By Onwa Ekor
Boki a local government area in Cross River celebrates its new yam festival on the 18th of August each year, a historical and memorable day where her sons and daughters from far and wide, appreciate God for a bountiful harvest of one of its rich crops, precisely Yam.
The day is marked firstly with the harvest of yam tubers by the agrarian farmers, after which the said yam tubers are taken to church for blessings. Some families choose to share some tubers with the officiating priests and church ministers while the other halve are returned home, pounded as Yam fufu with native soup like Eruru (salad), bennyseed, dry okro among others and garnished with choiced bushmeat for consumption, then finally gulp down with undiluted palmwine for those who are truly fit to withstand same, before returning to the playground for masquerade display. While some villages in Boki play the cultural Atam, others go for Rishi-Ukie, Imoh and Oberente as the case may be.
For the people of Boki East residing in Calabar, the Cross River capital under the aegis of Boki East Family Meeting (BEFM) Calabar Branch, they choosed to mark this year’s event a week after the said New Yam day with funfare and conferment of awards of excellence on her sons and a daughter.
Converging at the residence of her President, a retired Permanent Secretary and Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Civil Engineering, Engr Paul Asu Njama, members trooped out in their numbers inviting families, well-wishers and friends to the August event.
Welcoming members and guests, Njama enjoined all to join in thanking God for a rich harvest which has extended from Yam to cassava and cocoa, major crops that have helped to place sufficient food on the tables of even those who hitherto were viewed as poor and in lack.
He further revealed that the day has also been set aside to honour illustrious sons and a daughter of the area who excelled in academic and others who were found fit by their communities to perform various traditional and cultural roles, maintaining that, there was no better time to honour them except on this particular day.
Njama urged them to remain good Ambassadors of BEFM in whatever tasks or roles, within and outside the community that they find themselves.
Also commenting, Patron of the Family and a retired Justice, Honourable Justice S. A. Obi (rtd), admonished members to let brotherly love continue in all their dealings and never trade the path of peace which is the panacea for growth and development.
The patron and his wife, Lady Alice Obi, charged members to always associate with the family and contribute to its growth anywhere they find themselves, adding that, guests who are yet to join their family gatherings should endeavour to do so as no man can survive alone.
At the event, Boki East ladies turned it to a cultural display as they sang, twisting their necks, shoulders and buttocks in line with the rhythm of the songs sang, notably among the songs were, “Asha iji yanyanya Asha iji, e wuo beh oteh muonono,” “Otu Osowo kyii njuare, ojuare Bukyi kangkang.”
Yam fufu with dry okro including bennyseed and Eruru soup garnished with choiced bushmeat were served during the event even as palmwine and other assorted drinks were not left out amidst cultural display and exchange of pleasantries.
Next was the conferment of award period which saw the Vice President, Pastor Sampson Osor, presenting the citation of all honourees off hand, a feat he was commended for.
The group further honoured Pius Otu Abang, for raising the academic bar as an Associate Professor, while Drs. Simeon Akwo, Amanda Simeon Akwo, Sunny Mgba, Collins Kulo and Gabriel Ogre were conferred with awards of excellence for bagging PhDs in their various fields of endeavours.
On the traditional institution segment, Hon. Justice S. A. Obi was honoured following his community recognition of him as Otu Banjuare 1 of Bateriko including Chief Ernest Arouh Ekabo who got the tag of Otu Binyere 1 of Bateriko.
Others who got awards of excellence from Boki East Family were, a former Vice Chairman of Boki local government council, Hon (Chief) Krees Ojonde who was recently honoured as Otu Ipah 1 of Bateriko and a journalist with Cross River Newspaper Corporation who doubles as Chronicle’s Government House Correspondent, who was recently coronated as Village Head of Kise-Ambua Begiatse, in Okwabang, OTU Ashie Osor, a stool he took over after the exit of his late father.
Those who spoke after the award presentations were Dr. Gabriel Ogre, Dr. Simeon Akwo and Chief Krees Ojonde. They lauded the efforts of the family, promising to always keep the flag flying and never derail from doing what will bring honour to the family at every point in time.
Highpoint of the event was a minute silence in honour of two illustrious sons, Dr Omah Asu and former Cross River Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Hon Abubakar Ewa, who bowed to mother earth recently.
The event also saw illustrious sons doling out cash in support of the family as an appreciation for the day.
