On December 26 every year we come together as a people of Uvuru
Ikedinairi to bask in the warmt and conviviality of Christmas and
celebrate the uniqueness of being Uvuru sons and daughters.
This
tradition has endured over the years such that not even the creation of
more autonomous communities out of Uvuru has dampened our kinship spirit
and this has ensured that year after year we gather as one people with
one destiny under one God to celebrate kola nut, that special fruit we
ritualise in the whole of Igboland but which all others merely eat.
We do this every year because we are united with a common purpose to
advance the cause of our community and uphold the culture and tradition
that define us as a people with a common heritage.
As Nigeria’s gift to the literary world and Africa’s greatest story teller, China Achebe tells us in Things Fall Apart,
“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses.
“When we gather together in the moonlight village square, it is not
because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound.
“We
come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. Therefore, let us
continue with the team spirit and enjoy the power of togetherness.”
The people of Amaisii/Ndigbo Autonomous Community have called us, their
kinsmen, to a feast today. We thank them for the elaborate preparation
they have made to host Uvuru this year.
Let us heed Achebe’s
admonition to allow team spirit to guide us so that with togetherness
and the ancestral bond that unites us we shall bequeath to generations
to come a legacy of greatness and unity of purpose which only a sense of
mission and oneness can ensure.
As is public knowledge I was born in Uvuru. I did my primary school in Uvuru. When it was time for me to go to secondary school, it was also done in Uvuru. It doesn’t make me more Uvuru than any other Uvuru person who was not so opportuned but it left a lasting, burning desire in me to do everything within my reach to contribute to building Uvuru into a viable entity that all of us can be proud of. It made me to know first-hand the peculiar challenges of our people, the type of insight which only childhood knowledge of a community can give someone.
The result is that in the last few
years, I have dedicated my life to the welfare and development of
humanity through the Goodlight Foundation, which we founded as a social
intervention NGO to help in the areas of education, youth and women
empowerment, skill acquisition, etc. The foundation is actually active
in all the 27 Local Government Areas of Imo State. I have done this
solely from my personal resources because of our belief that a candle
not only loses nothing but actually gains more illumination if it lights
other candles.
I take it as an article of faith that as long as
God gives me life and resources I shall continue to be counted among
those men and women of goodwill who are being used as vessels to bring
development to our community in particular and humanity in general.
We should begin to take greater interest in the way the affairs of Imo State are being handled. If Imo State is working Uvuru in particular and Mbaise as a whole will work. Time for sitting on the fence is over. We must all get involved to put our land on the path of prosperity and progress.
On behalf of my wife, my entire family and all our supporters, I congratulate Amaisii/Ndigbo Autonomous Community and Uvuru Communities Development Union (UCDU) for hosting this year’s Uvuru Bia Were Oji festival.
I congratulate our royal fathers and
community leaders who have assumed the role of torch bearers of Uvuru
for the progress we have made as a community. May God continue to give
them the wisdom, strength and enablement to continue.
•Sir
Stanley Amuchie delivered this goodwill message at the ‘Uvuru Bia Were
Oji’ cultural festival of Uvuru, Mbaise, Imo State held on December 26,
2018