The first Chamba General Assembly organized by the Chamba Cultural Development Association (CCDA) on 3rd September, 2022 was indeed a huge success. It invariably remains window to Chamba cultural fame and political recognition due to its astronomical nature and the show of enthusiasm from the gathering to succumb to one leadership for the promotion and protection of Chamba cultural heritage.
The Assembly was indeed first of its kind and has awaken many sons and daughters of Chamba Nation from slumber. The 1st Chamba General Assembly has no doubt showed that the Civilization bandwagon across the globe which makes it necessary for every race to be in tune with the changing world via embracing and promoting their cultural heritage has not left Chamba people behind. What gives identity to a people is its culture and traditions. Chamba with its rich cultural heritage and fame by definition is seen and described as one of the enduring human cultural legacies in the world today and probably one of the most suited African cultures to have captured global attention in this era of globalization.
It is therefore necessary for Chamba people to promote and preserve their cultural heritage which will restore back their lost glory, unity and dignity in the face of our present changing world. The lessons and the signals drawn from the first Chamba General Assembly organized by Chamba Cultural Development Association (CCDA) has indicated an expression of willingness of the Chamba Race to embrace the glorious lifestyle of a pre-colonial Chamba man. You don’t need to be a comic book, movie or sci-fi fan to appreciate the sheer size of the massive gathering, the alacrity and desperation at the first Assembly which shows that the Chamba people regardless of their religion and political affiliations are ready to sacrifice their ambitions and imaginary boundaries on the Altar of Unity in order to protect and promote their cultural heritage as it was inherent in the pre-colonial Chamba man.
Richard Fardon in his book titled ‘’ Raiders & refugees (1750-1950)’’, described pre-colonial Chamba man as an entity who apart from being a hunter, a hardworking farmer and warrior, maintains his Independence anywhere he goes, protecting and defending his brothers from any threats posed by the enemies in their various agrarian communities. The modern Chamba has indeed fallen prey because of his indolent nature of wanting to survive on the crumbs that falls from the table of an alien which makes him a perpetual servitude in his God given father land. We are indeed in the dynamic world full of technological and cultural changes and any society or race that fail to dovetail with the current inevitable changes of the world order will be extinct or be forgotten as an entity from the global village.
It was indeed worthy to note that the first Chamba General Assembly organized by the Chamba Cultural Development Association (CCDA) brought Chamba sons and daughters from far, near and outside the country to chart a new cause for the race. The Assembly has also clearly sent the signal to a secular world of politics that the Chamba people will henceforth speak with one voice, play politics of development as practice by their elites of blessed memory which once brought glory to the race politically. CCDA Executive has indeed done a great job by organizing the first unique Chamba Assembly and posterity will be kind to them. Albeit, the gathering was commended and given a standing ovation by many different Chamba well-wishers, but in other way round, observation from some quarters across the country, shows that the gathering was more of a threat than good to other quarters. These quarters are those who want Chamba people to remain ill-informed about the importance of protecting and promoting their cultural heritage, allured modern Chamba man to dis-regard his cultural heritage, using religion and some economic means as a barrier which plunged Chamba race in to an obscurely long ignored forgotten cultural unity. By and large, the goodwill messages and the speeches offered by the prominent sons and daughters at the gathering especially the ones from the Royal Fathers at the event were also another springboard to silence any form of bigotry that has long been a factor that thwarted unity among the Chamba people.
The speeches were indeed a source of inspiration and a good omen to Chamba race as many of them are reminiscence of the life lived by pre-colonial and colonial Chamba man full of cultural promotion and sacrifices to the protection of Chamba traditional sanctity. Another issue of importance to observe from the Chamba first General Assembly which will continue to serve as a window to its cultural fame, was the election conducted in respect of the executives of Chamba Cultural Development Association (CCDA), the executives that will be responsible for making sure that the culture and traditions of Chamba race are well secured.
The election was indeed conducted peacefully and transparently without rancor as the contestants were visibly happy with the development and seen embracing and congratulating those who emerged as winners regardless of their political and religion affiliations.
The Delegates who voted in the newly elected executives of the CCDA are to be commended for their selfless and patriotic evince. The election of all the executives and the President of CCDA in person of Mr. Polycarp S. Kaigama was not a grope but a show of sagacity and good judgment by the delegates. One of the Delegates in person of Adamu Bello, popularly known as ‘’ADAMU DAYA, pointed out that Mr. Polycarp S. Kaigama was indeed a best option because he has shown how selfless and peaceful loving leader he was, right from the inception of CCDA. His track records are visibly there. According to ADAMU DAYA, there are no any interventions which the leadership of CCDA was able to embark upon right from its inception that brought about peace and unity in different communities without the advice and leadership guide of Mr.
Polycarp. Apart from the testimony garnered from the Delegate which confirms the credibility of Mr. Polycarp CCDA leadership, the Pioneer team were also able to discovered that, Mr. Polycarp together with the CCDA team have intervened during the insecurity situation of Leko/Koma. There was Fulani herder Chamba farmers crisis in those communities which lead to the loss of 19 cows of the Fulani. The leadership of CCDA with the advice of Mr. Polycarp and other executives were able to mobilize some millions of naira to compensate the owner of the cows. This intervention averted serious crisis that the Fulani wanted to come up with.
The secret to leadership is not in your degrees or in your age but in the check of your servanthood life just as Mr. Polycarp S. Kaigama. When you submit to the training of servant leadership, you’ll not call for leadership but leadership will locate you and that’s the case study of Mr. Kaigama. Leadership has a common language which is not to rise and pursue positions in public affairs but to be engaged first in servant leadership. Chamba Cultural Development Association leadership has eventually located Mr. Polycarp Sobkonso Kaigama to steer the ship of leadership of the Chamba Race and to promote activities of the Chamba cultural heritage.
PIONEER NEWS 