By CHUKS EKE
Elders from Enugwu-Adazi Kingdom in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra state have risen to their civic responsibility in offering fervent prayers for continued progress of the youths in the area.
At the middle of activities marking this year’s new yam festival, the elders, both males and females stretched out their hands and blessed the entire youths of Enugwu-Adazi kingdom, asking God to bequeath them with long life, sound health and prosperity, particularly from now till next year’s harvesting season.
A woman elder, Mrs. Cordelia Izuakor fired the first prayer salvo, followed by a male elder, Chief Emmanuel Eziuzor (a.k.a) Ezedioramma, both of Enugwu Adazi Kingdom.
Responding, President of Enugwu Adazi Kingdom Youths Progressives, Ezeume Ikenna Olisaeloka Ukpaka assured the elders that the youths in the area would continue to host them from time to time, particularly during this period of harvesting farm crops, as mark of their mutual respect for the elders.
Ezeume whp is also the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Zume’s Group, further assured the elders that the youths would stop at nothing in ensuring that credible persons were elected into office during the forthcoming general elections in the country.
Declaring the event open, the Head of Enugwu Village, Adazi-Enu and immediate past Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Chief Jideofor Okongwu, who described culture as people’s way of life, called for the compulsory teaching and learning of Igbo language and culture in all schools and colleges in the South-East geopolitical zone, to save it from total extinction.
Okongwu who is also a member of the National Executive Committee of the NBA, used the occasion to call on youths to embrace agriculture in order to become self-reliant amidst growing unemployment, even as he commended Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his proactive agricultural policies.
He therefore urged affluent Individuals to always channel their resources to programmes that would have positive impact on their various communities, even as he called on Ndigbo to find ways of making the new yam festival a tourist attraction.
Chairman of the Planning Committee, Prince Chike Okongwu and a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP House of Representatives candidate for Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia Federal Constituency, Dr. Emeka Eze, also urged youths to shun thuggery, violence, social vices and go into full scale farming and other meaningful programmes, aimed at bettering their lives.
