The Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, the apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, says the annual new yam festival is a veritable tool for cultural reawakening among Igbos and the nation at large.
The Deputy President of the organisation Worldwide, Chief Ogochukwu Onyema, made the assertion at the 2016 Iwa Ji (New Yam) festival of the Enugu State chapter of the organisation on Monday.
Onyema said the festival was a means to foster closeness and brotherliness among Igbo people worldwide.
Onyema stated: “We are here to join in the festival to keep our tradition alive as well as transmit this culture to youths of all ages.
“With the renewed vigor of promoting new yam festival, Ohanaeze believe that it will create the needed bond and cultural reawaken among our people, especially our youths.”
Onyema said the group would continue to push to resuscitate all positive and progressive Igbo tradition and customs.
Earlier, the Vice President of Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo (Enugu State), Chief Enechi Onyia, noted that the festival had grown to be a unifying factor for Igbo people.
Onyia said the group would continue to promote cultural programmes in Enugu State and the entire Igboland to drive the needed sociocultural transformation.
Highlights of the occasion were the symbolic cutting of the yam by the Chairman of Enugu State Traditional Rulers’ Council, Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu.
Also there was display of the eating of roasted yam with palm oil by all.
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