Igbo should celebrate New Yam on unified date as done on Christmas Day- Bizman

Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka, founder,  Ogilisi Foundation, an Igbo socio-cultural organisation, on Tuesday advocated for a common date to celebrate New Yam Festival in the Southeast and in all Igbo speaking areas.

Ezeonwuka a businessman in the entertainment and hospitality industry stated in Awka that the Igbo should celebrate the festival on a unified date like Christians celebrate Christmas on the same date globally.

He added that there was the need for all stakeholders, including state governments to work towards harmonising the festival.

He stressed that yam is a significant and unifying crop among the Igbo and should be accorded all its due respects.

He stated that the one-day all-Igbo celebration of yam would add value to the festival and would be used to promote Igbo culture.

A unified New Yam Festival would revive ancestral goodwill on fertility, good harvest, security, peace and progress generally, he added.

“If every state in the southeast organises it on the same day like it is done on Christmas Day, the festival would attract economic dividends in entertainment and tourism.

“New Yam Festival is a good platform; the Igbo should come together and look at how it can be celebrated on the same day.

“Each state can use the occasion to bestow honours, awards and titles on deserving sons and daughters who have distinguished themselves in their fields of endeavour and contributed to the wellbeing of humanity.

“New Yam Festival is popular among Igbo people and is a platform to bring them together.

“Unfortunately, the festival has been reduced to an amateurish exercise bereft of its significance,’’ he noted.

Ezeonwuka stressed that the one-day New Yam Festival proposal should be discussed by traditional institutions, town unions and ratified by the various states Houses of Assembly. (NAN)