Conveners of Ohueje Ohinoyi, Egbira cultural heritage festival in Ebira land, Kogi state, have lamented the dying culture of Ebira people, soliciting the partnership of Blueprint Newspapers Limited in showcasing the culture and heritage of Ebira people to the world.
Speaking Thursday, during a visit to Blueprint Corporate office in Abuja, the Chairman of Conveners of Ohoueje Ohinoyi Cultural Heritage, Sheidu Tyani Adinoyi, said that, like many people across the country, the culture of Ebira people is being stifled by preference for western taste and needs to be resuscitated through advocacy and media publicity.
He said that he has been convening the Ohoueje Ohinoyi Heritage Festival since 2017 to help in reviving the culture of Ebira land, hence the need for partnership with Blueprint in order to sustain the momentum and help in publicizing the festival.
“We came to thank the management of Blueprint for what they have been doing for us in the promotion of Ebira culture and also to solicit more support by adopting Blueprint as our media partner in the Ohoueje Ohinoyi Heritage Festival. We decided to harmonise our different cultures to improve tourism potential and for outsiders to patronise it. We conceived the idea in 2016 and started in 2017. In the last edition, we introduced 100 looms match, where many women competed in weaving 100 local fabrics.
“We encourage our people to be using local fabrics. If politicians are using local fabrics, it will cut the cost of governance. The effect of a leader using local fabrics is tremendous and encourages trade. JJ Rawlings was using local fabrics and put Ghana back in business. Obasanjo used Campala and put Abeokuta in business. We should also look into using local fabrics as school uniform. The weavers will be in serious business. That is the economic aspect of Ohoueje Ohinoyi we are pursuing. The people weaving are old. We want to encourage young people to come and take over,” he said.
Responding, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Blueprint Newspapers Limited, Alhaji Salisu Umar, said that Blueprint will partner with the to ensure the proper propagation of Ebira culture, even as he advised the conveners to partner with as much organisations as possible; in order not to restrict the culture to Kogi state.
He said: “We should not throw away our culture. Our children should speak our language at home when they come back from school. How can a father and a mother belong to a particular tribe, but speak English to their children? The western infiltration has done a lot to us.
“Ohoueje has a lot of work to do, not just restricting it to Kogi or Okene. I would have loved if you can partner with other organisations to achieve your objectives. Having said that, we will support you. I particularly believe in my culture and proud of it. So, whatever way we can support you, we will do that because we are propagating culture to develop society and we will not shy away from it.”
On his part, the Editor of Blueprint Newspaper, Mr Abdulrahman Abdulrauf, said that Ohoueje Ohinoyi is a good initiative that deserves to be supported as the promotion of every culture is important, even as he lamented that Nigerians, especially the youth, are losing touch with their cultures by speaking the English language even at home, as opposed to their mother tongues.
