SPEECH BY CENTRAL PLANNING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN – EZEJI (DR.) KACHI NWOGA
Welcome to this press conference on the Iri-ji Mbaise National cultural festival, yet again, the Mbaise nation is embarking on our aged long tradition, our covenant with our God, our appreciation to God and our prayers to God for continued bountiful harvest, for life, for progress which is what Iri-ji Mbaise is.
Iri-ji Mbaise is a festival like no other. First of all, we celebrate God the giver of all harvest, this is a covenant we made with our God that we must give to him before we eat. Yam is recognized as the King of crops so in yam we are celebrating the entire agriculture, we are celebrating Industry, we are celebrating fertility, we are celebrating multiplication, we are celebrating good.
So, in the harvest of yam, as we plant, think of it, we take a small piece of the yam, you put into the soil and you wait, then God begins to work from there. He rots that yam, makes it decay, it begins afresh to grow something fresh and new. Growing out and sprouts, green leaves come out, within some months a fresh whole tuber starts coming out and at some point, it becomes one whole big tuber of yam and again what is your own contribution to it, all you did was plant, perhaps you watered when the rain didn’t do it for you, perhaps you applied some fertilizer, perhaps you did or not but what made that yam to even germinate, grow and become what it is, it is the almighty God.
So it is in recognition of this that we say, God you have given, you are the Lord of the harvest, by the way you can plant the entire piece and nothing will grow so it is the blessing of God that this yam has grown so also it is for every other item you sow, weather it is agriculture, even at your place of work , so when God grow these things for us, we as a people spiritually have said to God we will appreciate you before we partake of this beautiful product that you have given us. So when we celebrate Iri-ji Mbaise, we offer the same yam in thanksgiving to God in recognition of this, in appreciation and in gratitude to this and in offering that yam we also now eat and partake and continue thereafter. It is opportunity for us to pray for our land, it is opportunity for us to also seek the progress.
Now it is an opportunity for us to invite our friends, our in-laws, well wishers and the leaders of the day in the political and social circles to come and be with us while we have this joy and of course when you have this number of people coming you also use it to express all those opinions you have wanted to express about our people. For instance, Mbaise people will address our guest, will address the Government as the case maybe and will also hear from these people when they come. So essentially this is what Iri-ji is.
Now beyond the 15th of August which is the day fixed for Iri-ji, since 1955, before then we were using market days until we harmonized it with the Church in 1955 into the 15th of August. So now there are activities that come up before this date, in the next couple of days, August 1st will start. From this month of August this is 2 weeks of peace, that we are going to observe. Of course we want peace everyday not just for 2 weeks bugnificant of this 2 weeks of peace that you make extra effort, whatfortyou do, you run to reconcile with your enemies, you want to forgive those who offended you, you will seek forgiveness from those you have offended, you try to settle disputes, within this period the police stations will not have a lot of traffic because people do not t it is siwant to have issues that will warrant going to the police stations, no we avoid all those kind of issues, you actually seek to settle things at have home amicably, because if we are not at peace, god may not look favorably upon our thanksgiving with is iri-ji.
You know in a circle largely Christians in Mbaise but in all religious circles by the way, when you are going to offer thanksgiving, you do it with pureness of heart, in fact, the song says if you are carrying your gift to God and discover that you have somebody that you are in bad terms with, drop your gift, go and reconcile with that person then you can now in clear mind, happiness and thanksgiving come and bring that gift to God and then God will be able to accept it.
This is what we are trying to achieve by trying to keep ourselves pure. So this a period when Mbaise people all over the world are enjoined to be pure in heart, to avoid committing offences, avoid upsetting anything, to be at peace enough to ensure that God can take our sacrifice. The week also into the 15th, this is also a period of community service, the young ones can go and assist the elderly people participate in social service to help those who want to do things like free medicals or free lectures, these is one period they do all those things as kindness, kind gestures you are doing to help build the society in the right atmosphere for this thanksgiving. Works of mercy are encouraged at this period of time and in the days into the 15th, communities will clean up the environments (aga abochasi ama ) to have the place clean because God is coming to us more than anyone else and we are preparing to receive him.
On the morning of the 15th, every nook and cranny of Mbaise shall have the traditional five cannon shots each, this year we are sending message to all Awurawus, it’s a unit of administration common to Mbaise in every enclave to please please handle and manage this five gunshot of awuruawu . So, we are going to have gunshots all over Mbaise at 5AM in the morning, 5 gunshots representing the 5 clans of Mbaise and if you are around, that tell all our neighbors, all our friends and wakes everyone up that something is happening. 6AM is Church service for all those who go to church, it doesn’t matter the church you attend and all that, traditionally we also use yam for thanksgiving, Ndi Ezeji will give you the details how the yam goes, this is also handled by Ndi Ezeji in different Churches where they are.
So they ensure that they do the rights the way it is, they know what to keep, what to return. So, the Minsiters of God please let ndi Ezeji explain to you on how you bless the yams and then take back the portions that goes back. That portion that goes back participates in the cooking of what to be eaten on that day and when we come to the fields, we shall do demonstration of the yam barn, the mini authorized yam barn that we have placed there to show you how we handle yams. So, the yams that have come from the field go to the yam barn, the sample you will see, because for this period as yams are coming to yam barn, we are not eating it because we have not done our thanksgiving, so the yam barn is looked. Agbachiri ya agbachi, so all over Mbaise all the yam barns are locked agbachiri oba niile, so ndi Ezeji ga agbapezi oba a by igbape oba a now means you can now go into the barn to pick the yam to be able to prepare so Nsdi Ezeji gbape oba, then next thing now is to take the yam and do the traditional breaking of the yam by Ndi Ezeji as well.
So this is done with a lot of funfair and happiness and thereis this music you may not have heard all your life except you have come to Iri-ji or nkwa ji, you are going to hear plenty of nkwa ji on that day with alot of beautiful messages as well so ndi Ezeji will break the yam and the time for breaking the yam is 2PM, that why we urge all our friends to be here on time as early as 10 AM because there ae also many other activities that herald all these, for instance there is going to be the yam competition, Agric product competition, where you will see the yam so far harvested in Mbaise, cocoyams and other products of Agriculture, there is also going to be a display of Mbasie food, some of you unu anula hee bu ugbokoro, unu amarala hee bu odudu? You are going to see plenty. You are going to see a lot, different things you have not seen or heard of before, they will be there in display at the Mbaise kitchen.
All of these things are packed and this year we are trying to rebuild our Usekwu, usekwu is our traditional kitchen where you have buffer of local cuisines of sorts so this is one of the things we plan to do and not just feed our guests but celebrate our guests when they come and all that. So its joy and celebration for Mbaise and by the way once Ndi Ezeji have broken the yam, that is now time for all of Mbaise and everybody to partake in the new yam, mgbe ahu unu ga erizi ma ji ke agworo agwo, ma kee ahuru ahu, ma kee mmiri oku ya ma elu ma ala.
It is Celebration, Celebration, Celebration.
Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving
Appreciation, Appreciation, Appreciation.
Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen.
