In a landmark ruling on 6 December 2025, a High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Government was ordered to pay damages to a man known only as “Mr Effiong,” a custodian of the ancient Ekpo masquerade. Mr Effiong had been arrested under the state-wide ban on public masquerade displays issued by Governor Umo Eno — a directive that followed a spate of alleged extortion and public intimidation by criminal gangs hiding behind masquerade costumes. The court held that the arrest had violated Mr Effiong’s constitutional rights to personal liberty and freedom of worship.
Ekpo is far more than a Halloween-style performance: among the Ibibio, Annang and Efik peoples of southern Nigeria, the tradition represents ancestral spirits returning to the living world, and historically functioned as a social and spiritual institution that upheld communal order, justice, and heritage.
The court’s decision was met with relief by cultural custodians and human-rights advocates, but it also reignites a deeper concern: when governments begin to treat native African culture as a nuisance to be banned, the result can be the systematic erosion of identity and history.
This is not Nigeria’s first such cultural mis-step. In 1999, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo questionably allowed the Arab sharia ideology into Zamfara state and a year later several northern states adopted Sharia law for criminal cases — a decision that sowed the seeds of religious conflict, culminating in protests that left thousands dead.
More distant history reveals a haunting lesson. The medieval Kanem–Bornu Empire (roughly corresponding to parts of modern-day north-eastern Nigeria and Chad) accepted the Arab religion under its 11th-century ruler Umme Jilmi. Over time Jiimis son Dunama I and subsequent successors embraced the Arab religious identity, forcing the empire’s African orientation towards the Arab world, and gradually displacing native African spiritual systems and traditional governance structures.
By drawing parallels between those historical shifts and the present-day crackdown on Ekpo masquerades, the recent ruling should be a wake-up call. Once a people’s culture becomes negotiable under political or religious pressure, the loss is not only limited to one custom — it often marks the beginning of a broader erosion of identity, memory, and autonomy.
For Nigeria, the lesson is stark: respect for our African cultural heritage is not optional — it is essential if the nation is to remain whole.
SOURCES: NAN, BusinessDay, Vanguard, Britannica
IMAGE: X
