Dare to Dream




Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.”
- George Lucas

One of the greatest artistic masterpieces in the world is the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, located in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, USA. The magnificent mountain sculpture features the 60-foot faces of four great American presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln - who represent the birth, growth, development and preservation of the American nation.

What I consider most interesting about this tourist attraction, however, was the vision that propelled it. On a remarkable day in 1924, the brain behind the project, Gutzon Borglum, while gazing from a distance at Mount Rushmore (which was just a mere mountain as at then), declared: “American history shall march along that skyline." Three years later, he began the project that eventually took 14 years to complete.

Today, that history envisioned by Gutzon not only marches but glows triumphantly, attracting multitudes of visitors, inspiring thoughts of greatness, generating massive revenues, providing large-scale business and employment opportunities – and, above all, serving as a compelling testimonial to the power of DREAMS!


It is not enough to discover your talent – you must envision where you want to take that talent and where you want that talent to take you. This is what it means to dream. Your dream is the picture of your future. It is the blueprint for your destiny which you must continually set your mind upon until you achieve it.  This is why Thomas Edison says, “Your dream today is the raw material with which God will construct your tomorrow.  If you do not have a dream, you do not have a future”.


Every great accomplishment begins with a dream. Every heroic deed, revolutionary change and life-changing invention begins with the imagination of someone who dared to dream. Rebecca Edwards, author of the “African Legends of Faith” series, says: The paintings of success are always drawn with the brush of decision, the ink of determination and on the timeless plaque of human hearts, if one can dare to dream”. Arthur Williams asserts: “If you can dream it, you can become it; if you can imagine it, you can possess it; if you can see it you can have it." Anatole France, the French poet, journalist and novelist, adds: "Dream are like stars ...you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny.  To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan but also believe." 

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Igede New Yam Festival (Igede Agba): A progenitor of Biblical Passover, And Unleavened Bread

To begin with, Igede people are a unique people. 

This unique ethnic group occupies majorly two local governments (Obi and Oju) in Benue State, with some pockets in Konshisha and Gwer West local governments’ area of the state. Also, they are found in parts of Cross River and Ebonyi States, all in Nigeria.

The Igede Nation is a composition of fourteen premedieval clans including Ada (Ada), Anchim (Ọchẹchẹ), Oye (Ugbodu), Ụkpa (Amọnọ), Ọbọrụ (Ọgbagba), Owo (Ochim-Aadu), Ibilla (Ugbeyikum), Ainu (Ada-Ainu), Ito (Ada-Oto), Uwokwu (Ololẹga), Idelle (Anyị-Odum), Ịgabwụ, Itakpa and Oju (Ọnyị-Okpogo) at home and in Diaspora.
 
Amidst eroding cultures and traditions, the Igede of Benue state have maintained some aspects of their culture, one of which is the annual New Yam Festival (Igede Agba) which is celebrated during the harvest of yams to mark the beginning of the harvest period. It is a cyclic festival that comes up on every first Ihigile market day in the month of September. The people use the occasion to thank God in anticipation of a bumper harvest before they officially begin to eat the new yam.  It connotes celebration of hard work and dignity of labour: Moral values such as honesty, goodness, social justice as well as respect for the culture of the people are celebrated. It is a highly revered event, as neighbouring tribes join in the celebration every year.

The day also serves to commemorate and celebrate their successful arrival at their current abode. The Orgirinya, Obemu, Aita, Alatakpa, Onyantu and Woro form parts of the celebrations; while Yam, the king of all farm produce, is used to mark the occasion of harvest and the new planting season. As such, harvesting of new yams before the traditional rites are fulfilled is a taboo, because of Akpang deity. And to an Igede man, Akpang deity ensures the suppression of the activities of witches and wizards. It is a deity that keeps people away from harvesting their yams prematurely; however, it is not considered as the god of yams.

Igede Agba is celebrated with all male children gathering at the father’s round hut called Ugira, while the wives gather together with the female children in the most senior wife’s hut. The father usually washes his hands first, followed by the most senior son and that is how the eating proceeds. Nobody is allowed to jump the order. Those who disobey may be stopped from further eating. Meat is usually shared after meal or somewhere close to the end of eating of pounded yam.

It is celebrated in commemoration of the progenitor of the Igede people just as the celebration of Christmas, Easter Holidays by the Christians and the seven sacred annual feasts of the old covenant in the bible including Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks Pentecost, Trumpet, Days of Atonement and Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16: 1-16 and Exodus 23:14-17). It is in the like of these events that Igede Agba festival is being celebrated. Yam (Iju) is the chief crop in Igedeland identified with a rich Igede cultural identity and heritage. That is why it is being used as the fundamental crop to celebrate Igede Agba.

But why New Yam Festival is highly pronounced in Igede nation even more than other yam producing communities is best explained to mean how the people cherish, treasure, adore and cultivate the crop as a key staple commodity with a masculine fanfare. Festival involves a plethora of complex ideas, thoughts, religions, culture and experience of Igede history and activities over a long period of time. This simply implies that our heritage should be embraced, renewed, conserved, preserved and revitalized in the most efficient way for tourist attraction, national and international recognition.

It is imperative to inform the readers that Igede Agba (New Yam Festival) is not a fetish event but a thanksgiving ceremony to the Sky-God (Ohe Oluhye and the Earth-god (Ohe Oleji) for a good harvest and prayers are offered for the next farming season. Celebrating these kinds of heritage helps communities to retain identity.

Therefore, let’s use the occasion of New Yam Festival (Igede Agba) to revive every extinct aspects of our cultural heritage that may have being occasioned by globalization and westernization, in order to emblematize and showcase our unique identity globally.
Our culture is our identity and is unique, let keep it alive! 

Happy Igede Agba
Long live Igede
Long live Benue State
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

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