Eating the season’s new yam comes with age-old fanfare among the Igbo. The tuber is roasted, diced, garnished and consumed by a keen crowd ready for merriment. And merriment it is because virtually every strand of the Igbo community is involved. It is a time to thank God for a successful harvest and look forward to another season of tilling the soil again.
The Federal Government understands that the feast brings people together. That was why it organised a feast to celebrate the new yam in Enugu State, aiming to promote indigenous culture and facilitate national integration and economic diversification through cultural tourism.
National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), an agency under the federal Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, organised the event.
The agency’s acting Executive Secretary Mr. Louis Eriomala articulated these points at the event.
The occasion, spiced by various cultural dances, was graced by traditional rulers.
Eriomala said that the Federal Government’s investment in culture and promotion of heritage of Nigerian people further proves that the country is one indivisible entity, highlighting the positive side of its ethnic diversities and close heritage affinities.
He said, “We have a unique culture that is underpinned by wisdom, knowledge, hard work, honesty, fear of God, accountability, transparency, communality and respect for elders and constituted authority. These positive attributes of our cultures are waning because of our love for Western culture that is not restrictive.
“It is therefore pertinent to state that the celebration of the New Yam festival is part of the effort of NICO and by extension the Federal Government to revive and promote this cherished culture of the Igbos. This is in line with the mandate of NICO which is to promote indigenous culture, heritage and history.
“It is our desire to see how this rich festival and a host of others can be used to further foster unity, peaceful co-existence and unity in diversity in the country,” he said.
In a goodwill message, Mr Nnaemeka Nwajagu, Head, NICO Enugu State Office, said that it was wrong to describe some of the cherished culture in Nigerian as fetish as some religious sects think; adding that culture should be separated from idol worship or ritualism.
“In Igbo-land, New Yam festival comes with a lot of positive outcomes to better the Igbo people as our people sees it as a unifying factor, where reconciliation is put on the table to settle dispute and bring our people together notwithstanding perceived differences,’’ Nwajagu said.
He noted that the Federal Government New Yam Festival have come to stay as a yearly event; adding that the 2019 edition would be bigger and more encompassing.
In a special message, Igwe Lawrance Agubuzu, Chairman, Enugu State Traditional Rulers’ Council, noted that the festival was meant to thank God for a bountiful agricultural harvest in 2018 as well as life and health to witness another end of a successful farming season.
“New Yam festival is a positive and progressive culture handed to us by our forefathers and we will hand it over to the up-coming generation to continue to reap its good benefits for the better of Igbo-land and Nigeria in general,” he said.
The chairman of the occasion, Igwe Chris Eze, appealed to the Federal Government through NICO to involve more corporate organisations to celebrate Nigeria’s culture; and not just only western festivals like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, among others.
Eze, the traditional ruler of Ezeoha-na-Ideoha community in Enugu State, urged Igbos to always find a way of promoting their cultures to create that distinctive identity.
Chief Ben Nwankwo, representing Orumba North and Orumba South, Anambra State in the House of Representatives, lauded the Federal Government for organising a New Yam Festival in Igbo-land.
“I wish that doing this festival, a large number of Nigerians from other ethnic groups should attend this event and learn more about this cherished culture; so that they can go home and promote New Yam and other cultures back home in their various ethnic residences.
“Northerners can be supported to come to the East and witness and learn about New Yam Festival; while people in the East can also have a similar cultural exchange in the North.
“This will definitely bind us closely together as one nation,” Nwankwo, who was awarded a “Cultural Ambassador”, advised.
Chief Chijioke Harford, one of the awardees of “Cultural Ambassador” at the occasion, noted that Nigerians should be proud to promote and propagate positive and progressive culture anywhere they find themselves in the world.
Highlights of the event were presentation of “Cultural Ambassadors Awards’’ to 10 prominent Igbo sons and daughters; display of various cultural dance groups as well as cutting of the roasted yam by Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu assistance by other monarchs and prominent personalities.
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