which the scrimmages are fought in courts of law without the protagonist ‘bending backwards’ to consider the evidence upon which the cases are built in the light of the brotherhood that had existed amongst the kindred families of Abbi, since time out of human memory, and the currency of the 1999 Constitution of the Federation of Nigeria on such issues. The study also underscores the evidence that the antagonists have brought to bear on the disputes in the courts in defence of the discrimination in the light of the history of Abbi which had been constructed in recent times by Abbi native writers based on traditional history and evidence and colonial intelligence reports and accounts. The study finds that deliberate attempts are being made by power elites to distort the history of Abbi people by the nature of the tendencies of the disputants and the drummers of the dance steps of the disputants have been clearly identified in Military and Civilian elites that gain prominence in the post colonial era in Abbi. Mere occupation of tribal, ancestral and kindred thrones and offices which do not yield much economic or financial transformation of the disputants cannot be said to be behind the crab-fights or kettles of fish. Abbi, in recent times, is not known to have grown its traditional and political leadership because of this tendency of power elites in self-destruction and self-deprecation. It is found that Abbi by nature is now disparate in orientation and self-divisive against the commensality that informed it earliest patriarchs’ endeavours. The discrimination against Umu-Ndueze and Umu-Ewolokpo families is largely caused by this tendency than any endemic ancestral divisions between the parties which founded the community many years ago.