For the average indigene of Anambra State, the loss of a loved one amounts to double agony. The emotion pain of losing a beloved father, mother, uncle, aunt or even son and daughter is compounded by the weight of the expenses that go with their burial.
The funeral expenses incurred by the people have continued to cause pains in many families, and the situation appears to have become unbearable as many families have had to resort to selling their property, including clothes, just to live up to the expectations of the society. Many others sell their lands, houses and other prized assets just to give the dead what they tagged as befitting burial.
Ironically, the bazaar almost always comes back to haunt them. In some cases, the children of the deceased would stop schooling for lack of money to pay their school fees.
The agony caused by the practice in many homes led the Anambra State House of Assembly to come up with a law banning extravagant celebration of the dead in the state. The bill sponsored by the member representing Anaocha 11 Constituency, Hon Charles Ezeani, was passed last week.
Before now, the Catholic Bishop of Awka, Most Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, had raised the alarm that the situation had continued to cause disharmony and pains to families. He further argued that it was impoverishing homes and that if not checked, a lot of people would die from the hunger and suffering the practice would foist on them.
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Based on his views, the state’s House of Assembly invited him to deliver a lecture on the issue during one of its public hearings at the assembly’s chambers in 2017. Ezeokafor, while addressing the lawmakers, expressed gratitude to the chairman, House Committee on Information, Culture and Tourism, Hon. Kingsley Iruba, for appointing him as a key resource person on the public hearing on the issue.
Ezeokafor, said the extravagance displayed by the people during burial and funeral ceremonies in the state had reached such a point that there was need for an effective legislation to control the excesses. The vocal cleric noted that if it remained unchecked it would lead people into pitiable situations and even bondage.
He said: “The way our people degenerate from celebration of life to celebration of death is such that if left uncontrolled and unregulated, we may sink into the hypothetical Hobbesian State of Nature, where life would become solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
“I have seen families sell their real estates, properties and personal belongings in order to meet up with the expectations of society as regards funeral expenses. Businesses have folded up, marriages have broken down, children have been out of school and sudden deaths have been recorded simply because people could not wriggle out of the devastating effects of the huge expenses incurred during the funerals of their loved ones.
Families have been put in disarray, community peace has been disrupted, Umunna, Inyomdi and Umuada groups have been engulfed in endless disputes because of disagreements arising from non-fulfillment of their basic and usually very expensive and unrealistic requirements during funerals.”
He said Awka Diocese had remained undaunted in its fight to salvage the poor from the stranglehold of the vicious circle of extravagant burial and funeral ceremonies, noting that in 1996, his predecessor of blessed memory, the Most Rev. Simon A. Okafor, issued a guideline entitled “Death, Burial, Funeral and Widowhood in the Catholic Diocese of Awka: Guidelines and Directives.
Already, Ezeokafor had banned the production of brochure in the Catholic Diocese of Awka, with effect from May 1st, 2017.
Also, the bishop had in the past banned priests from cooking and sharing souvenirs during the burial of their relatives all in a bid to ensure that costs of burials and funerals are reduced.
The bill, as passed by the lawmakers, provides that in the event of death, no person shall deposit any corpse in the mortuary or any place beyond two months from the death of the dead, while burial ceremonies in the state shall be for one day.
It also places a ban on destruction of property, gunshots, praise singing, blocking of roads or streets during burial ceremonies in the state, as defaulters shall be punished according to the law.
The bill made it clear that from the commencement of the law, no person shall subject any relation of the deceased person to a mourning period of more than one week from the date of the burial ceremony.
According to the sponsor, Hon Ezeani, it also made provisions for a monitoring and implementation committee that would enforce the law as well as their responsibilities.
Since the passage of the bill which is awaiting Governor Willie Obiano’s assent, residents of Anambra, particularly widows, widowers and other victims of the practice, have been in jubilation mood
Speaking with The Nation, the Coordinator, Oganiru Abatete community in Idemili North Local Government Area, Mr Martins Okafor, said that God is working in the state.
He said the situation had dealt with people not only in his community but the entire Anambra State, adding that it was a dream come true for the people of Abatete community
Okafor further said that expensive burials and funerals in the state had caused families and homes pains and agony because it had become a competition.
He said it was taking money, time, stress, though, according to him, one of the advantages was that it was another way of feeding the poor who rely on such events to feed well.
“When I buried my mother in 2013, it was not easy for me and my siblings. The expenses were unbearable. I thank God for this bill and the sponsors,” he said.
Mrs Ebele Okafor, a widow from Nibo community in Awka South Local Government Area, told The Nation that there is no sane person in Igbo land who would not be happy with the bill.
She said the situation at times made it difficult for widows or widowers to send the children to school after burial and funeral expenses, which most times caused high blood pressure for people.
The widow recalled that many families had got into problems after selling their lands, buildings and other property just to meet up or make up after such burials and funerals.
Mrs Okafor noted that some families allow the corpses of their loved ones to stay in the morgue for long while some abandon theirs because they cannot raise enough money.
She said: “Some of us have gone through hell since we lost our husbands. The pains and sufferings have become too much. It is time to heave a sigh of relief.”
Also, Hon Mrs Hope Chinyelu Nwandu, who hails from Oraukwu community, told The Nation that she could not quantify the joy the new bill would bring to homes, describing it as a welcome development.
She said though burial and funeral ceremonies were expensive, she never imagined it would dry her pockets the way it did when her husband died some years back. Nwandu, who survives by running a non-governmental organisation, said such events throw people into debts, adding that families are suffering and smiling after burials in the state
However, she said the church is to blame also for making families walk through the valleys of death by imposing unwarranted levies when death calls. “This is God’s intervention for the people of Anambra because the situation has really pushed some people into some atrocities. What it means is that there is still hope for us,” she said.
Rev. Gil Dike, the Zonal Coordinator, The True Christians Church, is in support of the bill. But he said he was not comfortable with the aspects concerning cultural peculiarities such as not keeping a corpse in the mortuary for more than two months. He, however, said the ban on blocking of roads was a welcome development.
He said the haste in which the lawmakers handled it without recourse to traditional institutions could pit the government against traditionalists. He advised Governor Obiano not to rush into assenting to the bill.
According to Dike, the law would minimise blatant use of ceremonial uniforms (aso ebi). He called on the government to dialogue with the traditional institutions and church on the matter before it becomes law.
In his reaction, the traditional ruler of Uwani Umuoke in Udi, (Dr) Uche Alugwu, said he had already adopted a policy in his kingdom which barred the sharing of gift items to women whose husbands die. The Monarch has also imposed a fine of between 10,000 and 20,000 naira on any one that flouts it, just, according to him, to reduce the cost of burials and funerals.
He said apart from paying fines, there are offences that could warrant the culprit being banished from the community, adding that he would no longer allow his subjects to go through the torture of borrowing money or selling their property for burials and funerals.
However, he said the concept by the state assembly was wonderful, while he called on traditional rulers, town unions and churches in Igbo land to key into it immediately.
The Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. (Mrs) Rita Maduagwu, told The Nation that the bill, when passed, would be seriously implemented. She said the duty of the lawmakers was to make laws that would help the people of the state.
She called on traditional rulers and religious leaders to help in the dissemination of information about the bill, noting that there was no need spending extravagantly on burials.