By Emmanuel Anyim
What if putting on a red cap is not our culture? what if we celebrate the wrong culture putting on our Ankara, jiggida and crowning the wrong head? .
Perhaps we are caught in the midst of representing our culture and adopting a Gen Z life. Every now and then towards the end of the second semester every faculty and department is immersed and the ocean of students week activity with the cultural day as the peak of the event .
The ladies tie wrappers, wear beautiful native beads and afro hairs design , make themselves up, with the uli and other native designs. The men put on their Abada design with Isiagu and other costly materials, put on their red cap and other regalia.
Then sit in the merriment, playing the supposed traditional music and in the end , crown the selected person as the king alongside other members of the royal family.
Students try to represent cultures, by dressing like our mothers and fathers before modernization and westernization. They tried to paint the picture of royalty and titles which existed in the ancient days.
But fail to ask ourselves, is this what it really entails to represent our culture ?
This generation has been consumed with the quest of materialism , easy and fun life while throwing away what matters and forsaken what our culture really is.
Maybe it is time we began to define our culture.
Let’s look back at life in the supposed olden era , our fathers did not live in a society where immorality simply accepted. Because the society and the community have values and expectations and will not give such vice a chance to survive . Individuals who indulge in immoral activity will surely be sanctioned law and order properly is maintained , and everywhere and everyone is safe.
Our culture does not support extravagant, lackadaisical life,laziness, maltreatments , lies , unfaithfulness or every other social vices which we see in today’s world especially amongst youths.
Yet we celebrate cultural day, wearing our cultural attire outwards, while being the opposite of what our culture encourage.
We have failed to represent our cultural values which are the embodiment of culture. We cannot speak about culture without talking about respect , integrity , honesty , love and dignity. We cannot stop talking about modesty , dedication and hard work.
The real problem is not celebrating the cultural day, the problem is , not celebrating the right culture. Being carried away by mundane things, while leaving behind things that make an impact. We say youths are the leaders of tomorrow, but most youths live as if there is no tomorrow, and this is where the problem lies.
if we must celebrate a cultural day, then we must begin by identifying what our cultural values are.
When we identify our cultural value, let’s channel our cultural day activities towards reviving them. Let’s encourage positive attitude in your students, let’s support good reading culture. Let’s celebrate a positive impact activity. Let’s recognize the hardworking students.
This will not only go a long way in reviving our culture, but will contribute positively to the human resources development and better citizenship.
