Stop Desecrating Our Culture, Obong Warns Bishop

The Obong of Calabar, Edidem Abasi Otu V, has appealed to Christians in Cross River to stop desecrating Efik tradition, saying it was the people’s inheritance from their ancestors.

The Obong was reacting to a portion of a book written by the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state, Bishop Archibong Archibong, which, he alleged, disparaged the “Ekpe Efik.”

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar that the book, “Renaissance of Calabar (Spiritual Perspective),” was misleading and disrespectful to the culture and tradition of the Efik people, adding that it discredited the Ekpe masquerade.

He, however, said that he had commissioned a critique to be written on the book to put the matter in proper perspective.

He said that it was lamentable that the content of the book intended to bring to disrepute, the culture and tradition of Efik people, nurtured and sustained over the last six centuries.

“Since the contents of the book were made in print, it has become imperative that corrections of the erroneous and deliberate mischief contained in it be made also in print.

“This, therefore, is no exercise in recrimination, rather it is meant to disabuse the public of some of the false details contained in the book,” he pointed out.

He said Archibong made strenuous and ridiculous attempts to condemn, in a fit of religious piety, the Efik Kingship, Ekpe Efik (Efik Masquerade) and pouring of libation.

“Indeed he went as far as describing our hallowed culture and traditions as “demonic, “witchcraft” and the “worship of marine spirits” and the “god of Sun.”

According to him, the entire Efik kingdom condemns, in strong terms, the line of discourse contained in the book.