How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"I am not blind and I am not deaf either. I know that Umuaro is divided and confused and I know that some people are holding secret meetings to persuade others that I am the cause of the trouble. But why should that remove sleep from my eyes? These things are not new and they will follow where the others have gone. When the rain come sit will be five years since this same man told a secret meeting in his house that if Ulu failed to fight in their blameful war they would unseat him. We are still waiting, Ulu and I, for him to come and unseat us. What annoys me is not that an overblown fool dangling empty testicles should forget himself because wealth entered his house by mistake; no, what annoys me is that he cowardly priest of Idemili should hide behind him and urge him on."
"It is jealousy," said Akuebue.
"Jealousy for what? I am not the first Ezeulu in Umuaro, he is not the first Ezidemili. If his father and his father's father and all the others before them were not jealous of my fathers why should he be of me? No, it is not jealousy but foolishness; the kind that puts its head into the pot." (12.78-80)
Ezeulu boasts that though Nwaka and Ezidemili challenged him and Ulu five years ago, they haven't yet overpowered him. He's still waiting. Do they actually have what it takes to unseat him? To make Idemili the stronger god? He doesn't think so. There have been problems before because people are jealous of the power he holds as chief priest. This, too, will pass, like all the times before.