By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI—Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Dr. Anthony J. V. Obinna, has cautioned Ndigbo against what he termed “their unbridled quest for and senseless consumption of Western cultures.”

Obinna made the appeal while speaking at the inauguration of Saint Patrick’s Catholic Parish, Okwu Uratta, Owerri North local council area of Imo State.

“The slow pace of growth and development of Igboland is attributable to the indiscriminate and unbridled importation and consumption of Western cultures, norms and traditions,” Obinna said.

The cleric took serious exception to the upsurge of criminal acts, including cultism, armed robbery, kidnapping, abortion, drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution and other serious crimes in the land.

He equally expressed unhappiness that some Igbo people are still “enmeshed in fetish caste practices like osu, umeh, diala and worshipping idols and oracles for security and protection.”

According to him, the continued adherence to osu, umeh and diala caste system is a product of superstition, primitivity and illiteracy perpetrated by past idol worshippers.

He said: “This ugly practice has continued to stultify the faith of those still mired in the inhuman act, especially as God abhors discrimination and segregation among His children.”

He warned parents “whose stock in trade is to place curses on their children at the slightest provocation” to desist from it, and appealed to youths to obey their parents and guardians.