In Arochukwu kingdom, December 26 each year is usually set aside solely for corporate Aro engagements. Dubbed ‘Aro Day’, it is always a great home-coming season that brings together sons and daughters of Aro-Okeigbo, meaning Umu Aro at home in Arochukwu and those who reside in Aro communities and diaspora outside the homestead, including Aro indigenes overseas. Oral tradition and record of past events indicate that the practice was initiated during the reign of Aro’s legendary monarch, His Majesty, Eze Kanu Oji, whose reign stretched from 1914 to 1987, thus making him the longest Eze Aro on the throne at 73 years.
Delegates would arrive from Aro uzo (outside Arochukwu), and are hosted by their kith and kin at Aro ulo (home-based Aro), and several meetings are held, including those with Eze Aro and officials of Aro umbrella organization, later Nzuko Arochukwu, aimed at taking stock of programs of the out-going year while making projections for the up-coming year. The introspection serves to guide the kingdom in aligning its activities in the upcoming year with the welfare and development imperatives of all citizens, thus ensuring that the needs and aspirations of Aro commonwealth remain in focus. Thereafter, delegates from Aro uzo would return to their residences and use the plans and decisions articulated by the community leaders, which are sanctioned by Eze Aro, to guide their activities until the next Aro Day.
Whereas the home-coming event during the Ikeji festival around September/October, when new yam ceremonies is the focus is dedicated to the celebration of Aro’s rich culture and socializing the younger generation on its revered cultural heritage, Aro Day every December, also known as Ikeji Beke, is focused on charting development plans and working out modalities for their actualization. At Aro Day 2025, sons and daughters who made invaluable contributions and sacrifices to the great civilization that made Arochukwu a house-hold name amongst peoples of eastern Nigeria and beyond, shall be recognized. With its theme as “Aro Renaissance: Honouring and building on the legacies of our Heroes and Heroines, past and present, for a more united and prosperous Aro Kingdom” it promises to be very unique and special in multiple ways.
His Eminence, Dr Eberechukwu Oji, the Eze Aro of Arochukwu kingdom gave a clue about it in his maiden Aro Day outing in 2024. According to him, about 100 Umu-Aro who served the kingdom in various capacities and distinguished themselves shall be identified and honored as evidence of the fact that Aro society does not forget those whose efforts contributed in building the civilization that earned it a privileged reckoning in the annals of world history. A part of this year’s Aro Day ceremony would be the celebration of 100 years since the Omu Aro insignia and joji wrapper were conceived, designed and commercialized by several Aro patriots, especially Mazi T.K Utchay and Mazi S.W.O Okereke, of Okereke Brothers Ltd fame. His Eminence, had during Ikeji Aro 2024 promised that several other Umu Aro in their mold numbering 100 would be identified to tally with the centenary of the invention, which has arguably become Aro’s greatest source of cultural identity. At the event of Aro Day 2025, that promise by His Eminence shall be kept, thus making this year’s ceremony remarkably different.
Secondly, societies the world over, relative to their levels of cultural development, have procedures and modalities for managing their existence. So, the leadership adopt defined criteria to bestow honor to deserving citizens in line with the law of social stratification. Society members are differentially endowed, so they live their lives in consonance with whatever condition that becomes their fate. Also, deviancy is a fact of life, so every society devise ways to manage it to allow the majority of its people enjoy peaceful existence. And, lest deviancy dominates positive values and norms, programs are usually put in place to manage behaviors that promote social cohesion.
It is the need to ensure a harmonious social relationship that makes a credible framework for identification of honor recipients a necessity. Any of such criteria developed and deployed to select people that fit into the honor roll is therefore expected to satisfy objectivity criteria at the very least. However, being a human process, there is always concern with whatever criteria that is used to identify recipients to be honored. But when a framework and criteria is validated to be merit driven, it ensures that the best persons are picked for recognition. Where proven mistakes are made during the exercise, it is expected that efforts would be made to correct them. This is important because honour recipients are supposed to be carries of finest Aro values to serve as models for others to emulate. In essence, the more dominant positives values and norms are in our society, the less issues of deviancy to contend with by everyone.
Also, history teaches that empires rise and fall, and Arochukwu kingdom is no exception. It achieved enviable height before its clash with the Anglo-Saxon civilization in 1901 which set off processes for its subsequent decline in influence. The emergence of His Eminence, Eze Dr Eberechukwu Oji, Eze Aro IX of Arochukwu kingdom has presented Aro with opportunity of a renaissance to reinvent itself and he had at various fora provided a glimpse of what a new Arochukwu shall look like. The least amongst the expectation is a new culture with consequences for all aspects of the people’s existence. Interestingly enough, there seem to be minimal issues of discord with the posthumous honour list of 100 Umu Aro released by the Palace and Nzuko Arochukwu compared with the 2024 Aro kingdom award. The 2024 recognition and honour event, especially the processes put in place by the authorities to ensure a credible outcome and the buffeting that trailed it before it was resolved, are still fresh in our consciousness.
Aro’s strong cultural roots, particularly experiences where certain forms of recognition are perceived as chieftaincy title, an aberration in Aro’s cultural region, make people to attach different meaning to standards being used to select award recipients in the modern era. Moreover, many pretend to be in community service for selfless reasons but ignore the attendant responsibilities. Yet, they aspire to earn awards to become distinguished members of the society. This makes the role of leaders and managers of Aro awards more tasking as they must design processes to identify and honor deserving people irrespective of whatever ambition people may have. The 100 honorees being specially recognized in this year’s Aro Day therefore, deserve commendation for having elevated community service to heights that distinguished them from others in the society.
We thank God for the 2025 edition of Aro Day and the opportunity it shall provide to roll out drums to celebrate, take stock, appraise the present, and set agenda for the future. Also, we thank His Eminence, Dr Eberechukwu Oji, the Eze Aro for a promise he made in 2024 that is being fulfilled this season, whereby 100 Umu-Aro who distinguished themselves in various callings of life, and applied themselves in service to community are being recognized posthumously, meaning that their services were not in vain. We congratulate their families for standing as a beacons of light, ensuring that the legacies of their forebears are not lost in history. The expectation is that each of these families shall keep the family flag flying higher. Nzuko Arochukwu Worldwide has consistently deepened the award process by relying on credible and objective factors. Also, they have always not failed to respond to errors where they occur. The leadership of the body therefore, deserve our commendation. Congratulations, Aro-Okeigbo.
