A SPEECH DELIVERED BY ENGR. COLUMBUS C. AKALONU TO THE FEDERATION OF MBAISE STUDENTS FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OWERRI (FUTO) ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR 2019 CONGRESS, AT THE SUG RESOURCE CENTRE ON 17TH MAY, 2019
I must say that I am humbled and overwhelmed by this singular honour you have given me to make a contribution on this all important convention.
A gathering of this sort is timely and indispensable. Without belabouring the obvious, our culture is in a serious state of jeopardy and on the brink of extinction. We are now living in an entirely new world our fathers and grand fathers could never have imagined. We live in a virtual world, a world without territorial boundaries and without any specific culture any particular people can lay claim as their own. We live in a world where the new technology draws all nations into close proximity as in a village. In this global village, world cultures are competing and struggling to survive. Of course, in such an arena of competition, cultures of the less advanced nations are usually victimized and obliterated. Needless to say that main concern of the so-called global village is to dissolve all cultures and transform the human race into one virtual people practicing one unreal and virtual culture that thrives on aping and mimicking the most powerful and domineering cultures of the world (Cf. David Asonye Iheanacho.
Mbaise, Who we are as a people).
It goes without gain saying that there is lurking danger to our identities by the magical tools of the new technology. Our generation is suffering from serious ideological inferiority complex and as such have become copicats of other cultures.
This is evidenced by the level moral decay in our society, get-rich quick syndrome among the youths as against hardworking and sincerity of purpose, lack of respect for elders and values, being ashamed of mother tongue. Indeed we are into serious identity crisis. We must realize the fierce urgency of the situation. We must realize that unless we make haste and secure whatever we can from our history and tradition the rampaging global village might cause our history and culture to disappear completely from the face of the earth.
Wise nations and peoples are heading back to the basics of their cultures to preserve whatever they can of the various aspects of their cultures before they could be swept to oblivion by the ravens that are trampling down peoples cultures around the world.
It is in the light of this same realization that I heartily commend the organizers of this congress. Thank you very much. You have contributed your own quota in the efforts to preserve and promote the history, culture and traditions of the great Mbaise nation that is vanishing in a very rapid way. By this convention, you have joined the league of civilized people, who believe that unless some frantic efforts were made to preserve some vital aspects of our culture, we might become cultural orphans in the nearest future.
This is reinforced by the fact that as the global village forces wobbly culture to compete on the table of world cultures, we will definitely come out the big loser. Yes, we will be surprised that in an arena of competition featuring various cultures of the world, even our own children, and our own kith and kin including some here listening to this speech will unashamedly and arrogantly choose other cultures ahead of their own. And you can bet that such free-market of cultures will put a final death nail on the coffin of our own culture. And we know that if our culture dies, we are as good as dead.
What do we do?
For me the conveners of this congress have taken a good step in the right direction and we must key in to the crusade. We must make use of this wonderful forum to campaign and promote vigorously our rich cultural heritage. It’s heartwarming that our youths form major part of this forum. I humbly urge you to keep pressing other youths to be proud of who they are as a people and eschew slavish imitation of other peoples way of life. We must not continue to be carried away by the flashy gadgets of the new technologies at the detriment of what defines us human beings in this world which is our native culture. We must not get wearied in convincing our youths that there’s nothing like a virtual human being even in the global village they claim to be dwelling; that a real human being which everyone of them is, is a being of culture and tradition. Culture gives both the personality and identity.
Without culture and tradition every human being becomes nothing but a beast on two feet (Cf. Ibid). And unless we do what we can to preserve and promote our rich cultural heritages we will breed a generation of confused people who will never be true foreigners or true natives. This’s my concern! Imagine a time when the inhabitants of the great Mbaise territory will be half- humans and half-beasts. God forbid! But then this’s the reality staring us in the face.
Once again, may I sincerely thank the organizers of this wonderful congress for giving me this privileged opportunity to make a contribution. I consider it a great honour.
Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Long live Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO)!
Long live Federation of Mbaise Students (FUTO)!
Long live Mbaise nation!
Thanks for listening.
