By Kennedy Dimaku
The saying that culture is a way of life came to play, Saturday, at Old Parade Ground, Abuja when the sons and daughters of Ebonyi gathered to celebrate Ebonyi State Day.
The event which had the theme as Promoting Human Development for Ebonyi State Indigenes witnessed different cultural dance and unveiling of special traditional cuisine known as Ebonyi Kitchen.
Speaking to journalists the President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, FCT and Chairman of the occasion, Barr Ifeanyichukwu Obasi Nwaeze expressed displeasure over the activities of the Igbos in diaspora in struggling for kingship and chieftaincy titles in foreign land noting that it had brought rancor and disunity amongst the people.
He posited that if any Igboman wanted to be king or chief, such a person should retire to his native land for such purpose rather than struggle for Igbo kingship (Eze Igbo) in a foreign land.
He stressed the need for people of south east origin who were in diaspora to always repatriate their wealth back to the region.
For instance, he said that if any Igbo man had any investment in the diaspora, double of such investment should be sited within the region. This, according to him, would bring drastic and unimaginable development in Igboland as well as achieve the desired goal in the commity of nations.
He likened any person investing in diaspora without doing same in his native land to a man who was floating on a river, pointing to the fact that in the Case of unforseen circumstances, the person would have no place to go.
Meanwhile, The President General Ebonyi Community in Abuja, Barrister Aloke Cletus said the event was memoriable to the creation of Ebonyi State on the 1st October, 19962. He added that the significant was to chart the way forward on the good and welfare of the people pointing to the fact that the young ones needed to know the role of unity in bettering the lives of the people.
However, the Chairman, Ebonyi State Day Celebration planning Committee, Dr Mike Nnaji Okpara, commended the people from all the local government areas of Ebonyi State who graced the occasion saying it showed their confidence and belief in the state.
On the theme of the event he stated, “Ebonyi State government adopted the program and we wanted to remind our people and also the government that there is nothing better than empowering the people to acquire skills in different endeavors. And by the time we harness the different endeavors of the people, we would have gone along way to uplift the state.”
