Former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, has blamed political, traditional and religious leaders for the misplacement of social values and the social upheavals prevalent in the Igboland.
Abaribe who made the declaration on Sunday in Enugu at a lecture during the 4th New Yam, Iliji Ofu Festival and Public Lecture organised by Nzuko Ozo Ndiigbo, Nigeria, held at Enugu Sports Club, said our leaders have compromised their leading roles and allowed wealth acquisition to becloud their sense of judgment, hence the descent in socio-cultral values.
He said most of the socio-cultral problems noticed in Igboland like armed robbery, cyber fraud, agitations by the youth was as a result of inability of the leaders to lead well, adding that those who did not have the interest of the people at heart should not be allowed to lead.
The former Senate Minority Leader noted that apart from the political leaders, Igbo cultural values have been eroded by the traditional leaders that recognise people with questionable source of livelihood and honour them with ungodly titles, while the religious leaders bless and anoint people irrespective of the source of their wealth, thereby forcing the youths to seek to acquire wealth by all means to be accorded the same honours.
“The growing descent into anarchy in South East is the failure of the political leaders and the traditional leaders as well as the religious leaders.
“Spiritual leaders at times compromise their positions. We need to pull ourselves together. Politics should be about service and not wealth acquisition,” he said and called on well meaning Igbos to come together to salvage the Igboland.
He said that before now Ozo title holders used to be people known for speaking the truth without compromising but lamented that things have gone wrong and therefore pleaded that the anomaly should be redressed for the betterment of Ndigbo.
