A Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ogah Oche Emmanuel, has called on all sons and daughters of Edumoga to subject themselves to both economic and cultural orientation to rebuild the new Edumoga land.
Fr. Emmanuel, who is the priest in charge of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, Olanyega, in Okpokwu local government area of Benue state and also doubles as the national chaplain of St. Mathew Edumoga Catholic Community, made the call in his keynote address at the on-going centenary celebration of Edumoga chiefdom and annual cultural festival.
According to him, “This Edumoga should be the new Edumoga of our dreams.”
He said the call for reorientation became necessary as the “inability to wake up to this call would amount to a generational problem, and the posterity would judge us and would never forgive us.”
He said time “has come to properly re-define the region’s philosophy” notably the traditional institution and chiefdom and their place in our nation.
“What do we have to preserve for the future? Let us try to know what is good in our culture and revive them instead of tagging everything as fetish,” he said.
On the region’s religious life, he said that “time has come to go back to true worship of God and shun all forms of hypocrisy, sorcery, diabolism and things that would destroy our faith.”
On burial rites, he chastised the people to promote the living instead of always making arrangements to encourage the culture of death.
“When you can’t help someone when he or she is alive it’s not sensible to be preparing for their burial ceremonies.”
He said the centenary celebration and cultural festival had served as “a call for unity and integration, a call to re-evaluate our journey so far as a nation, and chart a way forward.”
