CSO Tasks FCT Indigenes To Inculcate Cultural Values In Children, Youths

The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) on Wednesday urged the Original Inhabitants (OI) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to inculcate in children and youths, cultural values to prevent them from  going into extinction.

Executive Director of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Ms Faith Nwadishi, made the call at the launch of “Schools Competition on FCT OI Culture” held in Abuja.

Nwadishi said the project was a very important aspect of the projects being implemented with the support of MacArthur Foundation, through the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED).

She said that while carrying out a baseline study, the group found out that most students did not understand the culture of the indigenous tribes of the FCT.

“We found out that the culture of the original inhabitants of the FCT is not very well understood by the younger population, especially children of school age.

“We all know that the culture of a people is the bedrock of the people. If you don’t know the culture of the people you are living with, there is that likelihood of going on in life without principles and proper orientation.

“As part of the project, we decided to get the young ones, indigenes and non indigenes alike to talk about the culture of the FCT.”

Nwadishi further said the participating schools were drawn from six area councils of the FCT.

“We have gone ahead to select choice schools; two each from the six area councils and the competition will involve students of senior secondary school one and two

“We streamlined it to poetry and arts.”

She said that the group’s expectation was to get a buy-in from the people at the community level so that the campaign would become their own.

While giving an overview of the project, the centre’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Mrs Stephanie Omere, said the project was launched on Dec. 14.

“CTA is implementing the project through well-thought-out activities that would enable existing Original Inhabitants efforts to revamp dying cultural values, treasures and repositories.

Secretary, Garki Traditional Council, Mr Lazarus Nyaholo, said that some of the cultural values of the indigenes were being eroded.

“Festivals we used to have to showcase our culture are no longer held because we cannot access some of those cultural heritage.

“The security situation has also prevented us from carrying out our cultural festivals which include holding processions and going to some locations to celebrate our cultural heritage.

“Most of the communities have lived over 500 years. We are indigenes of FCT; some of the values have been eroded.

“Now there is a gap for our children not to see those cultural aspects of our lives as indigenes,” he said.(NAN)