By Nicholas Kyeleve
The Parish Priest of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Achusa, Very Rev Fr. Donatus Ugema, has said the cultural heritage of the people is a symbol of love and unity and expressed the need to revive it to promote love.
Fr. Ugema stated this during a cultural day celebration at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Songu in Achusa, Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State.
According to him, the present generation has forgotten about their cultural heritage completely, hence the need to revive the culture of the people.
Fr. Ugema said “Some of our little children today have forgotten even their languages, some cannot make a sentence in their languages, some of them don’t know the kind of food they eat and the names of items in their culture, they don’t have idea about anything in their various languages”.
Fr. Ugema further expressed his commitment to sustain the event as an annual festival, saying it will give parents and the parishioners his kind of thinking to remind and teach children the culture of their people.
Speaking at the event with The Voice, the Tor Tiv of the Tiv community for cultural day celebration, Chief Barnabas Kwaghbo appreciated Very Rev Fr Donatus Ugema and Bishop Wilfred Anagbe for conceiving the event and creating the enabling environment for a successful cultural day celebration.
He urged the people at the event to extend same to their homes for sustained peace, unity and love in their homes, church, and the State at large.
He called on the parish priest to sustain the event annually in order to encourage parents to teact their children how to prepare food and many other things according to their culture, as well as preparing them for various presentations in their languages.
Also speaking at the event ,the Ochi’Idoma of Idoma Community for the event Chief Daniel Abakpa appreciated the parish priest, Very Rev Fr Donatus Ugema for organising an event like this, describing it as one and the best in history. He also called on the priest to sustain the event annually.
He concluded by advising people to establish schools that will give children a background knowledge of their culture from the foundation and urged parents to organise lessons to teach children about their culture and prepare them for beautiful presentations in their various languages.