The Governor of Ebonyi State Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru wants the Izzi clan to resist every form of orientation that runs counter to the grand norms of the people.
The Governor spoke Saturday at Amagu, the ancestral home of Izzi during the grand finale of Ojiji Izhi New Yam Festival Celebration.
The grandnorms, according to him include “respect for elders and revered establishment, dignity in labor, dint of hard work, peace, unity, and communality”.
With the erosion of values hitting all nooks, the Governor cautioned against sale of ancestral lands to strangers including family graves and tombs of their forebears.
He attributed the erosion to wrong religious perception.
“Many have confused religion for tradition and have failed to locate the difference between the two.There is sharp demarcation between the two and they do not conflict and clash in their operations.
“Tradition is not human sacrifice, which is what divinity and humanity condemn.”
At the cultural event, the Ebonyi leader, knocked those leveraging the cyberspace to cast aspersions on him ahead of the 2027 guber contest.
“We have completed more than 500 kilometers of roads across the 13 LGAs.
“We have done roads connecting other states with span bridges. I am shocked that people are saying we have not done anything for the state within the last 3 years in office.
“People should not leverage social media to castigate our leaders and deny our sincere performances all in the name of politics.
“In the context of 2027, we have balanced power among the two kindreds in Izhiland for the sake of equity and social justice. No one should fight against this established order.
“Those working against established order, causing disaffections are strange elements as these are not Izhi grandnorms, we must resist them”.
Edward Nkwagu, who chaired the apex cultural event, stated ” good morals, sincerity, forthrightness, industry, justice, equity and fairness” are virtues the clan’s ancestors fought hard to instill in their progeny, but regretted that the waves of modernity and western orientations is almost eroding them, where almost larger percent of the youth have become touts guised as real estate agents.
