I want to build a permanent site for Ohanaeze Ojo
The new yam festival organized by Eze, Sir, Ferdinand Ikenna Onuegbu, (Ezedioramma III,) Eze Ndi Igbo of Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos, was attended by Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo members, children, youths and cream –de-la-cream from the various ethnic communities in the state.
As a man who believes in God in all his dealings, this year’s new yam celebration was not different as the occasion was declared open by Rev. Rowland Nwachukwu, who in his sermon enjoined Ndigbo to shun sin and always cast their hope and worries in God who will always show up with the best answer.
Eze Onuegbu as a philanthropist did not allow the present economic condition of the country to deter him from maintaining the standard of the annual New Yam Festival being a man of taste.
As a philanthropist who loves to put smiles on the faces of people especially Ndi Igbo and others, lots of people are presently being accommodated in some of his properties without payment, and he has also awarded dozens of scholarships through his “Ikenna Stars Academy and Schools” to the glory of God according to him. He also revealed his plans to have a permanent site for Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo in Ojo.
Interestingly, in September, his son wedded his heartthrob, Ifunanya which attracted the great attention of dignitaries and all went well to the glory of God. Shortly after the new yam festival, The Unique Model magazine crew had a chat with him.
Excerpts:
Eze Sir, you have continued to maintain the culture of organizing the new yam festival over the years, why have you continued maintaining it till now?
I decided to maintain it because I see it is very important to maintain the culture, our culture, there are some young boys and girls of nowadays born in Lagos state or in Ojo Local Government which is my area that don’t know about this culture.
By the time we keep on celebrating it, they will be familiar with it, by seeing that we are celebrating it. So I see that it is important that is why I am maintaining it. Moreover, it brings us together, we eat together bond together, and pray to God for a more bountiful harvest. So togetherness we succeed, it is very important.
From all indications, you have single-handedly funded this project over the years till today, you kill cows, give people fouls, and tubers of yam, cook delicious meals, and ensure that every guest is happy, so what do you do to sustain it because it is capital intensive?
Thank you, everything is in God’s hand, I use this opportunity to thank God for providing for me, to bless my pocket every year to enable me to buy all I need to celebrate the new Yam festival and other things. I can tell you that there is no one on earth that God loves more than me. I am number one. Any time I started practicing something God will provide ways to sustain it. The money to do that thing will come. So with great hope as we so much trust God, it will continue. And God said that he is God and Lord of all flesh that nothing is hard for him to do. I may not have enough money, but due to the trust I have in God, I pray to God, and choose a date before you know it God will provide that money to carry on my plans. I still thank God for everything that happened on Sunday 29th September, 2023. And God will refund our expenses to our pocket in Jesus Christ’s name.
As an Igbo man, the origin of this festive had been traditional. Still, we realized that, you have succeeded in diverting the new yam festival to a Christian affair, that you invite Reverend Fathers and Pastors, who always pray before the ceremony commences, so why make such a diversion using it to celebrate God’s glory, instead of the olden ways of observing it?
Thank you, you see this time around, you can reason with me, this time is the end time, although it is said in the Bible that no one knows the time the trumpet will sound, they gave us signs, if you start seeing the signs, you know end time is approaching. All the signs in the Bible have started to happen, and that does not mean we are not doing it according to tradition, we have done everything traditionally, like the prayer we said in the morning time with Kola before breaking the Kola, we gave to God of harvest and drink and we gave God of harvest not devil for blessing the harvest, but men and women of God, Reverend Father, and Pastors will still grace the occasion, so that everybody will be very happy. We must hand everything we are doing to the almighty God, God gave us life, and wisdom to plant and harvest.
Most of the symbolic items we use like Kola nut, bitter Kola, and garden egg, the youths don’t value the items, you can’t call an Igbo boy or girl of 20 years and give him Kola nut, bitter Kola and alligator pepper the accept from you. So how do we train youths especially so that they will know the values of the symbolic items?
You see, it is very important that we use these things, and you witness the whole things that we are using on Sunday. For the young ones, saw the time I blessed the Kola nut, alligator pepper, hot drinks, and other items.
You see that Kola nut is a special fruit God designed and blessed for Igbos to pray to God, and God will hear the prayers fast, that fruits is joined together and by the time you are breaking it, you will not see what joined the fruit together, like when you break Kola nut after offering prayers to God, when you look at Kola nothing like gum holds it together, but all was together, its bond together. So it is a special fruit for Igbos.
We are doing it for our young once to see our culture as our forefathers used it, we are still using it now, and we do it in the presence of our children so that they continue to practice it. Because of knowledge, we want to impact our children we bring them to new yam festivals, you saw children that came for the festival.
We have lots of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo in Ojo Local Government Area, what plan do you have for members with your Chairman of Ohanaeze Ojo?
Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo has existed for years in all Local Governments, and Ojo and we usually meet and plan ahead, the plan I have for them is to build a permanent site where our meetings will be held. Apart from meetings, we will have other facilities that will unite us more and generate revenue.